For Anyone Who has
Ever Lost their Keys
Matthew 16:13-20
Tony Campolo, a professor,
preacher, and evangelist from Philadelphia believes, “You can know all about
God, but the question is – do you know God? You can have solid theology and be orthodox
to the core, but have you experienced God in your life, transcendence in the midst of the mundane, something extraordinary in
the middle of the ordinary, something sacred hidden beneath the secular, some
purpose in a confusing world?”
Our scripture this morning is all
about that search. The path Jesus describes may surprise you. Let us pray:
Startle us, O God, with your truth
and open our hearts and minds to your Word, that hearing we may believe, and
believing, trust you with our lives: through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Caesarea Philippi was 25 miles north
of Galilee. It was a border town and so was a melting pot of different
cultures, beliefs, and religions. It was what we today call a pluralistic
society. In that context, Jesus’ question,
“Who do people say that I am?” made sense. What are the people around here
saying? What are they like? What do they think is important? What do they believe? Who do they say that I
am?
The disciples were eager to take
this quiz because there were really no wrong answers. Anything they said would reflect the ideas
and beliefs of someone. Their hands shot up in the air: “Some say you are John the Baptist, others
say you are Elijah, and there are a few who think you are Jeremiah or one of
the prophets.”[1]
With that the disciples slapped
high-fives and smiled satisfied that they had passed the test and gotten the
answer right. But, Jesus clearly
believed there is more to faith than just knowing the right answers. If at the end of this sermon, or at the end
of your life you know nothing more than the right answers to the right
questions – then where are you? What do
you really have?
That’s why Jesus’ next question
prodded them to move from the theoretical to the practical. If any of this is going to matter you have to
be able to answer the next question, “Who do you say that I am?” Upon hearing that, most of the disciples
suddenly realized they needed to retie the laces on their sandals or they
discovered something interesting in a cloud formation passing overhead. They looked everywhere but at Jesus.
They instinctively knew that the
answer to that question could have far-reaching implications and ramifications
on how they lived their lives and in whom they placed their faith. They knew the answer to this question would
take them out of the classroom and plop them right into the middle of the real
world. Not everyone would like what they
would say about Jesus.
Peter didn’t care. He would speak his mind no matter what. That was his personality for good and sometimes
for bad. He just wore his heart on his
sleeve and so he declared before God and everyone, “You are the Christ, the Son
of the living God.”[2] I don’t know if Peter understood the full
theological implications of that confession of faith. I’m not sure any of us really do, but
remember this was more than just giving the right answer to a question. It was about faith, about putting your trust,
your full weight in the hands of one you believe is the full earthly expression
of Immanuel- of God with us.
That’s the way Jesus understood
Peter’s confession because he said, “Flesh and blood has not reveled this to
you, but my Father who is in heaven.”[3] This was more just an analysis of events and
experiences. It was more than just an intellectual review of the facts. What Jesus said and did up to that point did
matter, but this confession of faith had moved the eighteen inches from the
head to the heart came from God. Jesus believed Peter had experienced the
moving of God’s Holy Spirit in his mind and heart and that’s how he came to
make this confession of faith, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
In the end for each of us it always
comes down to that defining moment when if only for a split second we
experience the abiding presence of God that prompts us to pray, “Come Lord
Jesus come.”[4]
Following Peter’s profession of
faith Jesus said and did something so powerful and profound it has echoed
through the church from that day to this - and it has generated no small amount
of controversy. He said, “You are now Peter, and on this rock, I will build my
church, and the powers of death and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against
it.” Then he gave Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven that could be used to
bind and loose on earth and in heaven.[5] Now, there’s a lot in this verse, so we’re
going to have to unpack it one piece at a time.
First, “You are Peter, and on this
rock.” Two millennia later, many believe
Peter was the name for this disciple, but you would never have found that
printed on his birth certificate. His
real name was Simon bar Jona, Simon-son-of-John. He was not known as Peter until this moment
when Jesus gave him this new nickname based on the Greek wordplay for rock –
petros. This new name made sense because of Peter was like a rock in more ways
than one – hardheaded at times and rock-steady at others.
