Wednesday, September 6, 2017

On This Rock

Matthew 16:13-20
August 27, 2017

            I talk with my hands. One day in college, one of my friends came up behind me to see if I wanted to go have coffee. She told me that she saw me across the quad – which was a good sized piece of lawn. She knew it was me even at a distance because I was talking to someone and gesturing all over the place. I don’t know why I do that. It doesn’t seem like other people in my family use their hands to talk as much as I do. I wonder about it, which is why I was so excited when my uncle Dudley, my mom’s older brother had his DNA tested. I have REALLY wanted to do this ever since I first started reading about these tests! It could explain so much. I grew up knowing that I was Swedish on my mother’s side and German on my dad’s. But it turns out that I am not just Swedish; I am also Finnish and Russian, a soupcon of United Kingdom, a dash of general Scandinavian and a smidgeon of Western European – whatever that means. If my mom’s DNA is more diverse than we could have possibly imagined who knows how diverse my dad’s DNA might be? Perhaps Italian? Perhaps there’s a genetic component to my gesturing? You never know.
            Why do I really want to know about my DNA? Probably for the same reason I have always been curious about my genealogy, and genograms and why I have taken the Meyers Briggs personality traits and preference test multiple times. I want to understand myself. I want to understand my family of origin. I want to know where I come from and who I come from. I want to know a little bit better who I am.
            Although the first chapter in Matthew’s gospel is not referenced here, I think it is important to remember what it contains. Matthew did not begin his story of Jesus by immediately sharing a birth narrative. He began with a genealogy. This was where Jesus came from through his father, Joseph. This was Jesus’ line, his ancestors, his history. For Matthew, telling his audience who Jesus was related to, who he was descended from, was also his way of setting the stage for telling them who he was. It was both a clue to Jesus’ identity and a justification for his identity. Not only was Jesus of divine origin, his human self could also be traced back through God’s chosen people as well: from Joseph to Abraham. His identity as the Son of David, the Son of Man, the Messiah both fully human and fully divine was firmly established. Matthew’s genealogy was a claim about Jesus’ identity.
            Now we come to this particular moment in the gospel. Jesus and the disciples have come into the district of Caesarea Philippi – the district of Caesar, the Empire – and Jesus asked them a question.
            “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
            The disciples did not hesitate in their responses.
            “Some say, John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
            Jesus did not let the question drop though.
            “But who do you say that I am?”
            In that moment Simon Peter made his famous confession of faith.
            “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
            In Mark’s gospel, the only other gospel that records this particular moment between Jesus and the disciples, Jesus responded to Peter by telling the disciples what being a Messiah meant – suffering and death. We will get to that part of the story next Sunday. But Matthew gave his listeners, his readers a pause. Jesus responded to Peter with affirmation.
            “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound on heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
            Then the moment ended with the Messianic secret: don’t tell anyone what I’ve told you.
            For a moment, Peter got it right. Not only did he get it right, Jesus told him that on him – the rock – his church, the ecclesia – the community will be built. And Peter will hold the keys to the kingdom. Surely it is from this passage that we get our image of St. Peter as the gatekeeper to heaven. And is this not the passage that informs Roman Catholicism’s understanding of Peter as the first in line of succession for the leadership of the church?
            Peter. Petra. The rock. The foundation of the church. The basis of the community of disciples, the followers of the Way, the followers of the Christ. All this because in this moment Peter got it right. But if you know anything about what follows – and I don’t want to get ahead of myself – Peter does not always get it right. Not only will he get it wrong in the next verses that we read next week, but he will deny Jesus three times. In Acts, even after the power of the Holy Spirit has descended upon him, Peter will struggle with the vision he has from God about what is clean and what is unclean. Peter might be the rock upon which Jesus built his church, his gathering of disciples, but he was a flawed rock to be sure.
            But what was it that Peter said that was correct? When Jesus asked, “who do you say that I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
            The Living God; not a static, frozen deity; not a statue or an idol; the Messiah is a living God. Jesus told Peter that his answer, his correct answer, in fact came from God. It was revealed to Peter by God. That living God was very much alive and well and working in Peter in that moment. And because God was working in Peter, the church would be built on him. Yes, Peter was flawed. Yes, just as Peter got it really, really right, Peter was also going to get it really, really wrong. But the living God was not deterred by Peter’s flaws. The living God worked in and through Peter regardless. And a church would be built on that rock; that flawed but faithful rock.
            Peter was flawed, but when it came to understanding Jesus, albeit imperfectly, he experienced him as the Son of the Living God. He saw Jesus, even if just for a moment as who he truly was and is.
Who do you say that I am?
It seems to me that this is a question Jesus asks us as well. I don’t think this is a question that we are asked once, but over and over again. Because our God is a living God, we experience God and encounter God in so many different ways and settings. God meets us where we are.
Yet, we are not asked this question of identity just as individual believers. Aren’t we also asked that as the church? We have been asking ourselves the question, “Who are we as a congregation,” for the past two years and more. But perhaps what has really been happening is that through that question Jesus has been asking us, “Who do you say that I am?” Because the truth is, our identity as a congregation, as a church is not separate from our answer to that question. Our identity as a congregation is inextricably tied to our answer to that question. It is the basis of our spiritual DNA. It is the rock upon which we are built. How we answer matters. How we live based on that answer matters.
I don’t think that Peter was given the keys to the kingdom so that he could be a gatekeeper for eternity. I think that Jesus wanted Peter and the other disciples to understand that what we do on earth, what we do now, has an impact here and in heaven. What we do now affects the kingdom of heaven which is in our midst. This is not limited to that which is large and grand. Small acts of love, kindness, compassion reverberate through earth and through heaven. It seems to me that is what Jesus meant when he said what will be loosed will be loosed and what will be bound will be bound. Believing in the Living God means that our faith is also alive. It grows. It changes. It expands.
Jesus built his church, gathered his community, called together his followers on a rock of a man who was flawed, who would fail, who would misunderstand. But still he built. Still he gathered. Still he called. Our good news is that Jesus is still building his church, Jesus is still gathering his community, and Jesus is still calling together his followers. We are flawed, but through the grace of God, our faith continues to live. We are still asked the question, “Who do you say that I am?” And the Living God still works through us, opening our eyes, our minds and our hearts to the answer,
“You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

Thanks be to God. Let all of God’s children say, “Alleluia!” Amen.

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