Before I get going here, I want you to know that you rock! I’ll explain that a little more later, but if no one has told you all week how amazing you are I want you to know it right now. You are an amazing and wonderful child of God! The next thing I want to say before getting down to the preachin’ is that these texts are so wonderful and rich and I hope you’ll spend some more time with them later. I’ll be focusing on the reading from Matthew today, but there is so much more to discover about God and God’s desire for your life in the other texts as well.
As for today, I’d like to start with the question Jesus asks in our text. “Who do you say that I am?” That’s the question that Jesus asked Peter in Caesarea Philippi, a place of commerce and pagan worship (even worship of the state of Rome itself). Some also say it was a place that was full of decadence and immorality.
It may seem silly to ask us the same question, “Who do we say that Jesus is?”, yet there are times when I wonder if we know who Jesus really is. To be clear, when I say “we” I am talking about the collective witness of Christianity in the world. I’m not talking about the long-suffering faithful witnesses of First Presbyterian Church. I’m talking about the struggle of being the church in a world that seems very interested in using the name of Jesus, or Christianity, like a brand to sell merchandise (or excite a base of voters) rather than a way to describe our relationship with God and God’s good creation.
When I see the news and I hear of the alignment of some in the Christian faith with right-wing politics and nationalist priorities (priorities that do not benefit everyone in our nation equally), I wonder who we – as the body of Christ – are saying Jesus truly is.
In my more hopeful times, I affirm the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church USA which draws on our Book of Confessions to affirm that we are “one holy catholic and apostolic church.” In case that has ever confused you, catholic means universal. It means that all who follow the way of Jesus make up the church together. Apostolic means in the tradition of the Apostles (those Jesus gave authority to, as we see in today’s reading). Likewise, the Book of Order affirms the words of Paul who testifies to the church in Ephesus (Eph. 4:5–6), that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
The Book of Order goes on to say that “Division into different denominations obscures but does not destroy unity in Christ. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), affirming its historical continuity with the whole Church of Jesus Christ, is committed to the reduction of that obscurity, and is willing to seek and to deepen communion with all other churches within the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.”
That sounds great. Very big of us to think we can have such an effect on the church, isn’t it? And yet, the whole point of the Protestant Reformation and Reformed Theology in the first place was to say, “Let’s see if there’s a way that we can be more faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ together!”
I must confess that while I hold fast to the hope of unity in the Spirit of God, sometimes I wonder if Jesus looks at what Christianity has become, and says, “Hey, guys. That’s not really what I had in mind.”
I’ve asked a few friends to help me illustrate this point today. For a moment I want you to pretend we are in a fast food restaurant. We’ll call it “McJesus." I will be the cashier, standing behind the communion table. The customers will be lining up on the lectern side and will come through one at a time.
Cashier: Cha-Ching.... Welcome to McJesus. May I take your order, please?
Warm-fuzzy: Yeah, I'm not sure what you call it but I want the Jesus that gives me everything I ask for. You know, answers all my prayers immediately. And I've got a pretty long list so you better make it with the works.
Cashier: I'm sorry, we're all out of the Sugar Daddy Jesus today.
Warm-fuzzy: Oh. Well, I guess I'd settle for a Jesus who won't ever let anything really bad happen to me. You see I don't like pain. Pain hurts me.
Cashier: Oh! You want the Warm Fuzzy Jesus
Warm-fuzzy: Yeah, with extra gushy, mushy love.
Cashier: Give me a Warm Fuzzy - extra sweet! Cha-Ching.... Welcome to McJesus. May I take your order, please?
Judge: I'd like the condemning Jesus #5.
Cashier: Will that be with or without mercy?
Judge: Hold the mercy.
Cashier: Will you have any lightning bolts with that?
Judge: Yeah extra lightning bolts.
Cashier: Wow, you must have a lot of enemies.
Judge: Well, I'd like to think that I'm just trying to clean up the world a little bit. You know, get rid of the people who don’t fit my worldview.
Cashier: Oh I see, kind of a selective early judgment day.
Judge: Yeah, and someone who'll let me hate these people without feeling guilty.
Cashier: You're in luck! We're running a special today on the Terminator Jesus
Judge: Righteous.
Cashier: Is there anything else?
Judge: I'll be back.
Cashier: Ba Bing. Next!
Sunday: I would like to buy three dollars worth of Jesus, please. Not enough to make me a fanatic or drastically alter my lifestyle but just enough to make me feel comfortable. I don't want enough of him to make me love someone who makes me feel uncomfortable, and I don’t want to feel compelled to do something about injustice or suffering. Just give me a pound of the supernatural in a paper sack.
