Lectionary 21 Pr 16A
Grace Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
August 23, 2020
Exodus 1:8 – 2:10
Psalm 124
Romans 12:1-8
Matthew 16:13-20
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.
Our Gospel reading today is rich with teachings and themes that offer no shortage of opportunities for reflection and meditation. Old Testament references to Elijah and Jeremiah and other prophets to explore. Or we could compare and contrast this confession of Jesus’ identity to other such confessions – like the one we heard about just a couple of Sundays ago when Jesus – and Peter – walked on water. There’s the interesting notion of the “keys of the kingdom” and notions of binding and loosing. and then the whole issue of Peter – is he the first pope? what’s it like to be a rock? and what is this new thing called the “church?”
But what I’d like to focus on for our reflection today is this portion of verse 18 – you are Peter -- petros in the Greek -- and on this rock -- petra in the Greek -- I will build my church. There are two times that the word church is used in the Gospels. Yes, only two – here and in Matthew 18:17. And, the Greek word “church” means literally “called out,” it was often used to refer to a civic group or association perhaps like today’s Rotary, the Chamber of Commerce, the Junior League or any number of social and civic organizations at the time. This would have been the frame of reference for the disciples hearing these words. They may have scratched their head and wondered – what does this even mean? Jesus’ church? And in these days of pandemic when “church” doesn’t look like anything we expect, we too spend time scratching our heads. What does it mean to be Jesus’ church? What makes this gathering of Jesus’ church unique?
And, while all these questions may be spinning around in our heads, we start today with Peter’s confession because it is this that is at the heart of this gathering, it is Jesus who is the Son of the living God.
Peter, you gotta love Peter. Peter who walked on water and then sunk like a stone. Peter who a short time later Jesus would call a “stumbling block.” Peter who rushed to our Lord’s defense in the Garden of Gethsemane cutting off the ear of one of the soldiers and then only hours later denied that he even knew Jesus. Peter, the one who answered our Lord’s probing and piercing question -- Peter, do you love me?
My friends, aren’t we like Peter? Don’t we have wildly passionate times of service to Jesus? And don’t we have times where our questions and doubts overtake us and we sink like a stone? And there are always those times when Jesus whispers to our heart – do you love me? And we respond, I love you as best as I can Jesus. Is it enough?
But then we move to the next part of that verse – “…on this rock, I will build my church.” We try so very hard to do what we think is best, don’t we? We organize committees, teams and task forces. We urge and nudge and cajole and shame folks into joining up. We shake our heads when they don’t. We re-organize and re-focus and re-new our efforts. Maybe THIS time it will be different. We’ll just try harder and do better and then it will work. Right? No.
Hear the Word of the Lord – on you Peter, you questioning, impetuous, denying one – on you, I will build my church. I will build my church.
My friends in Christ, the Church does not depend upon our agendas and hopes. It doesn’t depend on the way that we think things ought to be nor on the way things always used to be. This Church, Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church of Lakeland, Florida depends upon Christ Jesus to build his church. Not our church but his as we are the very Body of Christ. Christ is at our center.
And certainly in these confusing and disorienting days when we are trying and learning new ways of being “church” among ourselves, in our community and for the sake of the world, we do not lean on our own personal understandings, our own preferences and wishes. Instead, we seek Jesus and his understandings for his church. We consider new ways and methods and means of demonstrating our love for him and for each other. We make mistakes and we stumble. But at the heart of it, we rest on Jesus’ assurance that HE will build his church.
Every Sunday even as we worship in our homes, we confess the same thing that Simon Peter confessed, “You are Christ, the Son of the living God!”. When we say the words of the creed, Apostles’ or Nicene, we are proclaiming Jesus as the savior of the world, just as Peter did. When we remember our baptisms, we are acknowledging that we have been drawn into the community of the faithful and our lives have been forever changed because we are marked with the sign of the cross of Christ – forever.
And in our baptisms, we are baptized into Jesus’ death and if into his death then also into his resurrection that we may walk in newness of life. In this, we are literally transformed to be living sacrifices ourselves; to be little christs, to live our lives as he lived, healing those who are sick with the greed and consumerism of our age, with the self-centeredness of racism, with cynicism and fear. We are called out to proclaim and demonstrate the good news that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, even as things look quite different than what we are accustomed to. In Christ, we each are called not to conform to the status quo, but to be transformed into an active agent of change in the world. And by our words, and by our actions, we answer the question Peter answered, and proclaim who we believe Jesus truly is. Among us, within this community of faith, we proclaim that it is Jesus who will build this Church. Equip us God so that we may be living stones.
Thanks be to God.
