SAINTS, SINNERS AND THE GATES OH HELL Matthew 16: 13--23 November 8, 1964

We are four Sundays away from the most Important day in the léng history of our
church.| Much has already been said about the Bhilding program: much more will be said.
What every member of this congregation needs to realixe between new and Dec. 6 is that
what we do on that Sunday wil! determine the future of this church for years to come.

We have reached a plateau: and in four weeks we wil! decide whether we will continue alon
the road we have been traveling during the past 18 months —- or whether we should retreat

AS we approach that decision, | think it mi ght be|well to givE-some serious thought

to the church itself.\As we approach the decision regarding this particular church In

which we find ourselves, | think It might be well to look into the meaneng and mission
ef the whole church, from New Testament days to the present. |And se | have chesenn for
my yext this morning that well known passage from the Beakaet aia In my mind it
is one of the most important passaces in the entire Bible.

Jesus turned to his disciptes and asked:( "Who do men say that | am." They reperted
that some thought he was Jehn_the Baptist: others thought he was Elijah or oneéof the
prophets. | And then he turned the question to them: out who do you say that lame")

was Peter who replied:("You are the Christ, the son of the living God." We must remember

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a matte:

that Péter's statment here was by no means’common knowledge, |ien simply didn't know who he

was, as the versed before i lustrate,| Some thought he was @ prophet: — there were plenty

of itenerate prophets in thos e doys.| other followed him because he was a great teacher:

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others ebvioussy wanted to be near him because they had heard thet he healed the sick and

made the lame walk and the blind see.\ Even the disciples, the chosen twelve, were not

certain who he was. \ And so this brief exchange between Jesus and Peter is not just a

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question and answer perioid: it is not a recital of alesson Jesus had taught.| It goes

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far beyond these to the area of faith. ("Whe do you say that | an?) in this regard Peter's

statment is world shaking: to some if would have been blasphemous: th many others it

would have been down-ti ght sitly.\ But to Jesus it was ajmoment of truth: through it all

Vater had seen the light that God was shining on men.

If the passage eneded here we could con ratulate Peter for his perception and sensi ti-
ty and let if go at that. But the passage does not end ss ills Jesus went on fo say some
rather remarkable things a@e Peter. (Blessed ar you Simon |Bar- Jona - you are Peter and

en this rock | will bulld my church and the powers of Geen (er the gates of Hel ig) shall

not prevail against it. Reman Catholics have seen in ad passage a Biblical justi fica-

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tien for the Papacy.\ It is net my purpose this morning ss iat that claim. \Let it be

said, however, that one must be willing to stretch the text a great deal to allow it
to include a systematic, priestly hierarchy with an pavalr tls Pepe at the top ~ a

theoretical successor to Simon Bar~Jona. |

The real significance of the blessing placed upon i ae is not, in my mind, clear

until we have read further | Peter had just made arather startling affirmation of faith.

an affirmation that pleased Jesus .\Peter had just been told that upon him would be built
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the Church of Jesus Christ.\And in the very neat breath Matthew tells us that if was

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Peter who rebuked Jesus for talking about his imminent deptn.| Peter, the one who saw the
true identity of Jesus so clearly, the one whe had the salorune to volee his belief, now
failed to understand the implication of what he had just bata. bre are the Christ the sen
of the lvving Ged" and now ("od ferbid Lord. This chai i epee r happen to you.) Jesus!

response to Peter this time is a little disterent,\(‘et alae me Satan! You are a

hindrance to me. For you are not on the dide of God but of nen." It's quite a demotion.

Peter— one momant blessed, strong,a rock of faith, the os il moment Satan, bungling

wpe"
insensitive, shallow, it is still on Peter that Jesus will build his church. |One minute

a saint: the next a sinner, and yet the gates of hell willl not prevail Mpmaxizxx against

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the church of Jesus Christ.

So significant is this entire exchange that | myst chese_one motif over and against

a number of éthers.| Keeping the whole sequence in our minks then, let us thénk about this
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brief dialoge: Peter's affirmation: and Jesus estsblishing his church.

There && enly one other passage in the godpels that a mentions the churen.| jn dact,

the Greek word rendered church, appears only three times in the four gospels, all three

times in het thew. \ 11 might be asked If Jesus really Intended to establish a church at all.

