“Would You Build Your Church on This Man?”              Dr. Julie Adkins

                   Text: Matthew 16:13-20

 

SERMON

 

More than any of the other disciples,

          Peter seems always to have

                   moments of real highs and lows with Jesus.

A couple of weeks ago

          we watched them happen at the same time,

                   where we started to walk on water

                   but then got scared and had to be rescued.

Today’s scripture lesson

          is one of Peter’s glory moments.

He is apparently the first of Jesus’ followers

          to recognize and to confess who he really is:

                   “You are the Christ,

                      the Son of the living God.”

Words that we still use today

          to confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

And Jesus praises him for having perceived the truth,

          because he has learned it from God,

                   not from any human creature.

Definitely, a good day for ol’ Simon Peter.

In fact,

          Jesus is apparently so impressed by Peter’s confession

                   that he tells Peter that he will be the rock

                             on which the church is to be built.

Imagine how Peter must have felt at that …

          proud … humbled …

                   maybe a bit confused, since church – ekklesia –

                             was not a commonly-used word …

          but certainly, also at least a little bit pleased with himself.

Without a doubt,

          this was one of Peter’s good days.

A day on which it seemed that he might indeed be worthy

          of the trust Jesus placed in him.

 

But then, there were those other days …

Like, right after he makes his confession,

          that episode where he argues with Jesus,

          and Jesus says to him, “Get behind me, Satan!”

Or the walking on water bit,

          where Jesus says to him,

                   “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”

Probably embarrassed the heck out of him

          in front of the other disciples

                   on both those occasions.

Or, much later, that terrible night

          when, three times in a row,

                   Peter denies ever having known Jesus,

                   much less followed him and declared him Lord.

 

Given that kind of a shaky track record,

          would you choose Peter to build a church on?

Is he the kind of person you would want

          to have the keys to the kingdom?

Is Peter a strong enough rock

          to serve as the foundation for Christ’s church?

Or would you have advised Jesus to pick someone else?

 

Well, no matter what advice we would have given,

          Jesus has nevertheless chosen Peter.

Unpredictable Peter,

          who is fighting brave one moment

                   and scared out of his own skin the next.

Impetuous Peter,

          who frequently opens his mouth

                   before consulting his brain.

Selfish Peter,

          who denies his Lord

                   in order to save his own neck.

Simon Peter,

          so human,

          so much like us …

How could God expect to build a church

          on someone like that?

 

And yet, lo and behold,

          it worked somehow, didn’t it?!

Here we are, two thousand years later,

          and we are Christians;

                   we are part of that church.

Peter must have done something right after all.

And that should tell us something about ourselves,

          and even more, something about God.

What it should tell us about ourselves is

          that even though we are flawed and imperfect children,

                   God can still do great things with us.

Peter’s story should tell us that

          our failures are not the last word.

That ought to be a word of comfort for most of us!

Who among us has never said something

          that we wished we could take back?

How many of us have had the best of intentions,

          but failed to follow through with them?

Is there anyone who hasn’t wished

          that they could turn back the clock,

                   and do a few things over again,

                   and do them right this time?

As the apostle Paul said,

          “All [of us] have sinned,

                   and fall short of the glory of God.”

We are in the same predicament as Peter,

          and everyone else around us.

But what we learn from Peter is that

          God can take our sins and our failures,

                   and not only forgive them,

          but also teach us from them, and strengthen us,

                   and send us back out better than we were before.

 

I’m sure many of you know of people

          who quit coming to church

                   because they have been through a divorce,

                   or something has happened in their family

                             that is perceived as “embarrassing” in some way.

Sometimes that happens because the church runs them off,

          and I’ll talk about that in a minute,

                   but more often, people drop out of their own accord

                             because they feel they have failed …

                             or they think that others think they have failed.

Because of what has happened to them,

          whatever it is,

          whether it was really their fault or not,

                   they feel that they can no longer be welcome

                             because they have shown that they are not perfect.

