August 24, 2008
Pr. Robert Goldstein

Jesus is in Caesarea Philippi, a region full of all kinds of religious communities and trends. Jesus is quite interested in what his disciples think of him. This is not vanity but part of preparing his disciples for his radical messiahship and their role in its consequences. We find, however, their answers reflect a more Jewish slice of their times. But miraculously, perhaps to Jesus' surprise, Peter gets it right. "You are the Messiah of the Living God." Translated this means "You are the one chosen by the Living God, that is, chosen by the God of Israel in a world of gods and idols." This is progress and Jesus recognizes Peter's gift for catching on relatively quickly -a real leadership quality.

Being a member of St. Francis puts us also into situations where people want to know who Jesus is for us. Peter's answer would probably not be helpful for our neighbors given the heretical abuse of this language by the religious right wing. To talk of a Messiah would cause polite alarm. But we are in our Caesarea Philippi. In our times the religious right's obsession with the Rapture is an obsession with a heresy because it distracts us from creation -the beauty and goodness of creation in the midst of evil; distracting us from compassion, forgiveness, care of the environment and above all, openness to grace. To live for Jesus to return and burn up this earth to create a new one for the elect alone is a distortion both of the Bible and who Jesus is. It contradicts the doctrine of the providence of God the Creator. We too are in our Caesarea Philippi.

How can I speak so confidently? There are so many religions of Jesus, so many other religions and so many people who claim to be spiritual but not religious. Well, I believe we ought to be thankful, not fearful, of the great diversity of the many, many peoples of God. They are a gift to the whole world. Staying within the realm of all the Jesus communities, we can say that we do not know everything. After all Peter only understood so far. When Jesus goes on to radically redefine the Messiah as full of paradoxes -in weakness is my power, in death victory for life, this is a great shock to Peter. He didn't know everything then and he didn't know everything in his later leadership of the early church.

We can say further that every Jesus community that lives out the Trinity is part of the family. And like every family each member is unique and even quite different and yet part of the family. To live out of the Trinity means to live in a way that confesses wonder at Creation, to live in a way that shows our lives are graced by a Spirit of humility, forgiveness, compassion and a vision for justice as Jesus lived. But in our Caesarea Philippi a prevailing opinion is that one is not a believer in organized religion. There was one pastor who responded, "Well. You should join the Lutheran Church because we are not very organized at all."

An even more challenging variation around us is, "Well, I am spiritual but not religious." I do not mock either of these prevailing reasons for not joining a church, synagogue, mosque or temple. In fact I try to learn from them. Yet it is our Gospel reading that gives us direction on these issues.

In the same breath as blessing Simon Peter son of Jonah for receiving the gift of an accurate interpretation of part of Jesus' life and significance, Jesus goes on to say, "You are a rock and on this Rock I will build my church," for the word "Peter" is actually the word for "rock" as in "Rock Hudson" and "petroleum" (rock oil) and "petrified" as you are sometimes with my sermons. This means that while Peter's faith is a deeply personal experience it is also a communal one. Christ is aware of this at the very moment Peter shows such insight and leadership.

We are all spiritual and, whether we are all religious, when two of us get together in any relationship we are a community of two, a polis as the Greeks would say, a political reality. And the proof is this: as a couple of any kind, how are decisions made and who decides how the money is spent? Does someone take the lead in one or both? We all know how awkward it gets when no one wants to decide on these things. In other words polis, community, is built into Creation, into humans and in all creatures. Jesus' community would be built on forgiveness of wrongs and compassion for rights. Jesus' community would be a people of a killed and resurrected Messiah. And as a community they would need leaders. Jesus was thinking about that probably before Peter makes his confession in the Gospel today. So the Jesus community has to organize to function. It has to select in the spirit from amongst itself leaders and train and ordain them to interpret Scripture. Lay leaders are called from our ranks. All so Christ can be proclaimed in and beyond the church community.

Right now it is trendy to be spiritual but not religious. And there are a lot of historical reasons for this -including the modern world's distortion of humanity into isolated individuals, not to mention the terrible abuse from church structures that have killed the Spirit and the human spirit. But Christ linked growing spirituality in Peter with community and leadership in that community. We would do well to humbly welcome the strangers to our church, to learn of God from them for they often have much to teach us, and to pray for the grace of Jesus' Spirit so we can be freed to live a little more like him, and, if he calls us, to lead God's people in this place. Good job leaders! Good job followers! Amen