Keys and Voices

Matthew 16:13-20

Do you ever hear voices in your head?
Voices that sound like your parents, maybe? Voices that sound like our friends, or even like a commercial we’ve heard on TV. Voices that might sound like our own voices when we are scared or angry.

You might hear them telling you what to do and what not to do and what you ought to do better. Those are the voices, for better or worse, that tell us who we are.
Sometimes they give you confidence.
And often, they take it away.
I hear those voices. Maybe you have heard them too. And I’ll bet we’re not the only ones.

Today we heard Jesus ask the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”
That answer’s easy. That’s about the voices we hear with our ears.
But then he asks, “Who do you say that I am?”

That question is harder. It is about the voices inside.
Voices that ask what this all means to us, and what we’re doing hanging out with Jesus in the first place. Voices that might ask: Who are we to say? What if we get the answer wrong?

Then Peter – the disciple who’s most likely to just say whatever’s in his head - answers out loud: “You’re the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.”
It’s a powerful statement. When Peter says it out loud, it’s a commitment that all the disciples believe that Jesus is the one who has come to change the world, to show God’s will and God’s presence right here and right now, a commitment for all of us that nobody else is more important than Jesus.

It’s big, but the way Matthew tells the story, it’s not the most important thing. The turning point in this story is not the proclamation of faith, it’s the way Jesus responds:
“You are Rock. And on this rock I will build my team.”

In this moment, as Jesus and the disciples talk about who he is known to be, they begin to talk, for the first time, about who we are meant to be.
In this moment, the church is born - not as a place, an organization, a family – but a new community, called out of ordinary life and given authority for a purpose.

“I’m giving you the keys,” Jesus said.
That’s a metaphor that works now just the way it did two thousand years ago: I’m giving you power and freedom and authority and responsibility. What you teach, what you decide, really and truly shapes the kingdom of heaven, the way that God’s will and presence is lived and known on earth.

God is giving us the keys. Everything that happened to Peter and the disciples that day has happened to you and me, too. And it’s going to happen again today, in a couple hours/ few minutes, as we baptize Daven and Gavin.

It starts with proclaiming that truth about Jesus, that he is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.
And then God responds. All over again, a new community is formed. A team, called together out of our perfectly ordinary lives, and given the keys.
Gavin and Daven, their parents and godparents, and you and I, are given authority and purpose, so that everything we decide, and do and say, is to make God’s presence real.

At our own baptisms, and again when we baptize someone new, we get the keys. We become the church, responsible and privileged to shape the kingdom of God, on earth as it is in heaven.

Sounds like a big job, doesn’t it?

It’s good news, though. (Good news often comes with immense responsibility – ask any new parent.) And here’s the other good news that comes with it:
Peter didn’t get those keys a couple thousand years ago because he was the best, the smartest, or the winner of any election. He didn’t get them because he worked for them He got those keys because of gifts God had given that he never even went looking for.
“Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah,” said Jesus, “because no human agency has shown you the truth, only the gift and revelation of God.”

We don’t have to earn the keys, or inherit them from our parents;
we don’t have to be perfect.
We just have to trust and believe the gifts that God has already given us.

Whether we’re eager to get the keys and change the world, or more like Peter, prone to make mistakes, willing to try but not especially sure what we’re doing,
or even if the voices in our head tell us we can’t do it,
God still gives the keys and the freedom and responsibility with complete confidence.

We don’t have to be sure of ourselves for God to be sure of us.

Which brings us back to the voices in our heads. The ones that tell us who we are, what we can and cannot do.

Can you hear the voice in your head, whispering over and over:
You are Rock, and on this rock I will build my church.
Blessed are you – yes, you – because God has given you truth and gifts.
You are blessed because of God’s blessing, and you are Rock, strong and beautiful and ready to build.

What will your life be like if that is the voice you hear in your head? If you hear, every day, God’s confidence in you, God’s trust in you, God’s gift inside you.

You are blessed. You are Rock.
And I will give you the keys to shape the world, on earth as it is in heaven.
That’s the truth that Gavin and Daven will be baptized into today.
The truth you and I already live.
As their new community of faith, you and I can and should whisper that truth into their ears this morning, and this year, and all the days of their life.
And that voice in their tiny heads is whispering in your head, too.

So listen.
You are blessed. You are Rock.
God is confident and sure in you, and you are called to build the kingdom, on earth as it is in heaven.

Sunday, August 21, 2011