Who is like God?

Who is like God?

This is the feast of Saint Michael and all angels. The name Michael comes from this Hebrew question: who is like God?

And the first answer to this question is “No one.” No one is like God: God stands alone. There is no other who is creator of the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in it. There is no other who created, redeemed, and sustains humankind.

No one is like God. God alone is our rock and our salvation. But our mind wanders from this first answer, and the image of St. Michael, the archangel that fights the powers of evil, brings to mind another answer to this question: The angels are like God.

Indeed, the image of angels draws our mind to contemplate God. In his dream, Jacob saw the angels going up and down the ladder, the stairway to heaven, and knew he was in the presence of the divine. When Jesus conveyed to Nathanael that he would see extraordinary things, he said “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Jesus invoked the image of the angels ascending and descending to tell Nathanael that he would see things he had never seen before. The image of the angels in this story tells us that something beyond ordinary human experience is going on here.

The angels are otherworldly, preternatural. The scriptural images of them fall into two categories: first, praising God, showing us just how highly exalted God is, that an entire cohort beyond our ordinary experience exists just to praise God.

To the extent that the angels are “like God” — powerful, otherworldly, transcendent — they draw attention to the greatness of God in that however much the angels are like God in comparison to us, God is greater still. The angels help us to contemplate the greatness of God.

The lesson from Revelation alongside today’s collect evokes a second function of angels in scripture: to serve as proxy defenders of human kind. In the Revelation lesson, Michael defends the world from the forces of evil. We pray: Mercifully grant that as thy holy angels always serve and worship thee in heaven, so by thy appointment they may help and defend us on earth.

This collect predates the Book of Common Prayer, although Archbishop Cranmer added the phrase “by thy appointment” to make it clear that the angels help and defend us because God tells them to; in other words, they may be like God, but they are only our help and protection because God, our ultimate help and protection, so decrees.

So the angels are mighty beings that exist to worship God, and to help, protect, and serve human kind. They worship God, and serve human kind. Worship God, and serve human kind. We’ve heard that somewhere before.

Hear what our Lord Jesus saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.

But these aren’t commandments for the angels. The Law and the Prophets give the task of human kind. For the mission of the angels, to worship God completely, and to love and serve humanity, is none other than the end our own existence.

The angels remind us just how high above us they are, and how high above them God is. And yet their task is the same as ours, for we are made in the image and likeness of God. We speak of the angels to bridge the gap between the transcendence of God and the immanence of God.

So we have a third answer.

Who is like God?

When through God’s grace we live out God’s high calling for us, despite our failings and fallings from our creation in God’s image, we are like God.

May the witness of the angels and the grace of God help us to live accordingly.

Amen.

Operators are standing by

Order now! Operators are standing by. For three easy payments of just $19.99 each, you can own this box set of the 100 greatest hits of the 1980's. Call now! Don't wait another minute to make this fantastic collection yours. And if you call in the next three minutes, we'll throw in the bonus set of the 50 not-quite-greatest hits of the 1980's absolutely free. That's right, fifty more classic songs absolutely free. All you have to do is pick up your phone and order NOW, NOW, NOW! Operators are standing by.

I hate being rushed into decisions. If I'm making a purchase, I like to shop around, weigh my options, look at different products and prices, and then ponder whether I really need to make the purchase at all. I don't like to hurry to a hasty decision. And that's for something minor, like buying a new six-pack of dress socks. (I ended up getting the Target store brand ones). So Matthew's abrupt life-changing decision in today's Gospel is pretty shocking to me.

One verse. Jesus saw Matthew sitting at the tax booth. Jesus called Matthew. Matthew came. Just like that.

And let's be clear, Matthew at the tax booth wasn't some bureaucrat leaving a desk job. Matthew's job was more like being the front man in a protection racket. Matthew wasn't paid according to a civil service pay schedule; he got a percentage of whatever he could extort from his own people on behalf of the hated occupying Roman army. Walking away from the tax booth meant leaving not just his job, but also his political allegiances and likely his safety. It's not an easy job to quit. So how did Matthew do it so decisively? Is there more to this story? Perhaps our other scripture for the day can help us unpack this.

