And Jesus asked, “But who do you say I am?”
C.S. Lewis famously said, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn't be a great moral teacher. He'd either be a lunatic on a level with a man who says he's a poached egg or else he'd be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse."
What is the church?
Brennan Manning an author and theologian once wrote in his 2011 memoir, All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir: "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world sees and simply finds unbelievable."
This was not a self-righteous and judgmental condemnation about ‘those Christians’; Manning was speaking about his own, and our own, ever-continuing shortfalls despite our position in the body of Christ. Manning understood all too well that as individual members of the church, we are prone to blunders. We are not always a good example of Christ in the world. Coming to church every Sunday, we can be like teenagers who check themselves out in the mirror seeing beauty while correcting flaws, but the moment they turn from the mirror to face the world, they forget both their flaws and their beauty and thus face the world with self-conscious fear and defensive anger. It isn’t a pretty sight.
What/who is the rock upon which Jesus built His Church? The lectionary leads us in a less than linear path. If Peter’s moment of true revelation made him the “rock of Christ’s church,” then Jesus made a provocative choice.
“I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church.” Is Jesus declaring that Peter, the man, is the “rock” on which He would build His church? Or maybe Jesus is using a play on words. “You are Peter [petros] and, on this rock, [petra] I will build my church.” Since Peter’s name means “rock,” and Jesus is going to build His church on a rock, it appears that Jesus means to link Peter with the founding of the church. Scripture accounts that Peter was the first to proclaim the gospel on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14–47). Peter was also the first to take the gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 10:1–48). In a sense, Peter was the rock “foundation” of the church. And let us not lose sight that Peter was also impulsive, volatile, cowardly, argumentative and disloyal several times throughout the Gospels. It is after he is named a founder of the church that he denies Jesus three times.
And here’s another rabbit hole to jump down: Jesus calls Peter, Peter, son of Jonah. Maybe Jesus knows Peter’s dad, Jonah. But that does not account for the two previous accounts in Matthew’s Gospel, when Jesus referenced Jonah, of Jonah and the Great Fish notoriety. Matthew 12:38 states that Jesus rebuked the Pharisees when they demanded a sign or a miracle as proof that Jesus is from God. Instead of proof, Jesus directs them to Jonah, foreshadowing the true sign: his death and resurrection after three days, as well as the pointing to the real life intention, or mission, of God’s call.
Jesus points to Jonah ‘s mission to Nineveh, showing that God’s compassion is not limited to Israel. Jonah is the symbol of many chances, of mercy and God’s compassion regarding our foolishness and need for repentance. Jesus is pointing to what God sees, knows, and understands about human anger, frustration, and bias. The story of Jonah teaches that God is present in all aspects of our lives, God doesn’t share in our pettiness, prejudices or human strife. The story of Jonah illustrates that God hears us, answers prayers and calls us into communion with Himself and all people, not just the one’s we understand or like.
Peter, son of Jonah, might be Jesus’s affectionate way of acknowledging Peter’s profound faith by reminding him that Jonah, after stumbling around, eventually backed up his faith with humility rather than resentment. Calling Peter, son of Jonah, Jesus acknowledges Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Jesus is incapsulating sacred knowledge taken from the story of Jonah that God’s mercy is boundless, obedience is essential, and compassion is at the very pinnacle of His church.
Setting the apostolic succession aside for a moment, is the Church built upon a man, or rather is the revelation understood and spoken aloud by a man? Peter is sure and steadfast when he responds, “You are the Messiah the son of the living God.” Peter writes in 1 Peter 2:6-7 that Christ Himself is the chief cornerstone. Matthew 21:42 speaks of Christ being the anchor for which the church is built. Jesus might have indulged a simple play on words: contrasting a boulder-like, foundational truth coming from the mouth of one who was called a small stone in the spirit of Jonah.
If Christ is the true rock of our faith, then we the body of Christ are the true rocks, the pebbles, if you will, that hold up a great and majestic mountain cliff. Our faith holds up Christ’s Church. Where would the church be without us? Without our faith? God would still be omnipresent, Jesus would still be the Lord, The Spirit would still breathe the truth throughout the world, but what happens to the body of Christ without us?
Paul preaches again and again that we are the church. We are the body of Christ. Our bodies are living sacrifices to God, holy and acceptable. We are not of this evil world, but we are of service to those who are hurt and oppressed by it. Using the pebble symbolism, Paul wants the Church to understand that each pebble is unique. Each has a different purpose and mission, each is good, acceptable and perfect in the sight of God. Paul asks that Christians allow their minds to be transformed with the knowledge that while we are a perfect little pebble, we are no more perfect or special than any other pebble, even if we are faithfully feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick, and advocating for the oppressed in the name of Christ Jesus. Even if it seems to us like the other pebbles are doing something else.
Paul goes on to say, as members of one body in Christ, we all stand with Peter on the rock that Christ built His Church. So is the rock Peter, or faith, or the church, or Jesus? For today let’s allow it all to be true. The rock is the Word and the Word is God.
We are the body of Christ. We have come to know Peter. In many ways we are just like Peter. In the sense that you and I are in communion with the oppressed, we are in communion with Peter. We don’t believe in Christ the savior of the world because someone told us to believe. God didn’t sit at our kitchen table in the form of Morgan Freemen unfolding the mystery for us in black and white. Yet we come to know what Peter came to know because Christ is revealed to us through His Spirit. We all have our own conversion story of how we came to believe and how we committed ourselves to God’s kingdom over the wreckage of empire. Peter had the living God directly in front of him, which surely provided great insight. We have each other, prayer, scripture, and tradition to teach and keep us moving in the Way of God.
Barbara Brown Taylor’s observation regarding the meaning of church goes something like this. As we gather together as one body to worship and listen to each other proclaim the Gospel of Jesus week after week, we are invited to make new connections between who we are as a church and who we are as individuals in the world. Each week we have the opportunity to understand the Kingdom more fully and turn away from the world more completely. As I preach my ideas about the Body of Christ, Jonah, and the rock that is the foundation of our true church, you are invited to contrast or add to my ponderings. This is how we form our union, our body, our church.
Now is the time in our lives, along with the rest of our generation, to pay attention to our brothers and sisters who are suffering. We can’t look away from the heightened oppression and violence against black people and the fascism playing out in our streets. People are being brutally abducted and detained in-built for-profit prisons sprouting up throughout our country. Poverty, racism, all the isms, along with rampant mental illness are plaguing our young people. We are the body. We are one Church. We are the hands of God. One of us cannot do it all, but like the midwives Shiphrah and Puah, we can defy the oppressor enough to make a difference. Like Moses’ sister we can keep watch and strategically solve problems. Like Pharaoh’s daughter we can resist tradition, authority, and sometimes our own family, to make the right and compassionate choice. And like Moses’s mother we can nurture and love those who cannot yet survive on their own.
Peter and Paul could not have been more different! But The Church is built on the communal confession that Jesus is the Christ (Matthew 16:16). So let us all have confidence in proclaiming the message without fear, wherever our particular mission fields us!
Anyway
People are unreasonable, illogical, self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish motives.
Do good anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable.
Be honest and transparent anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People who need help may attack you for helping them.
Help anyway.
Give the world your best, and you may get hurt.
Give anyway, the best you can.
Mother Teresa (Meditations from a Simple Path)
All this in the name of Jesus Christ and the rock on which God built the church.
Amen