Sermonette: The Confession of Peter
Wednesday, 20 January 2021 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cjbanningAs preached at the midweek outdoor Eucharist at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church in Glassboro, NJ on the evening of Wednesday, January 20, 2021.
Acts 4: 8-13
Psalm 23
1 Peter 5:1-4
Matthew 16:13-19
You are the Messiah, says St. Peter to Jesus: the Son of the Living God.
The late Catholic priest Richard P. McBrien described Jesus Christ as “the great sacrament of our encounter with God and of God’s with us. The Church, in turn, [he writes] is the sacrament of our encounter with Christ and of Christ's with us. And the seven sacraments, in their turn, are sacraments of our encounter with the Church and of the Church's with us. Indeed, the other members of the Church are sacraments of encounter for us and we for them because, in the Christian scheme of things, we experience and manifest the love of God through love of neighbor.”
And so it is fitting that from this encounter between St. Peter and Jesus, in which the apostle recognizes Jesus as not only the Messiah, but the unique divine Son of the Living God, the establishment of the Church flows naturally--perhaps even inevitably.
It is through our relationship with Jesus Christ, as meditated through our relationships with each other, that our identity as Church emerges. Through our baptisms we were made members of the Church which was established upon St. Peter’s rock.
When we come together to break bread together as Christ commanded us to do in memory of Him, we do so as His Church--one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. In the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood we recognize and confess alongside St. Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed King, the Only Begotten of the God Who Lives.
When we preach and listen to the Word of God, we do so as Christ’s mystical body. And when we then depart in peace to love and serve the Lord, we carry that identity with us, as the eyes and hands and feet of Jesus Christ on Earth. And when we do so, we do so secure in the promise that Jesus gives to St. Peter: that the gates of Hades will not prevail against us. Temptation and weakness and fear will not prevail against us. Avarice and greed and lust for power will not prevail against us. Racism and intolerance will not prevail against us. Sickness and death will not prevail against us.
In short, sin will not prevail against us. It cannot. For we are the Church of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed King, the Firstborn of the Living God.
Amen.
Acts 4: 8-13
Psalm 23
1 Peter 5:1-4
Matthew 16:13-19
You are the Messiah, says St. Peter to Jesus: the Son of the Living God.
The late Catholic priest Richard P. McBrien described Jesus Christ as “the great sacrament of our encounter with God and of God’s with us. The Church, in turn, [he writes] is the sacrament of our encounter with Christ and of Christ's with us. And the seven sacraments, in their turn, are sacraments of our encounter with the Church and of the Church's with us. Indeed, the other members of the Church are sacraments of encounter for us and we for them because, in the Christian scheme of things, we experience and manifest the love of God through love of neighbor.”
And so it is fitting that from this encounter between St. Peter and Jesus, in which the apostle recognizes Jesus as not only the Messiah, but the unique divine Son of the Living God, the establishment of the Church flows naturally--perhaps even inevitably.
It is through our relationship with Jesus Christ, as meditated through our relationships with each other, that our identity as Church emerges. Through our baptisms we were made members of the Church which was established upon St. Peter’s rock.
When we come together to break bread together as Christ commanded us to do in memory of Him, we do so as His Church--one, holy, catholic, and apostolic. In the sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood we recognize and confess alongside St. Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed King, the Only Begotten of the God Who Lives.
When we preach and listen to the Word of God, we do so as Christ’s mystical body. And when we then depart in peace to love and serve the Lord, we carry that identity with us, as the eyes and hands and feet of Jesus Christ on Earth. And when we do so, we do so secure in the promise that Jesus gives to St. Peter: that the gates of Hades will not prevail against us. Temptation and weakness and fear will not prevail against us. Avarice and greed and lust for power will not prevail against us. Racism and intolerance will not prevail against us. Sickness and death will not prevail against us.
In short, sin will not prevail against us. It cannot. For we are the Church of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed King, the Firstborn of the Living God.
Amen.