Paul's second letter to Timothy reminded him to cling to the scripture he had known from childhood that would instruct him in salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Now to be clear, the scriptures Timothy could have known as a child weren't the Gospels, or Paul's letters, which would have yet to be written, but the Hebrew scriptures. Perhaps THIS is Matthew's story. Could the scriptures of his childhood have set the stage for his sudden conversion? If anyone was in need of teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness, it would seem to be Matthew, who got rich by helping the Romans steal from the Jews. Yet all Jesus said to him was "Follow me." What sort of seeds had been planted in him, ripening from the days of his youth, that he might be so ready to be harvested when Jesus came past his tax booth?

To answer this question, we turn to the other lesson we shared today, a lesson Matthew would have known from his youth:

Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes,* and I shall keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law;* I shall keep it with all my heart.
Make me go in the path of your commandments,* for that is my desire.
Incline my heart to your decrees* and not to unjust gain.
Turn my eyes from watching what is worthless;* give me life in your ways.
Fulfill your promise to your servant,* which you make to those who fear you.
Turn away the reproach which I dread,* because your judgments are good.
Behold, I long for your commandments;* in your righteousness preserve my life.

When we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the scriptures, when we practice little steps of following Jesus in unremarkable but real ways in our lives, the seeds are growing in us. And when the acceptable time arrives when God speaks to us, on the day of salvation when God calls us to take a leap to faith and risk everything for the sake of the Kingdom of God, these seeds may come ripe in us as they did in Matthew. We, like Matthew, can cling to what we once learned and firmly believed so when Jesus says, "Follow me," all that remains is to follow immediately. No need to keep those operators standing by. Amen.

Article for the Messenger

My role in the Recycling Ministry is the simplest thing in the world. In Kit Cone’s daily Recycling Ministry newsletter, he puts out a call: someone to help with a pickup from a donor in, say, Boonton on Tuesday at 9:30 am. I check my schedule. If I can, I say, "Here I am." The truck shows up at my door. I get on. Kit drives somewhere. We move things. In contrast with my overly cerebral life as a college professor, it’s a welcome change of pace.

In the monthly Messenger column about the Recycling Ministry, you've probably become accustomed to reading stories about deliveries the Recycling Ministry has made. Lives changed. Workers on the truck profoundly moved by the poverty and gratitude they encountered. "Clients" who say the RM workers who intervened in their lives with the critically needed furniture or more must be angels. We often hear about deliveries because they are so often most obviously, as Kit Cone aptly titles them, "Moving Experiences."

The bulk of my RM experiences, and all of my recent ones, have been pickups. They’re important, of course. We can’t deliver what we don’t have. Without beds and couches and chairs and cribs and tables coming in, they can’t go out to those who so desperately need them.

Despite this critical role, it’s undeniable that there’s just far less glamour in pickups. No one says, "Now I can sleep at night because the sofa I had in my storage unit has been passed along to your warehouse" (not unless they take Luke 12:20 particularly seriously). No one says, "I never thought anyone cared enough about my family to take away our old bookshelf." No one breathes a sigh of relief that their children will now be safer at night because the crib their children have grown out of isn't in the attic anymore. Donors are genuinely glad to be able to share, and perhaps even grateful for the freed-up storage space, but, of course, it’s just not the transfiguring mountaintop experience that deliveries are.

Delivering beds to a family that has been sleeping on the floor can be transformative for both the receiving family and the workers who experience how deeply they are touched. Picking up a used mattress is unlikely to be a life-changing experience for either donor or mattress-hauler. Its quotidian nature, though, is part of its beauty.

I love working on pickups, and even more I love the less-glamorous-yet task of unloading the truck into a warehouse, or even moving things from one storage space to another. There’s something almost meditative and prayerful about the sheer mundanity of it. Much like reciting the Psalms during the Daily Office, the lack of excitement or too much thought to the process allows its sheer repetition to sink in and shape the soul. Can loading a truck be prayer?

