THE WORDS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

Matthew 16: 13-20

A single man decided life would be more fun if he had a pet. He went to a local pet store and told the store owner that he wanted to buy an unusual one. After some discussion, he finally bought a talking centipede. The centipede came with a little white box to use for his house. He took the box back home, found a good spot for it, and decided he would start off by taking his new pet to church! So he asked his new friend: “Would you like to go to church with me today? We will have a good time!” There was no answer. This bothered him a bit, but he waited a few minutes and asked again: “How about going to church with me? There are many blessing to attending!” Again there was no answer from his new friend. A bit concerned and a bit annoyed, he waited just a brief time more and finally, put his face up to the front of the centipede’s little white house and said in a much louder voice: “Hey in there! Would you like to go to church with me and learn about God?” This time he received this answer:
”I heard you the first time! I’m puttin’ my shoes on!

From the beginning of the organized church, people have been inviting others to church, or to a Christian revival, or up for an altar call, or to other rallies or services so that they might accept Jesus Christ as Lord. Some did it with great zeal. And some got famous for doing it. We heard a lot about Ames, Iowa last week, but on November 18, 1862, the news from Ames was that William Ashley Sunday was born. When he was old enough, he played professional baseball with the team then known as the Chicago Whitestockings. Athletics dominated his life until he “found another calling under the preaching of Henry Monroe of the Pacific Garden Mission. In 1886, he became a Christian.” [Actually, a Presbyterian Christian.]
”His conversion altered his entire life. He gave up drinking, swearing, gambling, and going to theatres, and he refused to play baseball again on Sundays. He began delivering sermons as a lay preacher. He resigned his $5000 a year salary as a baseball player and took a job for $83.33 a month with the Y.M.C.A.” [TWENTY CENTURIES OF GREAT PREACHING, Clyde E. Fant, Jr. and William M. Pinson, Jr. Editors. Word Books, 1971, Vol. Seven, p. 218.] Billy Sunday (appropriately named, as it turns out) began to fashion his evangelism style after the most flamboyant people he had seen. As he preached he drew larger and larger crowds, finally being ordained as a minister. But his goal was the key: it was for those in the crowd to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. He was an arch conservative, and a showman, but God called him to rescue the perishing, and rescue them he did, through his convincing words and the conviction of God’s Spirit.

Another famous evangelist is alive even today; he was another one who urged people to connect with a church after, or as, they accepted Christ. William Franklin Graham was born in Charlotte North Carolina. Although at one point a Presbyterian, most of the churches where he preached were Southern Baptist as people were drawn to Christ through him. When he was younger and felt called to preach, Billy Graham “wrote his father and mother [saying] that God had called him to preach. But he lacked confidence. In order to improve his delivery, he went into the nearby swamps and preached to the stumps, alligators, and darkness. When he began receiving invitations to preach to people, he did it with fervent fluency.” [ Fant, Vol. Twelve, p. 283] Whether was Billy Sunday, or Billy Graham, or evangelists by other names, by definition they bring people to Christ. Perhaps the first evangelist had the showmanship of Billy Sunday and the fervency of Billy Graham. His name was John, sometimes called “The Baptist.” He was fervent, he was self-neglecting, he was unpredictable, and he expected people to believe what he preached. One day as he was walking, he saw Jesus and said to the crowd that followed him “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is he of whom I said ‘after me comes a man who ranks before me, for he was before me.’” (John 1: 29-30) John was calling people to follow Jesus, not just because he was a good man—for there were then, and have been—other good men and women through the centuries. Nor was it just because Jesus was a good teacher—rabbi they called him—for certainly there are other good teachers through the centuries. No; this evangelism sermon was different: it was for lost, oppressed, and searching people to be, for the first time, connected to the only mortal to be called by this title: “The Lamb of God.”