Cashier: Anything else?
Sunday: That's all.
Cashier: Give me the number 7. Cha-Ching ... Welcome to McJesus. May I take your order, please?
Jesus Follower: Yes, I'd like the real Jesus, please.
Cashier: Will that be the real Jesus number 1, 2 or 3?
Jesus Follower: How can there be more than one real Jesus?
Cashier: This is McJesus, where you can have any kind of Jesus you want! C'mon, have it your way.
Jesus Follower: I don't want him in my way. ... Maybe I'm in the wrong place. I want the one true Jesus. The one in the Bible.
Cashier: Oh the bible. Why didn't you say that before? You need to go to our McBible location on Southside
Jesus Follower: McBible?
Cashier: Yeah McBible. They have 33 different varieties of the good book to choose from. With or without miracles. No prophecy, extra prophecy. Cut and paste versions. You name it!
Jesus Follower: No thanks. I'll stick with the bible I've got.
Cashier: Suit yourself. NEXT!
Of course, these are all archetypes and none of them describe us completely, but aren’t there times when we want Jesus our way? The good news is that the real Jesus – who is revealed in scripture – stands before the 24-hour news feed and all the hashtags and filters of social media to ask us, “Who do you say that I am?”
The text, as we read it said, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Some texts translate the Son of Man as the human one to make the point that Jesus is the paragon of humanity – the ideal version of what God intends us to be.
Scholars disagree over what it actually means as an honorific, but a common idea is to recognize Jesus as “one of us” while also being “Emanuel – God with us.” I like to think of Jesus saying, “So, we’re in a pretty different place. Caesarea Phillipi is hella-Hellenized. What are people saying about – this guy.”
The interesting thing about Caesaria Phillipi was not only the coastal vibe but also their shrine to the God Pan and the cave of wonders that was later characterized as the gates of the underworld or – you guessed it – the Gates of Hell.
When Simon guessed the word of the day – the Messiah, which means God’s anointed one – Jesus said, “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 [which means rock], and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”
There is so much truth in these three sentences! First, Simon is named “Son of Jonah.” You know Jonah, right? He spent three days in the belly of a great fish and was spat up on the sand to share the word of repentance to his enemies, the Ninevites. Simon is now the bearer of the tradition of Jonah, the prophet who prefigures Christ by submitting to God, facing death, and offering redemption through repentance.
How can Simon, Son of Jonah know this? Only through his attendance to the active presence of God which Jesus names as his Father. For this reason, Jesus calls him Peter; transforming his identity by his purpose; and naming his purpose as the foundation of the church.
Of course, we’ll find out next week how Peter immediately flips back to his own fears, but for right now let’s enjoy what Peter has been given. In verses 19-20, Jesus says, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
While the church has, for centuries, seen these words as instruction that we should be the gatekeepers for who is eternally bound and who is set loose, one commentary I read suggested another take. The community of Christians who shared Matthew’s gospel were primarily Jewish. They needed more permission to let others in than instruction on who to keep out. What if this is more of an encouragement to be welcoming and in some ways a warning against exclusion? Jesus knows he will not be physically present forever, and he is counting on Peter – and those who follow him – not with the keys to the gates of Hell but to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now we come to why I told you at the beginning that you rock! You see, when I first moved here in 2010 there was something that just didn’t seem right. One day I realized it was because I’m from the foothills of north Georgia, and there are no rocks in the soil here. Once I realized that I began to look for other assurances that the world was stable and good, and guess where I found it? Right here.
You, who are members of the body of Christ; children of Johna; beloved proclaimers of Jesus as the Messiah; people who are gifted by the Spirit of God – even if you struggle to see it; people who seek to witness to the truth at board meetings and bedsides; living sacrifices who demonstrate love and mercy; people who are striving to be transformed by the renewing of your minds in Christ Jesus; midwives and siblings who seek to shelter the promise of new life for yourselves and others – YOU ROCK! You rock, because of those times you remain open to the active presence of God – especially when you aren’t sure about it.
Certainly, there are qualities about each of you that are unique and magnificent (Paul calls them spiritual gifts), but we are here for something greater than ourselves. We are here to stand at the door and say, “Welcome. You are God’s beloved.” While we are certain that this congregation offers community and truth we know that we only have a portion of the whole.
Our Book of Order states that “because in Christ the Church is one, it strives to be one. To be one with Christ is to be joined with all those whom Christ calls into relationship with him. To be thus joined with one another is to become priests for one another, praying for the world and for one another and sharing the various gifts God has given to each Christian for the benefit of the whole community.”
