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The Second Sunday After The Epiphany
God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that thy people, illumined by thy Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that he may be known, worshiped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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The Second Sunday After The Epiphany
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Scripture citation(s): Matthew 16:13-19
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Matthew 16:13-19
✛
The Confession of Saint Peter
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In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins with the feast of the Confession of Saint Peter, which falls this year on Sunday, and ends with the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, which is next Sunday. It has been the custom at Saint Thomas to invite a distinguished preacher from another Christian tradition to preach on Sunday during this week – which will occur next Sunday, when the Rev’d Dr. Richard Reifsnyder, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Winchester, Virginia, will preach at both 11 and 4 for the Conversion of Saint Paul.
Today we have the other great apostle, actually the chief apostle, who is traditionally paired with Saint Paul, the two of them having wound up in Rome, where they were both martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ and their leadership of the Church. There is so much that we could say about Saint Peter, for there is a great deal about him in the Gospels, and he is a sympathetic character, a representative person, with whom Christians have identified for two millennia.
Today, and for today’s feast, we are directed to the scene in Saint Matthew’s Gospel at Caesarea Philippi, far to the north, at the foot of Mount Hermon in Lebanon and in pagan territory beyond Israel and even Galilee. Jesus withdrew there with his disciples from the clamor of the crowds thronging around him for an interval of peace and reflection, a retreat. “Who do men say that the Son of man is?” he asked. “Son of man” was his favorite and most frequent self-designation. “Son of man” affirms Jesus’ complete solidarity with our humanity, but his question implies another dimension. He poses the question not out of curiosity, but rather to hear from his inner circle of followers who they think he is, in distinction from who people outside his discipleship say he is.
The responses, John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or one of the old prophets redivivus, do not include what Jesus’ enemies said he was (a man possessed, a law-breaker and blasphemer, a glutton and drunkard and consorter with sinners, an imposter). “But who do you say that I am?” he then asks. Here is when Peter, speaking for them all, says “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
This is the true Confession of Saint Peter. It makes him the true spokesman for the other apostles and the whole Church. Simon Bar-Jona’s (the son of John) nickname, Cephas, Peter, given by Jesus means Rock. As Peter makes his Confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, he takes on his calling to be that Rock and the chief of the apostles. Here there is no difference between Evangelical and Catholic, between Roman and Reformed, between East and West.
Jesus says that Peter’s Confession does not arise from human insight, but rather is an epiphany, a revelation: Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven! Then Jesus unfolds the blessing: You are Peter, and on this Rock I build my Church, and the gates of hell (the powers of death) shall not prevail against it. And I give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. This is the bedrock of the Church, the power of the Church, stemming directly from the Lord as he confers his authority to the Church through Peter’s faithful Confession. You will see that authority exercised this morning, as we invoke the Holy Trinity over the preaching of the Word, as we hear the words of absolution before the peace, as we hear the words of consecration over bread and wine: This is my Body; this is my Blood. Speaking of this power in the Church’s priesthood, George Herbert writes, “Blest Order, which in power dost so excell, / That with th’ one hand thou liftest to the sky, / And with the other throwest down to hell…” ¹
This is the ground the Church stands on, the strength of her life. It is why, when we extend greetings at services here, we do so in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are not shy or tongue-tied with that life-saving Name at Saint Thomas Church.
To be sure there is more. Peter himself had to learn it. He had to learn the cross. Christ did not come to conquer in the usual, expected way. When Jesus, at the very same retreat at Caesarea Philippi, went on to predict his crucifixion; when Peter rebuked him for saying such a thing; then Jesus said, “Get behind me, Satan; you are not on God’s side but man’s.” Peter, despite his protests to the contrary, would deny Jesus in the clinch of his Passion. Peter would have to be converted after the cross and resurrection of his Lord. Peter would make yet another Confession, repeated three times to the risen Lord; namely, that he loved the Lord and would shepherd the Church and follow him – to his own crucifixion, in due course, in Rome itself.
All power, all authenticity in the Church depends upon the true Confession of Saint Peter, upon the full acknowledgement of Jesus Christ our Lord and God. The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord. All power, all authenticity in the Church declares his Lordship and enters into the mystery of the Lord’s passion and death, his crucifixion and resurrection. We can settle for nothing less, ever. The more we focus on this one foundation of the whole Church, the more genuine, the more powerful is one’s life as a follower of Christ and the more genuine, the more powerful is a congregation, a Church.
Confess Jesus Christ, and take up your cross and follow him! This means death to a whole way of life, you know – a very death to selfishness and all forms of self-seeking. The person who concentrates on his own selfish concerns has in fact lost his life in the deepest and fullest sense. He exists superficially, but he does not live. On the other hand, the person who confesses and follows Christ (as Saint Peter did in the end) counts everything well lost for Christ’s sake. That person devotes his time to serving Jesus and other people for the Lord’s sake – and that person, in so losing his life on the surface, has found his life, deeply, fully, and eternally, here and now and on the other side of death.² “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
__________
¹George Herbert, The Priesthood.
²These interpretations of Saint Matthew 16:20ff are in Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew, p. 431.