What better way to train to be a disciple than to repeat the unremarkable motions of service until they become second nature? What better way to contemplate the presence of Christ than to toil for those of whom Jesus said whatsoever you do to the least of these you do to me? My experience of Christ’s presence when I’m kneeling at the altar rail and Christ’s presence when I’m lugging a mattress are profoundly interconnected.

The Anglican poet John Keble, whose feast we would celebrate March 29 if the date were ever available for a Lesser Feast, wrote words that seem apt for reflecting on the gift of mundane service:

If, on our daily course, our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God.

Only, O Lord, in Thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.

Panem Angelorum

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

It’s a long way from “Hosanna” to “Crucify him.”

Last Sunday, we celebrated Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We waved palm branches, and acted out the part of the crowd cheering Jesus on as he entered town. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!”

But today, again acting out the part of the crowd, we shouted, “Crucify him!”

What changed? Jesus got caught. Messiahs aren’t supposed to get arrested.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the crowds’ expectation was clear. This was not just a healer, a miracle worker coming into town for Passover. When they shouted, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!” they had something very concrete in mind.

Passover is the feast when the descendants of Jacob celebrate their liberation from slavery at the hands of a foreign king, the Pharaoh of Egypt. Passover is the feast when the children of Israel celebrate the end of their status as a subject people, and the beginning of the journey to self-rule in their own land.

Jesus’ miracles showed that he was favored by God. So when this great leader favored by God came to Jerusalem for the great feast of liberation, people thought it was time: God was about to drive the Romans out, and put a descendant of David on the throne again.

After centuries of first exile and then oppression, the Messiah was at hand to re-establish the Kingdom of Israel. This Jesus was the one. The crowds gathered in Jerusalem that Passover just knew it, so they hailed him as the coming king when he entered town.

So how then today could the crowd call for the hated Roman governor to publicly torture to death the one whom they had expected to be their military deliverer?

In the eyes of the crowd, Jesus had committed the most unthinkable of sins for a Messiah: The worst a military deliverer can do is to lead a failed uprising. Drive the Romans out and you’re almost everyone’s hero. Unsuccessfully attempt to drive the Romans out and no one wants to have anything to do with you. “Crucify him” is a message to the Roman governor: “We were just kidding when we said this guy was the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Governor Pilate, sir, we know you represent the real king. We’ve got nothing to do with this ‘coming kingdom’ bit. Don’t crucify us too.”

John’s gospel, which we heard today, paints a favorable picture of Pilate, but the historical record shows that Pilate had a well-established record for cruelty, even compared to other Roman governors. The crowds had ample reason to be afraid of him. Could his repeated offers to release Jesus have been a perverse loyalty test? A Messiah who tried and failed to overthrow Pilate was a dangerous thing indeed for the people of Jerusalem.

In the eyes of the crowd, a would-be Messiah who could be arrested was worse than no Messiah at all. A failure. The antithesis of all-powerful. How could someone represent the power of the Lord Almighty who can’t overpower a band sent to arrest him, or the the Roman guards who hold him captive?

If Pilate was offering to release their would-be Messiah to them, the message was clear: this was no Messiah. Fear won out over hope: No one could free them from the Romans who wasn’t more powerful than the Romans. No one could deliver them from Pilate’s ever-present threat of torture, death, and destruction who couldn’t defeat it personally. If this Messiah can’t stick it to the Romans, they’d better rid themselves of him, and fast, before the Romans get upset. It’s better for the Romans to torture to death this one person rather than lots of them.

If might must be toppled by greater might, if the way to overcome an army is to shock and awe them into submission with superior military force, then Jesus was an utter failure. Crucify him, Pilate, and forgive us for even thinking about backing the wrong horse here.

Where’s the good news here? A man travels around for three years proclaiming that a new kingdom is at hand, and performing signs that indicate he’s really someone out of the ordinary. He enters the holy city at the time of year they’re expecting a deliverer. The crowd hails him as the coming king. He gets arrested, the crowd realizes that he’s not unbeatable, and the occupying army tortures and kills him.

Some agent of an all-powerful god. Some “good” news.

And yet we call today Good Friday.

