Sermon - August 28, 2011

15th Sunday after Pentecost (pr22) - Year A
Matthew 16:21-26

A Living God begets Living Faith

I made the comment last week how lonely it was, over the summer, with all the students gone. David Jarrett, Maglin Halsey, and Kaitlin Grove heard me and reminded me that they were here over the summer. Their tone, appropriately, asked me what I meant to imply in saying that I was all alone. A similar apology is due to all of you who where here during the months of May, June and July – but might I also get an agreement that things have certainly become a lot more lively in the past ten days?

It is not just the resumption of classes at TriCounty, SWU, and Clemson, this morning we kickoff the Sunday Church School year with our Rally Day. Linda Holt was here for most of the morning yesterday preparing her lesson and classroom. Anita Edge was setting up for Rally Day. And while I am giving shoutouts, how could I forget Jean Askew and the crew of landscapers who planted and watered and trimmed.

Everywhere we turn there are signs of life and living. While spring might be the time of year when the earth reflects the glory of our living God, this may be the better time of the year to see life among God’s followers. Seeing that life; experiencing that life is essential if we are to taste and see the “Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” If we fail to grasp this life, we likely to repeat the mistakes of Peter rather than build Christ’s church upon his witness.

Maybe we need start with a review of last week’s lesson. Jesus asks the disciples, “Who people say that I am?” After a few tried and true suggestions (like Elijah, or Jeremiah or even John the Baptist,) Jesus asks them who “they” say he is. Simon blurts out, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus points out that this is not something Simon has come to on his own, rather it is a revelation given to him by God. Then Jesus renames Simon, giving him the name Petros, or “Rock”. Pastor Hartsell pointed out in last week’s sermon that this witness of Peter’s is the confession upon which Jesus says he will build his Church. We are all invited, he reminded us, to join in this confession and bear testimony to this “Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”

Today’s text follows immediately upon the previous. This is not so the Gospel writer can build Simon Peter up only to knock him down. It has more to do with a desire to teach - to teach all those who follow Jesus of the danger of confessing with our lips, and yet failing to comprehend with our lives. Simon Peter has the right answer; he simply isn’t prepared for how that answer will alter the world around him.

Simon Peter is not yet prepared to accept that this Messiahship of Jesus would mean going to Jerusalem, experience rejection, and condemnation. “That just isn’t the way this thing ought to play out,” Peter insists.

There are countless commentaries which examine what Peter might have thought identifying Jesus as the “Messiah, the son of the living God” meant. Perhaps he was of the mindset that Divine Messiahship ought to be linked with political coronation. There are numerous hints that among the Disciples there were rebels and insurrectionist. Perhaps they expected their Messiah to lead them on a path similar to that taken by David as he gained a following and the confidence of the Hebrew people. Whatever Peter expected, it was not this sudden turn. He didn’t see this one coming. It is as if he made his confession using the jargon of the religious community; that he repeated the words which he had heard in Sunday school and taken to heart during religious celebrations. He speaks the words, but he didn't understand their meaning. He was totally unprepared for the power and the promise which those words represented.


And I wonder, whether we might have the same problem. Do we know the titles and phrases, and yet fail to grasp their meaning? How many of us blunder and reveal our ignorance when confronted with the presence of Christ, the Son of the Living God?

It seems that the key to understanding lies in the adjective which is used. Peter refers to God as "living". Such a description implies one who is active, interactive and free to respond. God isn't dead; God isn't some set of lifeless doctrines or teachings or codes for moral behavior. God is living. And even though Peter makes correct use of this descriptive language, he remains closed to what that means.

Peter responds negatively to Jesus’ description of where his path will take them. That isn't the way the books say it is to happen. Such a path would not follow the expectations outlined by the prophets. It would not be in keeping with the traditions of the temple. This wasn't the way that John or Elijah or Jeremiah did it. And you can almost hear the argument that if it hadn't been done that way in the past, what right did Jesus have to move out in a new direction.


Jesus' "right" comes from his special relationship to the one we call God. Jesus, the Christ, is the Son of the Living God. And this "living", active, interactive God has chosen to do a new thing. It is not in keeping with what has been done in the past. A “living” God is very different than a God who only lives in history.

Jesus asked the disciples, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon son of Jona responds, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And he should have known that those words implied a savior who was not "bound" to what had previously happen. These words bear witness to a God whose prime concern is life and the living. They are the witness to a God who acts, freely and intimately with those who call upon God's name.

God didn't stop living when the cover was placed around our bibles. The God to whom the scriptures bear witness continues to live and to interact. And we have to be careful that we don't allow ourselves to forget this. We have adopted language for use in worship which illustrates that God is alive and active, and yet if we simply repeat the words and don't pause long enough to consider their meaning, we too can misunderstand what we are saying. This is why it is so important that we continue to study and to learn. If we pretend that we have mastered the information and have no further need for growth then our faith has be¬come as dead and as lifeless as the codes of moral behavior which all too often are substituted for Christian faith. Bible study is not research into the past so much as it is an attempt to discover what God is saying to us now.


God is alive. God's people are alive. And the faith we possess lives within us. If our faith isn't active, interactive and free, then it is as good as dead.

Upon hearing Peter's rebuke, Jesus responds with: You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things. "Human things" cause us to want to stay where we are. To live with business as usual. To retain our ability to predict and to control. "Divine things" are quite different. They are living, changing, unfolding. You never know exactly where they are moving, all you can do is follow.

It is the nature of our God to be living. God acts, interacts, and reveals to us the way we should go. Setting our minds on God means we follow where God is leading. Learning from the past, for sure, but primarily seeking to understand the signs of life emerging around us and through us.

Amen.