Perhaps this text was a later addition inserted by churchmen Interested In justifying

their own existence.| Certainly the Gospel accounts, and much of the writing of Paul,

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are based on the assumption that the end of the age is imminent.\clearly the first

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Christians did not expect to live out the normal course of their lives.\: instead they

anticlgated the end of the age, the end of history, as [God gathered his people up into

the clouds of heaven. | With the exception of th9s passage and a very few others, -jesus

simply did not indicate the oy iad desire for an instituition bearing his mawm name.

But the end did not come, and the early Christians soon realized that they would not

see the end of the at athe this realization came the awareness that it was their

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mission to carry on the werk he had beguns| anc that wherever the Geod News ef Jesus was

The church did not begin, however, when the early Christians decided among themsel ve

to begin it. The church is not an instiution that sprang from the imagination ef men

who sat down as a committee to organize Rather the church of Jesus Christ began wi th €goc

at creation.\The church of Jesus Christ was the natural and inevitable conclusion to the

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work God had been doing all along down through the centuries.

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Let's think about that statment for a minute.\ Untike other eeligions, Judaism

did not present an abstract God. Unt ike the phi lesophiical theology of the I9th century

the Bible never speaks of a God who Is absixaczx theorétical.\Men have always thoguth

aboytGod.| Since time began men have conjured up Images of God, idels statues, pictures,

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books, poons. ie have always theorlzed about the nature of the creator. | Along the way
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men have ended up creating their ov Gods. \The Judeo= Christian faith, however, is

based on the exact opposite a\i.e., the assuption that alone we have no knowledge of God;

ins “~/
that until God meezsdedx decides to reveal himself to man, man can ne nothing of God.

And so the 0.T. does not deal with phi losephic speculation: \never once does it attempt

to argue for the existence of God.\ The 0.T. does not defies Ged as the ground of being,

or the first cause among all causes, or the source ef human good.) Rather the OTT speaks

of the Ged whe called Abraham: the God who brought Israel out og Bgypt: the God who

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called a nation into being and revealed himself throught the history of thta nation

The Ged of the 0.T. is npt an abstract, philosophic thesis.| The Ged of the 0.T. is one who

acys, one who is known through his speci fic#irelationship to nen The Bible does not talk

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about God by himstef.\ Always there is a man, or a communi ty of men.| And so we see thzéa

that the basis of our Christian Faith is a belief in a God who reveals himslef, a god

who acts among men, a God who calls men together In a community of Faith..

We come nowt to the first century and the advent of Jesus christ.| Again we are talk-

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ing, not about an abstract Ged, but a Ged who revealed himself, this time in the life

of Jesus of Nazareth. \ A ain we are talking about_belief, not in a set of propositions -

but a faith that inevitabley draws men [nto a new commun! ty.| The-Gherch-nas=irevbiate.
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The church first existed when the disciples responded to Christ;s call. ey became the
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churen| Therefore when we ask about the origin of the To why and when and wnere,| me

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are drivaél to the conclusion that the church is God's creation, his instrument for

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continuing his work of reconcilation begun centuries ag ° in the nation of Israel.

Jesus really didn't begin a new community: he renewed an eld community. \That there

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would be a community was not a new idea.| If was an old Idea thatbegan with the call of

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Abraham. \The church, the new Israel, |ike the old, would cont&dn men who were both sai fs

and sinners.\ Saints, in that God had called and they had responded: | sinners, in that their

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efforts would often be inadequate and perhaps evil.) ana yet the church would never die: th

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the gates of hell would not prevail against it, because it would be Chris¥ is church, |

Biblical witness that men who believe must be a community: that men who have said |

And so the question of whether or not there ought to mi church is answerdd by the entire

believe then begin to live that belief, and that living|automatical ly makes them

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brothers with other believers. |

And so, without hesitation, we affirm every al morning, our Faith in the Holy
Catholic Church.| As we steté our Faith, In the creed, we say: | believe In God: in Jesus