In today’s events, Jesus didn’t merely overthrow the Romans; he made them utterly impotent and irrelevant. Because their stock in trade for running an empire was fear, and Jesus didn’t let fear of their power to torture and kill him change his course of action. Jesus didn’t overthrow the Romans; he overthrew death itself, and in the process, negated the need to fear mere Roman armies.

Today we remember how good triumphs over evil. But there’s an awful lot of evil. Abandonment and cowardice and cruelty and pain and death are all too real, both on that Friday almost two thousand years ago and in our own day.

The crowds wanted a Messiah who would overthrow the Romans. If Jesus was taking on more than that: death itself, for instance, we’d still like a more spectacular demonstration. Because Jesus suffered, and died, and yes, he defeated death, and yes, it no longer has dominion over him, as we’ll sing on Sunday, but there’s still a lot of people suffering and dying now. If the crowds thought Jesus was a failure as a Messiah for not making a more spectacular public show of driving out the Romans, we’re not all that different. It sure would be nice for us now to see a more spectacular show of driving out suffering and death. We know that death doesn’t have the final word, but the word it does have is pretty intimidating.

The crowds didn’t see it. His closest followers didn’t see it. Even today, sometimes it’s hard to see. But in the actions of this day, the Messiah completely and utterly overthrew the reign of not only the Romans but anyone who would attempt to enslave God’s people. The crowds didn’t realize, but today their savior ended the need to live in fear of the threat of death. A conqueror could threaten to kill them, but death no longer had the final word.

We might wish Jesus had somehow destroyed death, rather than just neutralizing it. But if Jesus had met power with power, we who don’t have omnipotent power would still need to fear power.

If Jesus had met the Roman army with the hosts of heaven, we who don’t have legions of angels at our command would still need to fear the might of earthly rulers.

If Jesus had met death with immortality, we who are mortal would still need to fear death.

Instead, Jesus stood in the face of all the pain and suffering that evil could throw at him, and let it wash over him. He endured mocking, beating, sinister betrayal by Judas, cowardly betrayal by the crowd, abandonment by his closest followers, flogging, humiliation, lugging heavy beams, drinking sour wine, and even death itself. Jesus stood before the evil of the world, and somehow, through amazing grace, he didn’t use his infinite power to drive it off.

He let evil do its worst, and it did not prevail.

The good news here today is that evil can’t win. If we are baptized into Christ’s death, we share in this passion today. We share in Jesus’ facing up to all the terrible suffering that the mightiest empire in the world could throw at him, and not resisting it precisely because the worst they had to give was incapable of destroying him. The man who said “Love your enemies. Do good to those who persecute you. Bless those who curse you.” didn’t need to add a clause “unless they’re about to kill you; then, smite them with the hosts of heaven.”

The crowds we acted out today represent the victory of fear over hope. The passion of the Christ represents the victory of love over fear, and we are baptized into that victory. Evil has no power over us, because it can do its dreaded worst but not change our trajectory.

The crowds in today’s Gospel seemed to have in mind the old admonition “do unto others before they do unto you.” All this talk of loving enemies is great, but when things are really on the line, sometimes you have to be realistic, right?

But the triumph of the cross is the triumph of idealism over realism: Jesus said no to the temptation to abandon the strength of nonviolence, the power of selflessness, the might of love. The cross today is the ultimate act of practicing what one preaches. This passion and death that we heard in today’s gospel is the very enactment of the Sermon on the Mount.

The world is too much with us. We have much in common with the crowds we acted out today. We often let fear win out over hope, and power over love. Sin and fear are all too present, and we do not always live with the awareness of the present Kingdom of God. Disease, cruelty, loss, and death are realities. And even Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus, even when he was about to bring him back from the dead moments later.

But our baptism into Christ’s passion and death helps us to share in Christ’s triumph today: sometimes, in moments of hope and glimpses of grace, we can act differently than the crowds in today’s story. We do not need to act out of the fear of suffering or death. To Jesus, death did its worst, and now death is all used up. Even when it’s hardest to see that it’s true, death doesn’t have the final word. All of us go down to the dust, but even at the grave we make our song. Amen.

They say there are two kinds of people in the world: the kind divides the world into two kinds of people, and the kind that doesn't.

