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Holy Trinity Anglican Orthodox Church
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On this Rock |
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Matthew
16:13 Sixth
Sunday after Trinity June
29, 2008 It is a fortress, and a palace, and a resort, and a temple, all at the same time. But most of all it is a monument, and, like all monuments, it is a symbol. At one time it symbolized pagan religion, but, by the time of Christ it has taken on a new meaning. The rock itself is a symbol of the Roman Empire, and the fortress/temple upon it is the symbol of Caesar. Together they represent the glory and power of Rome itself. And yet, there is more to its meaning than just a city, or an empire, or the man who rules it. It represents the might, the power, and the glory of MAN. It is a new Tower of Babel. It says proudly, “We have arrived. We can do all things. We are god.” But on the
crest of that hill, possibly even deep in the heart of that temple of MAN,
thirteen men are walking and talking.
They are poor men. Not
the military and political leaders, not the intelligentsia, not the
wealthy or the powerful as the world measures such things, they are
peasants. But one of them
says, “On this rock I will build
my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” “I will build my church.” We must never forget that the Church belongs to Christ. There is much good sense in our Prayer Book’s inclusion of Psalm 95 in the service of Morning Prayer. We know it as the “Venite exultemus Domino,” and it reminds us every day that the Church belongs to God as a flock of sheep belongs to a shepherd. Walt Disney made a movie of the book, Pollyanna, which featured a confrontation between a group of people and the town’s richest citizen, who owned most of the money producing enterprises in the town. Because most of the people were financially dependent on her, they were afraid to do anything she would not approve of, and that included the rector of the town church. In the course of the movie the rector begins to realize something Pollyanna said to him and to others, “Nobody can own the church.” That has always stuck in my mind, probably because movies seldom deal with the Church, let alone understand something so vitally important about it, namely, that it does not belong to the people, or the town, or the diocese, or the minister. The Church belongs to God. It exists for Him and answers to Him. I fear many have forgotten this today, but let us always remember it as we work to establish Holy Trinity Anglican Church in this community. The Church is built, “on this rock.” “Rock” has several meanings in this passage. First, as seen in many verses of Scripture, it is a symbol of God. Take, for example, Psalm 18:31, “who is a rock save our God?” As the Son of God, these passages also apply to Christ, but some are clearly about Christ specifically. For example, Isaiah 28:16 says “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a tried foundation.” Christ is that stone, as we see from 1 Corinthians 3:11, “Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” If the Church is not built upon Christ it has no foundation because it has no reason to exist. The Lodge or the Scouts can teach people to be “nice,” but that is not what the Church is about. Social clubs can entertain and amuse us, but that is not the purpose of the Church. Charities can help the poor and feed the hungry, but that is not why the Church exists. The Church exists because God has visited this world in the Person of Christ Jesus. He lived a sinless life, and thus, He showed us the way to live. He fulfilled the Law of God Himself, and then He died like a sacrificial Lamb to redeem us from the death and hell of our own sin and to bear in His own flesh the price of our forgiveness. He rose from the dead in complete victory over death. He ascended into Heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit to indwell His people and continue His work on earth. He established the Church to be His new people in a new community in a new relationship with Him and each other, to worship Him, and to preach the good news of real life and peace in Him. We are built upon The Rock, and apart from Him the Church has no meaning. The rock is also a symbol of the Apostles. It is very important that we see that Christ is not in any way giving Peter a position of authority over the other Apostles, making him the “Pope.” I don’t have much time to devote to this today, but I will make two quick points here. First, if you look at Acts 15 I think you will find that it is not Peter, but James who is the most influential of the Apostles. Once James speaks his piece the conversation is over. See especially Acts 15:13. Galatians 2:9 seems to make James, Peter and John the three most influential of the Apostles, calling them “pillars.” But note that it is James who is mentioned first. Surely if Peter had been the “Pope” his name would have been mentioned first. Second, there are many places in the Bible where the Apostles are stated to be the foundation of the Church. In no place is any one