August 30, 2026 Proper 17 First Congregational Church UCC, Brimfield, MA
Matthew 16:21-23 – From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Romans 12:9-21 – Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persever in prayer. Contribute to the needs of hte saints; pursue hospitality to strangers.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O God our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen,.
Deut 21:15-17 When a man has two wives, one loved and the other hated, and they both give him sons, but the firstborn is from the hated wife, at the time he divides the inheritance with his sons he must not treat the son of the loved wife as the firstborn, cutting out the son of the hated wife, who is the actual firstborn. No, he must acknowledge the inheritance rights of the real firstborn, the son of the hated wife, by giving him a double share of the inheritance: that son is the first proof of his virility; the rights of the firstborn belong to him.
Once upon a time there was a family that was facing a hard decision. The father had two sons, each of them the son of a different wife. Now as it happened, he loved one of his wives, but he hated the other one. No, I don’t know why he married her, but even though the story’s old, I think we all know how easy it is to end up hating someone you married in good faith and love – so skip all the whys here, and just know there was not peace in the family. As you can imagine, he wanted to make the wife he loved happy, and so he thought to make her son his heir, to give him the best of all he had.
But the son of the hated woman was his first-born son. That son was the one whom custom said was the heir.
This is the sort of conflict that lies behind any number of murder mysteries or beach reads… even though today we don’t have two wives at the same time, we still have those kinds of conflicts that are played out upon our children – and the children of the preferred wife maybe get better clothes, better schooling, more appreciation, even more love.
And who’s there to say that’s wrong? In the old story, right from the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible, it’s Moses who steps in, as he’s writing the laws for the Hebrew people, and says, it just doesn’t matter that you don’t love your firstborn’s mother, what matters is that he’s your oldest son, and the right thing is to make him your heir. Yes, it’s hard to do this, and the other wife will be upset, but you can do this hard thing, because it’s the right thing to do.
You can do this hard thing.
Jesus knew that doing the right thing was often hard, sometimes even dangerous.. when he told the disciples that he was going to go to Jerusalem, knowing that the religious and Roman authorities would see him as a blaspheming rebel, he wasn’t surprised that Peter said “don’t do that… they’ll arrest you, maybe kill you”. And it’s so quoted that we forget how stark it was when Jesus replied, “Get out, stop tempting me like you’re the Devil… you’re focusing on the wrong end of things.”
Do you see that Jesus knew he had to do that hard thing, and just like the loved wife, Peter was asking him to avoid the conflict, take up the easy answer and retreat back to the boonies, where he’d be safe, just quietly healing the sick, instead of sticking out, trying to save the world.
Safety or the hard thing?
Comfort or the hard thing?
All of this is to say that following the Jesus Way is not always easy, not always fun. This past week, I went to lunch on two days with clergy colleagues; we had wonderful conversations and it was just the most fun.
The week wasn’t all fun; I also talked with a colleague who’s having to help his own family make decisions about his hospitalized father – he says his father’s clearly dying, but his mom, who is an alcoholic, won’t talk about anything, and the rest of the family is angry at the hospital for not saying things are going to improve. Sometimes life is just filled with hard things.
It’s in those hard times that we most need the clear voice of people like Moses and Paul. When we don’t have the strength or the wisdom to do this hard thing, there are the words to help us find the path.
Let love be genuine; hate what is evil; hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal; be ardent in spirit; serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope; be patient in affliction; persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; pursue hospitality to strangers. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be arrogant, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.” Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
You all know this; I’ve seen you living it out. I’m just reminding you today that this is the hard path, not the path of weaklings. It takes strength to turn our hurt, our anger, our fear to the positive side. It takes courage to turn away from throwing hate after hate.
And it doesn’t mean pretending that the bad isn’t happening, we’re not talking about gaslighting ourselves. Hard is hard. But it’s also, or it can be, very powerful. Look again at Paul’s last line – “if your enemies are hungry, feed them… heap coals of fire on their heads”. There is enormous power in following this hard way – not just because we refuse to take the easy path, but because in our hard way, we’re standing up for, fighting for, this better way.
People say to us, oh you’re so good to be doing that, and they have no idea how hard our choices have been; if we’re doing it, they must think we have some magic power to overcome. But Moses and Paul make it clear, doing this hard thing is never easy, sometimes backbreaking, heartbreaking. What they offer us is no magic word to make it easy; they offer us the truth that this is a trial worth taking.
With God’s help, you can do this hard thing.
Amen.
© 2026, Virginia H. Child
To Believe is to Care. . . To Care is to Do 