A Rocky Faith

 Eric Lemonholm

August 21, 2011

Proper 16 A – with alternate Scripture

Genesis 29:1-31      Rachel and Leah

             Matthew 16:13-20

A Rocky Faith

As usual, Jesus and his disciples were traveling, walking along the wilderness roads and talking.

Jesus asks a question: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

The Son of Man, or the Messiah, God’s Anointed One, is a perennial topic of conversation for many in Israel, who are waiting for the Messiah to come.

So the disciples come up with many answers: John the Baptist!  Elijah!  Jeremiah!  One of the prophets!

They each have a different answer, and yet the conversation stays at an abstract level.

They’re talking about other people’s opinions about the Son of Man, the Messiah.

 

Everyone had a theory about who the Messiah would be, and when he would come, and what he’d be like.

But no one really knew the truth that was about to be revealed.

After awhile, therefore, Jesus turns the abstract conversation about the Son of Man on its head by asking, “But who do you say that I am?”

This new question is different from the last one in two ways.

 

First, Jesus is no longer asking about what other people think.  He’s asking, “What do you believe?”

That’s a different conversation.

Jesus is asking them to state their own beliefs, to lay their deepest convictions out in the open, to claim their faith and defend it if necessary.

 

The second difference is that Jesus did not ask, “But who do you say that the Son of Man is?”

Instead, he asked, “But who do you say that I am?”

Jesus implicitly claims the title of the Messiah, the Son of Man – and Jesus calls his friends to react, to make a statement of faith in him or to reject him as the Messiah.

 

As he does so often, Simon Peter speaks up boldly, and makes a leap of faith. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

 

• Simon Peter had seen Jesus heal his mother-in-law and many others.
• He had seen Jesus raise to life a girl who had died.
• He had heard Jesus’ teaching the crowds with authority.
• He had seen Jesus feed the multitude and walk on water.
• Jesus is no ordinary rabbi.

 

So, Simon Peter’s statement of faith is not completely surprising.  Some of the other disciples must have been thinking the same thing.

But Simon is bold, and willing to share his faith openly.

He is perhaps the first person to directly confess Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 

A lot of people these days hesitate to stand up for their deepest convictions.  They are reluctant to stand up and be counted, to commit, to publicly share their faith.

That is not Simon Peter.

He jumps right in, he commits, he confesses his faith.

 

A council member and pastor from a local church were standing by the side of the road, pounding a sign into the ground that read: “The End Is Near! Turn Yourself Around Now — Before It’s Too Late!”  As a car sped past them, the driver yelled, “Leave me alone, you religious nuts!”

From the curve they heard screeching tires and a big splash. The pastor turned to the council member and asked, “Do you think the sign should just say, ‘Bridge Out’?”[ii]

Those two were simply witnessing to the truth, announcing the reality up ahead on the road – though they could have been clearer!

 

Peter is also a witness.  Jesus replies to Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”

Jesus calls Simon blessed, happy, because of his faith in Jesus.

 

This is the only place in the Bible where Simon Peter is called Simon son of Jonah.

 

When I read this passage, I could not help but think of the only other Jonah in the Bible, the prophet who, 800 years earlier, had preached the truth of God to the wicked city of Nineveh and witnessed God’s forgiveness of the Ninevites.

Here is Simon, son of another Jonah, inspired by God to witness to the truth of God’s Son, Jesus the Christ.

 

It is at this point that Jesus gives Simon a new name.  He calls him the Rock.

Rocky!

“Peter” means “Rock.”

Jesus built his church on the solid rock of faith in Jesus the Son of God.

William Willimon has noted that one essential difference between the Christian faith and all other religions is Jesus.

Other religions talk about Jesus, but in no other religion will you hear people confess truly that Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  That is the Christian faith in a nutshell: it’s personal and concrete.

 

You may have noticed that I did not preach on the story of Jacob and Leah and Rachel this morning.

Next Sunday, the Lord willing, I will preach on the amazing story of Jacob the God Wrestler.

I have come to realize that some biblical stories are important to read and to hear, but are difficult to preach.

Today’s story from Genesis is one of those stories.

• It’s gritty.
• It’s patriarchal.
• It’s harsh.

Women were often treated as property by their fathers and husbands.

Today’s story has plenty of that.

Like pretty much every story in the Bible that includes polygamy, it shows the dark side of that practice – especially for women and children.

There was so much pain and sorrow, heartache and jealousy in the founding family of the biblical story!

 

And yet, God is active in the midst of the junk of their lives, as God is active in the midst of our loves.

God notices that Leah is unloved, and God blesses her and watches over her.

God sees our hurts and our joys, our loneliness and our friendships.

God works through all the characters in the story, with all their gifts and limitations, to create the people who will be called Israel.

And then one day, into this big, diverse extended family, Jesus was born: the Messiah, the Son of the living God!

 

Because of Peter’s faith in Jesus as Messiah, Jesus gives Peter “the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” and promises Peter, “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Two chapters later (Matthew 18:18), Jesus gives the same promise to the other disciples, so the keys of the kingdom are not a possession of Peter alone.

 

The keys of the kingdom are a gift from Jesus to the church.

The keys of the kingdom are about forgiveness.

When we confess our sin in the Christian community, we truly receive God’s forgiveness.

What has been loosed on earth has been loosed in heaven.

As Christians, we confess our sin, our separation from God, our inability to reach God by our own power.

As Christians, we confess our faith in Jesus the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

As Christians, we forgive one another in the name of Jesus Christ – and trust God’s promise that we are truly forgiven.

Our sin has been loosed from us.  Our souls have been bound in faith to the Son of God.

God has taken our junk on Godself, through Jesus, who is Immanuel, God with us as One of us.

And, in turn, God has given us the Kingdom.

As Jesus asks us, “Who do YOU say that I am?” we respond in faith, “Jesus, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

 

Let us pray: Our merciful Father, we give you thanks for the gift of your Son, Jesus the Christ.  Transform, renew our minds and hearts as we seek to know and do your good and perfect will for us.  Stand us on the rock of faith in you, as you build your church in our community.  In the name of Jesus, Child of Israel and Son of the Living God, and by the power and presence of your Holy Spirit, we pray.  Amen.