Untitled Sermon

Introduction

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Does church still matter? Really, does it still make a difference as to whether or not someone goes to church?

There’s a true story of Pastor John and his 25 year old son having a discussion along these lines. It was Easter Sunday and Pastor John led a beautiful Easter service. The easter lilies were in full bloom, “Jesus Christ is Ris’n Today” was piped out in all of its glory by the organ, and alleluias filled the sanctuary. But as Pastor John looked around the sanctuary he noticed that his son was missing from the pews.... again. He had hoped that perhaps at least for Easter his son would be there… and yet once again he was missing from the pews.

That afternoon Pastor John called his son to ask him how his son’s morning had gone… here’s the conversation:

Pastor John: “Hi Erik”

“Hey Dad.”

Son:

Pastor John: “So Erik… how was your Easter morning?”

Erik replied, “Oh you know dad, it was pretty good. I played some football with the guys again.”

Pastor John said: “You know, you really should have been in church today. It was Easter after all.”

“Well,” Erik began, “did anything change from last year?”

Pastor John replied: “Well, I suppose in many ways it was alot like last year’s service… but we are celebrating Jesus conquering of the grave! Jesus is risen from the dead, our sins are forgiven.. we have hope for life after death!”

Erik replied, somewhat without interest: “So… it was the same thing we heard last year. What’s the point in going if nothing changes?”

So, does church matter? In many ways it can seem like it no longer matters.

When we try to talk about why church is important, we talk about it as a place where we gather together for community. In other words, it’s a place where we build friendship and support networks in case something hard comes along. And while that is indeed a great thing for church to be… it’s no longer the only place that it happens. Instead of people having the chance once a week together to share thoughts, ideas, and stories of what has transpired—we have the online world. We have facebook and twitter, snapchat and instant messenger. We have so many ways of communicating with people who are willing to listen that we can build up support networks that are there when we need them… not just on Sunday morning. And what’s even better is that we can take those digital support networks with us wherever we go. Quite frankly, it’s hard for church to keep up with that. So does church still matter?

We have facebook and twitter, snapchat and instant messenger. We have so many ways of communicating with people who are willing to listen that we can build up support networks that are there when we need them… not just on Sunday morning. And what’s even better is that we can take those digital support networks with us wherever we go. Quite frankly, it’s hard for church to keep up with that. So does church still matter?

Then other times we talk about church as a place to go and hear about how to live good, moral lives. But we live in an age where we can watch whatever twist on the news we want to help us decide what is good and moral. We can read opinion blogs or listen to self-help audio books to help improve the way we live. And quite frankly, an hour on a Sunday morning doesn’t match up to that availability.

Or maybe the church is a place that gives comfort and peace or an energy boost for the week. And yet now we have “LOL cat” videos that we can pull up on our phones for a good laugh and pick-me-up whenever we need it. We can have jokes and positive sayings of the day sent to the palm of our hands on a daily basis if we so desire it. So what’s the point of going to church? Does church really matter anyway?

The church is more than a place for gathering and community. The church is more than a place to go and hear about how to live good, moral lives. The church is more than a place that gives comfort and peace or an energy boost for the week.

Or maybe the church is more than a place that gives comfort and peace or an energy boost for the week.

Well, if you’re sitting in the pew today, my guess is that you are probably a bit biased toward a yes! And that’s a good thing. But to everyone else… why should they be bothered with church? Does church still matter? Let’s look at our scripture for today.

The church is more than a place to go and hear about how to live good, moral lives. The church is more than a place that gives comfort and peace or an energy boost for the week.

“Who Am I?”

In our Gospel today, we hear Jesus asking the disciples the question, “Who am I?” Now Jesus makes a distinction and asks for about who do the crowds say that he is compared to who do the disciples say that he is. But for today, let’s just focus in on the disciples’ answer and then how Jesus responds.

Peter is the one who speaks up first and answers for the disciples. And what he does is he answers using the confession of faith that the disciples had already declared a couple of chapters earlier in Matthew right after Peter attempted to walk on water. Remember back in chapter 14, Peter had made his big attempt to walk on water had was saved by Jesus as he started to go down into the waters. And following this rescue, Jesus gets into the boat suddenly the great winds and waves that had been battering the boat ceased… and the disciples said with a good dose of fear and trepidation, “Truly, this is the Son of God!”

Now we hear Peter repeat that which the disciples had claimed together. Jesus is indeed the Son of God… and perhaps even more importantly----Peter adds a couple of things, the first of which is that Jesus is the Messiah! Which, for Peter, was literally true. Jesus had already rescued Peter from the waters that were about to swallow him up. Jesus had already proven to be Peter’s savior—and now the disciples were beginning to realize that Jesus was not just their personal messiah with a lower case “M” but he was in truth THE Messiah… with a capitol “M”! He was the one whom would be the savior for ALL of Israel. This is a big step for the disciples as they speak their faith.

And then Peter’s confession as to Jesus’ identity goes on to include the phrase that Jesus is the Son of the “Living” God. Before, the disciples had just described Jesus as the son of God. But this “Son of the Living God” is an important distinction. The idea of God as Living God was to see God not simply as some far off deity that exists somewhere and has phenomenal cosmic powers, but as the living God who acts “with us.” After all a god could simply be an idol to be vainly worshiped. But it is the Living God who calms the storms, creates pillars of fire, brings the manna to the wilderness, heals the sick, turns water into wine, and the list goes on.

The “Living” God is a claim that God is actively involved in our world and actively working in and through human flesh. Peter is stating that God is actively involved throughout history in very real ways. Peter and the disciples understand that God IS real. God IS alive! God is actively breathing life into Creation. God IS working in and through creation. And perhapse most importantly God is working in and through human-kind in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. It’s really quite a statement!

