Forwarded sermon with an explanation (long post)

[Guest guest]

I avoid religious topics on the Crew. It seems as dangerous a topic as politics

in polite

conversation. I go to church and I believe in God but if you asked me I would

probably say I am

not a particularly religious person in an organized religious sense that is. I

think a person's

spiritual life is a very personal private thing. Somewhere in my convoluted

belief system I do

feel that a person is on this Earth for as long as he needs to be - as long as

he is making an

impact on someone else's life even if it is not clear at the time. As disabled

and suffering as

Jordan is, she is definitely making an impact on so many people. Whether the

amount of suffering

she is going through is worth it, I don't know, but it really makes me think of

angels on Earth

and how I believe she is one sometimes. In fact I know she has been one to me

over the years. I

have this meaning of life thing going on that makes no sense to anyone but me.

But I think regular

old everyday people can actually be angels to others at certain times in their

lives. Having said

all that, Annette (Jordan's mom) forwarded a sermon to me from a lady minister,

Jeannie, on the

East coast - she is a friend of Walt's if that means anything - since I think a

few of you know

Walt from early Crew days. The sermon follows and just wanted you to know where

I was coming

from. I hope the religious angle does not bother some people, since the final

message at the end

is too good to not pass on. I thought it was very sweet and touching and Annette

said it meant the

world to Jordan. Please forgive me if you do not think this an appropriate Crew

post.

Warm hugs,

Kim

---------------------------------------------

August 22, 1999

XIII Pentecost

Homily: " Rock Of Ages "

About six years ago, I was preacher in charge of a mountain mission. It was

rough country, and I

usually made parish rounds in my battered four-wheel drive truck and in the

office, I wore blue

jeans and an old shirt because on any given day I never knew what would happen.

Maybe one of the

farmers would come dashing in asking if I could please come help get the cattle

back in the

pasture because the fence was down up in the gap that morning. Or perhaps

there'd be someone

stranded up toward Fork Mountain and off I'd go to help with a rescue. So I was

seldom " dressed

up " during the week, and unless there was a service in progress, I didn't wear a

cassock.

Nevertheless, it was something of a shock when one of the young men from

downriver said, " I saw

you at the old hotel the other day. Do you take care of Miss ? " [Elderly

Miss lived in

what was once the county hotel, rattling around in about 35 rooms. I'd been

paying a parish

visit.]

" Well, I take care of her in a way, " I said. " I'm her pastor. "

" You what? " he exclaimed, shocked. " I thought you was the housekeeper. You don't

look like no

pastor. An' besides, you laugh too much. "

Self-perception and public perception may be miles apart.

Jesus knew who He was, of course, and He knew that expectations about what He'd

do or who He might

be were as diverse as the crowds. Some of it wasn't very complimentary. We know

from the Gospels

that some of the gossip had it that Jesus was a big phony, a disgrace to the

Jewish faith, a

wine-bibber, and a rabble rouser. In today's Gospel, Jesus and the disciples

were in the region of

Caesarea Philippi on their way back to their home base in Galilee after a period

of intense

activity. There had been crowds everywhere, as many as 5000 people at one time

out by the

lakeshore, all of them hungry, and he fed them with nothing more than a kid's

snack pack. Sick

folks and people with deformities crowded around Him and he healed them all. The

people who

flocked to hear Him were as diverse as could be imagined: farmers, fishermen,

tradespeople,

soldiers, even Synagogue rulers and some of the wealthier class. There were

women, and even a

sprinkling of revolutionaries. What do you make of someone like that? Someone

whose father was a

carpenter from Galilee, yet seemed to know everything? What do you think of

someone who heals all

kinds of diseases, hundreds of people with everything from raging fevers to

paralysis? Someone who

could debate even the experts in law and theology on their own terms and win the

argument? Someone

who teaches like the greatest rabbi yet is as comfortable to be with as your

best friend? Someone

who seems to know all your hurts and hopes?

So they must have been startled when Jesus asked them, " Who do people say that I

am? " The

disciples weren't about to tell Him the ugly things--besides, He knew all that

anyway--so they

told Him the complimentary titles: the Baptist come back to life! Elijah!

! One of

the ancient prophets! Those were all heroes of the past, champions of God. It

was like saying The

next Graham. Pope XXIII reincarnated. Luther the second. Jesus

said, " That's all

very interesting. Thank you for sharing that with me. But what is of even

greater interest to me

is what you think. Who do you say that I am? " As always, good old had an

answer, only this

time he didn't put his foot in his mouth; he was right. With insight from the

Spirit he blurted,

" You are the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. " According to

, Jesus had

never made that claim for Himself, but by the Spirit, understood who Jesus

was--and is.

The answer wasn't obvious. A lot of people didn't get it then and even more miss

it now. And the

disciples were often quite slow about understanding what Jesus was trying to

teach them. But by

Grace, recognized the Lord Christ. And then he got a new name. As a

fisherman, everybody

knew him as Simon bar Jonah, Simon son of Jonah. Now, however, Jesus said,

" Blessed are you,

Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father

in Heaven. And I

tell you that you are , and on this rock I will build my church, and the

gates of hell

(Hades) shall not overcome it. "

It may have been Bernard Shaw who quipped, " The Church was founded with a

pun. " He was

right, but as usual with Jesus' word-plays, the meaning was far from trivial.

