Proper 16: The Church, Stewards of Paradise
Introduction
Good morning dear friends. It is great to be with you all on this final day of summer vacation. Many of you will be entering new rhythms and a new reality tomorrow. You will learn new things, some things will be really fun and some will be really challenging, but in it all, Jesus goes with you. The disciples in our Gospel passage today were being taught something very important that would carry them through the rest of Jesus’ ministry, even when things did not go as they thought they would. The disciples will confess Jesus as the Messiah and learn about what he is building. They’ll also discover that their call is to so know heaven’s reality, that they steward its resources for building up the community where heaven is supposed to be experienced, the church. This is our call as well, which we’ll look at together. And now I want to invite the kids up...
Kids sermon
Good morning friends. Can anyone tell me what a key is for? Can I just shove any key in any lock? What happens? Who wants to guess what all these keys are for?
What do keys represent? For example, my keys can get me into the church office which provides me a place to prepare sermons, gather supplies for cookouts, hear confessions, etc. A key can open the prayer box, where I read someone’s prayer request and follow up with them to see how they’re doing. My key opens my house, where I sleep, cook, eat, workout, and have family time. Keys unlock opportunities for heaven’s realities. Have any of you been part of a house blessing? What do we do for those?
A house blessing reminds us that the miraculous, transformative work of the kingdom of heaven most often happens in the very mundane. We just need to attune our imagination to it. In Jesus, you and I have been given keys to see God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. When we follow Jesus and trust him, we are invited to see God’s work happen in our ordinary days, but we need to be looking for it. We can do this by asking him for help and for giving him thanks for the good gifts he gives us. And as we see Jesus at work, we can share that gift with others. That is our responsibility because we hold the keys. Would you please pray with me?
“Dear God...thank you...for your work...in our lives...through Jesus... You are with us...and you love us...Help us...as we start new rhythms this week...amen.”
13-15 Jesus sets them up with what they need for what’s coming up
The story we get to today is a pivotal one in the story of Matthew. Jesus has had a lot of public ministry in the north, in Galilee. Today’s passage takes him and the disciples away from the crowds, away from the noise, because Jesus has a very important thing he wants to share with them. Jesus, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, never comes out and says publicly, “hi everyone, it’s me...The Messiah”. A self-declaration would make him public enemy number one of the secular and religious authorities.
And yet, after this story, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus begins the journey toward Jerusalem. The disciples will need to know who Jesus is when things don’t turn out as they expected. Jesus knows this, and he is preparing them with what they need for what is to come.
Jesus and his disciples get to a mountain up in Caesarea Philippi and Jesus asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” Some thought he was a prophet: John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah. But Jesus’ ministry was more than prophetic. Jesus will expect his disciples to have a better answer, even though they may not know the full implication of their answer.
Pay attention to the moments where we are faced with the question of who Jesus is. These are often moments of preparation. People have all kinds of expectations on Jesus. Here are some examples: “if we do things the right way, then he won’t let us fail.” “Jesus is a warrior” “Jesus said not to make any judgments on people”. Jesus will be no one’s political prop or a puppet for one’s own internal authority. The reality is much more nuanced. Jesus is Lord and creator and good. We cannot make good policy without centering the image of God in all people. We have to make judgments about just and unjust, good and harmful. As men and women are both made equally in God’s image we cannot honor manhood without equally honoring womanhood. Jesus will frustrate all of our incomplete and culturally constructed images of him. This is why we must read with the whole of tradition across time and geography. The disciples of Jesus have to have a better and more nuanced answer than the crowds. We must have a higher view of Jesus than any subculture’s caricature.
16-17 Peter’s confession is the confession of the church
Peter’s confession should be ours as well. He is a spokesman for the disciples, and when asked who they think he is, he says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of God.” This is what Jesus wants them to understand while they’re on the mountain because they are about to see some things that will shake all of their expectations for what the Messiah will be. This brings together the language of 2 Samuel 7:14 with the anointing of David as king with the enthronement language of Psalm 2:7. This is language of adoption and sonship, which was very commonly used with divine enthronement. Caesar, Herod, and the temple authorities better watch their backs.
It is a bold declaration and Jesus tells Peter that this truth would not have been revealed to him without the work of God. Heaven is beginning to break into the life of the disciples. Isaiah 51 is what we read for the Old Testament today and it was written to the exiles in Babylon. God says that he will console Zion in this time where his people have been wrecked because of sin and idolatry, taken into what feels like the undoing of creation in chaos once again. What seems like wastelands will become again like the garden of Eden. The arid valleys that are dusty and unproductive will become once again like the garden of the Lord.[1] Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ means that God’s people look forward to paradise where they are abundantly supplied, where creation is ordered for their well-being, and where communion with God is unobstructed. The whole earth will become for them a temple, a thin place where heaven and earth meet.
18-20 Peter leads the way for the church to bring heaven to earth
Jesus is not going to build an actual temple or literal city, but a community whose allegiance is to Jesus the Messiah, a community that becomes the place where heaven is brought to bear upon earth. Peter says that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus functionally says to Peter, “Yes, I am Messiah, and you, my friend are the rock; the rock on which I will build this community.” This historically is played out in the history of the church. St. Peter is the leader among the disciples and when we read the book of Acts. He is there to ratify the movements of the Holy Spirit in building the church, including the Samaritans and the Gentiles. He has a prominent place in the church of Jerusalem until James eventually leads.
The gates of Hades would not prevail against this community. This is a poetic way of referring to death itself, which is how it’s used in Isa 38:10. Death will not prevail or stop God’s work through the Messiah or through his disciples. And Peter, in this context is said to bind and loose. The imagery is not of Peter standing at the gates of heaven and unlocking it for people, contrary to popular imagination. The imagery is one of stewardship, as though St. Peter is like a a chief administrator who unlocks granaries and storehouses and locks them based on the need of those who come. This continues to be the church’s task after St. Peter. We give to others the healing we ourselves have received. This is the logic of the confession liturgy. The priest is merely an imperfect agent of the church.
I will say that hearing confessions is one of my favorite parts of ministry. As I sit with someone and we ask questions together about what the Lord is doing and why certain things have come to light as particular roadblocks and places of stumbling, it is the beautiful time where the church helps someone dig deeper into their stories and proclivities, help shape someone’s faith through wise counsel and historic rhythms, and proclaim the absolution that Jesus offers. It is an earthly moment of heavenly reality.
Conclusion:
We all carry with us the apostolic call to become the kind of community that reflects the heavenly reality of the church. This means that we live in allegiance to Christ and seek Christ’s peace and welfare for others. The confession made at Caesarea Philippi is the confession of the church, the agent of God’s re-creating the world; the people of God are becoming the place where heaven is restoring earth. You and I get to be part of the process of bringing paradise and refreshment, and the unrestrained communion with God that creation is groaning for. Consider the week ahead, the new people you’ll meet, the new rhythms that will be part of your calendar, and let’s just take a moment in silence to ask the Lord this question: Lord, where do I need your help this week and who do I know that needs your help too?” I’ll close our silence with a prayer in just a moment.
Let us pray:
Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in anything it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen.
[1] Isaiah 51:1-3.
