It seems like a life time ago, but it was only 20 years ago that I owned and operated a custom motorcycle shop in Staunton, Indiana. The name of that shop was Chop (a term used for customizing motorcycles) with Art. And it was an art to chop a motorcycle and it was Art who was chopping the motorcycle. Clever play on words.
Our text also has a clever play on words, but this time it was a play on Peter's name. Jesus asked Peter who he thought Jesus was, and Peter responded by saying for the first time, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Immediately Jesus answered by saying, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona! 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 powers of death shall not prevail against it." The word for "rock" in Greek is "petra", and the word for "Peter" is "Petros." "...you are Petros and on this petra I will build my church," said Jesus. A clever play on words.
This passage of Scripture has become a storm center over the years between Protestants and Roman Catholics, for this is the Roman Catholic foundation for the position of the Pope in the life of their church. Peter is the rock, they believe. On his person the church was founded, they believe. To his successors belong the leadership of the church, they believe. Peter, they say, was the first Bishop of Rome, and this place of influence has been passed down thru the many centuries to the present Bishop of Rome, John Paul II. They base their belief on this text.
A Protestant looks at this text and says, "No, the church cannot be based on a mere man. The church is based on a faith, the faith of Peter's, `You are the Christ, the son of the living God.' That faith is the rock upon which we build our church."
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name,
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
When we sing, "Built on the Rock the Church doth stand, Even when steeples are falling...," we do not mean "Built on Peter." We mean built on Jesus Christ. We mean built on a faith in Jesus Christ.
"Christ is made the sure Foundation, Christ the Head and Cornerstone, Chosen of the Lord and precious, Binding all the Church in one..." The Church of Jesus Christ is not built upon a man but on a faith in Jesus Christ. This kind of faith is the kind of faith that you and I can have, and it is the kind of faith upon which the church rests even today. Without it, the church dies.
I have a friend who used to be a pastor in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He called on a family one day and asked them to join his church in a few weeks. They thought that would be nice, and the details were worked out. As my friend went to the door to leave, the man said, "The only problem I have with the church is that I don't believe in Jesus Christ. I don't follow him. I have not committed my life to him." Needless to say, my friend sat back down and proceeded a little slower explaining that the church is the company of those who are committed to Christ.
It is interesting to note that this is the first use of the word "church" in the New Testament. This word, "ecclesia," refers to an assembly of people who are called out. The church is not a building, or an institution, or an organization. The church is people. It is committed people. It is a family where we are brothers and sisters of the one Father. The church is human beings--the redeemed people of God. The church is the visible expression of the rule of Christ in the world.
The church is under a discipline because the church consists of disciples of Christ.
Jesus announced his church and used the word for the first time in the Bible in direct response to Peter's confession of faith, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." The church began then, and has continued to this moment, building on that confession. We are a confessing church. We are people of faith. We are people who confess our belief in Jesus as the Christ. What does this mean in a practical sense? If membership in the church is limited to those who believe in Jesus as the Christ, what are the ramifications for our existence together? How should we be relating to each other?
Peter in our Scripture lesson of I Peter, chapter two, is writing to some other church members, and he calls them a "chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people..." What this means in everyday language is that we are people claimed by God. We are called to be God's own unique, even peculiar, people. I mean, if not us, who? We are called into the church to be a people set apart from the rest of the world. We are called to be in, but not of, the world. We are called to be holy and pure for we are a people belonging to God.
I like to describe Christians as people who have one foot in heaven already. We live with one foot in heaven and one foot on the earth.
This kind of living can produce tension for we partially participate in both worlds now. It would be easier to live with both feet on the earth and to ignore heaven, but as Christians we have placed one foot in heaven and one on earth. If we accept this model, then at death all we are doing is taking the one foot off of the earth and placing it with the other already in heaven.
To me this is a comforting thought, but it still means that we have to resolve how to live with the tension of being in, but not of, the world during our lifetime. We are citizens of 2 kingdoms--heaven and earth. This is the challenge of the Christian church. We don't want to be so heavenly that we are no earthly good, nor do we want to be so earthly that we are of no heavenly good. It is a balance with which we must continually wrestle. We are called to be as wise as serpents but as innocent as doves.