I am the church. You are the church. Yes, we are the church together. All of God’s children, all around the world. We are the church together, and we stand at the gates of suffering together to offer another way. At least I pray that it may be so with me, and with you, and to God be the glory. Now and always. Amen.
As for today, I’d like to start with the question Jesus asks in our text. “Who do you say that I am?” That’s the question that Jesus asked Peter in Caesarea Philippi, a place of commerce and pagan worship (even worship of the state of Rome itself). Some also say it was a place that was full of decadence and immorality.
It may seem silly to ask us the same question, “Who do we say that Jesus is?”, yet there are times when I wonder if we know who Jesus really is. To be clear, when I say “we” I am talking about the collective witness of Christianity in the world. I’m not talking about the long-suffering faithful witnesses of First Presbyterian Church. I’m talking about the struggle of being the church in a world that seems very interested in using the name of Jesus, or Christianity, like a brand to sell merchandise (or excite a base of voters) rather than a way to describe our relationship with God and God’s good creation.
When I see the news and I hear of the alignment of some in the Christian faith with right-wing politics and nationalist priorities (priorities that do not benefit everyone in our nation equally), I wonder who we – as the body of Christ – are saying Jesus truly is.
In my more hopeful times, I affirm the Book of Order of the Presbyterian Church USA which draws on our Book of Confessions to affirm that we are “one holy catholic and apostolic church.” In case that has ever confused you, catholic means universal. It means that all who follow the way of Jesus make up the church together. Apostolic means in the tradition of the Apostles (those Jesus gave authority to, as we see in today’s reading). Likewise, the Book of Order affirms the words of Paul who testifies to the church in Ephesus (Eph. 4:5–6), that there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
The Book of Order goes on to say that “Division into different denominations obscures but does not destroy unity in Christ. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), affirming its historical continuity with the whole Church of Jesus Christ, is committed to the reduction of that obscurity, and is willing to seek and to deepen communion with all other churches within the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.”
That sounds great. Very big of us to think we can have such an effect on the church, isn’t it? And yet, the whole point of the Protestant Reformation and Reformed Theology in the first place was to say, “Let’s see if there’s a way that we can be more faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ together!”
I must confess that while I hold fast to the hope of unity in the Spirit of God, sometimes I wonder if Jesus looks at what Christianity has become, and says, “Hey, guys. That’s not really what I had in mind.”
I’ve asked a few friends to help me illustrate this point today. For a moment I want you to pretend we are in a fast food restaurant. We’ll call it “McJesus." I will be the cashier, standing behind the communion table. The customers will be lining up on the lectern side and will come through one at a time.
Cashier: Cha-Ching.... Welcome to McJesus. May I take your order, please?
Warm-fuzzy: Yeah, I'm not sure what you call it but I want the Jesus that gives me everything I ask for. You know, answers all my prayers immediately. And I've got a pretty long list so you better make it with the works.
Cashier: I'm sorry, we're all out of the Sugar Daddy Jesus today.
Warm-fuzzy: Oh. Well, I guess I'd settle for a Jesus who won't ever let anything really bad happen to me. You see I don't like pain. Pain hurts me.
Cashier: Oh! You want the Warm Fuzzy Jesus
Warm-fuzzy: Yeah, with extra gushy, mushy love.
Cashier: Give me a Warm Fuzzy - extra sweet! Cha-Ching.... Welcome to McJesus. May I take your order, please?
Judge: I'd like the condemning Jesus #5.
Cashier: Will that be with or without mercy?
Judge: Hold the mercy.
Cashier: Will you have any lightning bolts with that?
Judge: Yeah extra lightning bolts.
Cashier: Wow, you must have a lot of enemies.
Judge: Well, I'd like to think that I'm just trying to clean up the world a little bit. You know, get rid of the people who don’t fit my worldview.
Cashier: Oh I see, kind of a selective early judgment day.
Judge: Yeah, and someone who'll let me hate these people without feeling guilty.
Cashier: You're in luck! We're running a special today on the Terminator Jesus
Judge: Righteous.
Cashier: Is there anything else?
Judge: I'll be back.
Cashier: Ba Bing. Next!
Sunday: I would like to buy three dollars worth of Jesus, please. Not enough to make me a fanatic or drastically alter my lifestyle but just enough to make me feel comfortable. I don't want enough of him to make me love someone who makes me feel uncomfortable, and I don’t want to feel compelled to do something about injustice or suffering. Just give me a pound of the supernatural in a paper sack.
Cashier: Anything else?
Sunday: That's all.
Cashier: Give me the number 7. Cha-Ching ... Welcome to McJesus. May I take your order, please?
Jesus Follower: Yes, I'd like the real Jesus, please.
