Unlocking the Kingdom

A Sermon preached on August 24 (Pentecost XI) at St. Augustine’s Church, Wiesbaden

Isaiah 51:1-6, Psalm 138, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:13-20

A cab driver reaches the pearly gates. St. Peter looks him up in his Big Book and tells him to pick up a gold staff and a silk robe and proceed into Heaven. Next in line is a preacher. St. Peter looks him up in his Big Book, furrows his brow and says, "Okay, we'll let you in, but take that cloth robe and wooden staff." The preacher is shocked and replies, "But I am a clergyman. You gave that taxi driver a gold staff and a silk robe. Surely I rate higher than a cabbie!" St. Peter responds in a very matter-of-fact way. "This is Heaven and up here, we are interested in results. When you preached, people slept. When the cabbie drove his taxi, people prayed."

That joke is wrong on so many levels…espcially theologically. But the idea of St. Peter guarding the gates to heaven and deciding who gets in and who doesn’t, like a sort of divine bouncer, has its origin in today’s Gospel. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” (Matthew 16:19) Jesus says to Peter. One problem of interpretation is mixing up the idea of the kingdom of heaven, or the kingdom of God as it is also called in the other Gospels, with a place called heaven that we all supposed to go to when we die. 

That is not what is meant by the kingdom of heaven. It is the reign of God that Christ has already instituted; a new life of justice, joy and peace for all that may well still be as small as a mustard seed, but will still grow into a huge tree. The kingdom is the transformation of this world and it has already begun. When Peter is given the keys to the kingdom and granted the power to loose or bind, a power which in chapter 18 is extended to all of the disciples, they are being given both the authority and the responsibility to unlock the mystery, the meaning of the kingdom of heaven and to explain the meaning of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. They are being commissioned to teach people what it means to live as members of the kingdom and to live lives worthy of Jesus’ name. And the instrument for doing all this is to be the church, that is the whole assembly or community of faith, and not one or just a few carefully selected persons. 

A moment earlier Jesus had told the disciple then still just known as Simon: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” (16:18) I sometimes wonder if Jesus is not being a little ironic when he gives Simon the new name of “rock,” in Greek Petra, in Latin Petrus, and in Aramaic Cephas. One thing Peter never was, was rock solid, he wobbled a lot. Right after this passage in Matthew 16:23 Peter gets it wrong and earns a stern rebuke from Jesus: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling-block to me; for you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” A couple of weeks ago we heard how after accepting Jesus’ invitation to join him outside the boat on the water, Peter soon lost faith and sank – like a rock I suppose. (14:28-30) And of course we already know that Peter will deny Jesus three times just before the crucifixion. If that is the person designated to lead the church then we can be really sure that church is not just a community of the always faithful, but also a community of both forgiven and I hope also forgiving sinners. But I don’t think that Jesus intended to build his church solely on the person of Peter or of Peter’s successors. The rock on which the church is built is what Peter said, his confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God. The church is built on Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. And Jesus, quoting the prophet Isaiah, refers to himself later in Matthew (21:42) as being the stone that the builders rejected that has become the cornerstone. 

So if we, the assembly, the church, are the instrument intended to explain the meaning of God’s revelation in Christ and to teach people how to live as members of God’s kingdom, how do we live out and enact this divine commission? What standards apply? This is where Paul and the Letter to the Romans come in. As is so often the case, Paul has a little list. But before he gives us the list, he has some basic points to make. 

Living a Christian life is a 24/7 calling. Paul appeals to the Christians in Rome to offer their whole selves, mind and body to God as a living sacrifice. An animal destined to be killed on the altar was supposed to be the best possible animal, without blemish or fault. If anything is to be killed or destroyed in the sacrifice Paul calls us to make, it is not what is best or faultless, but the worse parts of us such as our selfishness, an excessive focus on the ways and demands of the world. That is one part of our ongoing transformation. The other part of our renewal is to discern what is good in us, to identify the gifts we have been given, and to use them for the common good.

Let’s have a look at that list of gifts: inspired preaching, service, teaching, offering encouragement, giving generously, leadership, and compassion. This is not my job description by the way, this is our job description. This is what we do collectively as church, this is how we complement each other as one body in Christ, just as the members of a real body complement each other. We are not all supposed to do the same thing and certainly not supposed to do everything! When I first started serving here at St. Augustine’s 6 months ago I was impressed by the level of volunteering, by your willingness to act, and by how you had kept things going through a very difficult patch. And I still am. But I have noticed the same names and faces popping up again and again. That’s not good for you and that’s not what Paul is telling us.

This is not a call to drop everything you are doing immediately, especially not with the church picnic and the Night of the Churches coming up over the next couple of weeks. I am not suicidal. But take a close look at the ministries you are involved in, and how many. Do you feel they fit the gifts you have been given? Are you joyful when you do them or just tired every time? Is there someone you know who would be even better you could ask to help and perhaps train as your replacement? And if you are not yet involved in any ministries here at St. Augustine’s: what would fit your gifts, where do you think you could best serve this and the wider community? And if you have no ideas at all … come and ask me: that was me trying exhortation or encouragement by the way.

There is no hierarchy of functions or gifts. As Paul says, “do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think.” (Romans 12:3) It is not a coincidence that the gift of leadership is quite far down the list: after serving, after teaching, and after giving. Paul was not saying that leaders are less important, just not more important. 

All the gifts have some kind of qualifier, some way in which they are to be used, which is often as important as the gift itself. Prophecy or preaching is not just supposed to be good in the sense of interesting, well-structured, or perhaps even amusing at times, though that helps. It is also to be well grounded in the body of Christian belief. Similarly the teacher should have good didactic skills, but the subject matter, teaching people how to live as members of God’s kingdom, is equally important. The giver is supposed to be generous, not giving out of a sense of duty but with joy. The leader is supposed to be attentive and diligent, among other things being attentive to what gifts other people have and those who perform acts of compassion or mercy are to be cheerful and happy in doing so. That will encourage both the person being helped and others who might consider being helpers.

Behind it all is what Paul refers to as not being conformed to this world. (12:2) Our attitude is not one of self-reliance, but of cooperation. These gifts of grace are not something to compete with, who has the best gift or who does it best. Their purpose is to serve the whole community and to strengthen our unity. And while we must try and do things well, success is not so important, that’s one big mistake in the joke I told you at the beginning of this sermon: “This is Heaven and up here, we are interested in results.” The only results that heaven is interested in is in our and the world’s transformation, and more often than not that happens when we make a mistake or do something wrong. Because that is when we can experience what we are commissioned to explain, the meaning of God’s revelation in Christ, which is love, reconciliation, and forgiveness. That’s also when we can show to the world what our faith means, in our willingness to seek reconciliation and in our love for one another. After all the best way of teaching others to live lives worthy of Jesus’ name is to show them what these lives look like.

Amen