But the story of Peter should prove to us

          that God does love and accept sinners,

          and even chooses sinners,

                   to do God’s own work.

Some of God’s best workers in this world

          are those have sinned the most

                   and know they have been forgiven the most.

Would you choose yourself

          as someone for God to build God’s church on?

Probably not … and yet,

          God is building the church on each one of us,

                   every day,

                   rain or shine,

                   saint or sinner … or both.

 

So one of the things that we learn from Peter

          is that God can and does use even us sinners

                   to do God’s will.

What we also need to learn, then,

          is that God can and does even use other sinners

                   for God’s own purposes.

Isn’t it a sort of human thing to do,

          to think that other people’s sins

                   are somehow worse than our own?

“Well, yes, I do gossip a lot,

          but at least I didn’t leave my husband for another man like she did!”

“Yeah, I cheat on my taxes a little,

          but at least I didn’t bankrupt a whole company like those guys at Enron!”

It’s awfully easy for us

          to sit in judgment on our brothers and sisters,

          just like we judge Peter

                   from our distance of twenty centuries,

                             and wonder how he could have

                                      said some of the things he said

                                      and did some of the things he did.

But we have to remember – like it or not –

          Jesus chose Peter in spite of his flaws;

          Jesus calls us in spite of our flaws;

          and Jesus calls others as well,

                   no matter how much worse we think their flaws and sins might be.

 

This is something that we have to be careful about in the church –

          and I don’t mean just Trinity Church,

                   or the Presbyterian church as a whole;

          I mean the church in general.

Sometimes we act too judgmental,

          and we run people off,

          or turn our backs on them until the leave of their own accord,

                   because we don’t approve of their behavior,

                   or we don’t like some of the decisions they’ve made.

We forget that we are all sinners

          who fall short of the glory of God.

We forget that, if God can use us, as we are,

          then surely God can use

                   a whole lot of other, different, people as well.

What it boils down to is this:

          we need to remember, and to take seriously,

                   that we are all God’s children,

                   and we can all be building blocks of God’s church.

In spite of, or maybe even because of,

          our failures and our sins.

 

The reason I say because of our sins is this:

          the more I think about it,

          the more I like the idea that Peter,

                   and other flawed human beings,

                    have the keys to the kingdom.

Because Peter was so human,

          because he tried and failed so many times,

          because he knew the struggles of human life

                   and the wonderful feeling of being forgiven …

          somehow, I think that Peter is much more likely

                   to be lenient, and himself forgiving,

                   to give us the benefit of the doubt,

                   to welcome us even though we are imperfect.

We need to grant that same grace to one another.

 

You may have heard Martin Luther quoted,

          that he said, “Sin boldly.”

He did not mean by that,

          go out and sin as much as you can on purpose,

                   and have a good time doing it!

No, he meant, live your life boldly.

Because you are human,

          it is inevitable that now and again, you are going to sin.

Don’t be so afraid of that

          that you tiptoe around your whole life

                   afraid of making a mistake.

If you sin – when you sin – repent, and move on.

Don’t get hung up on it.

Don’t let it destroy you.

Sin boldly – but Luther didn’t leave it there.

He continued, “sin boldly,

          but believe and rejoice in the Lord more boldly still.”

That is the story of Martin Luther’s life;

          it is the story of Peter’s life;

          it needs to be the story of our lives as well.

 

We are unworthy and sometimes unwilling disciples,

          teamed up with other unwilling and unworthy disciples,

                   to build God’s church,

                             a sign of God’s kingdom here and now.

We might not have chosen ourselves for that task,

          but God has chosen us.

We might not have chosen certain others for that task,

          but God has chosen them.

We are not called because we are worthy …

          we are worthy because we are called.

That is the only thing that matters.

Believe it and rejoice …

          and build God’s church!

 

Amen.

 

© 2002 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)