Pentecost 11
2014a
Trinity
Lutheran Church (NALC)
Isaiah 51:1-6
& Matthew 16:13-20
When I was a boy, I thought that I
had a pretty unique name: Michael…
Micha-el… it means “He who is like God.”
Awesome! And I noticed that there
were a couple of other boys in school who also had the name Michael. But I
didn’t realize that when I was born: Michael was the most popular name for male
children. Today we live in a
neighborhood where the man in the house next door is named Michael, and the man
in the house across the street if named Michael. When one of our wives calls us by name, it
seems like half the neighborhood turns to see who is calling. It turns out Michael isn’t as unique a name
as I thought! We can become confused by the
names we use, even the names we use for God.
If
you read the entire Bible cover to cover, some scholars claim we can find over
7000 terms for God. Jesus alone is
called by over 200 names. We know many of them, don’t we? Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Lord of
Lords, King of Kings…
Over
200 different descriptive names for Christ alone. Yet, even though we have all those names for
the Messiah, we can still get confused sometimes; even in church…
A
woman named Julie Loomis writes that her church has a very elaborate Christmas
program every year that features a live nativity scene right there in the
chancel. One year she was sitting in the
balcony with her 5-year old nephew, Curtis, on her lap, and they were watching
the procession enter the church below them. The boy was fascinated by the sheep
and the goats and especially the camel.
But when it was just the people coming in he quickly lost interest. Julie tried to spark some excitement. As one
of the Wise Men began walking down the aisle she whispered, “Curtis, look! Here comes the king!” And the little boy leaned over the balcony
railing and he said, “That’s Elvis?!”
All
of the descriptive names we have for Jesus can be confusing sometimes. But if
we are going to be followers of Christ, how we call Christ is very
important. Because the titles that we
have for the Messiah define our relationship with God through Him. This is what the disciples discovered in our
Gospel reading this morning.
In
this passage, Jesus is traveling with his disciples through the region of
Caesarea Philippi. Once again (like in
last week’s Gospel) he is ‘out of bounds’ for the Jewish people. Caesarea Philippi was about 25 miles
northeast of the Sea of Galilee, and it was a region loaded with negative
religious implications. The area was
littered with old temples to the pagan Syrian gods, including the one the
Yazidi people under attack in Iraq still worship today. A newer, marble temple was also located
there: it was the temple built by the evil King Herod the Great… the same king
who tried to murder the infant Jesus and instead wound up killing all of the
infant boys in Bethlehem. Caesarea
Philippi also had a lot influence by the Greek and Roman gods; in fact, some of
the people there worshipped the Roman Emperor as a living god. Frankly, Caesarea Philippi was probably a pretty
unlikely place for Christ to make Himself known. But one of the messages we have to hear in
this Gospel reading is that the Lord makes His presence known in both the holy
temple and the profane world. There is
no area of earth or of our lives that are beyond his touch… or His authority.
As
he walks along, Jesus turns to his disciples and he asks them a question. “Who do people say that I am?” Now, He’s not taking a poll like the
president or the politicians do. If 51
percent of the people get it wrong, He’s not going to change His public image
to gain their approval. Jesus KNOWS who
He is, but He knows it is important for those who follow Him to know who He
is. So He asks them, “Who do people say
that I am?”
The
disciples begin sharing the rumors that they’ve heard along the way. “Well,
some say that you’re John the Baptist reincarnated. And others say that you’re Elijah or Jeremiah
or one of the other prophets brought back to life!” The rumors, apparently, are rampant. But
Jesus cuts off the recounting of rumors.
He has something important to ask.
“Yes,
but who do YOU say that I am?” The text
doesn’t state it explicitly, but we can suspect that there was a moment of
embarrassed silence. Suddenly, perhaps,
the men all looked anywhere but at Jesus.
