BUILDING A TRADITION FOR TRANSFORMATION

Matthew 16:13-20; Romans 12:1-8

August 24, 2008 – Rev. Jerry Duggins

For a service honoring Charter Members of Westminster,

part of the celebration of the church’s 50^th Anniversary.

“You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.” It may be that the ecumenical movement has achieved such importance that today we have forgotten how controversial this verse is in the Catholic-Protestant debate. As a pastor firmly rooted in the reformed tradition I have never had occasion to enter this controversy. After all, I don’t imagine that many of you need to be persuaded that this verse is not about Apostolic succession. The rock here is not Peter personally, but the confession he has just made, that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of the living God.

That’s why most sermons in Protestant churches today will probably make no mention of Peter the rock, rather the preacher will draw your attention to the question that Jesus asked, “Who do you say that I am?” In fact, I would normally do just this, but given the occasion, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk a little bit about Peter the Charter Member.

I wonder whether our efforts to build the church on the confession of Peter rather than the person of Peter hasn’t led us too far in the other direction. I wonder if we haven’t impoverished the confession by taking the person out of it. What good is faith if it is not embodied in a person or community? What good is a Charter without members living out its vision?

Somehow, I think Peter’s confession would lose something if we simply analyzed the words in order to come to a correct view of the nature of Jesus and his mission. The conversation began with Jesus asking the disciples to make observations about what people were thinking about his ministry. He’s eliciting their sense of the social context before pushing them to personal engagement: from “who do people say” to “who do you say that I am?” Behind Peter’s answer there is a social and personal context. To forget this context is to sterilize the confession. To forget that professions of faith carry background and vision is to reduce them to mere statements of dogma that may be irrelevant to life today.

It’s very important that we step outside the traditional Catholic-Protestant debate on this passage. Identifying the rock is not an either/or proposition. Jesus isn’t setting Peter up as the ultimate authority on questions of faith in the church, nor is he suggesting that Peter’s confession is the only correct way of saying who Jesus is. He’s neither justifying the future hierarchy of the church nor identifying a litmus test for correct theology.

Think about Peter here. Is he loved by Jesus? Yes. Is Jesus suggesting that he’s going to play a major role in the future of the church. Most likely. Is he naming him “future big shot” whose decisions and opinions hold ultimate authority.  That’s not likely.

Think about the confession Peter makes: Was this particular phrasing important in the life of the early church? Certainly. Is it relevant today? Of course.  Is it exhaustive and the only way to talk about our faith in Christ?   I don’t think so.

Look again at Peter, a strong personality, a definite leader, but sometimes too impulsive, sometimes lacking in follow through on his words.   And consider that his vision for the church changed over time. He began as a leader of a Jewish sect that came to be called Christians, but some years after this confession he will need a vision to open his mind to the possibility that God was calling Gentiles as well as Jews into relationship through Jesus.

Peter’s life and faith was a little messy, just like everyone else’s. He lived in a world that did not fully understand Jesus and he had occasional insights into Jesus that offered hope for the world. That’s the rock if one must identify a specific thing, that insight into hope in Jesus.  Like Peter others will follow Jesus, and gain insight to raise them above the confusion we ordinarily encounter in the world.

“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…”   For eleven chapters, Paul has been talking theology, and with this phrase he moves to consider the practical exercise of faith in the midst of a messy world.  Life, according to Paul - not in the abstract sense of its meaning and purpose, but its living -  life is about discernment, and discernment happens in setting ourselves apart from the confusion of life, renewing our minds and moving toward transformation. It begins with grace and mercy, and as we recognize that grace and mercy as the presence of God in the messiness of life, we can envision a new possibility.

Peter was touched by God and it enabled him to see Jesus in a new light, the kind of light that could change his life. The grace and mercy of God led to recognition of a new powerful and transforming presence in his life, and of course and most important, to a willingness to adapt his vision as he engaged the world again. To say it this way is to make it sound like a formula, but it never happens that way. The touch of God is as individual as each person touched. The confessions made as unique as each story told. But it is all about transformation, about finding hope where only confusion existed before.

For two millennia now, the church has built a tradition of changing lives. It has in its confession been more inconsistent than its visible structures admit. It has in its occasional conformity to the world failed to live up to the example of Peter. We have sometimes been so caught up in tradition, in doing things the same way all the time, that we have missed the fresh breeze of the spirit. But as we have recognized the breath of the spirit, we have changed even sacred traditions that we might speak in new, fresh and relevant ways to the dis-ease of the world around. Faith happens as the church listens to God, observes the world and speaks a new hope to the world’s need.

It doesn’t come easy.  It doesn’t always happen without conflict and almost never without comment, but the church in general and Westminster in particular does try to engage the world with the gospel. We do, as a community of faith listen to Christ and seek to engage the needs of the world. We don’t tend to settle for easy answers or religious jargon. We have tried to build a tradition interested in transforming lives. I believe that this is the kind of tradition and heritage our charter members intended.

Jesus approved the words spoken by Peter and they have become one the greatest, if not THE greatest of the church’s confessions; but I think Jesus likes the words because they came from Peter’s heart. They touched Jesus, I think as much for the love behind them as for the content in them.  Words that touch life, words that flow from a recognition of the grace and mercy of God: these are the words that matter to God and the church. But Jesus loved Peter the person also as much as the insight behind the words. Words that connect to people and people connected to God and loved by God. These things, this rock represents a tradition for transformation. This is what church is about. It is why 222 people put their names to the Charter of Westminster 50 years ago, not to build an unchanging fortress but to be a vessel of God’s love to all in need. To speak to the lives of people to offer a hope for something new and good. Today we honor the Charter, but more importantly we honor the members who began that Charter; and we hope to carry forward that vision of bringing God’s good news to this part of God’s earth.   Amen.