"A PIECE OF THE ROCK"
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16)
August 27, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
Jesus answered [Peter], "Blessed are you, Simon bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
Matthew 16:17, 18 (ESV)
I have to admit that, when I looked over the appointed Scripture readings to choose a sermon text for each Sunday of the church year, I was tempted to avoid this particular Gospel text--the reason being that it has been so controversial through the years. Devout Roman Catholics believe very strongly that in this passage of Scripture our Lord established the office of the papacy, decreeing the supremacy of Peter and his successors as authorities in His Church. Protestants, on the other hand, are just as confident when they say that this passage has nothing at all to do with papal authority but instead refers merely to the confession of faith that Peter had just made, declaring Jesus to be "the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). This debate was one of the matters at issue at the time of the Reformation and it has not really been resolved in the five centuries since.
I think it's very sad (although certainly typical of humans) that when most people read this passage of God's Word they focus exclusively on authority in the Church--who or what has authority over whom. Certainly no one can deny that Jesus touches on the subject of authority here, particularly in the verse that immediately follows our text, but the whole point of this entire passage is not authority in the Church, but rather the strength of the Church. What is the foundation on which the Christian Church rests and is built? In what kinds of words and actions is the Church's strength made visible in the world? In Peter's confession of faith and the Savior's reaction to it the Holy Spirit has a lot to teach us about both the source and the result of the Church's strength.
The Savior tells Peter that the substance of his confession of faith is not of human origin: "Blessed are you, Simon bar-Jonah!" He says. "For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you." The truth of what the Lord says here ought to be obvious to everyone just from their everyday life experiences. Just look at the example of Peter himself: He may indeed have appeared to be rock-like in this morning's Gospel when Jesus asked him "who . . . the Son of Man is" (Matthew 16:13), but later he cowered when a mere slave-girl asked him that same question at the entrance to the high priest's house and he subsequently denied his Lord. There's a lesson in that for all of us, and the lesson is this: Don't put your full confidence in humans, no matter who they may be--not in your pastor or in church leaders or in your dearest friends and family members or even in yourself, because no matter how strong and faithful any of these people may be, there will come a time when they will fail you--not necessarily because they don't care but perhaps because they aren't up to the task when you really need them. People are people, and all people are imperfect. Some may be stronger than others (or stronger at some times than they are at others), but none is so strong that he or she can be counted on totally and completely.
The rest of our Savior's statement to Peter reveals to us the true Source of the Church's strength: "My Father who is in heaven." If it were not for the God who sent His Son to be our Savior and His Holy Spirit to teach us about that Savior and reveal Him to us, neither Peter nor you nor I nor anyone else would have any faith to confess or any strength to confess it. It's been said (and in fact has become something ofa "catch-phrase") that the Church is the people. That may be true to a certain extent or in a certain sense, but the Source of the Church's strength is not in its people, but in its God, who through His means of grace has given His people a clear and comforting message to confess and all of the strength and resources that they need to confess it.
The fact that the source of the Church's strength is not in man does not in any way demean or make light of the strong confession that humans have made and continue to make for the sake of the Gospel. Peter may have denied his Lord in a weak moment, but he went on to die a martyr's death because he wouldn't shut up about his Lord and Savior. The Gospel of Christ could not be silenced in his heart or on his lips. And he is not by any means alone in this. "The noble army of martyrs", as the Te Deum puts it, stretches across all boundaries of time, place, gender, and race. While people are not the source of the Church's strength, they certainly do demonstrate the result of the Church's strength. God gives the strength of His Holy Spirit to His people for the purpose of bearing witness to the world concerning the redeeming grace of Jesus Christ. That strength becomes visible when the people of God proclaim the grace of God in Jesus Christ in their words and actions. To confess Christ publicly is to be a participant in the timeless task of sharing the redeeming love of Jesus with an unlovable world.
The result of the Church's strength through the confession of its members can also be seen in the endurance of the Church. To me, one of the strongest arguments for the truth of Jesus' resurrection from the dead is the fact that the Christian Church still exists today. Think about it: A small group of disorganized, discouraged, and cowardly men (men who deserted their Lord when He was arrested) took on the combined strength of the government and the religious establishment (both of which were committed to wiping out this bothersome new religion), and in spite of it all the Church survived. It not only survived; it grew by leaps and bounds as its members boldly confessed their slain and risen Savior. Something had to have happened to bring these men out of hiding and give them the strength and courage to face torture and death in order to bear witness concerning their Savior. I believe that that something was the encouragement of the risen Christ Himself, who appeared to them alive, comforted them, and commissioned them to be His apostles.
A number of years ago a well-known insurance company, through its advertising, popularized the expression: "Get a piece of the rock." As Christians you and I have been invited to "get a piece of the rock" ourselves--and we don't even have to pay for it, since it's already been paid for in full with the blood of the Son of God. That rock is not Saint Peter or any other person; it is the strength of God's Holy Spirit, who comes to us in Word and Sacrament, comforting us with the Good News of forgiveness and calling us to share that Good News with others. My prayer is that we, with the strength that only God can give, may daily claim our portion in His redeeming grace and live in a manner that demonstrates the strength that we have received in our Lord Jesus Christ. No matter how weak or unreliable we are, we can do this, because it is the Holy Spirit Himself who does it in and through us.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.