Sermon – Pentecost XVI –
August 31, 2008
+In the Name….
“But he turned and said to
Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me; for you are
not on the side of God, but of men’” (St. Matthew 16: 23).
My, how things can change,
and so quickly. Last Sunday we heard of the great confession of St.
Peter as he responded to the question of Jesus to the Apostles, “…who
do you say that I am?” You will remember that it was Peter who replied,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” “And Jesus answered
him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon-Barjona! For flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but my Father who is heaven.’” And then added,
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church…”
Impetuous and passionate Peter
was the Apostle to first confess Christ, and he made this confession
because God the Father had given him this true knowledge. Obviously,
he was a man open to divine inspiration at a very critical time; and
on the heels of this confession came his name change by Jesus from Simon
to Peter (Petros), the word for “rock.” And upon Peter the Rock
Jesus stated that His church would be built with Peter holding the keys
of binding and loosing.
Immediately after this, we
read this morning, “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders
and chief priests and scribes, be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Jesus here was defining for the disciples what defined “the Christ,
the Son of the living God.” In other words, what “Christhood”
meant and contained – going into the thick of the battle at Jerusalem,
suffering many things, being killed, and rising from the dead.
Jesus didn’t waste a moment
to make it clear to the disciples what constituted and what the inescapable
ingredients were for His mission as the Christ, the anointed One.
And immediately Jesus hears
from Peter, who we’re told “took him and began to rebuke him, saying,
‘God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.’”
Peter’s exclamation was a
declaration of care, concern, shock, and an implied position of defense.
It was also a reaction to the first three quarters of what Jesus had
said, not hearing or believing that last quarter, “…and on the third
day be raised.” Certainly we can understand the basis of Peter’s
response to what Jesus said. But there was something else going on,
and this was the basis for Jesus harsh and even shocking statement to
Peter,
Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance (stumbling block) to me; for
you are not on the side of God, but of men.”
From blessing to curse, from
the Rock to the stumbling block in a matters of minutes. What happened?
What the hell happened? Hell. That’s what happened. After all, Jesus
did call Peter, “Satan.”
Hell happened when the Jesus-named
Rock and the Father-led Confessor stepped away from divine pronouncement
and out of divine inspiration because of fear, misunderstanding, and
the possession of less than the full truth. It happened to Peter, and
it can happen to us.
When a follower of Jesus removes
himself from the Lord’s calling (whatever that particular calling
is), he falls into Hell – which (sparing the physical and cosmological
definition of that place) IS that point and place when we have separated
ourselves from God – for a moment, a day, days, or for a longer period
of time.
We all sin, and fall short
of God’s will for us. We do it quite often, but here is a vivid example
of the dereliction of Peter from our Lord’s teaching, “To him who
has been given much, much is required.” And it happened to Peter
because of fear, misunderstanding, and his possession of less than the
full truth. It can happen to us.
In the life of the Church,
fear, misunderstanding, and possession of partial truth breeds gossip,
suspicion, accusation, conjectures, and false judgments. Relationships
become strained and trust is weakened, and the Body of Christ and its
members suffer – those whose fear, misunderstanding, and possession
of less than the full truth is separating themselves from God and those
who are on the receiving end of this separation.
This is why when we sin; we
are not to make excuses, and we are to remind ourselves of our Lord’s
words to the Pharisees who were set on stoning the adulterous woman,
“He who is without sin, let him cast the first stone.” We are to
do a bit of mature self-examination. We all have been given and are
given much from God, and much is required from us by God. We are to
listen to our conscience which is that God-given gyroscope that is there
to keep us right with God and others. The Holy Spirit which dwells within
us is to be listened to and claimed as the third person of the Trinity
who Jesus taught “leads us into all truth.”
We know that Peter did not
remain in the grip of Satan. Yes, gripped with fear He did later deny
His Lord three times; but he moved out of that by God’s grace to shoulder
the mantle as the leader of the Apostles, gave the Pentecost sermon
when over three thousand souls were converted to Christ, suffered persecution,
beatings, and imprisonment, said to the religious authorities, “We
must obey God rather than men,” performed miracles, and was crucified
for His obedience to Jesus - upside down in humility and reverent deference
to the death of the Lord.
In and through the Church,
the Body of Christ, we are presented with the truth of the consequences
of sin and separation from God; and we are presented with the truth
and necessity of contrition, repentance, and absolution. We are to accept
both as gifts from a loving God whose will is that “all men be saved
and come to the knowledge of the truth (I Timothy 2:4).
Holy Peter, pray for us that
we like you when stepping into Hell may, by the grace of God, step out
and forward to hold fast to Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living
God.
+In the Name…
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