But, what did Jesus mean when he
said, “Upon this rock I will build my church?” Well, if you are Roman Catholic
you believe that Peter was at that moment given the authority of a Pope. The keys that bind and loose are the
ex-cathedra pronouncements a Pope might make about what is or is not permitted
in the Christian faith, what we should believe and how we should live. So, in a
sense these keys unlock the doors of the kingdom of heaven.
That’s why keys are part of the papal symbol and why it has been taught
that there is only one true church, only one way to heaven, because there is
only one set of keys and one person who holds them. Although, Jesus said nothing about if or how
these keys would be passed on through the generations, it came to be understood
that they were to pass from one Pope to the next.
If you came from the Protestant or
Reformed tradition the rock upon which Jesus will build his church is not Peter
the person; rather it is Peter’s confession of faith, “You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God.” That individual and personal confession of faith is
what unlocks the door to heaven and leads to salvation. The Bible says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and you will be saved.”[6]
Today, ecumenical councils and interfaith conferences try
to hammer out the differences between these two views and find some kind of
compromise that might bring these two wings of the church together, but all of
that is inside baseball. No one else in
the world pays much attention to all that.
What I find more incredible in
Jesus’ declaration is not how he will build the church, or upon whom or what he
will build it, but rather that he will build it at all. What did he say? “I will build my church and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” So, he obviously believes the church is very
important, even essential, and that it is powerful, so powerful in fact that
the gates of hell and death shall not prevail against it.
That is not a commonly held view
today, even by those who identify themselves as Christian. Many will say they
are “spiritual” and they even follow the teachings of Jesus, but then protest
that they don’t believe in or have time for “organized religion”. The church is
no longer seen as a way to experience God, and in fact is seen by some as a
hindrance.
Kathleen Norris, a Presbyterian and
a bit of a mystic in her book, “Amazing Grace” asked the question:
What do people mean
exactly when they say they have no use for “organized religion”? They may mean to reject Christianity in an
intellectual sense, or to resist what they perceive as the power structures of
Christendom. But, as it is the ordinary
church congregations that most Christians dwell in, and that has defined
Christian experience from the beginning, I have come to suspect that when
people complain about “organized” religion what they are really saying is that
they can’t stand other people; at least not enough to trust them to help work
out a “personal” spirituality.[7]
It’s like that old line from the Peanuts cartoon, when
Lucy shouts out, “I love mankind – it’s people I can’t stand.”
The lead
article in a recent Newsweek magazine called “Spirituality in America” made the
same point. They wrote, “Americans are
looking for personal, ecstatic experiences of God, and, according to our poll,
they don't much care what the neighbors are doing.”[8]
While this
distinctive view of faith fits in well with the American myth of rugged
individualism, it does not mesh well with the Gospel, because caring about
other people is central to Jesus understanding of faith. He said, we are to
love God and our neighbors as ourselves.[9] The Apostle John picked up Jesus’ thought
when he wrote, “Beloved, if God loved us, we also ought to love one another.”[10] We have to care about other people.
That is our power against which the
gates of hell shall not prevail. It is
the only earthly power we really have.
Whenever the church tries to dip into other wells and draw power from
politic and economics, we end up looking foolish and naïve and out of our
league. And we are!
People do not come to church for
that. They come to find transcendence in
the midst of the mundane, something extraordinary in the middle of the
ordinary, something sacred hidden beneath the secular, some purpose in a
confusing world. They will come if they sense and experience the love of God
demonstrated in real and practical ways.
There is power there because that kind of love is rare and precious in
our world today. That’s why the church
is important in Jesus’ eyes, and why the gates of hell shall not prevail.
Popular author, Anne Lamott, returned to the church a few years ago after a
long absence and a very difficult life wrote in Salon that she insists her
fourteen-year-old go to church even if he hates it. Her revelation stimulated a lot of response,
much of it negative. People accused her
of oppressing her child and even abusing him by making him go to Church on
Sunday.
