Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 24, 2008
The Rev. Charles Henrickson
On This Rock I Will Build My Church (Matthew
16:13-20)
Everyone is interested in building the church, growing
the church. Uh, let me rephrase that. Everyone who
is already in the church and active and involved in
the church is interested in building and growing the
church. People on the outside, as well as those with
only a loose connection to the church--they dont give
a rip. But those of us at least who are here
regularly in church, we care about the church being
built up and growing. Nobody wants to see the church
fail or decline or decrease in numbers.
Ah, there it is, the N word--Numbers! Numbers, as
in membership. Numbers, as in attendance. Numbers,
as in offerings. People become obsessed about
numbers, especially when the numbers arent what they
used to be. And quite frankly, they arent. The
numbers are down, across the board, for a lot of
churches, and they have been for a long time.
Actually, going back to about 1965, thats when the
numbers started to decline. Thats the year after the
Baby Boom ended, when Americans stopped having kids at
the same rate they did from 1946 through 1964.
And the culture has changed, too. Back when I was a
kid, in the 50s and the early 60s, going to church
was the thing to do. Sunday Schools were packed to
overflowing, with all those little Boomer children.
Well, that was then, this is now. Mainline
denominations have been on the skids for a long time.
Numbers are down. People go into panic mode. Well
have to shut the doors! What can we do to reverse
the decline? After all, there are some churches that
do seem to be growing. Maybe we need to be like them.
What can we do to build the church?
There are many who come forward to give answers to
that question, What can we do to build the church?
Well, they dont actually give the answers. Usually
you have to buy their book and attend their workshop
and subscribe to their e-newsletter and watch their
DVDs. But they do provide some how-to techniques on
how to grow the church.
Get rid of the old--thats often the first thing that
has to go. Old music, old liturgy, old crosses, old
people--well, except we still need the old peoples
money, so well give them a little old-fashioned
service at 8:00 a.m. or late Saturday afternoon. And
we need to replace the old with the new--praise bands,
contemporary worship, auditorium seating,
state-of-the-art sound system, and a theatre-like
stage. Plus an electronic, message-scrawling sign
outside.
And the content has to change, too. Not so much of
that sin and grace stuff. No more poor miserable
sinner. Forgiveness of sins? Thats not what
people want to hear. And dont talk so much about
Jesus dying on the cross. I mean, what a downer! Oh,
weve still got to mention Jesus, of course. Our
praise choruses will say how much we love the Lord,
and hes really awesome, and Lord, we just want to
praise you! But lets not get too much more specific
than that. Although people do want specifics when it
comes to how to live their lives. Thats what the
message, the teaching (dont use the word sermon),
needs to be about: Us. Me. Tell me what I need to
be doing in order to be successful and victorious in
my life. Life-coaching that makes people feel good
about themselves and feel like theyre being
spiritual--thats what people in our culture want, and
if the church wants to grow, then thats what weve
got to give them.
Oh, and programs, too. Dont forget the programs.
Lots of them. Keep the people busy. Mothers Day Out.
Yoga class. Youth groups earning points to go to
Disney World. Lots and lots of programs.
What gets lost in the shuffle here is Jesus. Its
almost like you could build a church without him. At
least the Jesus we find in the pages of the New
Testament. That one, not Jesus the Life Coach. What
does Jesus say about all this? He says, On this rock
I will build my church. Whoa! Jesus seems to claim
a little ownership in this process. He calls it, my
church. Not as in MyChurch.com, where the my
refers to the individual who can pick and choose the
options he or she likes. But my church, as in
Jesus church--its his, it belongs to him. Thats
the first thing to notice. Its Jesus church, not
ours, and he gets to decide what kind of a church its
going to be. So maybe we ought to be about finding
out what Jesus would have his church emphasize and
teach and do and be like. Maybe our ideas about how
to build the church need to be shaped and refined a
bit by his. It is his church, after all.
On this rock I will build my church. Jesus says
that he will build it. He will do the building, and
he will do it his way. And when the church is built
by Jesus, in his way, with the strength he gives it,
the gates of hell shall not be able to prevail against
his church. Oh, the church may not always look all
that impressive and successful and victorious, but
then neither did her Lord when he was dying on that
cross. Oops! I said the C word, cross. My bad!
