Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Trinity, Year A

02 Sep Sermon for the 13th Sunday after Trinity, Year A

Posted at 15:25h in Sermons by Sr Jessica

The Community here at Mucknell is, as with any group, made up of diverse individuals with varying opinions on just about everything! As such, sermons posted on our website represent the ideas of the preachers who wrote and delivered them, not necessarily those of the entire Community.

Sunday 30th August, 2026

Jeremiah 15.15-21 Psalm 26: 1-8 Romans 12:9-21 Matthew 16:21-28

The disciples are understandably confused. We heard in last week’s reading and sermon how Peter declared Jesus to be the Messiah. Everyone knew the Messiah would lead the people to freedom. So why, in today’s passage is Jesus talking about going to Jerusalem to die? Surely he is going to Jerusalem for victory?

Peter is not having any of it.

‘God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.’

“Over my dead body”

Then Jesus issues possibly the severest reprimand in recorded history:

“Get behind me, Satan”

Seems a bit harsh? Maybe. But Jesus is teaching a hugely important lesson here.

The word “Satan” is not meant to say that Peter is the devil. “Satan” was simply a term that meant “the adversary of God”, the enemy of God’s ways and will. Jesus is telling Peter that he is not aligned with what God is doing, and to get behind him.

Which is, of course, where Peter should have been.

Behind Jesus. Following Jesus. Peter – nor any of us – should never be found standing squarely in front of Jesus, getting in his way, preventing Jesus from doing and going where he will. Even if Peter’s motive is trying to protect Jesus.

Jesus has no need of our human protection, however well meant. We are called to follow, not to lead. We are not supposed to tell God what to do. We are asked to be open the God’s will, not to impose our own. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.

Peter is doing what we all do – at least sometimes. We want certainty. We want our plans to come out right. We have expectations of what will happen. We care about people and want what we see as their good. It is very easy to tell Jesus what we want and how we want it. It is much harder to listen to Jesus and commit to follow him, wherever he might lead.

So how do we follow Jesus? What does that actually mean?

We can follow Jesus’ teachings – as any follower of any world Religion follows their founder’s teachings. This is an important aspect of faith. Conveniently, we know Jesus’ teaching can be distilled into 2 commandments: Love God; Love neighbour. Handy to remember. Not so handy if you are wondering what it looks like in practice – not too much detail there, Jesus! Fortunately, we have the elucidations of the early Church, such as the passage from the letter to the Romans we had as our second reading:

Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers…Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another…

…feed your enemies, and so on.

Obviously, to follow Jesus’ teaching involves reading the Bible, particularly the New Testament, to discover exactly what Jesus taught.

We can also follow Jesus’ example as seen in those same scriptures.

Again, this can be handily summarised. Perhaps: “Making straight the way of the Lord”, or in modern parlance “cutting through the crap”. Helping people to see who God is.

Everything Jesus does (and teaches) is about clearing away all the accumulated clutter in our lives and in our religion – everything that comes between us and God. Jesus spends his life helping people to encounter God and doing away with everything that gets in the way of that. He preaches, he tells parables, he helps and heals; he embodies his own teaching – loving people to show them the love of God. Jesus demonstrates at every turn that God is approachable.

Which is what our first reading also pictures for us – at least tangentially. Jeremiah is fed up with his lot but instead of pretending and putting on a religious front, he tells God exactly how he feels,

There is a startling immediacy to the relationship Jeremiah assumes he has with God when he says:

Truly, you are to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail.

It is that honesty and immediacy that Jesus spends his life showing people we can all have with God. So intimate is our relationship with God that we can go as far as to call God “Abba” – Father.

Or if Father is problematic for some people, we can draw on the other Biblical names we can use for God, all immediate, relational, accessible:

Immanuel – God with us

El Roi – the God who sees me

Shepherd, Comforter, Advocate

But following Jesus’ 2000-year-old teaching, however good, practical and enduring, and following Jesus’ 2000-year-old example, however compelling, does not feel very “immediate”.

Another quick point before I come back to that:

Peter and we are not supposed to forge ahead of Jesus, but neither are we to keep on looking behind us. After the Resurrection, you remember the story where Jesus and Peter are walking along the beach and Peter wants to know what will happen to John, trotting along behind them. Jesus says, “None of your business” (or words to that effect) “You follow me”. “Don’t keep looking back”.

We are being asked to be followers of Jesus, neither in front, nor behind. Not looking too far ahead, trying to see past him a long way ahead and fretting about the future, nor looking back, fretting about the past, or other people, or things we cannot change. Right there with Him.

How do we get this day-to-day intimacy of being with God, being followers of Jesus?

The monastic answer is to enter as fully as we can into the rhythm of Jesus’ example and the harmony of his practices. But not as slavish obedience. Rather, in joyful expectations that the external practices will connect with our internal orientation of our heart, and both will move ever close to God – the external practices aiding the internal attitudes and the internal firing the zeal for the day to day doing – in a conversion of life (day by day.

Just do it. And as Jeremiah hears God say:

If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,

you shall serve as my mouth.

It is they who will turn to you,

not you who will turn to them.

Speak the things of God – in other words, follow Jesus’ teaching and example – let your life speak by following him and people will see. We do not have to try impressively hard.

But equally it is not a magic formula. We must play our part, do our bit. If we never study God’s word and never reflect on how we are applying Jesus’ teaching and example each and every day,

we will be heading to the “utter what is worthless category”. But we must never underplay God’s part by trying to do it all ourselves. No one can earn their salvation:

‘For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it. ‘For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in return for their life?

Jesus did everything to earn our salvation on the cross. Monastic life, if we read the Rule of Benedict, can often look as if it is about trying hard, and doing more, and working our socks off to earn our salvation. But it can never be about trying to earn Brownie points with God. That is like standing in front of Jesus and saying, “Look at me! See how much I have done. Now give me what I think I deserve”. Nor can it be about fretting over our lives, looking back at every last sin and wondering if we have atoned for everything, or asked forgiveness for every fault and foible. That is like looking over our shoulder and saying, “What about…what about, what about??? Have I done more than him, Jesus? Am I good enough, Jesus?”

Jesus simply answers Peter “Do you love me?” Will you follow me? Will you walk with me and learn from me? Day by day? It is simply about standing beside Jesus, watching what he is doing, and doing the same. It is about picking up your neighbour in need because you care, not in order to win glory. Or taking a costly step because you are sure it is right, not because you want to show off how much you can give up for God. It is the way of the cross, not the way of the crown. The way of Jesus. Not the way of the leading Messiah, national hero everyone was expecting.

Jeremiah again:

It is they who will turn to you, not you who will turn to them.

We do not have to show off our Jesus-credential, ever busting a gut to earn our way to heaven. People will see if we simply:

It is not a case of doing what Jesus did, rather living it; not merely doing what Jesus taught, but living it. With heart and hand (and head), rhythm and harmony with Jesus, where he is.

Sr. Alison

Bramantino, approximately 1465-approximately 1530. Risen Christ, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt University Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://act.library.vanderbilt.edu/artworks/58890[retrieved September 2, 2026]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bramantino,_cristo_dolente.jpg.