The temptation is to make the story in today's Gospel have clear good guys and bad guys. It's a parable, right? This isn't real life. If this is some sort of allegory, there must be clear roles. Is the wealthy man good or bad? Is the third slave a model of virtue or a lazy slacker? Who in this story is our role model?

In one telling, probably the one more familiar to most of us, the master is God. The first two slaves are good Christians, and the third slave isn’t.

The God figure gave each of his slaves a number of talents, “according to his ability.” What are these “talents”? In the literal story they aren’t abilities, because they are given “according to ability.” The talent was actually a weight of silver in the ancient world. Sources vary as to just how much a talent would be worth, but one book I read pegged a talent as about 15 years' wages for your typical peasant laborer in Jesus' time. Other sources have it worth more. In terms of today's relative purchasing power, my back-of-the-envelope estimation is that one talent would be equivalent to somewhere between $240,000 and $710,000. Not pocket change. Asking a slave to take care of ten talents would be equivalent to asking a minimum wage worker today to manage a portfolio of several million dollars. Even the slave with one talent would be managing far more than the net value of my assets.

But the Christian tradition allegorized this story. Talents, in this understanding, came to mean, well, talents: aptitudes or skills that people have. Because what does God give us? The ability to do things.

This allegory stuck so well that when we think about talents today, we hardly ever think about ancient near-eastern millionaires; we think about God-given skills. Our word talent comes from the Greek talanton, which meant a weight or sum of money; this story gave the word its common meaning today.

So two of the slaves used their talents and engaged the world with them, making more talents. But the third slave protected the talent he got. He didn’t take any risks with it. He didn’t use it.

When the God figure returned, the two slaves who engaged the world were rewarded, but the slave who didn’t use his talent was cast into the outer darkness.

This, then, is the stewardship story. God gives us talents, and we need to use them. We are to get out there and share what we have with the world.

Personally, I find this to be a very hard message. Essential, important, vital – but really hard to follow. I don't know about anyone else, but I really like my routine, and get really cranky when I get jostled out of it. But God challenges us to not get complacent. We need to take risks and engage the world. The slave who just went about his routine and protected what God gave him was condemned in this story. And we too need to embrace new opportunities for ministry, new and uncomfortable engagements with the world. This is a vital lesson. Don’t be like that bad third slave.

But there’s another way to read this story also.

In this telling, the master is a different master – Mammon, money, the lust for the things of this world. The first two slaves are obedient servants of their god Money, but the third isn't playing that game.

Let’s look at the character of the master. To start with, he’s rich. Really, really, really rich. The kind of rich you don’t become while following The Law, especially the parts about letting all your workers rest every seventh day, reverting land to its original owners and not amassing land, not harvesting the corners of your fields but leaving them for the poor, letting all your land lie fallow every seven years.

The master is a man who recommends putting money in a bank and earning interest – forbidden if that interest is collected from to others who are subject to The Law. The master “reaps where he hasn’t sown” and “gathers where he didn’t scatter seeds” – he amasses his wealth from the work of others. In this telling of the story, focusing on these details, the master isn’t a God figure. The master is greed incarnate. This is Mammon. This is the pursuit of profit and wealth above all else.

So Mammon leaves sums of money to three slaves of wealth. Two of them invest shrewdly, and make 100% returns on their money. 100% returns during the course of their master’s single journey. Might these gains be ill-gotten? Just what are they doing with the money? Predatory lending? Exploiting the labor of others? Fraud? The third slave says “No.” The third slave speaks truth to power, and tells the Master “I knew that you were a harsh man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed.” He rejects participating in injustice. He won’t amass wealth at the expense of the poor. He gives the master back his money, but refuses to make his already-filthy-rich master even richer.

The story closes with the problematic aphorism “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” But in this telling, we don’t have to attribute this to be a description of how God works. We don’t have to try reconcile this with the Sermon on the Mount; instead, this becomes a description of how Mammon works. This is precisely the opposite of the economics of the Kingdom of God.