Jesus himself was less of a showman than Billy Sunday; but he was a greater preacher than even Billy Graham in his own way, and he was not as uncivilized as his John had become. One day Jesus decided to have a retreat of sorts with his closest disciples. From the area of Galilee –which was where he grew up but was also where Herod Antipas sought to silence him—Jesus took his disciples north-northeast, into the area where Herod Philip ruled: a man much more accepting of a cosmopolitan culture. There in Caesarea Philippi, he most likely stopped at a place which superstitious persons, and even religious persons, would usually avoid: a cavern of sorts that went deep into the ground. On occasion water, fire, or steam would spew from the entrance and the locals called it the “Gates of Hades.” It was thought to be the entrance to the underworld. It was there that Jesus, with that cave perhaps just over his shoulder, preached his brief sermon that along with the cross, was one of the cornerstone events of Christianity. He began his sermon with a question: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Of course he is referring to himself but he famously uses this third person title. “Who do they say I am?” Almost like a person saying that a theologian is as good as John Calvin, or Martin Luther, or John Wesley or Martin Luther King, people through the ages have compared others to their favorite leaders. Likewise, in the holy huddle at Caesarea Philippi, Jesus’ disciples named some of the leaders who influenced them most too. One said Elijah, one said John the Baptist, one said Jeremiah, and others lifted up other names. This was a perfect set up for the Master. Perhaps he didn’t move a muscle, as his usually kind eyes turned into a piercing gaze: “And who do you say that I am?” That’s it; the fulcrum of the faith; either you believe Jesus is the Christ—the Messiah—or he’s something else to you. You cannot be lukewarm, you cannot follow him because of his charisma or his lessons or his miracles. He can only be the Lamb of God-an image of substitutionary sacrifice-if you call him Christ. So he asks the question: “Who do you say that I am?” Was there a hush in the crowd? Did grown men shuffle their feet and look down? Or did Simon Peter just blurt out his famous answer: “You are the Christ (Messiah), the Son of the Living God!” Wow; he added more information than Jesus even asked! Then Jesus calls him by his given name, like we do in a baptism: “Blessed are you Simon bar (son of) Jonah!” But he is quick to credit Simon not with being perfect or holy or better than the others. He credits him with being receptive. The Father in heaven wanted that to be known, and one man-Simon- perhaps in his prayers the night before, heard what God wanted him to hear. And that day was the time to proclaim it. It was a big deal. Jesus gave him a nickname Peter, or Cephas, both of which mean something like “Rock.” Then with his play on words he says, “I will call you ‘Rock’ because it is on that ‘rock’ that I will build my church.” Certainly Roman Catholics think the “rock” is Peter so they treat him as the first Pope and named their mother church St. Peter’s. Certainly Protestants think Jesus meant that he would build his church on the confession that Peter proclaimed more than on Peter himself—a man who was headstrong, mistake-ridden, and destined to try his master’s soul the night before the cross. You decide what you believe. But then Jesus said he would give Peter the keys to the kingdom. Pastor Jin S. Kim has an interesting perspective on this passage saying: “Many of us are nervous when our children are first given keys to drive a vehicle capable of going 100 mph at the age of sixteen. Do they have the maturity to handle the responsibility? We might ask the same about Jesus giving Peter the keys to the kingdom. If we look at Peter’s track record prior to and after this event … he is constantly missing the point and often talks before he thinks…. How does one give the keys to the kingdom of heaven and build the church upon someone so unstable? Clearly Peter’s authority is not based on his rightness or righteousness.” [FEASTING ON THE WORD, WJK, Year A, Vol. 3, p. 381-382.]

Most have concluded that the keys are given because Simon Peter was the first to say and believe what Jesus hoped the other 11 would say and believe eventually. I imagine that Jesus also hoped others in Galilee would begin to believe it and that people through the ages would believe it, and eventually, that you and I would believe it. Why? Because it saves us. That is his purpose, and his urgency: to get others to see whom his Father had sent, and to see him for whom he is.

All through the ages, this has been the point of church invitations, and altar calls, and endless verses of “Just as I am” and “Amazing Grace.” It has been a time for people with remorse to lay aside the world’s vices, as Billy Sunday did, and to move God from the edge of their lives to the center of it; and to believe that there is no way that just being smart, or good, or kind is enough for the Father to drop keys into your hand. To get the keys to life abundant, the scales will need to fall from our eyes and you will know that you need Christ. Such a step can make a cold heart come to life again. Who do you say that he is? People who have said yes to Christ know the urgency of spreading the good news to others. With the yawning gates of Hades behind him, Jesus gave his disciples a choice. One got the kingdom keys because of his choice. Today he’s asking you. What will you get with yours choice?

Let us pray:

Dear Jesus: today it is as if you are with another group of people you love. This time some are already believers, some are seekers, and some are just bystanders. You point to places in the world, and say to us: “the gates of hell.” Then you ask us to choose; or to choose again. To those who choose you, they find the gates of heaven instead. What will people choose? Whom will people choose? Now is the time for decision and devotion. Hear the words of our hearts, O Lord, either blurted out, or whispered softly. We are glad for your presence. Hear our prayer, dear Jesus. Amen.

Jeffrey A. Sumner August 21, 2011