The Twelfth Sunday after Trinity – Reflection by Canon Leslie
Join us for worship online and read Canon Leslie's blog post for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity.
The Gospel reading for this Sunday is Matthew’s account of Jesus’ teaching given to his disciples immediately following Peter’s confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Yes, said Jesus, that is the right answer, but not the kind of Messiah you may have been hoping for.
Here is not the warrior, invincible, superhuman Messiah, the Messiah who manages to sidestep the downside, the pain, and the suffering of what it means to be really human. Here is the Messiah who fully shares in the human condition, right to the very end. Here is the real and living mortal who faces death and who dies an ignominious death on the cross.
Peter found that whole idea unpalatable and railed against it. Suddenly the rock on which Jesus had intended to build became the stumbling block against which he began to fall. Like Peter, unless we take this teaching to heart, we are unlikely to last the course of discipleship.
To prepare for this Sunday’s service I invited those of you who want to do some thinking beforehand to focus on the image of suffering. Today’s picture from his book The Broken Leg, shows Teddy Horsley is suffering too. I recall Teddy Horsley writing this book while he was waiting with me one long evening in A & E at Glangwili Hospital.
Next week the image to help us prepare for participation in the Sunday service, whether offline in the Cathedral or online at home, is the game of hide and seek, when the Gospel reading is from Matthew’s teaching on the community rule and calling out the lost. You can find out more about that theme here https://www.prayerforliverpool.org/prayer-resources.html. We would really appreciate you letting us know how you are using these materials. Please send us your ideas and photos of the things you may create; email them to Nelson.Pike@liverpoolcathedral.org.uk.
If you’d like to learn more about Teddy Horsley and his writings, visit his website: https://teddyhorsley.org/, or his page on the website of St. Mary’s Centre: http://www.st-marys-centre.org.uk/resources/TeddyHorsley.html.
We warmly invite you to join us in worship online here: https://youtu.be/ZG7STMej2Ak.
Teddy Horsley sends his Sunday greetings to all.
Canon Leslie