Matthew 16:21-28 Dear Partner in Preaching, We’re at “part 2” of the Caesarea Philippi scene, and once again, I find that our present circumstances are prodding me to look again at a text I felt like I knew. Typically, I would focus on the heartbreak of the rebuke Jesus levels at Peter. And then connect Peter’s disappointment to our own, as we, too, often want a strong God, even a warrior God, who will come in to save us from our problems. Those – I would argue quite understandable – desires make it hard to accept, let alone celebrate, Jesus coming to us in vulnerability, suffering, and death. Until, that is, we realize...

Matthew 16:21-28 Dear Partner in Preaching, Can you imagine? One moment, Jesus is saying you’re “the rock on which I will build my church” and the next he’s calling you “a stumbling block.” That’s not just great word play – from cornerstone to stumbling block – but such a reversal of relational fortune that it had to be incredibly painful. Can you imagine? And perhaps that’s the difficulty. Peter couldn’t imagine. He couldn’t imagine that Jesus had come not just to comfort people but to free them. Comforting isn’t that hard – just give them a little more of what they already had and tell them it will be alright....

Dear Partner in Preaching, Have you ever heard the sound of a heart breaking? Do you remember what it sounds like? Maybe it was your son or daughter’s heart breaking when they graduated from high school or college only to find the job market had disappeared. Or maybe it was your sister’s heart breaking when the doctor called to say the cancer was back. Or maybe it was your friend’s heart breaking when he called to say that his marriage was over. Have you ever heard the sound of a heart breaking? Do you remember what it sounds like? I think we hear that sound again in today’s gospel reading. It might be hard to detect at first, but if...