Matthew 16:13-17:9
Lord of All and Head of the Church
James Sledge February
8, 2015
“Do
you trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, acknowledge him Lord of all and Head of
the Church, and through him believe in one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?”
That is the first question asked to those who are ordained in the Presbyterian
Church. It is the first question because it is the most important. The
questions that follow build on it, saying how ordained leaders are to guide
congregations with Christ as our Lord and Head.
In
today’s gospel reading, Jesus asks his followers a question. “Who
do people say that the Son of Man is?” and the disciples provide a
number of answers. No doubt we could do the same. Who is Jesus? A great
teacher, a prophet, a healer, the founder of one of the world’s great
religions, a spiritual sugar daddy, and the list goes on and on.
“But who do you say that I am? Jesus asks, and
Peter answers for the group. Today, those being ordained as ruling elders and
deacons will affirm their answer. He is Savior, Lord of all, Head of the
Church, and the way that we come to know the Triune God.
We
ask our ordination questions in a worship service, walled away from the world.
Jesus does things differently. He asks his questions in Caesarea Philippi. I
have to admit that I’d never really thought much about the locale until I read
Brian McLaren’s book, but I suspect that the first readers of Matthew’s gospel
did take notice. They knew that this place was named for Caesar and a son of
Herod the Great, that it featured prominent Roman temples. They likely knew it
was a favorite getaway of Roman generals who besieged and finally destroyed
Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Considering that Matthew is written to Jewish Christians shortly
after this destruction, this surely made for some jarring contrasts.
Caesar
was lord and a “son of the gods.” Proclaiming that Jesus is the
Messiah, the Son of the living God,” had real political implications. It’s
the same for deacons and elders who affirm that Jesus is “Lord of all.” He is
Lord over our political loyalties, vocational choices, finances, daily lives,
and even over human history. But declaring Jesus “Lord” is not the same as
understanding what it means to live with him as Lord of all and Head of the
Church. If you don’t believe me, just ask Peter.
I’m
not sure there is any other place in the Bible where a person of faith goes so
quickly from star pupil to abject failure. One moment Peter is the rock on
which the Church will be built; the next he is the leader of darkness. I can
scarcely imagine how Simon Peter must have felt when Jesus said , “Get
behind me Satan!”
During the
Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had taught his followers, “Not everyone who says to me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the
will of my Father in heaven.” Now Peter gets reminded of that in brutal
fashion. Peter’s notions of what a Messiah and Lord is supposed to do turn out
to be way off the mark. The Lord of all does not come wielding power in the
manner of Caesars or the powerful of our day. God’s ways, Jesus’ ways, are nothing
like the world’s or ours. They are odd and strange to us, not at all what we
would do if we were God.
And so we’re likely to have some of the
same struggles Peter did. We will think we know what it means to be Christian, to
be the Church, how the Church should act, and whom it should serve in much the
same way that Peter “knew” how a Messiah was to act.
You
may have noticed a logistical difficulty that has arisen from using Brian
McLaren’s book to help order our worship from week to week. The Scripture
readings have gotten really long. Very often we’ve not had space for an Old and
New Testament reading, but have divided
the gospel reading into parts one and two. Rarely have we been able to include
all the readings McLaren lists for a chapter.
I
attended a conference last year where McLaren was a featured speaker, and he
talked about the problems that arise from the way we typically study and preach
the Bible. Often we take small segments and delve deeply into them. All too
often, these segments get disconnected from their context, and we can end up with
conclusions and interpretations that would never have happened if a passage remained
part of the larger narrative. We may even make central to faith or practice a
text the biblical writer intended as a small, supporting role.
I
have never preached a sermon that tried to include Peter’s declaration about
Jesus, Jesus’s prediction of his impending death, Peter’s objection and Jesus’
rebuke, teachings on the cross and self-denial, and the Transfiguration. Such a
broad swath of the story doesn’t fit well into the methods of sermon
preparation I learned in seminary.
There
is so much to consider: a very earthy Messiah and Lord who demands our loyalty
over and against Caesar and all those other lords who demand we serve them, a Jesus
who will not be relegated to the religious sphere. Yet those who follow this
Lord cannot serve him with weapons or armies. Our weapons are love,
self-denial, and self-giving. And it is this Lord on the mountaintop with Moses
and Elijah, with the Law and the Prophets, beside him. This strange Lord is the
fulfillment of Israel’s hopes, but in a way none had fully anticipated. And then
the divine voice cuts short any attempt by Peter, or us, to spiritualize of
ritualize the moment. “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am
well pleased; listen to him!” This echoes the words spoken by the same
voice at Jesus’ own baptism.
As we embrace this breadth of the story,
we meet the Beloved Son is the one, the Messiah who brings God’s fulfillment.
Yet he is also the one of peace, self-giving and the cross. He is the one
through whom Scripture is fully revealed and understood. Listening to him,
following him, is not merely a religious act. It is a life-giving act, one that
guides, reshapes, and refashions us so
that we become fully human, discovering what it means to be a son or a daughter
of God.
____________________________________________________________________________
In just a moment we will ask ruling elders and
deacons, “Do you trust in Jesus Christ your Savior, acknowledge him Lord of all
and Head of the Church, and through him believe in one God, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit?” Similarly, we ask all who join the faith, “Do you turn to Jesus
Christ and accept him as Lord and Savior? Will you be Christ’s faithful
disciple, obeying his Word and showing his love?”
Maybe
we should just ask, “Do you want to be fully alive?” That is what Jesus invites
us to discover as we listen, and learn, and follow. If we answer “Yes,” we can
be certain that, like Peter, we will have our missteps and stumbles. We will
mistake other voices, and our own certainties and assumptions, for the voice of
Jesus. But as Brian McLaren writes, “That’s
OK. Peter was still learning, and so are we.” What really matters is that we
keep listening for Jesus and keep walking with him as he shows us the way.[1]
[1] McLaren, Brian
D. (2014-06-10). We Make the Road by
Walking: A Year-Long Quest for Spiritual Formation, Reorientation, and
Activation (p. 119). FaithWords. Kindle Edition.
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