So that’s another telling. Now what do we do with these? We're tempted to think either/or: who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, who are we supposed to be in this story. Is the master God or Mammon? Is the third slave the hero or the villain?

Which reading of the story is the right one? How do we find an answer?

Maybe we can look at the story in context. This reading from Matthew is just one in a series of parables Jesus told about the Kingdom of Heaven. In the story before this, which we heard last week, the wise characters didn't share their oil with the foolish ones, and in the context of that story, being prepared and fending for oneself seemed to be the course of action that was praised and rewarded. So maybe this week's story is about risk-taking and good investment strategy for the God-given resources in our lives.

But the story that comes after this, which we'll hear next week, is all about sharing: giving food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, drink to the thirsty, and so forth. In the context of that story, fending for oneself is condemned, and sharing is praised and rewarded. So where does that leave this story?

It leaves the story in a liminal place – that is, a place on the boundary or threshold between two other places. By the values and casting of the story before it, we are tempted to identify the master as God, the first two slaves as good and the third as bad. By the values of the story after it, we are tempted to identify the master and the first two slaves as evil, and the third slave as a hero who bravely resists evil.

But what if we let this story stand in its liminal place between these two other accounts, and take more than one lesson away from it?

With the treasure of this world, we are called to resist the temptation to increase our wealth through exploitation. In the face of a system that expects us to reap where we did not sow and gather where we did not scatter seed – that is, to make wealth off of the labor of others – we need the courage of the third slave to speak truth to power, and to refuse to play along. When Mammon is the master, we do not want to merit the words "well done, good and trustworthy slave" – we must not be the good and trustworthy slaves of the god Money.

But when God is the master, we are not called to bury God’s gifts in the ground, but to spread them abundantly. We are called to take risks, to venture beyond our safe habits and comfortable routines and dare to change everything for the sake of the kingdom. We are called to share God's blessings: feed the hungry, quench the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, care for the sick, visit the prisoner. For when we do not bury God's treasure, but "trade" it – when we do these things in the world, we get the treasure back again and again.

But above all, we don’t need to look for heroes and villains in the story. We don’t need to put people in boxes. We can read the story and see what lessons we can take away when we identify with each character. Because it’s not about good guys and bad guys. It’s about a multiplicity of moral lessons that we can learn when we strive to find the humanity, the noble heroism and tragic failures in each of the characters, and live our own lives in response.

God calls not to find good guys and bad guys, but to find how each character in the story can in some way be us. That is our challenge: not to vilify one character and praise another, but to find grace through all. Amen.

Near the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, at the end of his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus says to his disciples, “Everyone then who hears my words and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.”

Reflecting on this message from earlier in Matthew’s Gospel might make one want to ask Jesus a question after today’s reading.

“Um Jesus? Sorry to bother you, but what you said today doesn’t make sense. I know you understand the importance of a sound foundation, but you’re picking Peter as the rock on which you’re building your church? Really?”

Yes, Peter got the answer right today, but just two weeks ago, we heard the story of the disciples’ boat caught in a storm. Jesus walked across the water to them, and they were all afraid. Somehow, though, Peter manages to fail more spectacularly than the rest of them. They all think Jesus is a ghost, and not real, but Jesus assures them he really is Jesus. Peter doesn’t believe him at that; he demands a sign: “Lord, if it is you, let me walk on the water.” Jesus calls him over, Peter leaps onto the surface of the water with enthusiasm, but then doubt and fear get the best of him and he sinks. “Lord, save me,” he calls out. Jesus does.

Last week, which of the disciples is it who exasperates Jesus by requesting yet another explanation of his parable? Of course, Peter.

Next week, we’ll hear another story in which Peter comes off with a less-than-stellar performance, and on Welcome Sunday next month we’ll hear yet another account in which Peter just doesn’t get the point of the message that Jesus is trying to preach.

And we can’t forget, of course, the Passion account we heard last Palm Sunday: most of the disciples manage to scatter and desert Jesus one way or another, but Peter again manages to do it with more flair: First he, along with James and John, falls asleep when Jesus asks him to keep watch, and then, more spectacularly, he asserts not once but three times, and not under threat of torture, but rather to such “threatening” figures as a servant girl, “I do not know the man!” – and he does this within hours of promising to Jesus that “Though all become deserters because of you, I will never desert you.”

