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(Jer.20:7-9;\xa0\xa0 Ps.63:2-6,8-9;\xa0\xa0 Rom.12:1-2;\xa0\xa0 Mt.16:21-27) \xa0 \u201cOffer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.\u201d \xa0 Paul says the same as Jesus when the Lord calls us to \u201ctake up [our] cross,\u201d to lose our lives for His sake.\xa0 And as Paul instructs the Romans: \u201cDo not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,\u201d so Jesus teaches Peter, and all His apostles and disciples, when He insists he think as God and not as man. Why?\xa0 Why is the Lord so harsh with this Rock of the Church (and, as I say, with us all)?\xa0 The answer is spoken clearly in our reading from Jeremiah.\xa0 In it the prophet declares in near desperation: \u201cThe Word of the Lord has brought me derision and reproach all the day.\u201d\xa0 He goes so far as to say the Lord has \u201cduped\u201d him, making evident that he had not expected to become \u201can object of laughter\u201d upon taking on the mantle of prophecy.\xa0 \u201cEveryone mocks me,\u201d he cries; and yet he \u201cmust cry out\u201d still the way of the Lord.\xa0 Yet he must call the people from their sins and warn them of the \u201cviolence and outrage\u201d that is near them.\xa0 He cannot remain silent, though he would greatly wish to, because the Word of the Lord is \u201clike fire burning in [his] heart, imprisoned in [his] bones,\u201d and he can do nothing but shout it from the rooftops, though it bring him scorn. And what has this to do with Peter?\xa0 Peter has just declared that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, and it is his voice above all that will cry out this truth to the ends of the earth; thus he and his fellow apostles must know clearly that to which they are called.\xa0 As the Lord \u201cmust go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly\u2026 and be killed,\u201d so must they walk the same path of persecution.\xa0 This they must see.\xa0 The contradiction of the cross they must realize, even as they preach it in this hostile world.\xa0 For to it they must give themselves completely. How?\xa0 How can it be that the Christian take up such foolishness in the eyes of the world?\xa0 How can it be that we die so freely, that we suffer such mockery, such persecution at the hands of sinners?\xa0 Is it not that our \u201cflesh pines and [our] soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless, and without water\u201d for the living God?\xa0 And is it not because we know that \u201cas with the riches of a banquet shall [our] soul be satisfied\u201d?\xa0 The key is in this gospel quote: \u201cThe Son of Man will come with His angels in His Father\u2019s glory.\u201d\xa0 The key is believing on the third day He was raised.\xa0 If we have this faith it becomes easy to deny the pleasures of the flesh, for even in this we find the eternal life of the Spirit.\xa0 Because our \u201csoul clings fast\u201d to God and to the hope that is only in Him, we are able to cling fast to His cross and so \u201cdiscern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.\u201d\xa0 And so we die with Him to live. Written, read & chanted, and produced by James Kurt. Music: "Weightless Crucifixion" from The Whole Whale, eighth album of Songs for Children of Light, by James\xa0Kurt. ******* O LORD, help us always to take the lowest place, that you might call us up to you. YHWH, you give a home to the forsaken and call us to do the same; as you have provided for our needy souls \u2013 though we deserved it not \u2013 so you call us to care for others, or we shall not find our place with you. We are truly lowly, dear God, for before you, who could stand?\xa0 How can we hope to sit at the same table as your only Son and partake of the food He provides?\xa0 Yet to His side He calls us; to be lowly as He is our great gift.\xa0 His grace we shall know, and in abundance, if with Him we lay down our lives for those in need. Then we shall come to your holy mountain, to the heavenly Jerusalem with all your angels and saints.\xa0 Washed in the blood of the Lamb you offer for our sakes, emptied of all the vanity of our race, we shall be exalted and chant your praise, dearest LORD, we who have made ourselves humble and lowly before you, we who have thus found our place at your table with Jesus, and been made perfect by His Cross.