Today concludes our Summer Sermon Series on the book Just Like Jesus from Max Lucado.
I hope and pray this series has been meaningful for you and helped you grow closer to Christ. Throughout the summer we have been studying and hearing about the heart of Jesus.
There were about 11 of these hearts ranging from a forgiving heart, to an enduring heart all modeled after Jesus. In fact, Max makes the point we all have these hearts as we love and have faith in Jesus. These “hearts'' become ours, and are forgiving, compassionate, honest and caring hearted people. We are God’s people.
Today in the Second Reading from Ephesians we are invited to put on the “full armor” of God because we are in a battle. Sin, evil, the Devil, Satan, whatever you call the “other” is “prowling around like a roaring lion” says 1 Peter 5. We are being prowled upon and need to be armed with Jesus, and ready to fight for God and God’s love.
In the Gospel today Jesus hears Peter say “Lord, to whom shall we go, you have the words of eternal life.” Sound familiar? We sing that in formal liturgy prior to the reading of the Gospel. And it’s true.
Introduction
In today’s gospel many people take offense at Jesus’ invitation to eat his flesh and drink his blood; even many of Jesus’ disciples peel off. This is the backdrop in John’s gospel for Peter’s confession of faith. “To whom can we go?” asks Peter, in words we sometimes sing just before the gospel is read. “You have the words of eternal life.” In order to take such a stand, as Peter and Joshua did, Paul tells us to arm ourselves with the word of God. We pray in the Spirit that we might be bold ambassadors of the gospel.
