was composed of words from Isaiah, I Peter, and Matthew Peter as the church s one foundation down through the ages.

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1 The Church s One Foundation Matthew 16:13-20 August 27, 2017 Please pray with me. God of revelation, mere flesh and blood cannot reveal divine truth; only your Spirit can give that gift. Be in my breath and in my voice, be in our ears and in our understanding, that through these words your Word may be known. Amen. Jesus asks his disciples who people say he is and the disciples offer various options John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets, but when he asks them who they say he is, Peter, generally the spokesperson for the group, quickly answers, You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Peter gets a lot of brownie points for this answer from Jesus AND the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus tells Peter that the only way he could have known this is because it was revealed to him by God; he couldn t have gotten the answer from another human being. Yes, but two chapters back in Matthew we hear the story of the disciples who are in the boat, scared to death and then Jesus appears walking on the water, looking to them like a ghost, which scares them even further. Once Jesus identifies himself we hear the disciples say Truly you are the Son of God. So this wasn t a new revelation for Peter or the disciples, but it was a decisive moment in Jesus ministry. The New Interpreter s Bible explains clearly that this confession of faith in Jesus as the messianic representative of God s kingdom separates the new community he is forming from those who oppose and reject it, the Roman empire - the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Although we never see the word Trinity in the Bible, and we don t see a doctrine of the triune God Father, Son and Holy Spirit - developed in the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, we might say this is the foundation for it because it lays the groundwork for God and Jesus to be seen as one person, both divine and human. It is also the point where we see Peter named as the rock or the foundation of the church. Some would say, it is Peter s faith, Peter s testimony that is the foundation of the church. Metaphorically the idea of Peter as a rock, as the foundation of Christ s church, is one we all know. Our call to worship this morning 1

2 was composed of words from Isaiah, I Peter, and Matthew Peter as the church s one foundation down through the ages. Interestingly enough, here in Matthew 16:18 and again in Matthew 18:17 are the only two occurrences of the word church (ekklesia)in Greek, in the gospels. Matthew doesn t see the church as something that rises after the resurrection of Jesus, but rather, something that the earthly Jesus established in order to continue the work that he has begun. It is important to Jesus that the church he is establishing has a good, solid foundation so that it will continue on. Historically Peter is the spokesperson for the disciples and the early leader of the Jerusalem church. Now, Jesus also gives Peter the keys of the kingdom, the power to bind and loose, which is rabbinic terminology for doctrinal and disciplinary authority. This verse has caused controversy through the years. Where Protestants point to Peter s faith as the foundation of the church, Catholics point to this as the basis for the authority of the pope - the authority of the church. Jesus gave the keys to the kingdom to Peter authority to bind and loose on earth. Protestants believe in the priesthood of all believers, that we are all ministers of the faith, but we still cling to the idea of apostolic succession, the idea of different gifts for different people. If you have ever attended an ordination ceremony, all ordained ministers are invited to come forward and lay hands on the ordinand and then friends and family are invited to do the same by laying their hands on the circle of ordained ministers. The authority, if you will, to administer the sacraments is passed down from Peter through succession by tradition. Jesus was continually binding and loosing the teachings of the Torah. He found certain restrictions or laws were necessary and others were not required. One that comes to mind is the regulation about unclean food. Jesus tells us that it isn t what goes into our body that is unclean, but rather, what is in our heart. Jesus gave this authority to teach and preach to the disciples and to the church going on through the ages, but more about that later. Peter is so much like us you and me as we live our lives. He is, with all his strengths and weaknesses, a typical Christian. I have a favorite book mark that states Christians aren t perfect; just forgiven perfect for Peter and for each of 2

