The first time ever I drove down Los Osos Valley Road from the freeway, I said, aloud, “This is the most beautiful valley I have ever seen.” It was a spring morning following winter rains. The sky was a brilliant blue. The nestling hills were an intense green. The first wildflowers were beginning to emerge along the roadside. And as we came near Los Osos, great splashes of colors bathed the fields where farmers were raising flowers for seed. The…
In today’s gospel story, Peter asks Jesus, how often should he forgive? Jesus replies: “77 times.” Yowza-77 times!!! Is he serious? Most of us are just beginners when it comes to the act of forgiving.
This week, Matthew’s gospel turns to Jesus teaching his disciples what it will mean for him to be the Messiah and the hard road ahead. While this text introduces the idea of suffering into the life of discipleship as followers of Christ, we are also called to ask how we move out of God’s way, out of our own way in developing lives of faith and communities that serve God, each other and the communities around us.
We encounter a shift in the flow of Matthew’s Gospel this Sunday and hear Jesus talk about all the people and profits others say Jesus may be, but the important question to his disciples and us was, who do you say that I am? As we move through our own lives as followers of Christ, what stories and narratives do we craft of who Jesus was, is, and continues to be in our lives?
