Proper 16A (RCL) – A Preacher’s Ponderings

Reasonable worship

Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost; 27 August 2023; Proper 16A (RCL); Exodus 1:8 – 2:10; Psalm 124; Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20.

In Mark’s account of Peter’s confession, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say that I am,” while Matthew changes that to, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Then, in both versions, he asks the disciples, “But who do you say that I am?” Matthew seems to be distancing Jesus from the title “Son of Man.” If the Son of Man is an eschatological figure (as in Daniel), then perhaps Matthew is suggesting that Jesus is not the eschatological figure who will judge and reign at the end times. That makes the Messiah (or Christ) something different from the eschatological Son of Man. Does Matthew, like Luke, see an intervening age of the Church?

Binding and loosing

27 August 2017
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost
Proper 16A (RCL)
Exodus 1:8 – 2:10
Psalm 124
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20

Just what exactly is Peter to bind and loose? Jesus will repeat this saying just two chapters later, after instructs the disciples on working out community disputes, so that it seems connected to community discipline. But when he says it to Peter, it is not necessarily in reference to forgiveness and reconciliation. Instead, it seems to interpret the saying about the gates of Hades not prevailing against the kingdom built upon the rock. Continue reading “Binding and loosing”