3 us. Peter is essentially the teacher s pet here the golden boy but as we see, he soon ends up receiving a tongue lashing from Jesus because from this point on Jesus begins to share with his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer and be killed and on the third day be raised up by God. Peter, much like you and me, cannot fathom why Jesus must suffer and die. He is going to go to great lengths to make sure that does not happen. Jesus essentially calls Peter Satan and rebukes him for setting his mind on human things rather than divine things. This isn t the first time, nor will it be the last where we see the disciples have a difficult time being able to understand and to follow Jesus. Doesn t this sound familiar in our lives? Think about this for a moment. Jesus is giving the keys to the kingdom to one who constantly gets it wrong, who speaks before he thinks, and this is not a new pattern for Peter or any of the disciples. For those of you who had or have teen age children learning to drive; the first time you hand over the car keys and watch them drive away is a pretty harrowing moment generally. You know that no matter how well they have learned to drive they just are not mature and it doesn t take much to confuse or upset them which can be dangerous for new drivers. Peter seems to fit in this category pretty much so why did Jesus give him the keys to the kingdom? Jesus wasn t responding particularly to Peter s strengths or accomplishments as a disciple, which admittedly left a lot to be desired, but rather, he was responding to Peter s testimony. For all of his other failings, Peter understands in his heart that Jesus is the Messiah. Peter went on to be the patriarch of the church, the foundation of Christ s church and so it can be with us. We can be so much like Peter, with our own strengths and weaknesses, but there is hope for us as well we can mature in our faith and we can proclaim the Word just as Peter did after the Resurrection. Jesus asks the disciples, who do people say the Son of Man is? It probably depended on who they were allied with or partial to John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or other prophets of the time. They and us as well, tend to project our own personal theological, cultural and denominational allegiances onto Jesus. The important thing to remember is that we cannot say that however we see Jesus is the only correct way to see him. In addition, our faith, while remaining solid, can be rather changeable as I found out for myself. 3

4 As I look back on five years of seminary, I had several, and probably many, aha moments where I suddenly understood scripture that I had read previously with no foggy idea of what it actually meant. One doesn t necessarily need to attend seminary, but can learn from Bible studies. This is not your grandmother s Bible. Just as Jesus clarified teachings in his time, so does the church in our time. Let s pretend for a moment that each of us is Peter. If we were to come face to face with Jesus it would be pretty easy I think to echo Peter s statement. You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. No problem there, Jesus would probably bless us and send us on our way to teach and preach according to our gifts. But that is the easy part what about actually following Jesus teachings? And I imagine that all of us would, like Peter, try to stop Jesus from traveling to Jerusalem, knowing that Jesus would suffer and be killed. What about once we got to Jerusalem? Would we, like Peter, disclaim any knowledge of Jesus to save our own lives? Would we have the courage to stand there and say we were followers of Jesus or would we too, deny that we knew him? Who would we say Jesus is? It is pretty easy to be a good Christian in church and when we are with our church friends, but it becomes more difficult when we are out in the world. The church has a responsibility to foster good character, beginning with Sunday School and youth groups so that as we become adults those behaviors are ingrained in us. It makes a difference how we react to the driver that just cut us off, the jokes we tell, how we treat others and how we talk about those who are different from us in any way. Yes, Jesus gave the authority to teach and preach God s Kingdom to Peter, the rest of the disciples and the church going forward. What does that mean to us? It means discerning the right thing to do. We face so many quandaries in our time that are new ground and we don t always do a good job of discernment unfortunately. Think about how long we have been stumbling over the slavery issue, women s rights, gay rights, gay marriage, immigration, homelessness, and the list goes on with side bars to each of them. Yes, we have made progress in each instance, but there is still much work to do. 4

5 I talked about apostolic succession and the authority of the church, and I included the Romans scripture this morning intentionally. We all have different gifts, according to the grace given us and it is oh so important that we use those gifts to further the Kingdom of God. Just as a body has many members and all are needed for survival, the church has members with many gifts and all are needed for survival. There is a segment in the UCC new member reception liturgy that asks the congregation if they will welcome the new members into this church, and specifically if they will recognize that their presence and participation will change the makeup of our church and help it grow in new ways. There is solid reasoning behind this many gifts are needed in God s kingdom. Yes, the church can clarify scripture and resolve differences, but please don t ever think that what you say or do and the gifts you have are not important. Quite simply, what we say or don t say and what we do or don t do, truly matters, on earth and in heaven. Amen 5