And in Jesus’ response to Peter’s Confession of Faith, Jesus does something miraculous—he expands the scope of God’s work in the world. Simon Peter had understood that God was working in and through the human flesh that is Jesus the Messiah and likely Peter understood that God was working solely through Jesus. But Jesus says this:

The New Revised Standard Version Peter’s Declaration about Jesus

18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

In two short verses, we get to see the first ultra-sound of what will become the church! Jesus declares that God will work not just through Jesus—the Messiah, the Son of the Living God--but that the Living God will work through Peter! God will use Peter to build the church and then through this church God’s work will continue to be enacted into the world. God’s work will not stop at the cross. Nor does God’s love and grace only start once we die and get to heaven. No. The Living God means to be active and alive in our world each and every day by working and and through the Peter and eventually the church that will come to be!

So does church matter?

Jesus declares that God will work not just through himself but throug

So back to our question… “Does church still matter?” The answer is a definitive and resounding, “YES!” The church is more than it seems to be. The church is more than a place for gathering and community. The church is more than a place to go and hear about how to live good, moral lives. The church is more than a place that gives comfort and peace or an energy boost for the week.

The church is God’s work. The church is where we gather to be commissioned as doers and proclaimers of God’s work in the world. The church is about you and how God works for you and through you.

Bishop Elizabeth Eaton, the presiding Bishop of the ELCA and the one we have a picture of in our hallway to the fellowship hall, talked about it like this. She said that there are four simple emphases in our work of understanding who we are as a church of the crucified and risen Christ:

“We are church.”

“We are Lutheran.”

“Some of the most important words that are spoken in a liturgy are: Go in peace, serve the Lord. So we're sent out each worship time to be engaged in the world, understanding that we're nurtured by the sacraments and the word but that we are called to serve this world and not to see people as problems to be solved.”

“We are church together.”

“We are church for the sake of the world.”

This sounds great, but what does it mean? Let’s take a couple of minutes and actually look at each of these emphases that she encouraged us to take a look at.

“We are church”

The church exists not so that we can have fun activities to do together every Sunday morning and sometimes during the week. But the church exists because God called it into existence. We are church—we are here and together because of a little conversation between Jesus and his disciples 2,000 years ago. We are here because God works in and through us.

We are Lutheran

So what does it mean to be Lutheran? It’s tempting to talk about our culture… our heritage… and perhaps most importantly our potlucks as to who we are as Lutheran. But believe it or not, we are not just Lutheran because we are a bunch of Norwegians, Swedes, and Germans! There are actually more Lutherans of color throughout the world today than their are Lutherans of European descent! What does in fact make us Lutheran is our theology in trying to understand who God is and what God is doing in the world. We focus on the idea that we are not saved by the good deeds we do or by how moralistically superior we can live our lives but rather that we are “Saved by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ.” It’s about what God is doing, not what we are doing!

“We are church together”

Does this mean that we must always agree about everything? Of course not. One of the blessings of church is that we each bring a different perspective to interpreting God’s activity in the world. What it does mean is that we’re not alone as a congregation. We’re not an island church in the sea that is Oklahoma.

The church goes beyond the four walls that surround us in our sanctuary. We are church together with St. Paul in Marshall and Zion in Perry thanks to our Shared Ministry. We are church together with the 50 plus ELCA congregations throughout Arkansas and Oklahoma Synod which, by the way, the word synod means “the way together”. We are church together with the nearly 9,300 ELCA congregations and 3.7 million members throughout the United States.

We are church together the Lutheran World Federation where the ELCA is just one of 142 church bodies throughout the world which includes nearly 70 million Christians in 79 countries.

We are church together we other denominations that we have agreed to share pastors and communion with, including the Presbyterian USA, the Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church, the Moravian Church, and the United Methodist Church. And we are church together with all who believe and our baptized.

We are church together… we are not alone.

And finally, “We are church for the sake of the world.”

We’re not a social service agency with sacraments. We are the Body of Christ and together, we are church for the sake of the world. The church exists not just to do good or to hear about good things… but the church exists and matters because God works through the church. We exist as the organized body of Christ’s followers who combine their efforts to love and support one another; to uplift and encourage one another in difficult times; to celebrate births and baptism as well as remember those who have died and been buried. We exist for each other… and we exist for those beyond our four walls. We exist for the people in our community and throughout the world that need God’s love and grace not just gifted through a divine ray of hope but offered through human hands and human words—our hands… our words—your hands… your words.

We exist as the organized body of Christ’s followers who combine their efforts to love and support one another; to uplift and encourage one another in difficult times; to celebrate births and baptism as well as remember those who have died and been buried.

We exist for each other… and we exist for those beyond our four walls. We exist for the people in our community and throughout the world that need God’s love and grace not just gifted through a divine ray of hope but offered through human hands and human words—our hands… our words—your hands… your words.

Conclusion

We are church. We are Lutheran. We are church together. We are church for the sake of the world.

We are here together this morning because Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. We are here because God is a God who is actively working in the world and actively working in and through us. No matter how small and insignificant we may feel our impact is at times, what we do and say together as church matters. It matters to each other, it matters to our community of Enid, and it matters to the world.

Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. We are the church of the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Now let’s discover what that means for us together.

Closing Prayer

Let us pray,

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Messiah of the World and Son of the One True Living God; you claim us as your own children. Open our ears to hear the Good News that you bring in ways that spark renewed passion and fervor in our lives. Open our eyes to see those around us who are in need of your love and grace. Help us to be the church you began with Peter and continue through our hands and our voices. Lead us, Lord God, and remind us always of your unrelenting compassion for all creation.

In your Holy Name we pray,

Amen.