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.

He’s speaking to Simon son of Jonah, called Peter.

Peter, whose name means “rock”, the Greek petros

Peter is called the rock because he continues to show the other disciples what it means to live out a life as Christ’s disciple.

Jesus had taught the disciples in his Sermon on the Mount that the wise man builds his house upon the rock – and that the one who keeps the teachings he had given would be like the wise one who built on the rock.

Christ himself is the wise man who builds the church from rocks such as Peter.

Not Peter exclusively – but Peter as the example of what it means to follow Christ.

Christ builds the church from rocks such as Peter.

And what’s significant about Peter in this reading.

Is that he’s willing to speak his own experience of Jesus is.

Jesus had asked the disciples, “who do others say that I am”

And the other disciples were very comfortable sharing what other people said, or other people thought about Jesus.

But then Jesus asked them, “who do you say that I am?”

And that’s when it got personal.  And when they all got silent.

Except for Simon “the Rock” bar Jonah

Peter’s views did not conform to the views of those around him.

Where they saw a distinguished rabbi, or a moral exemplar, a wonder worker or a reincarnation of one of the old prophets,

Peter saw the promised one of God, the Christ

Peter opened his eyes to the reality of the in-breaking reign of God and saw that something new was being built in the words and actions, in the person of Jesus

And so Peter boldly confesses, stepping out onto the waters of uncertainty and almost certain rejection from some of his hearers,

And he says with faith, “You are the Christ, the son of the living God”

Jesus blesses Peter for this insight into who Jesus is, an insight given to Peter by divine inspiration.

And just as Peter names Jesus, Jesus then names Peter.

You are Peter.

and

“On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

The foundation of the church is a confession of Jesus as the Christ.

This is the rock – the faith that acknowledges, the faith that follows,

The faith that thinks differently, that is not conformed to all that others say.

After Paul gets through 11 chapters in the letter to the Romans explaining who Jesus is in light of the scriptures, he begins chapter twelve with a  giant “therefore”

Because of who Jesus is – as Christ, as the promised one, the new Adam, etc.

“Therefore, present your whole selves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

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— what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

The rock on which the church is built is Christ, the cornerstone of the new creation.

But we become living stones built upon Christ’s foundation.

In the first letter of Peter, chapter 2, he writes,

“Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house”

This all begins with the refusal to be pressured into conforming to the ways of thinking of the world – and by this I mean the ways of thinking that are constantly communicated to us through media, through messages of the market, through social pressures of the workplace or social situations.

Be yourself, the you that Christ has called you to be.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.

Let your learning of Christ through the scriptures, let your experience of Christ through faith be a transforming power in your heart, in your life.

So that you wake up from the dream of the anxieties and ambitions of this present age, and remember the real purpose for which you were made and into which you have been called.

And that real purpose is to by faith see Christ as the cornerstone of the new creation, and the rock upon which our lives must be built if they are to survive the storms and winds.

On this rock, this living stone, Christ will build the church.

Not on the rock of sure financial planning, neither on the rock of following traditions handed down over the generations.

But on the rock of faith in who Christ is and what Christ is doing in us and in the world around us.  The new creation sprouting in the midst of the old.

On the rock of confessions of faith like Peter’s, Christ creates the church.

And this is church in the other sense of the word.  Not church as in the building, but church as in the community called together for the purpose of renewal,

A restoration of the sacred architecture of human hearts and human community.

And this is why we come together in Council meetings, in committee meetings, whether deacons, trustees, Christian ed., outreach, stewardship, music – to build up the church, the gathering of people by Christ and in the presence of Christ,

To make known the healing love of Christ in our communities.

The call that Paul makes for non-conformity to the world and transformation by the renewing of the way we think leads right into a teaching about what it means to be this new creation in Christ – what it means to be a community built on the rock of Christ, the foundation laid by a common faith.

“For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.  We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader , in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”

In a little bit we’re going to recognize and dedicate the officers of this church, members who have been nominated for service in particular ways for this coming year.

We in Acworth are a spiritual building, made up of various building materials.

Or more significantly we are a body made up of members with various functions.

And we each have an equal portion of the grace of God,

And we each are able to give according to the grace that has been given us.

Give of our time, giver of our money, but most importantly give of our talents.

“We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”

I want to encourage each here who are beginning a new year on one of the church’s committees.  Know that have been given a gift by God’s grace and that your presence in the life of the church as an officer on one of these committees will be a gift to all of us and will build our community.

Don’t shy from speaking, or sharing your vision or dreams for this community, for it is in making your confession of faith, your vision for the kingdom of God,

For as we refuse to conform to the individualism and atomism of the world’s way of operating, as we endeavor to come together for the common purpose of the healing of ourselves and our community, as you share the gifts of your compassion, or encouragement, or practical wisdom

Christ will build the church, a spiritual building made of living stones,

Like Peter, the rock, who boldly stood up and testified,

“You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”