Sermon 8.27.23
Panic in the Ranks
“For what will it profit them if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life?” This question is put to the followers of Jesus right after he reveals to them that he is going to die. (Matthew 16:21-28) One of the followers panics and goes immediately into denial. In this sermon Fr. Garrett examines this common emotion response when we are confronted with mortality – our own and those close to us. Christianity proclaims that the avoidance of death at all costs is not our ultimate task. Instead we are to assuage the natural anxiety, and even panic, that the prospect of death brings with the giving of ourselves into the care of God, who has already demonstrated that the end of our earthly days is not actually the end of our lives.