This past Sunday, the lectionary covered the Good Shepherd reading in John 10. During our service, we had a Baptism, and I used Spider-Man to frame the sermon. In addition to my words then, here are some more thoughts I have connecting the start of Peter Parker's journey as Spider-Man with ours as Christians: When Peter Parker first gets his powers, he uses them very selfishly. It isn't until tragedy strikes that he changes his ways. There's one moment when he lets a thief walk past him without caring about the impact on others. That thief ends up killing Peter's Uncle Ben later. This is the moment when Peter decides to use his powers for good, becoming the friendly neighborhood superhero we know and love. There's a line Peter is finally able to hear after the death of his uncle that becomes his motto, best known in the words "with great power comes great responsibility." These words, the all the various spider-media, would later be attributed to Uncle Ben. It took Uncle Ben's death before Peter could actually hear them. Jesus too had to die before we would listen, as shown throughout the Gospels. Unlike Uncle Ben though, Jesus came back. In coming back too, Jesus is the Good Shepherd He speaks of in John. The Good Shepherd is the one who the sheep hear and whose voice they know. Those sheep are all of us who are Baptized into Christ Jesus through the formula He gave us at the very end of the Gospel according to Matthew. Just as Peter started to listen after his "baptism by fire" as the hero Spider-Man, we too learn to listen to Jesus as we enter his fold in Baptism. Peter keeps having to remind himself of the words Uncle Ben gave him. We do the same every week at church by gathering on Sunday, the day of the week our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, to hear God's Word. In this way, we learn all the more how to recognize Jesus' voice so that we will know it when we hear it anywhere we are in our lives. It is not always easy to listen to Jesus, as we learn from the other readings this past Sunday. The same is true for Peter, especially with all the villains he has in his rogues' gallery. Peter has his spider-powers to protect him. For us, we have our Lord Jesus. As we hear in the 23rd Psalm: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, The Psalm goes on to tell us that God is laying out a feast before us, even "in the presence of my enemies" or "those who trouble me." Ultimately, Jesus is leading us to the place where we can "dwell in the House of the Lord forever." Through the journey of Peter Parker, we can see a bit of our own journey in Faith. Unfortunately it took a death for both of us, in our case the death of Jesus, before we would listen. Even now the way is hard. However, the Lord is with us along the way, even in the midst of our darkest trials and in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. All we need to do is continue to train ourselves to hear God's voice, where ever and when ever it may be speaking to us.
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The Rev. Trey KennedyHere is my take on how Superheroes and other characters can help us know God better. Categories
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May 2024
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