This was her response: “Left to
their own teenagers would opt out of many important thing like flossing their
teeth and homework. It’s good to do uncomfortable things. It’s weight training
for life.” And then she went deeper:
“Teens who don’t go to church miss opportunities to see people loving
God back. Learning to love back is the
hardest part of being alone.”[11]
I think that’s the purpose of those
keys that are dangling from Peter’s belt, the keys that “bind and loose”. They are given to free us to forgive and to
love back even when it’s hard.
Years ago, I read a book by Simon
Wiesenthal called “The Sunflower”. The
title came from the flowers he saw each day, when as a young teenager he was
marched from the concentration camp where he was housed to the work camp where
he slaved away the day so he might avoid the ovens. The sunflowers in bloom were the only bright
spot and color in his day.
One day though, he was picked from
the line and taken to a hospital to hear confession from a Nazi S.S. officer who
was wounded and dying and seeking forgiveness from Jew, any Jew would do, for
the atrocities he committed. After listening to this litany of sins, Wiesenthal
said he could not bring himself to forgive this man for his many and terrible
crimes. He walked out of the room
leaving this man to die in his sins.
Years later when he wrote this
story, Wiesenthal wondered if he did the right thing, and asked prominent
theologians to respond at the end of his book.
Each recognized how difficult it would be to second-guess someone who
suffered as Wiesenthal had. No one
challenged his decision.
But, still he must not have been
satisfied with the answers, because 28 years later he reissued the book and
asked the same question to a new batch of theologians.
This time, one of them, Martin Mary
of the University of Chicago responded first by acknowledging that no one could
ever challenge his experience, but then he gently offered a different
response. He said:
“I want to live in a world that can
see and feel grace. It may be God’s
business to grant grace, but it is my business to be a gracious brother. More than anything else it is the absence of
grace that produces totalitarian societies.
Only forgiving will free us for a new day.” That’s the key.
When Jesus first appeared to his
disciples following his resurrection, he met them cowering behind closed doors
because they were afraid they might be next.
He held out his nail-scarred hands and said, “Peace be with you. As the Father sent me, even so I send you.” And when he said this, he breathed on them
and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If
you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven, if you retain the sins of any
they are retained.”[12]
I like the way Eugene Peterson
paraphrased this verse: “If you forgive
someone’s sins, they are gone for good.
If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”[13]
Well, that’s a good question. What are you going to do?
For some the answer is to walk right
out of the church and never come back because, God knows we’ve go enough
sinners in here who do things and say things that hurt others. Better to find God all alone on a mountaintop
where there is no one to bother you, no sins to forgive or retain. Of course, people are free to do that. You can do that. In anger or disappointment
you can walk right out of this church or every church and never come back. You are free to do so.
If you do, you are not free to
follow Jesus, or at least to follow him all the way because he so obviously
cared and cared passionately about the Church.
He said he would build it and the gates of hell would not prevail. The Church is the body of Christ. We belong to him. We are his arms and legs, hands and
mouth. Cut yourself off from his body,
and are you not cutting yourself off from him?
If you do that, where will you
be? Where will you end up? If you can’t follow him all the way can you
ever get to where he was going and is right now?
Let us pray:
With grateful hearts we
gather here this morning, O God, grateful for your church throughout the world
for the churches that have taught, nurtured, comforted, and inspired us along
the way and this day, for this church and for the great adventure that lies
ahead. Bless us, O God. Bless us to be
your bold and faithful people. In Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
[1] Matthew
16:14
[2] Matthew
16:16
[3] Matthew
16:17
[4]
Revelation 22:20
[5] Matthew
16:18
[6] Acts
16:31
[7] Norris,
Kathleen: Amazing Grace.
Riverhead Books, N.Y. Pg 258
[8]
Newsweek, August 21, 2005.
[9] Matthew
5:43, Matthew 19:19
[10] 1 John
4:11
[11]
Christian Century, August 23, 2003
[12] John
20:19-23
[13]
Peterson, Eugene, The Message. Pg 232.
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