Cashier: Will that be the real Jesus number 1, 2 or 3?
Jesus Follower: How can there be more than one real Jesus?
Cashier: This is McJesus, where you can have any kind of Jesus you want! C'mon, have it your way.
Jesus Follower: I don't want him in my way. ... Maybe I'm in the wrong place. I want the one true Jesus. The one in the Bible.
Cashier: Oh the bible. Why didn't you say that before? You need to go to our McBible location on Southside
Jesus Follower: McBible?
Cashier: Yeah McBible. They have 33 different varieties of the good book to choose from. With or without miracles. No prophecy, extra prophecy. Cut and paste versions. You name it!
Jesus Follower: No thanks. I'll stick with the bible I've got.
Cashier: Suit yourself. NEXT!
Of course, these are all archetypes and none of them describe us completely, but aren’t there times when we want Jesus our way? The good news is that the real Jesus – who is revealed in scripture – stands before the 24-hour news feed and all the hashtags and filters of social media to ask us, “Who do you say that I am?”
The text, as we read it said, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Some texts translate the Son of Man as the human one to make the point that Jesus is the paragon of humanity – the ideal version of what God intends us to be.
Scholars disagree over what it actually means as an honorific, but a common idea is to recognize Jesus as “one of us” while also being “Emanuel – God with us.” I like to think of Jesus saying, “So, we’re in a pretty different place. Caesarea Phillipi is hella-Hellenized. What are people saying about – this guy.”
The interesting thing about Caesaria Phillipi was not only the coastal vibe but also their shrine to the God Pan and the cave of wonders that was later characterized as the gates of the underworld or – you guessed it – the Gates of Hell.
When Simon guessed the word of the day – the Messiah, which means God’s anointed one – Jesus said, “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 [which means rock], and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”
There is so much truth in these three sentences! First, Simon is named “Son of Jonah.” You know Jonah, right? He spent three days in the belly of a great fish and was spat up on the sand to share the word of repentance to his enemies, the Ninevites. Simon is now the bearer of the tradition of Jonah, the prophet who prefigures Christ by submitting to God, facing death, and offering redemption through repentance.
How can Simon, Son of Jonah know this? Only through his attendance to the active presence of God which Jesus names as his Father. For this reason, Jesus calls him Peter; transforming his identity by his purpose; and naming his purpose as the foundation of the church.
Of course, we’ll find out next week how Peter immediately flips back to his own fears, but for right now let’s enjoy what Peter has been given. In verses 19-20, Jesus says, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
While the church has, for centuries, seen these words as instruction that we should be the gatekeepers for who is eternally bound and who is set loose, one commentary I read suggested another take. The community of Christians who shared Matthew’s gospel were primarily Jewish. They needed more permission to let others in than instruction on who to keep out. What if this is more of an encouragement to be welcoming and in some ways a warning against exclusion? Jesus knows he will not be physically present forever, and he is counting on Peter – and those who follow him – not with the keys to the gates of Hell but to the Kingdom of Heaven.
Now we come to why I told you at the beginning that you rock! You see, when I first moved here in 2010 there was something that just didn’t seem right. One day I realized it was because I’m from the foothills of north Georgia, and there are no rocks in the soil here. Once I realized that I began to look for other assurances that the world was stable and good, and guess where I found it? Right here.
You, who are members of the body of Christ; children of Johna; beloved proclaimers of Jesus as the Messiah; people who are gifted by the Spirit of God – even if you struggle to see it; people who seek to witness to the truth at board meetings and bedsides; living sacrifices who demonstrate love and mercy; people who are striving to be transformed by the renewing of your minds in Christ Jesus; midwives and siblings who seek to shelter the promise of new life for yourselves and others – YOU ROCK! You rock, because of those times you remain open to the active presence of God – especially when you aren’t sure about it.
Certainly, there are qualities about each of you that are unique and magnificent (Paul calls them spiritual gifts), but we are here for something greater than ourselves. We are here to stand at the door and say, “Welcome. You are God’s beloved.” While we are certain that this congregation offers community and truth we know that we only have a portion of the whole.
Our Book of Order states that “because in Christ the Church is one, it strives to be one. To be one with Christ is to be joined with all those whom Christ calls into relationship with him. To be thus joined with one another is to become priests for one another, praying for the world and for one another and sharing the various gifts God has given to each Christian for the benefit of the whole community.”
I am the church. You are the church. Yes, we are the church together. All of God’s children, all around the world. We are the church together, and we stand at the gates of suffering together to offer another way. At least I pray that it may be so with me, and with you, and to God be the glory. Now and always. Amen.
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