Matthew’s Gospel takes particular pains to show us just how much Peter managed to fail more frequently and more spectacularly than any of the other disciples – Judas doesn’t even come close in frequency. Yet Jesus, who had already publicly stressed the importance of a solid foundation, proclaims, “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

The English translation loses something here; the Greek for Peter (πετρος) and for rock (πετρα) are quite similar. If this part of Matthew’s Gospel were originally written in Aramaic, as some scholars speculate, the words would be identical. Perhaps we’d capture more of the spirit of it if we translated Jesus as saying “Simon, son of Jonah, I’m going to call you Rocky, and on this Rock I will build my church.”

Peter, or Rocky, as we might call him, has a rocky journey with Jesus, indeed. He doubts. He challenges. He contradicts. He misunderstands. He denies. But never does he put in less than his whole self. And in Chapter 19 of Matthew’s Gospel it is in response to Peter’s plea to Jesus, “Look, we have left everything and followed you” that Jesus gives his apostles some much-needed words of encouragement.

Peter may have case after case of spectacular failures, but he is always willing, whenever he falls into sin, to repent and return to the Lord. Indeed, our baptismal covenant does not call us to repent if we fall into sin, but whenever we fall into sin. The ministry of the church – a ministry shared by all the baptized – the ministry of the church does not depend on the unfailing righteousness of its ministers, but rather on our reliance on God’s grace to help us all when we inevitably stray. A fourth century dispute in the Christian church called Donatism centered around this issue: was ministry valid if it was done by ministers who had committed serious sins but later repented and been absolved of their sins? The Donatists held that it was not valid, while the position adopted by the Church at the council of Arles held that it is not the grace and righteousness of the minister that makes ministry “work”, but the grace and holiness of God. Matthew’s Gospel, in stressing Peter’s frequent failures, his never-ceasing returning to the Lord, and the centrality of Peter’s position in the church, gives a powerful testimony: the work of the church does not depend on never-erring ecclesial supermen. The Rock of the Church is the biggest failure in the Gospel, but also the one who most often returns to the Lord.

And therein lies Jesus’ promise to Peter: “On this rock I will build my church.” Jesus is the one doing the building. After the events of this week’s Gospel and then Peter’s failure next week, the next chapter tells a story we won’t hear in sequence this summer. After Peter professes to Jesus that while some people think Jesus is Elijah or one of the prophets, Peter believes that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. In the very next chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, which was read on a Wednesday a few weeks ago for its own feast day, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up to a mountaintop where they see Jesus alongside Moses and Elijah. Peter professed that he believed Jesus was not merely Elijah or a prophet; then he got to see the contrast himself. Peter professed that he believed that Jesus was the Son of the Living God; then he got to hear God’s voice proclaim that Jesus is the son of the Living God. Peter sometimes gets it right and often gets it wrong, but he always turns to God, and God always corrects or strengthens him. In the Gospel two weeks ago, when Peter was literally drowning in doubt, he turned to Jesus and Jesus saved him. When Peter makes his sudden and inspired proclamation of faith in today’s Gospel, it gets reinforced in the next chapter by a miraculous manifestation. When Peter clings to adherence to Jewish law at the Council of Jerusalem, Jesus appears to him in a dream to help him change his position. Peter doesn’t always get it right on the first try, but he is always willing to (eventually) ask Jesus for help, and if Peter’s failures are spectacular, Jesus’ aid in reinforcing him when he is right and assisting and restoring him when he is wrong is even more spectacular.

It’s ironic that this reading has been associated for so much of its history with claims of infallibility for Peter. The Gospel according to Matthew points out more failings and foibles of Peter than any of the other gospels. And yet it also is the only Gospel in which Jesus follows Peter’s confession of faith with the promise that “you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

But a lack of infallibility doesn’t jeopardize at all Peter’s importance to the church. Peter’s foundational role in the church is not important because he is some sort of infallible superman. He doesn’t even acquire infallible superpowers after the resurrection – in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, Paul writes that at the council of Jerusalem, he opposed Peter to his face, “because he was wrong!”