Staring at the ground or the clouds above; all at once working on a
hangnail… ANYTHING but confront this question, this question of all
questions. Because this is the question
that defines everything. It is the
question that calls for unequivocal commitment, because if they answer that
Jesus is just a nice carpenter-turned-teacher then they are saying he is really
nothing special. But if they admit that
he is divine, then they are taking an irreversible step of commitment. Jesus
cannot be divine and not have authority in their lives. The disciples hesitate for a moment.
But
one of them speaks. Simon, the rugged
fisherman, answers. He does not answer
from his confused human mind, he answers as that still, small voice in his
heart tells him to answer: plainly, directly, without embellishment or apology
– “You
are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” (Verse 16). And Jesus, the Son of God, seems to rejoice. Verse
17: “Blessed are you, Simon, son of
Jonah, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who
is in heaven.”
The
cat is out of the bag, now. Humankind
has come to understand the truth: that God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son to come into the world to save all believers from their sins. Simon has been led by God to proclaim the
truth. And Jesus goes on and he does a
kind of odd thing: he gives Simon a new name; and not just any name, a rather
odd name…
Verse 18: “…you are [now] Peter, [which
means “rock”], and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.”
Peter
had over 200 names to choose from:
Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Lord of Lords… But God led him to choose the right one – Son
of God. Because only the Son
of God could bring the presence of the Father into the world. In John 10:30 Jesus tells us “I and
the Father are one.” Only the
Living God in the world can save the world, and only if he is known by his true
identity: the one and only Son of God who has the power to heal and forgive,
who has the power to give eternal life… to those who submit to him as Lord.
“You
are the Christ, the Son of the Living God” Simon says. And Jesus gives him a new name… because in
confessing Jesus as God we are made into a new creation. But… he picks a pretty odd name, if we think
about it. Jesus doesn’t seem to do a
very good job with this naming thing. He
could have said, ‘From now on, we’ll call you Brilliant One because you figured
out who I am.’ Or he could have said,
‘Way to go, Simon! From now on we’ll call you Brainiac because you’re obviously
a genius.’ Jesus could have come up with
a thousand glowing appellations that would have designated Simon as something
really, really special. But instead… he
named him “Rock”. And we have to ask ourselves, what’s up with that? Jesus doesn’t do anything without a purpose.
What’s the purpose of calling this faithful believer a “Rock”? And the answer, perhaps, is in our first
reading this morning; this passage from Isaiah
the 51st chapter.
God
speaks through the prophet. “Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and
to the quarry from which you were dug. (Verse 1)”
And hearing these words, we have to ask ourselves:
who is the rock from which we were hewn?
And the answer is, God; God is our rock and our strength. The rock where we turn in hope and are always
find that hope that we seek.
The hope that we find in God through
Christ is a “rocky” hope; not in a bad way, but in a good way that is in
contrast with the world. Because the
world leads us into insubstantial hope: false hope that leads us into danger
instead of toward salvation. False hope
is dangerous…
You know, over the years I’ve worked
with eight different fire companies; I’ve trained with them, gone to a lot of
fires with them… Firefighters live to rescue others, and that’s what they train
for. Every firefighter goes through a
simulator that is a specially built building that can be filled with
smoke. What they do is they put a mannequin
somewhere in the simulator building, then they fill the entire structure with
smoke, and they tell the firefighters “Go find it!”
It’s a lot harder than it
sounds. Fire gear weighs so much it’s
hard to move, and the air pack you wear has a mask with limited visibility; and
even if you weren’t wearing a mask, you couldn’t see anyway – because the smoke
is so thick and dark… you can’t even see your hand in front of your face.
So, firefighters are trained to
search in smoke filled buildings by touch.
Crawling on the floor, they sweep their hands back and forth in front of
them, FEELING for a trapped person.
But experienced firefighters know
that when people are panicking, they look for hope in different places. If you’re searching for an adult, the first
place you search is near the doors and windows, because adults know that their
best hope is getting outside, so that’s where they often are when smoke
overcomes them. But children… If you’re
searching for a child, you feel under the bed, and you feel inside the closets,
because children in their fear look for hope in all the wrong places. Children don’t know where real hope can be
found. People are an awful lot like
children when it comes to hope.
