On This Rock

Romans 12:1-8

Matthew 16:13-20

“On this rock I will build my church.”

Acworth knows how to build a church.

As a community we’ve built three churches and they’re all still standing.

We have become aware of various needs of the buildings and have sought to problem-solve to do what needs to be done in the way that will best use the resources at hand.

In 2006 when it became clear that the steeple was leaning,

We realized that this project would be a whole other ball game.

But if you look up there, you’ll see a steeple standing tall and strong.

Because when the resources of a church membership of 50 people were clearly not going to fund the project, the church received help from the community.

It was important for this community that this building remain standing.

But when Jesus said in today’s gospel reading, “upon this rock I will build my church” – he’s not looking down at good solid slabs of granite and thinking of the possibilities of making or remaking a meetinghouse.

Jesus and the Canaanite Woman

Matthew 15:10-28

Jesus and the disciples have gone into strange territory.  Into the land of Tyre and Sidon.  Tyre and Sidon are coastal cities located on what is now the southern coast of Lebanon.

So Jesus and his disciples were outside of their own home and their own ethnic and cultural community.

I can imagine a different language was the dominant language. 

And the people looked and dressed differently and probably behaved differently than the people they were used to in Galilee.

We don’t know if this was the first time that Jesus and the disciples visited Tyre and Sidon, but still we can imagine that it was not a place where they would particularly feel at home.

And the historic relationship between the Hebrews and the Sidonians was not very friendly.

So Jesus and his disciples very likely had grown up with impressions and judgments of those people – those Sidonians, those Tyrians.  And these judgments would yield plenty of opportunities for them to suspect the Sidonians or to keep from associating with them, perhaps even resent them.

Trust in the Midst of the Storm

Matthew 14:22-33

We’re not told why he asks them to go across the sea just as it’s getting dark. 

But perhaps he knew that the only way that they would get peace and rest is away from the crowds.

But there they are.  In a boat in the middle of the sea.

and something happens which the disciples knew was a possibility, being, many of them, experienced fishermen,

something happens that they knew was a possibility but were crossing their fingers wouldn’t happen that night.

The winds came down from the hills.