Pentecost 14 Pastor Peg's Sermon on Isaiah 51:1-6 & Matthew 16:13-20  August 21, 2005

Although schools are now beginning again, college magazines are still telling the stories of their graduation events.  Seattle Pacific University ’s Summer Magazine shares about Professor of Ethics Rick Steele’s encouragement to the 2005 grads to “take a good look backward before they take a decisive step forward.  Come to terms with the past,” he said, “as an important step towards their future.”

One of the graduates, Kevin, took Professor Steele up on this and tells his story.  Five years earlier Kevin was roughhousing with friends and in a freak accident was left paralyzed from the waist down.  So going to college for Kevin included learning to navigate a wheelchair around the hilly campus.  But through friendships and affirmation, Kevin had great college years. 

Coming to peace with his past, Kevin was able to see his future as bright even with its challenges.  Kevin says, “I know I’ll be happy if I can use my life to help people feel empowered by Christ’s love, the way I have been.”

Today’s reading from Isaiah 51 encourages this same looking back for the sake of the future.  “Look to the rock from which you were hewn.  Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you.” Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past helps us trust God’s faithfulness for the future.

Jesus also was person rooted in the past for the sake of the future.  In today’s Gospel Jesus plans for the future. He asks the disciples about the local talk about him. “What are people saying?” Self identity develops partly from what others mirror back to us, but as I learned from child development, only one person has to see a child as beloved for them to see themselves that way.

The one opinion that mattered to Jesus was the opinion of the one he called Father and that’s why Jesus gets excited when Peter says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”  Jesus knew Peter couldn’t have come to that insight on his own.  And Jesus says with great delight, “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven.” 

We’re being let in on a moment of intimacy here, not so much between Jesus and Simon as between Jesus and his beloved Father. What mattered was what God was up to. Who was God speaking to and who was listening?

When Jesus heard Simon’s answer he blurted out, “Blessed are you, Simon, for God has opened your eyes.”  Jesus knew in that moment that they were on holy ground, and to mark that holy moment, Jesus gave Simon a new name.  Not a usual name.  There’s no record of anyone in the Aramaic world being named Peter before.  Peter’s simply the word for rock, or little stone, but Jesus used it to speak of his plans for the future.

For Simon to call Jesus “The Messiah, the Son of the Living God’ was no light thing!  And it is no light thing today either, when any recognize the presence of the Living God among us.  It is holy ground.  Perhaps you recognized such holy ground this week.  I did!

I saw God’s living presence as I spent time with Bill and Nancy Winn as Bill cared for Nancy at Enloe Hospital .  Attentive to her every need, and grateful for hospital personnel helping him in every way – I felt the presence of not a distant uncaring God, but a living God hovering over with compassion and promise – promise not only for a future without pain for Nancy – but also a future of dancing with the stars of heaven.     

I felt the living presence of God this week in a different way as I read of 90 year old Brother Roger – founder of the Taize community in France .  During worship this past Wednesday Brother Roger was tragically stabbed to death – a senseless act that’s being likened to the assassination of Gandhi and King – such a peace-loving person dying by such a violent act.  But I know also that the community there will enter into that grief with a suffering that will lead to transformation.  They will not return evil for evil, but will trust God’s living presence with them in their suffering.

And God is also present in joy.  I continue to savor the joy I experienced in this place at Vacation Bible School .  The live music and the joy of those serving in various ways to provide a meaningful time for children has stayed with me.  And I’m looking forward to Sunday School and Confirmation beginning and more joy being celebrated here as people again share their gifts to reflect the living presence of God. 

And as Jesus gladdened the wedding at Cana – so Jesus’ living presence brings joy to our weekly worship.  Even if we come with hearts burdened, God turns sorrow into joy, not surface happiness necessarily, but into the joy of knowing God’s living presence with us. 

Jesus knew now that Simon saw this which is necessary to see – that God’s living presence is real in Jesus. That’s what Jesus was looking for as he made plans for the future – not a perfect person, not necessarily a dynamic person or even a brave person, but a person open and self-aware enough to believe what his heart was telling him. It was a discerning heart that Jesus sought in identifying who could be the rock out of which to build his church.

Jesus knew Simon wasn’t perfect.  Simon made mistakes even after he was named Peter. But mistakes didn’t bother Jesus.  What mattered was Simon’s openness to God’s newness. That’s what God needs today, not perfect people, not people who can tell God all the answers, but people open to what God is up to. Out of that kind of risk and trust Jesus is building his church – out of people like you – each of you – and people like me.

And three things were made clear.  First, Jesus assured us that the gates of Hades would not prevail against the church.  This is good to remember!  Secondly, Jesus gave the church the keys of the kingdom of heaven – not to lock people out, but to welcome people in.  Thirdly, Jesus gave the church the power to bind and loose – the power to make decisions about its life. 

As many of you know, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America recently completed its Churchwide Assembly.  Decisions were made there – some we may like and some we may not like. But this I treasure about being a part of the ELCA: we believe God has entrusted this decision making effort to us, imperfect as we are.  From the beginning, Jesus intended the church to be a place of moral deliberation, and he intended that knowing he was entrusting the church to fallible people. 

With eyes wide open Jesus said, “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”  This means God entrusts us with the power to work towards what we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”   When we make decisions in the church, we do so prayerfully, asking God to reveal to us God’s will.  What is God’s hope for God’s people?  Where do we see the Spirit of God moving today? How can we a-line ourselves with that Spirit? 

We get glimpses of what God is up to by watching for signs of love in the world; moments of grace, beauty and peace.  But thanks be to God, no matter our decisions, we need not despair for God does not give up on us.  God will work to correct and change and help us grow, as we stay open to God’s word and gifts and one another.  God invites us to do our best, knowing we will sometimes get it wrong.  Above all we are to try and try again, trusting all the more in the grace of Jesus Christ. 

I believe God is not finished with us or with the ELCA and will keep working with faithful people who want to please God and who trust that in God’s good time God’s kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.  This is our prayer and may the Table we share here be a foretaste of that which God has in store for us all in the fullness of time!

Amen.

+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, California