Sermon Title: “What Do You Believe?”

Sermon Text: Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon Date: August 23, 2009

¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"

¹⁴ They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

¹⁵ "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

¹⁷ Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of death will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." ²⁰ Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

NOTE TO SELF: If someone asked you what you believe, is your answer on the tip of your tongue or in the back of your throat?

MESSAGE

In her book “Seeds of Heaven,” Barbara Brown Taylor tells the story of a woman walking out of her church after a particularly rousing Sunday service and bumping into a thin, sort of lost-looking man who was standing on the sidewalk looking up at the cross on top of the church steeple. She excused herself and started to walk away, but the man called her back. “Tell me,” he said, pointing through the front doors into the church she had belonged to most of her life, “What is it that you believe in there?”

She started to answer him and then realized that she did not know the answer, or did not know how to put it into words, and as she stood there trying to compose something the man said, “Never mind, I’m sorry if I bothered you,” and walked away. (“Seeds of Heaven,” p. 70)

How would you have handled that? Do you have an answer? Is it on the tip of your tongue ……or in the back of your throat? Is your answer ready to leap out of you or is it gagging you?

Brown Taylor goes onto say in her sermon that in this passage, Jesus is the man asking the question, “What do you believe in there?”

“He and his disciples have just come into the district of Caesarea Philippi trailing miracles behind them: feeding of the four and five thousand, calming the storm at sea, curing the Canaanite woman’s daughter, among many others. But Jesus has not just been healing; he has been teaching as well, lessons about obedience to the law and about the differences between words and deeds and about reading the signs of the times. (p. 70)

“Every now and then he quizzes his disciples to see how much they are taking in, to see how well they have understood him and he does not hide his displeasure at their consistently how scores. In the verses before the ones we have before us, he warns them to be on guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Eager to please, they put their literal fishermen’s heads together and decide Jesus is talking about bread. “We brought no bread,” one of them says, and Jesus explodes. “O men of little faith,” he says, “why do you discuss among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?.....How is it that you fail to perceive that I did not speak about bread?” (Matthew 16:8-11) (p. 70)

I have to tell you that this reminds me of the story about the children’s moment when the pastor asks the kids what has a long tail and stores food for the winter. They just sit and look at her until one kid finally says, “Well, it sounds like a squirrel but I know the right answer is Jesus.”

They are nervous, like those kids. We are supposed to know the answer, right? “How is it that you don’t grasp that I’m not really talking about bread here?”

Then he asks the other question, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They are relieved, like the kids would have been if they could have “seen” the story for what it was. This is a question we can answer! “Some say John the Baptist is the Son of Man.” “Elijah!” “Jeremiah!” “Or one of the prophets!” Then Jesus looks at Peter who has probably figured out by now that none of those answers were right or he wouldn’t be asking him point blank and Peter takes a shot and goes for you. “It’s you. You are the Messiah.”

Peter once again to the rescue. Peter who charges in where angels fear to tread. Peter who was the first to leave his fishing business and join the flock. First out of the boat to walk on water. First with an opinion. We can argue whether he is courageous or foolhardy but he is the one Jesus is looking for and in that moment, he gets the keys to the city or the kingdom of heaven. Peter is given authority and power to lead the merry band of believers when Jesus is gone.

Brown Taylor points out something else in the story, something the others might have been thinking here: Didn’t Peter sink in the middle of the walk across the water? Hmmm. And in about six sentences Peter is going to tell Jesus not to talk about his death and Jesus practically calls him Satan – “Get behind me, Satan. You are a stumbling block in my path.”

Yeah, this is the same guy who just got the keys. Was called Petros, the rock on which the church of Jesus Christ would be built. The one who is going to even deny that he knows Jesus in the last days. Yeah, this is the same Petros.

Last week I spoke about second chances. How the Samaritan woman at the well was given one. How the woman from Canaan was, in a way, given one. How convicted felons who serve their time and get out of prison should be given one. Not because we necessarily do anything to deserve them, but because through the grace of God Jesus brings them to us. And obviously Peter got a second chance and a fifteenth chance.

Petros, his new name, means a stone or a pebble, a small piece of the larger rock. Petra means a boulder, a mother lode, a great big rock which seems to make Peter a chip off the old block, a piece of the rock, against which the powers of death cannot prevail. (p. 73)

I mentioned my friend David in last week’s sermon who was the one who brought up that none of us actually “deserve” second chances but God’s grace gives them to us.

I knew David in high school as he and my boyfriend ran around together. After we girls were taken home at curfew, the guys went to David’s for poker, cigarettes and probably beer. The last time I saw him was in the late 70s and he owned a night club in Philadelphia. Since then he has lost everything, was homeless in Florida, found his way to Jesus, married and seems very, very happy.

He has a passion for helping people to manage their finances.

What I’ve come to understand about David in the past few weeks that we have been renewing our friendship, is that about the only thing we agree on is that we both love Jesus. Politically and theologically, we are about on opposite poles.

Yet I’ve come to appreciate that his passions for Jesus and the way he understands God comes from a different place than mine. Similar and yet different.

What David knows today is that even when he stumbles, even when he doesn’t understand, God still can use him and does. Just like Peter. Just like Peter.

As Jesus’ life on earth is drawing to an end, Peter finds himself in a situation where he fears for his own life. “Aren’t you that guy who was with Jesus?”

“No, that wasn’t me.” Three times he said that. Three times he, Petros who once walked on water with Jesus, who offered to die for him, denied that he even knew him.

“What do you believe?” The answer was gagging him. And the coward in him ran.

Then Jesus died and Petros was left with his guilt and remorse.

I’ve often wondered about the differences between Judas who betrayed Jesus to the authorities and Peter who betrayed Jesus by refusing to acknowledge he was a follower. Why did Judas commit suicide and Peter became the leader of the church? Why Peter who betrayed Jesus too, found the will to live and Judas committed suicide? I will let you try to figure that out on your own but I believe that if he had lived, Jesus would have given him a second chance too. Like he did Peter.

Peter’s second chance comes in the last chapter of John (Seeds of Heaven sermon inspired this too) and is the passage that drew me into ministry.

I had just lost my job at Mayflower Corporation and was trying to figure out what to do next when this chapter in John jumped at me. (

Jesus has appeared to the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. They have been fishing but haven’t found any when Jesus, on the shore, calls out to them put their nets on the other side of the boat. They did and hauled in 153 of them. In a flash, John recognizes Jesus and Peter jumped into the water to reach him first. (I still wonder who did the counting when Jesus was there in front of them.)

When they arrived they saw that Jesus had a fire going and he fried them some fish. While they sat around the fire, eating the fish, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him. Three times Peter said yes. Three times Jesus says “take care of my people.” Scripture says “sheep” but those sheep are us.

Jesus left Peter with an awesome responsibility – to teach us, to care for us, to lead us, knowing full well that Peter was a flawed human being. But he was a flawed human being who had answers…..answers of faith, answers of courage, answers that took risks.

Once Peter was gagging at the question, “Weren’t you with that man?” But later he found it on the tip of his tongue….”Yes, you know I love you.”

Find your answer for you never know when Jesus may be asking you.