Peter's description of who we are should do wonders for our self-image. Sometimes we listen so much to the negatives of our theology that we miss the positive. It is true that we are all sinners, each one of us, and every chance we get we will again take a bite out of the old apple and disobey God. But we are saved sinners, redeemed sinners, rejuvenated sinners, full of the Holy Spirit sinners, redirected sinners, sinners full of enthusiasm for our Lord, sinners with a desire to tell others of God's love for them and our love for them, sinners who are eager to share with others what God has given us in this world to enjoy.
We are God's sinners who have been called to serve him in the church for a purpose.
Peter in our Scripture passage goes on to explain why we were called into the church and what we should be up to. Here he tells us our purpose. We are supposed to "declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy."
Peter is saying that we have been called by God for a specific purpose, and that that purpose is to share the faith with others. God has given us light so that others may have light. The light is not just for us. We have been redeemed so that others might also be redeemed. The Church is not called to be a private club, but a public meeting. Our membership is open to all who would follow Christ. Our fellowship is a world fellowship--all classes, all colors, all educations, all countries, all people, everywhere.
President Sam Calian of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary was once asked what the most predominate characteristic of the Christian church should be. Want to guess what he said? Think about it. How would you answer that question? Calian said forgiveness. He felt that a successful church is not one that gives one-half of its budget to foreign missions, or even one that meets its budget.
He did not say that a successful church is one that is filled every Sunday or one in which the choir or preacher gives a stirring presentation. The Seminary President did not say that a successful church is one that studies the Bible the most, or feeds the poor the most, or clothes the naked the most.
These are all good qualities, and needed. But he felt that if you were going to name one characteristic of a real church, an authentic church, a church that is sharing its light in a dark world, then it is a church that is forgiving, a church that is full of people who forgive each other.
In Scotland there was a well known evangelist named Brownlow North. He was a sincere and a godly man, in spite of the fact that in his younger days he had been wild. One Sunday when he was to speak in Aberdeen, before he entered the pulpit, a letter was handed to him. The writer had known him in his wild days and related in the letter a shameful incident before his conversion, and went on to say that if he dared to preach, the writer would rise in the church and tell the people what once he had done.
The evangelist took the letter into the pulpit, read it to the people, and told them it was perfectly true. Then he told them how he had been forgiven, had changed, and had been made like new, and now he wanted to tell them all how a beautiful Saviour, Christ the Lord, could do the same for them.
Forgiveness...we need more of it in our lives. We need to respond more to the sins of others, not with outrageous judgement, not with harsh condemnation, but with gracious forgiveness. The best way to teach a person a lesson is not to get even, but to forgive them. It will shock them. It will shame them. It will sober them and maybe even make them realize that you are in, but not of, the world.
Marie Balter has a psychology degree from Salem State College and a Masters from Harvard in administration, planning and public policy. She is the chief hospital spokeswoman for the Danvers State Hospital, north of Boston. She has done all this since 1964. Before that, for 17 years she was a patient in that same hospital, misdiagnosed as a schizophrenic. Her story has been told in a 1986 television movie starring Marlo Thomas called, "Nobody's Child."
Today Marie Balter is 60 and is devoting herself to helping that same hospital. She says, "I wouldn't have grown one bit if I didn't learn to forgive. If you don't forgive your parents, or your children, or yourself, you don't get beyond that anger. Forgiving is a way of reaching out from a bad past and heading out to a more positive future."
Today her attitude is built on her rock-like Christian faith. "I don't believe on focusing on all the bad stuff that happened," she said. "Everybody has problems. Life is not trouble-free. I try to make people see that." Marie Balter lives our 17 years of forgiveness every day.
Because the Christian church is a forgiven people, we are therefore a forgiving people. We are a "chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people," so that we "may declare the wonderful deeds of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." To be a church, to be a fellowship, to be a family built on the rock-like faith of Peter's--a belief in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God--means that forgiveness is on our lips daily.
Rebecca Dolch is a Minister. In one of her sermons she told the story of her 3-year-old daughter, Lydia, who was playing in the sandbox of a dear friend, Elizabeth. Elizabeth said, "Jesus is dead, you know, Lydia. He was murdered."
Lydia replied, "Don't you know anything, Elizabeth? Jesus isn't dead anymore... He's in my heart."
"No, He isn't," said Elizabeth.
"Yes. Put your ear right here and you can hear Him in there working."
"Oh, yeah!," said Elizabeth, as she resumed her digging. She was convinced.
The Church of Jesus Christ, is built on Peter's rock-like confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. How do I know? I know because I hear him working in your heart.
