This blog provides a meditation on The Revised Common Lectionary along with a headline from world news.
“RUMSFELD- NO REGRETS ON IRAQ”

"No regrets?"

GALATIANS 5: 1-15
51For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.2 Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you. 3Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. 4You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is

circumcision/ ceremonial or faith working through love

faith working through love. 7 You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? 8Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. 9A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. 10I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty. 11But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offence of the cross has been removed. 12I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. 14For the whole law is summed up in a single  commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ 15If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.
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This is quintessential Paul-profound insights into true faith mixed with intemperate (but enjoyable), abuse of opponents. He reminds his converts of the true nature of legalism: the law must be obeyed in full. Then he expresses delicately the nature of trust in God: by God’s own Spirit we “wait for the hope of righteousness”, that is, we look to grow into goodness as we live in God’s presence. The basis of the believer’s life is “faith (trust) working through love.” These things have never been better described. This is the freedom of a Christian person. He even notes that this freedom must not be abused but must be expressed through the traditional  law(!) that we should love our neighbours as ourselves.
In the midst of this he tells the advocates of “snipping” the male organ that they should go the whole hog and snip it off altogether. This is not the usual language of the pulpit and all the better for that.

Mark 8:27-9:1
27 Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ 28And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ 29He asked them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ Peter answered him, ‘You are the Messiah.’ 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’
34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. 36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? 38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’ 91And he said to them, ‘Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.’

lives on the line-peace workers with palestinian families

This, as I was often told by my teachers at college is the hinge of the Gospel. Once Peter has designated Jesus as the Messiah, the story moves inexorably from Galilee to Jerusalem; from the qualified success of Jesus’ ministry to its defeat on the cross. Yes, that’s so, but this irony is cloaked in the even deeper irony of Peter’s simultaneous identification and misidentification of Jesus: Jesus is messiah, yes, but he, under God, will define that role rather than being defined by it. The divine way is suffering and death rather than worldly triumph. Yet by a further irony, true life consists of going Jesus’ way and the way of the world is seen as loss of life- as in the Iraq invasion, about which worldly men have no regrets.
If Egyptians can cheerfully lay their lives on the line for a democratic future, surely Jesus’ disciples can do so for his sake. Discipleship does not mean seeking death but being prepared to suffer for true life. This preparedness is not a matter of sudden enthusiasm: it requires wide-awake discipline and prayer, faith working through love.