Peter’s foundational role in the church is vitally important precisely because, as Matthew tells the story, Peter is the most spectacular failure of all the disciples. Peter falls on his face again and again. And yet his efforts are always whole-hearted, and Jesus never stops providing grace to pick Peter back up so he can keep going.

Throughout scripture, God has a funny way of choosing people to do God’s work who might seem distinctly unqualified for the job.

Moses, about whom we started to hear in the first lesson today, was hardly whom one would expect as a leader of the Israelites. Moses was ineloquent. His grew up in Pharaoh’s household. He was a convicted murderer exiled from his people. Despite all this, God called Moses to be the great speaker of liberation for the Israelites.
Sarah and Abraham, and later Elizabeth and Zechariah were well past the age to bear children when God called on them to play important roles – you guessed it – raising children. Mary had the opposite problem – she was young and unmarried when God called upon her to be the mother of Jesus. David was a scrawny young shepherd when he was called upon to deliver Israel’s army from the Philistine giant Goliath. Jeremiah protested he could hardly be God’s prophet because he was “only a boy” and didn’t know what to say. Mary Magdalene, out of whom seven demons were driven, went on to be the first witness to the resurrection, and the first one sent to spread the Good News. Paul had a strong record of persecuting the Church, in addition to the mysterious “thorn in his side” that impaired his work – but God did amazing things with him.

None of them could do the work God set before them solely on the basis of their own strength, skill, talent, or effort. And that is precisely the point. The ability to do ministry, to do God’s work in the world, does not depend on our own strength, skill, or righteousness, but on God’s grace.

If the LORD had not been on our side,
    let Israel now say;
If the LORD had not been on our side,
    when enemies rose up against us;
Then would they have swallowed us up alive
    in their fierce anger toward us;
Our help is in the Name of the LORD,
    the maker of heaven and earth.

Peter’s help was in the name of the Lord, and despite all his weaknesses, his ministry built up the church. Likewise, our help is in the name of the Lord, and with God all things are possible. All our failures, our inadequacies, our weaknesses are no excuse to keep us from doing God’s work. God invites us to not be afraid to fail spectacularly. The glory of this story is that Peter, who Matthew takes great pains to paint as the model of unreliability – he’s reliably unreliable – Peter, a sinner of God’s own redeeming, is established as a foundation of the Church, and a model of ministry.

While the Church rejected Donatism as heresy in 314, its legacy is still with us today. While there are certainly Christians too willing to point fingers at someone and say “they” couldn’t possibly be doing God’s work because “they” are sinners in one way or another, I believe that there is an even more destructive legacy of this heresy. How many times in our own lives do we step away from God’s call to do God’s work in the world because we believe that we are unworthy to be God’s presence in the world to others? “I can’t do God’s work; I mess up too much. That’s for holy people, not sinners like me.” When we do this, and I know I do it all the time, we deprive the Church of the very building blocks God has shown time and again that God works with. God built the church starting with Saint Peter, spectacular failure #1, whose only greater characteristic was his willingness to keep returning to the Lord after each time he messed up. Our failures, our inadequacies, all the things we’ve messed up – none of these keep God from using us, if we only put our trust in God.

We’ll hear plenty about Peter’s failings and shortcomings, including next Sunday. For now, though, we should rejoice that Peter, for all his flaws, could be the vehicle of such grace. For all his impulsiveness, unreliability, and unsteadiness, God made Peter a solid rock foundation on which the Church is built. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock – not because Peter was never wrong, but because he knew all too well just how often he was wrong, and was always willing to return to the Lord, for solace and for strength; for pardon and for renewal. Because underneath Peter, an even firmer foundation kept him in place: Jesus Christ our Lord.

Despite each of our weaknesses, failings, and inadequacies, God calls each one of us to do God’s work in the world. On our own, we are hopelessly inadequate for the job. With God’s grace, there are no limits to what we can do to the Glory of God.

Praise God for those in every generation in whom Christ has been honored; Pray that we may have grace to glorify Christ in our own day!