Rocks and Keys

Readings: Psalm 124, Exodus 1:8-2:10, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16: 13-20
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on August 24, 2014

A printable PDF file can be found here

Rocks and keys. Two of the images of faith that Jesus offers the disciples after they have come to confess their faith in Him as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.  Rocks and keys.

“You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church” (verse 18)
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (verse 19)

Peter has to be one of my favorite characters in the bible.  His experience seems to mirror so many of our experiences on our Christian journey.  One minute we get it right, the next we get it hopelessly wrong.  One step forward, one step back.... but somehow, by the grace of God we’re still getting somewhere.

Peter never comes across as ‘holier than thou’. He’s very much flesh and blood.  One minute prepared to risk his life to save his friend Jesus, the next denying that he ever knew Him.  One minute on a mountain witnessing the glory of Christ, the next being accused as a mouthpiece of Satan for trying to talk Jesus out of the cross.

It encourages me to think that it is from the so human material of people like Peter that Christ promises to build a church against which the gates of hell shall never prevail. It gives me hope that if someone like Peter can have a rock-like faith then maybe such a faith is not beyond the likes of you and me.

It’s also a hopeful picture that Jesus is prepared to give Peter the keys. Keys are a symbol of responsibility.  A parent isn’t going to hand over the keys of their new car to a teenage child until they are pretty sure that the kid is a responsible driver. You don’t give your house keys to total strangers. Jesus is prepared to hand over the keys to people like Peter.

The rock and the keys had a deeper significance that wouldn’t be lost on the disciples. One  of the Jewish terms to describe God was that God was the ‘Rock of Israel’. The Israelites  taunted other nations because, “Their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies are fools”... it’s almost a childish play on words, “Our Rock’s bigger than your rock!”

The Psalmist says, “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and my stronghold.” After telling a story about two men building on different sorts of foundations, Jesus said; “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”

To build our lives on the rock is to build our lives on faith in Jesus Christ. There’s a hymn that says, “On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.” Peter came to a point where he confessed his faith in Jesus Christ. The foundation was laid. There was something to build on.

Peter came to a conclusion that led to his confession of Christ as the Son of God in two ways. Firstly he was able to intellectually sort out the difference between the teaching of Jesus and other viewpoints that were around at the time.  Jesus wasn’t another Elijah or just another prophet. He was so much more.  Jesus wasn’t just another religious figure in a long line, He was the One the others were looking for!

Never mind that some said this and some said that, when Jesus turned the question around and challenged the disciples, “Well, what about you, who do you say that I am?”, Peter was ready with an answer, because he had weighed up all the experiences that being a disciple was laying at his feet and had come to the conclusion that Jesus was startlingly different. He was the Son of God.

Secondly, Jesus congratulates Peter for his spiritual discernment. ‘Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”’ (verse 17). God had been at work in Peters mind and heart.  By laying his flesh and blood life open to God, something supernatural took place in Peter’s heart and soul life.

We can come to rock-like faith in a similar way. We have to use our minds to think things through. We also have to use our hearts. It is the strange mystery of faith that when there is an offering of ourselves to God, it places us in a position where God reveals more of God’s self to us. We can’t simply reason our way into faith.  We have to leave room for the Grace of God to reveal the depth of love that Christ has for us.

When God gracefully grants to us glimpses of His great love then something in us has to respond with joyful acceptance.  As we respond, so we stand on a solid foundation.  The sad fact  is that so many in our world do not build their lives on a faith foundation.

What do people build their lives on? You can probably think of many things.  Some build on financial security.  Some just go from one experience to the next.  Some are just out for what ever they can get.  Some are taken in by all sorts of weird and wonderful beliefs and philosophies.

What about us?  Are we any different?  As I look into my own life I find a complicated web of desires and needs. There is that part of you that wants to be the hero.  There is the inner child who needs to be loved.  There are experiences of rejection and pain that have left their scars.  There are acts of obedience and actions of sinfulness. There are areas of uncertainty and unknowing. 

Thankfully God knows what's going on inside of us. Better than we do. God's not confused about what we need to build our lives on.  We need God's love. We need God's forgiveness.  We need God's help. We need God's hope. We need the rock to build on. We need the Rock that is Jesus Christ.  Nothing else, nowhere else, nobody else can give us the security of faith that Jesus offers.

He's not just the rock, He is also the key.  When we come to a point of confessing belief in Jesus Christ it is a key that opens so many things to us.  It opens the door for God to work in our lives.  It opens windows of grace.  It opens up areas in our lives through which light can shine to others.

The Old Testament speaks of a key known as the key of the house of David.  There is a passage in Isaiah 22:20-25 that talks of an unfaithful steward to whom a word of prophecy comes ;- "I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your post. On that day I will call my servant ..and will clothe him with your robe and bind your sash on him. I will commit your authority to his hand.... I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. "

In giving the keys to Peter, Jesus parallels the words of Isaiah saying to Peter "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (verse 9)  To be given the keys is to be given particular responsibility.  To confess faith in Christ is to take on a commitment. A confession of faith in Christ (no matter how poetically worded or strongly spoken) counts for nothing unless it results in a changed life.  If you are given the keys there has to be a corresponding level of responsibility.  If I gave you the keys of my car, I would want you to drive carefully.

What a thought. Trust. God trusts us! God trusts the work of His Kingdom to those who make a confession of faith in Jesus Christ.  That's what was happening to Peter when Jesus gave him the keys.  "Here, you drive". God has entrusted the whole work of Christ to His people, the Church.  Does that surprise you, to think that God trusts us?  Half the time we can't even trust ourselves and a whole lot of the time we don't trust others. Trustworthy people are hard to find. 

As a church here in Baldwin you have reached a new intersection in this congregations journey. And it is time for you to trust each other and trust in God. It is a time for considering what the foundation of your faith together actually is. If it be anything other than the love that is shared in Christ it may turn out to be a shaky foundation. But upon the foundation you have othing to fear.

Likewise the keys for the future of this congregation are now in your hands.  Today, Jesus holds out  the keys of the Kingdom. "Here, take these, I trust you. You're driving".  God is trusting us to build our lives upon the rock of faith in God.  He wants us to take that responsibility upon ourselves.  That's why He's giving the keys to us, not to someone else.

For sure we'll make mistakes.  For sure their will be experiences that make us feel like giving the keys back.  For sure there will be disappointments and setbacks.  That's why we need a rock to stand on.  That's why when we confess, "I believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God" we have to back up our words with the full force of the way we live.  We have a responsibility.

A responsibility to be faithful in worship. A responsibility to study and learn the Word of God. A responsibility to pray and serve. A responsibility to care and share. A responsibility to live abundantly and give abundantly.

Rocks and Keys.
Christ holds out to us the keys.
Let us go from this place
And build our lives upon the confession of faith
that Jesus Christ is Lord.
AMEN.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.