In first-century Palestine, was not a personal name, though today, thanks

to this first

, it's common enough. However, Simon bar Jonah would have understood the

implications and the

honor Jesus paid a simple fisherman in giving him that name, for petros (Rock)

had rich Biblical

associations. God Himself was the Rock. " The Lord is my rock and my fortress, "

said , and

the psalmist--a lot of times: Ps. 18.2, 31.3; 71.3; 91.2; 144.2. And

sang, when the Lord

delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, " The Lord lives! Blessed be my

Rock! Exalted be

God, the Rock, my Savior. " (2 Sam. 22.47) We express the same idea in hymns

such as " Rock of

Ages " And " On Christ the Solid Rock I stand/ All other ground is sinking sand. "

Perhaps some of

you know " The Lord's our Rock, In Him we hide; I shelter in the time of storm "

or " O safe to the

Rock that is higher than I/ My soul in it's conflicts and sorrows would fly... "

But there's more. Today's Old Testament lesson points us to our heritage,

specifically, to Abraham

and , " the rock from which you are cut and the quarry from which you are

hewn. " For the Jew,

that meant a lineal descent, certainly, but it was also a spiritual descent.

Abraham believed God

and it was counted to him as righteousness. When realized that Jesus was

the Messiah, the

Promised one, the Son of the living God, and said so, like Abraham, his faith

was counted to him

as righteousness. He was able to see past the humble carpenter's apparent

identity, and like

Abraham's 's descendents would be as numerous as the stars. How many

millions have repeated

that confession? " You are the Christ, the Son of the living God! " Indeed, this

bluff fisherman's

confession of faith is the rock on which the church is built.

Like Abraham, wouldn't live to see that. Abraham saw only Isaac and

was, according to

tradition, crucified upside down. But by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he

believed God whose

" paths are beyond tracing out! " as exclaims in today's Epistle.

So when Jesus said, " you are " He was saying something like what we mean

when we say,

" Christian. " That is, Simon Bar Jonah had understood the promise which God made

centuries before,

that He would send a Messiah to save His people. Like Abraham, he believed God's

convenant promise

and by the Spirit, saw it fulfilled in Jesus. He was one, " out of the Rock " ,

God's very own, just

as we become Christ's very own children by our confession of faith in Jesus

Christ.

But in Scripture the Rock means even more. Consider 's own words in I

2.4-5. " As you

come to him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to

Him--you also,

like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy

priesthood,... " And

quotes Isaiah 28.16, " See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious

cornerstone... " Jesus is

the cornerstone of a living temple, and we who believe, are, like , living

stones in a temple

not built by hands, but by the faith passed down through generations from

Abraham and

through kings, prophets, shepherds, sages, priests, and fishermen.

Today, Jesus asks us the same question He asked . " Who do you say that I

am? " And if, by the

Spirit, we reply, " You are the Christ, the Son of the living God, " like we

get a new name, a

new identity. We become Christians, and as puts it, " If anyone is in

Christ, he is a new

creation; the old has gone, the new has come. "

What does that look like? What does it mean to be a living stone in the temple?

What does that

mean for you? For me? As I usually do, I discussed today's texts with Walter,

the artist with whom

I work, and he's responsible for many of the insights in todays' homily. You

might say he's an

unseen preacher here with us in the Spirit. As we thought about how many people

failed to

understand who Jesus was, and how difficult it must have been to see in Him the

" King of Kings and

Lord of Lords " when He walked those dusty roads up and down Galilee, we asked

ourselves who we

know who is like , a Rock, a living stone. Who do we know whose confession

of faith in Christ

is a living inspiration?

The answer might surprise you. Sometimes we think of people like Graham,

Dwight L. Moody or

maybe Mother Theresa as the " 's " of modern times. Or maybe we think house

preachers in the

underground church in China, or martyrs for the faith in the Sudan. But who do

you know,

personally, whose faith in God inspires you?

We thought of a girl named Jordan. She is completely blind and deaf. She's

frequently in a great

deal of pain. She's never built a church nor has she preached a sermon, but her

whole life is a

testimony. When she could still see, though barely, she read the Bible and went

to church when she

could scarcely see the signer (she was deaf before she was blind). She went even

though her face

is disfigured from paralysis and she has to have help to walk or use a

wheelchair.

When she knew she as going blind, she spent almost all of her strength learning

braille and a

braille computer, as well as touch sign, so that she could continue to " speak "

to the rest of us.

And what does she " speak " about? The things she has left: her joy in a puppy,

visitors who come,

her love for God and for us. She has every excuse to give up, throw in the

towel, but she

continues to grow in Christ and to encourage the rest of us to grow with her.

All she really has

is the desire to know Christ more and more, and God has taken that love for Him

and has made her

into a living stone.

She is not always good. She reports that some days she is cranky and doesn't

want to do anything.

Sometimes she struggles with the feeling that she's never really " done "

anything, that she's never

had an indentity in the world of work and accomplishment. Yet though she has no

children, could

never marry, but she will leave many spiritual children behind when God calls

her home.

A childless nomadic shepherd named Abraham didn't look like the founder of a

great nation. That

bluff fisherman who was always putting his foot in his mouth, the man who denied

Jesus three

times, didn't look like the stuff which makes history. But they believed God. At

times they

stumbled and fell, at times they doubted, but again and again they renewed their

commitment in

what they were, in what they said, and in the ways they lived out their faith.

Like Jordan. Like

you. And by the merciful grace of God, like me. Who do you say that Jesus is?

I think our best response to that question is, in the words of Luther, " I

believe that

Jesus Christ is my Lord, who has redeemed me in order that I may be His, live

under Him in His

Kingdom, " now and for ever. In my own strength, I cannot keep that commitment,

but I know that if

I believe those things in my heart, the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.

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