“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that
I am?’” (Matthew 16:15)
“The church’s one foundation is Jesus
Christ, her Lord…” I really dig that old hymn (ELW 654). About twenty years
ago, when I was vicar of Grace Lutheran Church in Yorktown Heights, New York, I
was assigned to take the high school youth group to one of those youth
gatherings with funky preachers and rock ‘n’ roll praise music. One of the
bands did a “thrash rock” version of “The Church’s One Foundation” which had
hundreds of teens bouncing like pogo sticks, arms at their sides, skulls
flopping like they were on bobble-head springs, and hair flying everywhere in a
frenzy of adolescent joy—and all while singing the principal doctrine of the
church!
I mean, how cool is that? Isn’t it a crazy joyful thing to have Jesus as the foundation
of your life?
The gospel lesson in the Revised Common
Lectionary for Pentecost Twelve (Matthew 16:13-20) is that famous story we’ve
called “The Good Confession.” That’s when Simon Peter answers Jesus’ question, “But
who do you say that I am?” by saying, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the
living God.” Jesus’ is pretty tickled that ol’ Pete got this one right, and he
tells him that he’s a rock, and on this rock he’ll build his church.
But, truth be told, Peter isn’t much of a
rock, is he? He’s impulsive and vacillating and doubtful and downright cowardly
at times—just like the rest of us. Okay, so he is said to have been martyred in
Rome when he led the church there. All subsequent bishops of Rome, according to
our bros in the Roman Catholic Church, are believed to be successors to Peter. Does
this make the cornerstone of the Christian faith the incumbent Pope? To an
extent, even dear old Martin Luther would see some value in this. After all,
the Church must have order, and a centralized authority can be a useful tool of
the Holy Spirit. The downside, however, is that it negates the question “But
who do you say that I am?”
How come..?
Glad you asked. Because however valuable
ecclesiastical authority might be, it isn’t worth a thimbleful of warm spit if
the individual believer doesn’t have a deep, personal answer to the question of
Jesus’ identity. Who do YOU say Jesus is? What does he mean to you? How is he—or
IS he?—the foundation of your life? Never mind what the Church says or what you
learned in Sunday School. Who is Jesus to you?
If I try to answer that question for
myself—and not as a clergyman but just as Owen, an average white dude closing in
on sixty—I can tell you I love Jesus because I believe he is the resurrected
God who knows and reminds me that all of my struggles will one day end in
victory in the arms of the Living Father. But I love him more because he is the
crucified man, and there is no insecurity I have, no pain I will encounter, and
no loss I will face which he hasn’t faced already.
(Quick illustrative anecdote: The breeder
from whom my wife and I got our new Shih Tzu puppy told us a story about a
friend’s three-year old daughter. Three-year-olds are not known for their
theological sophistication, but this little girl told her mommy one morning, “Mommy!
I had a bad dream last night, but I didn’t call out ‘cause I remembered Jesus
is always with me. So I went back to sleep.” Out of the mouths of babes!)
But if I get pressed to answer the
question, “But who do you say that I am?” I may have to reply, “You are that
person who really pisses me off. You are that dirty, creepy guy with the
cardboard sign who is panhandling by the side of the road. You are that shriveled-up
black lady in a recumbent wheelchair from the group home who gives a long and
incoherent eulogy when I’m trying to conduct the funeral of one of her fellow
residents. You are my whining and complaining parishioner who talks endlessly
about her ailments. You are even that politician who I can’t freaking stand the sight of on my TV news at night.”
You are, dear Jesus, the one who tells me that
I must see you in those whom I consider least. You are the one who keeps
pointing out the worst in me in order to bring me to my best. You are the one
whom I must see in others, and the one whom I must be for others.
Thanks for stopping by, my friends. I
appreciate that you took he time.
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