But the point is, when Jesus builds his church, in his
way, it is strong, even when it is weak.
On this rock I will build my church. So what is
this rock that Jesus will build his church on?
Well, back up a bit. Jesus takes his disciples aside,
after they had been with him a while and seen him in
ministry and seen how people react to him. And he
asks them the latest polling data --not that Jesus
needs peoples approval or that he will shape his
message according to the results of a focus group.
No. But he asks them, Who do people say that the Son
of Man is? And they reply with a variety of answers,
all of which pay some lip-service to Jesus but all of
which also stop short of saying enough. So it is
today. People do acknowledge Jesus as some sort of
guy with spiritual insight--a good example, a great
teacher, maybe even a prophet--but they still stop
short of saying enough.
Thats where Jesus is going with this. Because next
he asks them a follow-up question: But who do you
say that I am? And Peter, usually the first of the
Twelve to speak up, gives the gold-star answer: You
are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Yes,
Peter, thats right! Jesus is the Christ, that is,
the Messiah, the Anointed One, the great Deliverer and
King promised by God centuries earlier. Indeed, he is
the Son of the living God. Gods Son in a way far
beyond how you could speak of Israels king as a son
of God. Jesus is the Son, the one-of-a-kind Son of
God, come down from heaven. You are the Christ, the
Son of the living God. Yes, Peter, you got it! And
you got it from God himself, by divine revelation.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but
my Father who is in heaven.
So that is the rock, then, on which Jesus will build
his church. Oh, not Peter himself, in a popish sort
of way. No. But the rock is what he just said about
Jesus. This rock is the apostolic confession of
Christ. It is the New Testament message of Jesus, who
he is and what he came to do. It is the person and
work of Christ, as proclaimed and taught by the
apostles. That is the rock on which Christ will build
his church. And there is no other.
Now even Peter, at that point, did not fully grasp or
comprehend what being the Christ, being the divine
Deliverer, would involve for Jesus. They were still
thinking Glory King at that point. Crucified
Savior was not on their radar screen. Peter didnt
get that part yet. In the verses right after todays
Gospel reading, Jesus tells the disciples that he must
go to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed.
And Peter again pipes up, but this time he does not
get the gold star. No way, Jesus! This is not what
we had in mind for you! So Jesus has to rebuke him.
Get behind me, Satan! Jesus calls Peter Satan!
You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting
your mind on the things of God, but on the things of
man. Mans way of fashioning a Jesus we want, mans
way of building a church that we want--mans way is
not Gods way, which involves suffering and lowliness
and a dying Savior.
For that is what it takes for Jesus to do the Christ
job he came to do. He must go to the cross. For
there is no other way for God to save this world of
sinners other than for the Son of the living God to be
the dying Savior. Jesus is the Christ precisely by
being crucified. He died for you, my friends, to die
in your place and take the judgment you deserved for
your sins. For those sins were killing you.
Literally. Eternally. And Gods love is such that he
would not have the sinner die. Instead, Christ died
for you, washing away your sins by his holy precious
blood. He conquered hell by his death on the cross,
stripping the devil of his claim against you. Jesus
destroyed death by his death, and the proof of it was
shown on Easter morning when he rose from the dead.
You share in his resurrection and his life, you who
believe in him.
This is the rock on which Christ will build his
church. This message, this gospel, this good news.
This forgiveness of sins, won by Christ on the cross.
This is the key that looses people from the chains of
their sins. This is the key that opens the kingdom of
heaven to all believers. This gospel is for you.
Christ has delivered you from death and hell and
brought you into his kingdom of life and heaven.
Thats what it means to be in his church.
On this rock I will build my church. Its Jesus
church, not ours. He will build it. It wont be our
programs or our personality. It wont be our
people-pleasing, purpose-driven appeal to the flesh.
It wont be by getting Ablaze with the latest
synodical program. No, Jesus will build his church
his way: On the rock that is the apostolic confession
of Christ. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living
God. The Christ who came to die on the cross for you.
This rock is pure gospel, Christ-centered and
cross-focused. On this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Charles Henrickson
4749 Melissa Jo Ln
St. Louis, MO 63128
(314) 845-8811 (home)
(314) 779-8108 (cell)
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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