Matthew 16
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To listen to Nick read the one-minute introduction.
Leaven is an image Jesus uses with both positive and negative meanings. Last Sunday we listened to leaven as an image of the Kingdom growing within a person. Here, the leaven is that of the Pharisees and Sadducees—pride and ambition. Repent if you find these vices in you.
Peter receives the gift of knowing who Jesus is. From yesterday’s reading, God is to receive the glory for the gift. Yet Peter seems to take the gift in a prideful manner, presuming to question Jesus in the first prediction that Jesus was going to suffer and die. Similar to the challenge to Peter about having his feet washed at the Last Supper, the name that Peter has just been given, “Rock,”is quickly changed to “Satan”in the hopes that Peter will be shaken into belief and obedience.
Are you impetuous as Peter, quick to take in the leaven of pride?
Bible Breaths
What are these?
Wary of the yeast of pride v. 6ff
The Son of the living God v. 16
Following You with the cross v. 24
Losing life to saving life v. 25
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for the version for children and families.
This is the ninth of thirteen weeks in Pentecost, Year A.
See “Solar and Sacred Seasons” in the menu above.
We continue reading the Gospel of Matthew.
Today’s image courtesy of http://thepropheticnews.com
The Bible Through the Seasons 
To lose life is to let of the self’s control to determine life, rather submitting life’s options to the will of God.
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Motivations: The Heart of the Matter
by Larry Barber
The “hypocrisy” of the Pharisees was that they approached life much like an actor approached the script of a play. Motivated by the desire for approval, the Pharisees performed a specific set of predetermined and mutually agreed upon religious acts before an audience of their peers.
Herein lies the fundamental problem with the hypocrisy of the Pharisees: their obsession with the appearance of their performance gave them the means to hide from the truth of their own brokenness. Their outward performance distracted them from coming to grips with the internal problem of their moral depravity. Consequently, the Pharisees’ religious zeal was a symptom of their hearts’ rebelliousness rather than a reflection of their desire to love God.
For whole article, see http://mckenziestudycenter.org/2002/06/motivations-the-heart-of-the-matter/
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We use the expression, a “swelled head,” which is much like the rising of the yeast of pride in the soul.
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Rather than being “deflated” by anything, how about being”non-inflatable”? When something happens that might affect our pride, the energy comes in and goes right out again…like the alphabyte, “Hurricane.” http://wp.me/p1eJWu-oD
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More on losing life in order to find life: from Le Milieu Divin of Teilhard de Chardin, translated by Bernard Wall, 117-118
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