of them given preference. All are treated as equal in status. James’ power to end the discussion in Acts 15 was due to the respect the others had for him, and to the wisdom of his words, not any elevation in rank over the other Apostles. But such discussions miss the real point, and the real point is this; the Church is built on the Apostles’ doctrine. We see their doctrine in the confession of Peter, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” We see it in Scripture, which comes to us either directly from the pens of the Apostles, or through their assistants, such as Mark and Luke. And, in a very real sense, that Apostolic doctrine, or, faith, is the rock upon which Christ builds His Church. That faith was given to the Apostles by Christ Himself, so when we call our religion and doctrine “Apostolic” we are not claiming that the Apostles invented it. We are saying the Apostles received it from Christ. They proclaimed only what they learned from Him. They preserved His teachings for us in Scripture. The rock is also Caesarea Philippi. Christ and His disciples stand upon a hill of rock in a monument of marble and limestone. And Christ says, “On this rock, I will build my church.” He is saying, “Right here, in this place, in this monument to the glory of Rome and human pride, I am going to begin to build my Church.” He is challenging the humanistic philosophies of the world to do battle. He is not just saying He will build His Church in the midst of them. He is saying He will build His Church upon them. He will conquer them. One day His Church will stand and they will not. In fact, His Church will stand on their ruins. What Christ did in Caesarea Philippi would be like Him going into the libraries and classrooms of the world’s great universities, which are nowadays often controlled by those who reject traditional Christian theology and values, and which have become monuments to the “politically correct” views of the greatness of MAN, and saying, “I will conquer you.” It would be like Him going into the board rooms of the great financial institutions, where money is often worshiped and people are sometimes treated as expendable commodities, and saying, “I will conquer you.” It would be like Him going into the “smoke filled rooms” where greedy people attempt to control politicians and the political process for personal gain, and saying, “I will conquer you.” It would be like Christ going into the casinos and the night clubs and the movie lots and the “Spring Breaks” and all the other icons of human power and pleasure and pride, all the monuments to MAN, and saying, “I will conquer you.” It would be like Him saying to all the sources of oppression and poverty and disease and despair, “ I will conquer you. This monument, This university, this boardroom, this smoky room, this pleasure palace, this oppression and cruelty and despair will crumble and pass away like the Romans. They will all crumble into dust. But I am building an empire of the Spirit that will never end, and I am starting it right here, right now. In My Empire, love will conquer hate. Peace will conquer strife. Fellowship will conquer oppression. Grace will conquer sin. Good will conquer evil. Truth will conquer falsehood. Joy will conquer sorrow. My Gospel will conquer hearts. My life will conquer death.” Finally, even the devil can’t stop Christ’s Church, because he can’t stop Christ. The gates of hell cannot prevail against it. There is a word picture here that we must understand to get Christ’s point. It is a picture of the Church storming the fortress of hell, crashing down its gates, and conquering the fortress. It pictures the Church attacking hell like a Roman army attacking a city, storming the gates with a battering ram. The gates cannot withstand the attack. They splinter and fall, and the fortress is taken. That is the picture of the Church that Christ presents here. So we must charge the gates of hell. We must preach the Gospel. We must attack the sin that holds people in its chains and misery. We must expose the lies that keep people in darkness and ignorance, lies that always promise to be their salvation, but always take them deeper into misery and despair. We attack with that double edged sword which is the Word of God, the Holy Bible. And if the gates of hell cannot withstand our attack, it is certain that the puny empires of men, whether they be political, philosophical, or financial, cannot prevail against it either. The monument at Caesarea Philippi is in ruins now, long crumbled, long fallen, like the man who built it, like the empire it represented. Many others have come and gone, monuments, empires, and emperors, each one claiming eternity, each one lasting less time than Rome. But the Church survives. “Where are Kings and Empires Now?” that rose and fell during these last two millennia? Kings and empires rise and fall, but the Church will live with Christ forever. Thanks be to God. Holy Father, keep Your Church founded upon The Rock. In the Name of Christ. Amen. The Rev. Dr. R. Dennis Campbell, Vicar, Holy Trinity Anglican Church,
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