Central to our gospel message today are two questions. Firstly; who do people think Jesus is? And secondly and much more important who do I think Jesus is? Who is Jesus Christ for me and for all of us today? Everyone whoever they are and wherever they are has to come up with some sort of answer to that one.
In the passage the disciples respond to the first question by citing figures from the past. Who is Jesus? He’s like Jeremiah or John the Baptist or he’s really just another prophet. In a similar way people to-day also try to bracket Jesus, so he’s a Zealot a political revolutionary like Che Guevera.[I have T shirt that identifies Jesus in this way] There is a bestselling book entitled “Zealot” about Jesus in the shops now which makes this argument. Alternatively he’s a great moral teacher like Ghandi perhaps or a healer or even a magician. A book entitled “Jesus the Magician” came out about forty years ago and can still be found in libraries and second hand bookshops.
But consider next Jesus’ challenge to Peter and Peter’s reply to the second question. Who do you say that I am? And Peter replies; you are the Christ the son of the living God and Jesus responds with a blessing for Peter.
The words of Jesus blessing: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church are the title deeds of the Roman Church. Go to Rome stand in the piazza before St Peters and you will see these words carved in stone letters of great size in Latin of course on the pediment of the basilica of St Peters. Why are we here? What authority do we have? It comes from these words.
The Church it is often said is built on Peter’s faith. What does that mean?
The Church is built on Peter’s faith not on Paul’s theological insights. Christianity is not a philosophy or a system of secret knowledge it’s a response to a person – the person of Jesus. In his many and varied responses to the person of Jesus we see Peter growing from misunderstanding to insight from doubt to faith, from cowardly flight to faithful obedience. However I don’t think we should patronise Peter-although he was slower than Paul to grasp a full understanding of what Jesus was about –he grasped quickly- and having grasped it he didn’t let go easily.
Like Peter we too have to address the question as to who Jesus is for us and for our times. It can be a struggle to realise the truth about the real Jesus but it’s a great struggle.
The Church is built on Peter’s faith not on Stephen’s heroic virtues. There is a temptation for all of us in ministry to imagine that suffering or persecution somehow validates all that we do. Paul warned against this. “If I deliver my body to be burned but have not love I gain nothing”. No the Church is not built on that. It’s built on the faith that ordinary Christians like Peter have in a loving God- a faith that empowers them to love others.
Of course it’s a bit of a misstatement to say that the Church is built on Peter’s faith. The right place to put the emphasis is to say that the Churches one foundation is Jesus Christ Her lord which is given expression by the faith of the disciples of whom the first is Peter. Peter declares that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God. Peter proves to be headstrong, vacillating, cowardly and weak by turns but in the end in human terms faith like his is a sufficient base to be the foundation for the Church.
These then are the title deeds of the Church universal.
And one might ask of any local church. What are your title deeds? What’s your foundational text or foundational story? Most churches have them. The vision, the person the combination of inspiration and perspiration that made it happen in the first place.
The other aspect of Jesus’ charge to Peter is that Jesus gives Peter authority to bind and loose-to make rules and change them-to acquit the accused and condemn the guilty. What we are talking about here is discipline-discipline in the Church a subject of great interest to the author of Matthew’s gospel.
Christianity is a way of life. It’s not just a package of religious opinions. The earliest followers of Jesus defined themselves as followers of the way. Now if Christianity is a way of life then it ought to be possible for the Church to say: this kind of behaviour is not compatible with the way and this kind of behaviour is. And these things have to be named. Sometimes the Church changes its mind. It doesn’t happen overnight but it does happen. What we are talking about here is church discipline.
This is an uncomfortable subject for us. We are subject to a double temptation. The first temptation is to ignore the subject for fear that we might upset someone. This neglect leads to bad relationships-festering hurts, injured feelings, and a sense of injustice and betrayal. The second temptation is abuse –picking on someone in a weak position –misusing power. The great difficulty is our inability to speak the truth in love because of our fear of confrontation. But a failure to speak the truth in love is quite simply a failure to love.
There is only one simple answer to this. It could be the motto for the entire church. We must love one another of die. Loving one another is not that difficult but God’s grace is needed if loving is to be effective. Certainly we must work at it.
When I was thinking about candidating for the ministry I went on a day’s course to try and put my thinking into focus. A very wise thing was said to the course members. Being a minister is no substitute for being a Christian. I agree with that statement. I found it profoundly helpful then and I still do.
The Church is built on Peter’s faith and the care of the Church is entrusted to Peter. And who is Peter. Well it’s not just me and it certainly isn’t just Pope Francis, the Circuit Meeting or the Methodist Conference. . The truth, palatable or not, is that it is all of us together. The Church is built on the faith of all of us and we all share a duty to care for each other. You are Peter said Jesus and on this rock I will build my church. What an awesome responsibility and at the same time what a wonderful gift!
Sutton Park Methodist Circuit 