"Get Thee Behind Me, Satan!"

Pentecost 11, August 28, 2011


Exodus 3:1-15


Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26 45c from BCP


Romans 12:9-21


Matthew 16:21-28

This Sunday we shall be hearing again about Peter in the gospel reading – the rest of Matthew 16. You may recall that last week he was the proclaimer of Jesus as “the Christ, the Son of the living God!” This week Jesus gives Peter a stern rebuke, “Get behind me, Satan!” Why the change? Is Peter, after all, the rock or a hindrance?

Truthfully, he is both for he is very human. Peter receives this strong admonition after a dispute with Jesus. Jesus says He must go to Jerusalem, suffer, be killed and be raised up. Peter is quick to protest, hoping as we all would, that such drastic measures will not be necessary. Jesus’ harshness shows how important He knows His mission to be. He will not let Peter soft pedal it or suggest an easy way out. We should likewise remember Jesus’ admonition whenever we are tempted to proclaim a non-crucified Savior, whenever we encounter a watered-down Christianity, or whenever the ways of the world are embraced as the ways of God.

We will hear the Old Testament lesson about Moses keeping his father-in-law, Jethro’s flock when an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the burning bush. Moses is amazed that the bush has not burned up and God tells him that he is standing on holy ground. God said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” So, The God of Abraham Praise will be our processional hymn.

The Jewish creed was first formulated by Moses ben Maimonides (1135-1204) and consisted of 13 articles of faith; these were converted to a metrical version about a century and a half afterward. It is known now as the Yigdal, which is the first word of the metrical version and means magnify” or “extol.” A literal translation of the first article is: “extolled and praised be the living God, who exists unbounded by time.” It is sung at synagogues on the eve of festivals and on the Sabbath, and also in Jewish homes at family worship on Friday evening. Thomas Olivers translated the Yigdal from Hebrew into English, and gave it a decidedly Christian character by his very free paraphrase, although his first and last stanzas reflect the original thought of the beginning and the end of this creed. He entitled it “A Hymn to the God of Abraham,” which is our hymn for the day, and nearly every line echoes a Scripture text. There were originally 12 stanzas arranged in three groups of four in each. The hymn was written about 1770 and first published in a tract in 1772.

Olivers was born in early September 1725 at Tregynon, Montgomeryshire, near Welshpool in north central Wales. He lost both parents before he had passed his fifth birthday, and he was cared for by a succession of relatives, moving from one to the other. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker, but by the time he was 18 years of age he was a godless youth, poor, in debt, and miserable, and was compelled to leave his native village. He went to Bristol and there heard a sermon by George Whitefield on “a brand plucked from the burning” (see Zech. 3:2). He took courage and hope, and was converted. He wished to join Whitefield’s band, but was dissuaded. However, with a changed lifestyle, he went back to Wales, paid his debts, and returned to Bristol to set up in his trade. He met John Wesley, who discerned Oliver’s talents and encouraged him to become one of his itinerant preachers. So in 1753 Olivers went as an evangelist to Cornwall and for 46 years until his death continued in this work. He assisted Wesley for some of this time in editorial work and also wrote a few hymns. He died suddenly in London in March 1799 at the age of 74.

Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c will be chanted in plainsong by the cantors in the loft. The refrain, Remember the Marvels God Has Done is placed in several intervals giving the congregation the opportunity to join with the cantors in singing the Psalm. Hallelujah!

The Eucharist will be accompanied from the loft with a duet, Author of Life Divine. The music is written by a contemporary composer, Cecilia McDowall.

Born in London, 1951, Cecilia has been described by the International Record Review as having ‘a communicative gift that is very rare in modern music." Often inspired by extra-musical influences, her writing combines a rhythmic vitality with expressive lyricism and is, at times, intensely moving. We think you will find this true in this piece with words written by the great hymnist, Charles Wesley (1707-1788).


Author of life, of life divine,


Who hast a table spread,


Furnished with mystic wine


and everlasting bread,


Preserve the life thyself hast given,


And feed and train us up for heaven






Our needy souls sustain, our souls sustain,


with fresh supplies of love,


till all thy life we gain,


and all thy fullness, fullness prove,


and, strengthened by thy perfect grace,


behold without a veil thy face.



Our recessional hymn with words written by Albert F. Bayly (1901-1984) will be Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service. Bayly submitted this hymn text in June 1961, when the Hymn Society of America asked for new hymns on social welfare. Accepted after some revision, it was used as the conference hymn for the Second National Conference on the Churches and Social Welfare, October 1961. Here we have another contemporary hymn!

Here is a link to a portion of the hymn tune: http://www.blogger.com/goog_1868135526

God’s ways, as Jesus has shown us again, are often paradox. To follow Jesus one must take up one’s cross. Those who try to save their own lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives for Christ’s sake will find them. Those who gain the world forfeit their lives, and ultimately, to live is to die. Such are the dynamic truths of Christianity. “They must be true” goes the old saying, “for no human could have invented such a preposterous faith.”

In the words of our sequence hymn, bookending the Gospel reading on Sunday:

Take up your cross, then, in His strength,


And calmly every danger brave;


It guides you to abundant life


And leads to victory o’er the grave.


                       Take Up Your Cross

This, then, is the paradoxical truth to which we witness whenever we gather for worship. Such fantastic and unbelievable truths must be constantly rehearsed and continually proclaimed for us to learn them. Even then, we must ultimately rely on God’s gift of faith to believe such claims and on God’s grace to fulfill them. Such a God is not for us to fully understand—only to trust, serve, imitate, worship and praise.

Sources:


Hymnal ’82 Companion


Companion to the SDA Hymnal


Deacon Ron Jutzy


Then Sings My Soul

A Treasury of Hymns


Tune My Heart to Sing


101 More Hymn Stories