Sermon for Aug. 24 Faces of the Living Church

Matthew 16: 13-20 & Romans 12:1-8

Rev. Shannon Mang

Today is the last Sunday that we will be taking our lead from the Common Lectionary- the 3 Year cycle of Bible texts that has been used here for somewhere between one and two decades- next week we embark on an adventure where we follow themes that the congregation suggested to Rod and I in June. Our norm has been to choose one of the 4 texts, but today I’ve choosen to look at two different texts, setting them in contrast with each other.

First from Matthew- Today, Jesus asks the disciples, "What are people saying about who the Son of Man is?" and "And how about you? Who do you say I am?" This story repeats the theme of the disciples “getting it” , but then “missing it”, especially Peter, who takes a leadership role in these stories. This echoes the stormy encounter where the disciples are being tossed around on a storm and Jesus comes to them walking on water- Peter gets out of the boat and starts to also walk on the water towards Jesus, but he loses his focus and starts to sink- Peter gets it- and then he loses it.

In this story- Peter repeats what the disciples claimed following the walking on water incident- "You're the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God." This is Peter’s hit- he sees clearly who and what Jesus really is… and he is rewarded for his insight. Matthew’s Jesus is pleased with Peter’s confession and Jesus says that Peter is the rock on which his church will be built. This church will be so “so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.” Jesus goes on to talk about the nature of this church using the building metaphor: “And that's not all. You will have complete and free access to God's kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven."

This is heady stuff. This is all about power- imagine what it must have felt like for simple fishermen and tax collectors and general riff-raff to be handed the keys to the kingdom! And… this is precisely the problem that comes with this passage- this part of the story has Peter and the disciples “getting it”- making the hit, and the second part of the story that immediately follows on Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah and Jesus’ affirmation about the power that is held in his church is this … Jesus telling the disciples about what is coming.

This is the part of the story that we did not hear read: Jesus counters the strong image of the building that will not crumble in the face of all Hell’s power with a story about the end of the building altogether—that he will, in fact be killed and… on the third day rise. Jesus says- here is the good news about being my followers: you’ll be leaders in this strong building that has direct access to heaven and all its powers, and here is the bad news… it comes with a cost. I’m going to die for it. What is not said, but what is implied is, you will likely die for it too. Then comes Peter’s big “miss”- he rebukes Jesus for talking that way. And Jesus says: “get thee behind me Satan”-one moment Peter is the rock on which Jesus’ powerful church will be built and the next Peter is being called Satan. Jesus says that the only way to have the power that was expressed in the previous verse is to be willing to sacrifice everything, even one’s life.

In the church’s long history, it has too often claimed the power of the first part of this story without the balance of the self-sacrifice of the second part of the story. Over and over again, the institution has lived out of the place of power and authority that is granted in the metaphor of the building that will prevail against all of the power of evil and that claims the keys to heaven itself. We live with the consequences of this history. The early church thrived while it was the church of the outcasts and slaves and was persecuted. As soon as it became the state religion following the conversion of Emperor Constantine, the church began to have identity problems. It began to identify more closely with the first part of today’s story. It was all about power and authority and political influence. In our history, whenever the church has become too enmeshed in power and politics, there has been a reform movement that has grown within it to counter that- reform movements that remind the institution that the cost of keeping the keys to heaven is in giving ourselves away.

The passage from Romans is another metaphor, another symbolic way of envisioning who and what we are as a counter balance to the image of the powerful building in Matthew. The metaphor is that of a body. Each part of the body is not much on its own, it can perform its function, but, without the rest of the parts of the body it is not much use. Each part of the body must give itself away to the whole of the body, each part does its part- it doesn’t need to be better than any other part, and in giving itself away to the whole of the body, it enjoys the benefit of the work of all of the other parts that are giving themselves away to the body.

Paul was telling the little gatherings of house churches in the great city of Rome- the centre of the Roman Empire- to be counter-cultural. Paul says that to be people of the Way of Jesus means that we let go of the values of the culture around us as these values inevitably bring us all down to the lowest common denominator. Paul says to place one’s focus on God: “1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” Paul tells the small cells of Jesus’ followers to stop buying into the idea that they are in competition with one another- that they somehow have to get ahead of another in order to succeed- that power means “power over” another. Paul cuts through the illusion that power comes from finding self-worth at the cost of others. Paul’s teaching counters the teaching of the culture around us.

The cultures have changed through our long history, but the values have not necessarily changed- our culture lures us into self-obsessing about personal power just as much as the Roman Empire did in its day. Today we have the Empire of consumerism telling us in a thousand different ways every day that we are somehow deficient unless we buy the latest car, or smartphone or botox treatments. The cultural measures of success are still individual markers- what kind of house we live in, what kind of job do we do. We’re called to be counter cultural, just as the Roman house churches were. This passage frees us from self-obsession to see ourselves as we really are. We don’t have to “get ahead” of anybody else. What we are called to do is claim our God-given gifts and give ourselves away to the Body of Christ. Saved from self obsession we can get on with the task set before us, being truly ourselves and living out our gifts by giving ourselves away. We are not called to be Super Christians- we don’t have to personally save the world- or the church- or our families- we don’t even have to save ourselves. By doing our part and doing it the best we can, we enjoy all the benefits of being a part of the body. By knowing and claiming our gifts, then exercising those gifts in the world, we are fed, not burnt out. It is not about leaving our mark on the world- it is about living into the gifts we have all been given. Its about giving our ego needs for success away, and focusing on the success of the whole body.

We are called to go against the flow of our culture and value relationships over personal power. In giving ourselves away we find our true selves in the Body of Christ.

May it be so.