The Confession of St Peter – January 18, 2015
Acts 4:8-13; Psalm 18:1-7, 17-20; 1 Corinthians 10:1-5,
Matthew 16:13-19
St
Stephen Lutheran Church
The
Rev. Maurice C. Frontz III, STS
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
CHURCH UNITY IS NOT ABOUT BEING NICE!!!
I'll
say that again.
Church
unity is not about being nice!
Nor
is any unity, when you come to think about it.
Unity
is built upon something.
It
can be built upon parent-child relationships.
It
can be built upon vows of mutual love and support
between
a wife and a husband.
It
can be built among a community of people
with
shared history, shared ideals, shared goals, shared values.
But
it cannot be built upon being nice.
Not
that it's okay to be mean.
But
being nice is not just good enough for unity.
And
this is especially true of the unity of the church.
The
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins today.
As
someone who was married to a Roman Catholic,
and
as someone who has many friends from other Christian communities,
and
as someone who loves the Church,
I
have made ecumenical relationships and cooperation
a
significant part of my ministry.
When
I was in Williamsport, I served for ten years
on
the Board of the United Churches of Lycoming County,
and
for a few years I served as President of the Board.
I
have attended Orthodox vespers, Roman Catholic masses,
ecumenical
worship services in many churches.
So
I have a stake in the visible unity of the Church,
and
I long for it.
On
the other hand,
I
am part of the brokenness of the Church,
and
I have actively contributed to that brokenness.
In
2012, I left the ordained ministry
of
the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
to
become a pastor in the new North American Lutheran Church,
which
broke off from the ELCA in 2010.
Granted,
part of this was a matter of convenience.
I
needed a call, you as an NALC congregation were offering a call,
and
we both felt good about each other.
But
there was more than that.
I
was not convinced that the ELCA was a unified church anymore.
We
were teaching too many different things at the same time.
We
could not interpret Scripture or our Lutheran Confessions together.
We
had put ourselves in a position where certain pastors of the church
would
be glad to speak God's blessing over a same-sex union
and
certain pastors of the church would not.
If
you've got some pastors saying 'blessed' and some saying 'not blessed,
who
can you trust about what God blesses?
But
perhaps most importantly,
I
was concerned that the truth of the Gospel was in jeopardy,
I
am not saying that my colleagues were evil people,
or
even that there were no Christians among them.
Far
from it!
But
there were certain pastors and congregations
and
even bishops who were saying things about God
which
were completely contrary to the Bible, the Creeds,
and
the Lutheran Confessions.
I'm
not going to go into the details,
but
there are plenty of them.
We
who objected were often told
that
we were 'intolerant' and not acting in the spirit of 'inclusivity,'
that
we were 'literalists' and 'fundamentalists' and 'hate-filled.'
And
so I was willing to embrace disunity with the ELCA
for
the sake of the unity of the Church.
That
is absolutely nonsensical and utterly stupid
unless
you believe that church unity is not about being 'nice.'
Unity
has to be built on something.
Something
solid.
And
so what constitutes the unity of the Church?
Jesus
is walking with the disciples,
and
he asks them, 'Who do people say that I am?'
And
they report what the people say,
that
Jesus is a prophet, someone who speaks God's word.
Some
identify him with John the Baptist,
some
with Jeremiah, some with Elijah.
But
then he asks them something far different.
'Who
do YOU say that I am?'
We
can only imagine how the disciples felt at that moment.
They
had been walking in Jesus' dust,
tramping
after him all through Galilee
and
into the region of Tyre and Sidon
and
now following him to Caesarea Philippi,
and
they finally were confronted with the question
which
they must have been asking themselves from the beginning:
Who is this man?
Is
he a teacher, a prophet, a faith-healer,
a
social reformer, a moral example, an all-around nice guy?
Or
is he something more than all of these?
Is
he the someone that Israel, and yes, the world,
had
been hoping for all of these years?
Is
he God himself come to save his people?
For
a moment, no one speaks.
And
then Simon Peter says,
'You
are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.'
Bold
Peter, impetuous Peter,
Peter
who tried to walk on water like his Lord,
Peter
who promised to die with Jesus
and
then denied him three times in the courtyard;
it
is upon his confession that the unity of the Church is built.
'You
are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.'
These
words of an uneducated fisherman
constitute
the unity of the Church;
they
are the rock upon which the One Church is built.
This
is the word which the Church preaches about the Word himself,
the
word about the Word in which we put our faith.
If
Jesus is a prophet, a social reformer,
a
moral example, or just an all-around nice guy,
he
is of no help to us.
We
can follow his teaching,
but
we have no assurance that God helps us or saves us or forgives us.
But
if he is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God,
then
we know who God is, because he reveals himself to us.
The
Church is the community that confesses with Peter
that
Jesus is the Messiah and Son of the Living God.
This
confession living in people
constitutes
the unity of the Church.
The
Creeds of the Church
confess
this faith while preserving it from error.
'We
believe in one God,
the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.'
We
are one with all who confess this, whether living or dead.
So
I am in union with Peter, and with St Augustine,
and
with Martin Luther, and all the forgotten anonymous Christians
who
staked their lives to Jesus the Messiah.
It
is why I am in union with Pope Francis,
and
with Bishop Bradosky,
and
with the LCMS,
and
with the Orthodox priest down the street,
and
with the Presbyterians
and
the Bible churches (at least those who agree with the Creeds).
And
yes, I'm also in union with the many, many, and perhaps most in the ELCA,
pastors,
bishops, laypeople,
who
have the confession living in them.
We
are one with all who confess the name of Jesus.
But then why so much disunity in the Church?
Why
can't we commune among other people who also confess Christ?
Why
different denominations and even different denominations with the same name?
Why
lots of church buildings on one street rather than one big one?
Well,
the simple answer is sin,
and
we can point to a lot of symptoms of that disease;
racism,
doctrinal differences, cultural differences,
historical
distrust, worship wars,
and
maybe just people who plain don't like each other.
But
another way to think about it is this:
Only
people who share a basic unity
can
argue with each other about
what unity means.
Only
people who are agreed on the basics
can
fight about different interpretations.
And
so, in a way,
the
disunity which presents itself
can
indeed be a sign of unity.
Sounds
weird, huh?
But
I think it's true.
'Church
unity is not about being nice.'
That
applies to congregational life as well.
I
think this congregation is a very nice one,
and
I treasure that.
We
call ourselves a 'faith family,'
and
I feel that.
But
the faith family is not based on our being nice.
It's
not only our union with other denominations,
but
our union within this congregation
that
is built on the confession of Christ.
We
accept people into this congregation
not
based upon whether or not they're nice
or
whether we feel nice towards them,
but
based upon their confession of the Creed.
We
share the peace with each other
and
we're not saying, 'Hey, I like you,'
but,
'I recognize you as a brother or sister,
because
Christ has redeemed us both.'
Sometimes
I can be annoying.
Sometimes
some of you can be annoying.
But
we are called to love each other and serve each other
because
Christ Jesus has loved and served all of us.
And
so, as the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity comes around again,
we
pray.
We
pray that the Church would be made one
not
simply into big organizations,
but
as believers living in the one confession
which
Saint Peter made:
that
this Jesus of Nazareth
is
the anointed one of God, the Son of the living God,
the
one who brings salvation to human beings.
And
let the people of God say,
Amen.
