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The Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20
When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah. Prayer: Lord, you have promised that when two or three gather in your name you will be present with them. We depend on that promise today and pray that you will move among us. Lord, we pray that you have inspired Mike's preparation, that you will enliven his presentation, and that you will empower our application. Amen The Message: This morning I want to begin with the Epistle reading from Romans. This was the verse that I asked Bishop Mark if I could use as the central theme for the service of my Ordination to the Diaconate. Romans 12: 1,2 have been verses I have found challenging and inspiring for a very long time. I have to admit that is, partially, because of a play that the founder of the ministry of Covenant Players wrote and we performed many times called "Died Oct 20th." The play examines what the idea of presenting yourself as "a living sacrifice" might mean. We found that we couldn't perform that play without being deeply challenged ourselves. So, when it came time for me to be ordained a deacon, I wanted to remind myself that much of my motivation for the process, and the further and ongoing process of later being ordained a priest, was about my willingness to offer my life and ministry as a sacrifice to God. Of course, as the second slide, for this morning illustrates it is about much more than that. There is a richness in the life of service that we get to experience that fills us with a sense of fulfillment and gratitude. I am so glad for the experience of being an ordained person and living the life that I do. Paul emphasizes his point, about sacrifice, about the willingness to be changed, in verse 2. He uses words like "do not be conformed" and "be transformed" to help us understand that we need to make choices about how our lives will reflect who it is we are serving, or making our sacrifice for. Paul says that the transformation that will take place within us will enable us to comprehend spiritual things in a new way. "by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect." I hope that we can see that the process, that Paul is talking about in Romans, is a great introduction to the Gospel for this morning. Jesus asks his disciples the preeminent and central question all of us must ask ourselves at some point. "He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?' " He has been up to that point asking, in a general way, about who they have heard other people have said he is. "When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, 'Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' " The disciples answer him in the terms that they have heard the question. "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” You can hear the generalization and noncommital tone of the disciple's response. One of the commentators I listened to, in preparation, this week said it was very important for us to realize where Jesus was asking these questions. Remember last week I talked about Paul finding himself in Athens and discovering the plethora of gods which the Athenians were willing to acknowledge in the idols of their city. The commentator pointed out that Caesarea Philippi was a similar city. It was a place where multitudes of gods were recognized and worshipped. The commentator wanted to be sure that we didn't miss the point of Jesus' question. This was not a casual or a general question. Jesus asks his disciples the preeminent and central question which each one of them must decide at some point. He asks that question surrounded by all the various gods that were calling for recognition and acknowledgment right there in Caesarea Philippi. Peter steps up and answers Jesus: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Now before anyone can react Jesus identifies what has happened in this moment. He declares it as a moment of divine spiritual intervention: "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven." Somehow, at that moment, Peter has experienced what Paul is talking about in Romans: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect." Peter somehow glimpses Jesus as the one who will bring all these other gods into submission. Peter proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah in the very heart of Caesarea Philippi. Now, at the risk of seeming to be starting a whole new sermon here, I would like to use the Exodus reading from this morning to, I hope, illustrate what can happen if we don't keep Paul's words from Romans alive and active in our lives. I have to credit Tom Wells for bringing this thought to my mind. Last week as we were beginning Lessons in the Lessons Tom said to me: "This is the very beginning of the Israelites' captivity story." We were reading the story of Joseph and his brothers. I stopped and said to Tom: "I wonder why the Israelites never left Egypt in the over 400 years before they became so populous that the new Pharaoh felt he had to subjugate them." Which is the story we read this morning. I have been thinking about that question all week. Thank you, Tom. The Israelites could have left any time after the famine in Joseph's time was over. But it seems to me that they became comfortable. They settled into their lives in Egypt. They were not aware of the danger that they were placing themselves in by settling - living and enjoying the best that Egypt had to offer them. Now, you may want to say this was all part of God's plan to develop them into a community, to build a nation, and I am willing to agree that may well have been the plan and purpose of their staying there. But perhaps, all of that could have been accomplished if they had returned to their homeland. If they had been willing to embark on the journey home any time before they were enslaved. The shortest path between the capital of ancient Egypt Pi-Ramesses city, built by Ramses II, and the city of Jerusalem is approximately 491 miles. Now they would have had to walk that distance. But it was possible. After all, they came to Egypt on foot in the first place. So what happened? Why did they stay? There are no indications in Scripture why they decided to stay. But we do know they stayed for a long time. Over 400 years. Perhaps I might suggest that they like their Egyptian hosts, lost sight of the beginning of the story. Perhaps the answer is in the first section of the Exodus text. "Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph." They forgot to remember what and who should have been important in their lives. After all, if they forgot Joseph, perhaps they forgot something of the importance of their relationship with the God they served. Perhaps they became slaves because they didn't move when they had the opportunity to. They settled into the society and the community that they were surrounded by. Maybe they would have benefited by hearing Paul's words to the Romans: "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect." What would it mean for them to consider that center section of the Romans reading? "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds" How did their long period of being part of Egyptian culture shape and create the community that they became? How would people have distinguished the Israelite people from those of their neighbors and friends in Egypt? What would it take to transform those people to be the people of God? Can we ask ourselves the same question? How have we become content in the lives that we are living? How have settled into our lives in the world we find ourselves in? Can we ask that question, of ourselves, about our lives as a community here at Christ Church? How are we settled and content with the community we have now? How might we draw others into this community? What might the Lord be asking us to be willing to change? Perhaps we need to hear Jesus' question to the disciples: “But who do you say that I am?” The Gospel: Matthew 15: (10-20), 21-28
Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.” Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?” He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.” But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.” Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.” Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.” But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.” He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly. Prayer: Lord, you have promised that when two or three gather in your name you will be present with them. We depend on that promise today and pray that you will move among us. Lord, we pray that you have inspired Mike's preparation, that you will enliven his presentation, and that you will empower our application. Amen The Message: So, it is good to be back with you. The last two weeks were certainly full and a blessing in so many ways. Thank you for your prayers and support for all of our family during that time. As we begin this morning I would like to introduce the theme idea, that I will be speaking about, then we are going to do some review, and then we will come back to it. I want to spend some time talking about The Unknown God. This is a concept that Paul addressed in Acts when he was in Athens. I am sure most of us are familiar with that story. We will come back to it a little later. This morning we are returning to our post-Pentecost/ordinary time journey. You all know that is the period we are in the church calendar. Deep into the season of green. Until later in the year when we get into Advent and Christmas. I thought maybe it was time to remind us of how we started out on this journey. Does anyone remember the definition I shared, way back at the beginning of June, about Ordinary Time? I said then that I really appreciated the definition from the Episcopal Dictionary which said Ordinary Time was: "Ordinary time can be understood in terms of the living out of Christian faith and the meaning of Christ’s resurrection in ordinary life." So we are living our ordinary Christian lives - our personal faith journey - in the light of Christ's resurrection. I said back in June that I believed that it was important for us to consider how we were ordinary people who were living our ordinary lives in relationship with, and under the influence of, an extraordinary God. In the Old Testament, in the New Testament, and in the early times of Christianity those who called themselves Christians or Christ followers lived in societies where there were a range or variety of gods. Individual nations - the Greeks and Romans for instance - had a variety of gods that they worshipped and revered. Israel's neighboring nations also had a wide variety of gods. All of these people made sacrifices to these gods to appease and please them. They understood that their lives often depended on staying in the good graces of these gods. Their religious practices, and their daily lives, were designed to show who they worshipped, their god or gods. But often the gods were distant and unapproachable. We hear about that in the story of Paul and his visit to Athens in Acts chapter 17: "Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and, after receiving instructions to have Silas and Timothy join him as soon as possible, they left him. While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed to see that the city was full of idols." Here was a society that was open to the worship of all kinds of gods. They acknowledged a wide variety of gods and erected idols to represent them. Paul begins to talk to the Athenians about their practices and tries to introduce them to God. This causes some confusion and so he is taken to the Areopagus, where they asked him: “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? It sounds rather strange to us, so we would like to know what it means.” Before we go too much further can I say that one aspect of what made the Christian God extraordinary was the very fact that Christians - Christ followers - believed that they could have a personal relationship with God. Even in the stories of those people, we now consider Old Testament believers, there was always a personal aspect to the connection between people and God. From the very beginning, God spoke with people and sought to be in relationship with his creation, his people. Then, with the coming of Christ, the most significant aspect of Christian belief and practice became that God was willing to become human. God came "in the flesh" so he could be in a relationship with his people. Then in a series of extraordinary events, God in his human form was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of his, all, people. But it didn't end there. He rose from the dead and broke the curse of "death for disobedience" that mankind had lived under from the beginning of time. So, what does all of that have to do with us and the unknown God from Paul and Acts? Briefly back to Paul and his encounter in Athens. "Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being" Acts 17: 15 - 28 In the world, we live in - particularly here in the United States - there isn't that same plethora of gods that existed in Old Testament times or even in Paul's time in Athens. Of course, there are a variety of major world religions with an even wider variety of smaller religions. But for the most part, we understand that this is a nation based on Judeo/Christian principles. That here Christian people have been free to worship the living God proclaimed in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. We would consider that our lives and worship reflect our relationship with the living God. Now, if we were to talk about idols I believe we could identify plenty of evidence of idols. Things that people hold in awe or adoration. Things that they make sacrifices for, and things that shape their daily life practices. It doesn't take too long to look at someone's life and realize what it is they are committed to and what the focus of their endeavors is. What takes priority in their lives? How people live their daily lives points you to what or who they worship. So, with not much time left what does all this have to do with our scriptures for this morning? Well, I would like to suggest that each one of them contains some action that identifies the God who the individuals serve. Joseph in the forgiveness of his brothers tells us what he has learned about God, about God's grace, in his time living in Egypt. The God who Joseph has come to know, in a personal way, by all of his experiences in Egypt is a God who is gracious despite all human failures. "God sent me before you to preserve life ....... God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God" Joseph understands the God who he serves and he shows his brothers that God. Then in Matthew, we have the illustration, once again using the Pharisees as the example of outward obedience and following of the set religious practices, of how Jesus brings the disciple's focus to their own heart motivation. Jesus challenges the disciples to understand that their actions must come from the convictions of their hearts. The things that they do and say should come from their "heart knowledge" of God. Matthew follows that story up with the story of the Canaanite woman. If Jesus were to follow the strict letter of the law he would have ignored and reviled the woman. Instead, he responds out of the love and openness that he has been sent to establish in the world. The woman's daughter is healed because as it says in John 3: 17: "Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him." As we close this morning I would like to suggest that there are many in our world today who consider God as an unknown God. Perhaps even an unknowable God. Can we ask this morning: "Who is the God we serve?" Then might we ask: "How do our words and our actions - our spiritual practices - help others to recognize the God we know?" The God that we know loves us so much that he came, lived, died, and rose again for us. |
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