Christ: in Fergiveness of sins, and in the Church, the ¢ommunion of saints. | ThisK is
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the way if is, on page 12 ef the Hymnbook at least. \eut in reality the contemporary church

has come along way from its theological basis.\ In our day Christianity and the Christian

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Church have ween digorced in the popular mind\ Christianity is my personal belief in God:

po aeeaeeeeee

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whatever if may ve. [christianity is my birthrite, like cittzenship.\1 live in a Christie
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nation and | can prove it with the innocuous little prayers written by the school beard

which my children pray every y morning | Anyone who wou lid suggest that | am not a Christian
must be a subversive.-The Chucch? Oh yes, my wife belongs - and | see that the kids
get there— Good eres training you kno. | go every now and then: Christmas, Easter,

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Nice people down there— and can they ever throw a dinne

whenever the Kids are in a play.

In the mind of this man | have created — and yet whom | talk te_every day, fhe separa-
tien of Christianity and the Christian Church is =
At pne time during the recent political cenpai gn| religion almost became an issue.

é yihaten WAC rte

Seasiecinldwebec teld reperters that he dees not go fo church regularly because he can

worship just as well riding up a canyon on his norse. | Fer me there are no political

implications here, and I'm glad It did not_become a campaign issue.\I use it only te
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illustrate what | believe is a very normal American statment about retigion.| It has simp

never occurred to the man In the street that Christianity and the Christian Church are

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one and the same ~ eccording te the sibte. | Take Christianity away from the church and

you have a social club, a service club, or an Idea forum.\Take the church away from

Christianity and you have no more than a list of theological propositions.,” for a man

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cannot believe in the God who was incarnate in dagiis Cariats a man cannot be a christiar
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without becoming a participant in the community God himself has created. \ The man who
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thinks he can is simply not believing in the samezBad |God of Abraham, the God of Israel,

the God and father of Jesus Christ.

James Smart sums It up when he says:\ "The church jis therefore the inevitable out—

come of faith in Jesus Christ, and Its ministry, which is its willingness to be the

instrumentality through which Christ continues to aperk and act and be what he is for

all mankind, is an Institution not of men but of God. ||Te say es te this Church Is to day
fe vi h e

Ne to Jesus Christ. And te say No to Jesus Christ Is to say No to God."

To many critics, both withén and without, the Church presents a pretty absurd pictur

today. Diet ded doctrinally, liturgically, spending billions on itself while millions
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starve, refusing to speak and act in a sick world, going off in a hundred difjferent direc-

tions: —- the church is not perfect. lout it is the chur¢h; and it is through’ this insti-

ution that God has chosen to act todey.| Not for a minute would | say that | am satisfied

with the church — amd yet npt for a minute can | say thot the Christian faith means

anything else.

The Church needs to recapture its Ident tty: needs to redefine itself

as Christianity In life: it needs to reclaim its author | ty, Its divine ordination.
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At this point, we whg are inside need to sitet sk between loyalty to the church,

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enthusiasm for it, or emen love for it, and belief in it as an article of jaith. If we

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questioned church menbers about their relationship to a|certain church, wouldn't most

of them say:\"they have goed nursery facilities, we ia | the choir, we Iike the minister,

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all , our friends go there"/ ) Wouldn't some of them say: cr a good infiluende in the
community, or we really get something out_of 14"9) How as ia! people would say that they are

in the church because they believe in the church as an Indéspensible mtem expression

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of the Christian Fai tne\ People prefer to say that they |belong to the churab, rather
en
than that they believe in the church. |Belonging, suggest a casual relationship that can
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be dissaolved| One belongs to clubs, organizations and gociet ies.| "Bel leving in" the

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church suggests an inner binding, a faith In the institution as such, a compjete
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commitment az [ft and its mission.

pli er

it Is my hope, that as we approach the climax of - eur Building pregram, we will
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build upon the basis of our belief In the church — as as lie instruneny.| Let us not make

the fatal mistake of thinking too little of this aad ia the work that goes on here.

far at all your commitments, of all your obligations, i i is the only one that Is

uitimate:| thts is the only one ordained, created and anh tivated Sy God himsel f.| However

small and Insignificant we may seem, however many mistakes we have made and will make -

uebilaniais |

we are the church — and the gates of hell will not prevai| against us.

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