St Giles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh

Midweek Devotion 16th February 2023

Led by Rev Sam Nwokoro

For you have delivered my soul from death
    and my feet from falling,
so that I may walk before God
    in the light of life.

(Ps. 56:13)

Scripture Reading (Mark 8:31-33)

31 Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes and be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Reflection

Our human inclination is to say the right things and be liked by everyone. When doing so, we save ourselves from being unpopular and keep our friends from embarrassment. Mark reports an altercation between Jesus and Peter. Jesus was going on in the open about his potential suffering and death; Peter felt uncomfortable by the things that Jesus was saying and tried to call him to order. As Jesus was not having Peter’s hush, he rebuked Peter sternly.

From Jesus’ rebuke, we get the sense that he was advocating for what he, Jesus, described as the ‘divine things.’ I sympathise with Peter on this: I’d rather hear normal things than divine things sometimes. Things beyond our understanding can be unsettling to hear. In Peter, we see something very relatable to our human desires: normality, safety,  and comfort. Why would the ‘divine things’ not be the same as ‘the human things’?

Today, many people go through painful experiences of rejection and suffering: from the truth-speaker who never sees the light of justice to the lovely family buried in the rubbles of earthquake and war. Walter Brueggemann, an American theologian, made sense of the ups and downs of life using the Psalms. He likened our human experience to three phases: orientation, disorientation, and reorientation.

Why would anyone want to wade through the unwanted waters of disorientation? Maybe Jesus was helping Peter to see that suffering is one of those points where the human and the divine meet. Suffering is where the desire for reorientation meets with the reality of disorientation. God is present in suffering, right in the midst of pain, working out a rising to reorientation through the hands and feet of aid workers, rescuers, donors, and well-wishers. May we stand with God as we strive to help those in need and relieve the burdened. May we steadfastly stand in the place of divine things until we reach the morning joy with the night’s weeping behind us.

Prayer

God, the ground of our hope,

When we are cast down or dismayed,

Keep alive in us your spirit of hope.

Fill us with all joy and peace

As we lead a life of faith,

Until by the power of the Holy Spirit,

We overflow with hope;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Blessing

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,

And the love of God,

And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen

Organ Music

Felix Mendelssohn Sonata IV in B flat (2nd movement)