We live in a world of false hope, and
a world filled with false hope-givers.
The world is becoming a frightening place these days; especially for
Christians. Social structures and
cultures are changing, and not always for the better. People feel like they aren’t controlling
their lives, and that always scares people.
And for Christians there are even more threats. Every day we hear about social persecutions
of Christians for their faith; and now – in the 21st century – we
hear of a return to Islamic barbarism… cutting the heads off of people… because
they won’t deny Jesus Christ as the Son of the Living God. We live in a world where hope is desperately
needed.
Yet, false-hope givers try to get us
to hide under our beds like children do.
Are you afraid of what’s happening in the world, they say? Then just
shift to this political party or to this political perspective; that will give
you hope. Are you feeling out of control
in your life? Then give up your
superstitious religion and put your faith in science; science can answer
everything. Are you looking for
hope? Then wear this crystal necklace,
or study astrology, or chant this Hindu phrase… if you do that, then everything
will be okay.
But… those are false hopes. Since the
dawn of time neither politics or philosophy, nor science, nor pagan religions
have ever fulfilled their promise of hope.
But someone has. He is the Lord
our God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, and He alone is the source of our
true hope. His truth is not just carved
in stone, He is the Abiding Rock itself to whom we can cling.
If you’ve ever visited New York City,
you know that on 5th Avenue there is the RCA Building. Near the entrance of that building there is a
gigantic statue of Atlas, a beautifully proportioned man who, with all of his
bulging muscles, is holding the entire world upon his shoulders. The artist captured the strain of it all
perfectly. If you look at that statue,
it seems like at any moment Atlas will break under the strain.
Bruce Larson says that sometimes
people will come to his Manhattan office, and they’ll tell him that they’re
having trouble submitting their lives to God; they want to be in control and
they’re having trouble letting go and letting God. Larson says he takes them to see that statue,
and he says, “Well, that’s one way to live, trying to carry the weight of the
world on your own shoulders.”
Then he takes them across the street;
just a little way’s up is St. Patrick’s Cathedral. There behind the high altar is another statue
– it’s Jesus as a little boy, perhaps 8 or 9 years old, and in one hand (with
no effort at all) he’s holding the entire world.
Larson says he tells those people,
“We have a choice. We can try to carry
the whole world on our own shoulders, or we can say, ‘I give up, Lord. Here is my life… here is my world… I give
them to you. You are God and I am not.”
Folks, we can cling to false hopes,
or we can cling to the Lord and find our hope in Him. The first will fail us every time; but the
second will never fail us.
When Jesus re-names Simon, he names
him for the One who is speaking within him and through him. He is not naming Simon because he has a good
mind or because he won some sort of pop quiz about who Jesus is. Peter bears the one within him, and it is the
presence of the Abiding Rock within that makes it possible for Christ’s Church
to form and function in the world… it is because he bears the Abiding Rock of
God that Jesus re-names him Rock… a chip off the old block.
And we share that name. Because each of us, when we stop trying to
find hope in ourselves and proclaim
Jesus as the Son of God and Lord of our lives, then we too bear the Abiding
Rock within us, and God can use us to do his work if he is present in us. Martin Luther said that it is only when we
allow the Holy Spirit to move within us that we are sanctified; that we are
empowered to BE the Church in the world.
There are a lot of names for Jesus in
the Bible: Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, King of Kings, Lord of
Lords. And, of course, the Son of God. That’s
the important one. And being one with
God, he is the Rock to which we can cling. In him we will find our strength,
our forgiveness, our salvation, and our
hope… our rocky hope, that stands up against the storms of our lives, and
enfolds us in His protective love; now and forever. AMEN
The Reverend M. A. Greenauer 2014
Permission is granted
to reproduce this work in whole or in part if the glory for its content is
given to the Lord
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