First Reading Isaiah 51:1-6
1“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the Lord: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. 2Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, that I might bless him and multiply him. 3For the Lord comforts Zion; he comforts all her waste places and makes her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. 4Give attention to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go out from me, and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples. 5My righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. 6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner; but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed.”
Psalm Psalm 138
1I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart; before the gods I will sing your praise. 2I will bow down toward your holy temple and praise your Name, because of your love and faithfulness; 3For you have glorified your name and your word above all things. 4When I called, you answered me; you increased my strength within me. 5All the kings of the earth will praise you, O Lord, when they have heard the words of your mouth. 6They will sing of the ways of the Lord, that great is the glory of the Lord. 7Though the Lord be high, he cares for the lowly; he perceives the haughty from afar. 8Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you keep me safe; you stretch forth your hand against the fury of my enemies; your right hand shall save me. 9The Lord will make good his purpose for me; O Lord, your love endures forever; do not abandon the works of your hands.
Second Reading Romans 11:33-12:8
33Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! 34“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35“Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
1I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, 5so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Gospel Matthew 16:13-20
13When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” 20Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ.
Building a Winning Team
It’s an approach that’s probably been around longer, but since the beginning of the 1990’s it seems like CEOs and HR departments of nearly every sort of business enterprise, as well as every sports coach in the land these days, is talking about how to build a winning culture. Building the right culture is said to be the magic formula for uniting your team around a singular vision. I was talking to my son-in-law this past week and he was telling me about the Lowes Foods store in Banner Elk. He said the produce manager was looking for extra help during the peak seasons there. His comment to Paul was, if I can build a team of the right people, I’d have that winning culture where I wouldn’t be constantly looking for seasonal and part time people.
Most companies address this challenge in a variety of ways. Some companies schedule team-building retreats. These team-building retreats are designed to get people away from their workplace, outside their comfort zone and teach them to work together to learn a new skill or face a new challenge. It sounds good in theory, but not all team-building exercises accomplish these purposes. I’ve never participated in any of these retreats, but I have heard of some pretty interesting approaches to team building.
The folks at Quickbase software company asked for feedback on some of the worst team-building exercises that actual businesses have put their employees through. For example, one company brought in a consultant who asked all the employees to kick off a team-building meeting by going around the conference table and sharing what they didn’t like about their fellow employees. Not the best idea—literally within minutes, all the employees were either angry or in tears. Another person wrote about a team-building retreat at a horse farm. The goal of the exercise was to improve each employee’s communication skills, believe it or not, by having them learn to communicate with a horse. It’s a novel approach I guess; I mean what could possibly go wrong? Would you believe one employee was nearly trampled by one rambunctious horse. Nothing like a near-death experience to bring a team together.
However, one of the strangest team-building exercises on the Quickbase blog was from an employee who said their team sat through a two-hour exercise where they were instructed to visualize flying over the ocean to a mythical place called the “temple of the dolphin.” Then they were asked to watch dolphin videos and study the unique leadership skills of dolphins. That’s one for the books; I didn’t know dolphins had leadership skills. For me, Jesus was ahead of His time when it came to team building. He took His disciples off from time to time for retreats, but these retreats had nothing to do with the leadership skills of dolphins or learning to communicate with horses. Usually these get-away retreats were a time for prayer, for conversation about the kingdom of God or a time to get to know Jesus fully. But before I get to our gospel lesson and the question Jesus asked His disciples, I want to point something out in our first reading.
For several weeks now we’ve been reading passages from Isaiah and most of these passages talk about the need for God’s people to pursue righteousness. For most people when they hear passages that talk about righteousness, they think of all the ways they need to act to be “a righteous person.” These people see their good works and deeds as equating to being righteous. It’s a nice thought, but this rational is wrong. Looking strictly at doing good deeds and how we treat others by worldly standards means we’re focused on works righteousness. It means we’re looking to save ourselves though our own merit. This isn’t what the prophet is telling us; righteousness involves much, much more.
The righteousness Isaiah is pointing to is none other than Jesus Himself. The pursuit of righteousness involves more than just deeds, it’s about an approach to life, an attitude of servitude, of self-denial and yielding ones life to God. In verse 5 of our Isaiah reading, God is saying through His prophet, “My righteousness [that is Jesus] draws near, my salvation has gone out, and my arms will judge the peoples; the coastlands hope for me, and for my arm they wait. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and they who dwell in it will die in like manner, but my salvation will be forever, and my righteousness will never be dismayed” (Isa. 51:5-6). To pursue righteousness as instructed, we must look to Jesus. To seek to do what’s right in God’s eyes, we must look to the Rock of our salvation, and to recognize this Rock, Jesus, must be revealed to us by God’s Holy Spirit.
Once the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us, we can then know Righteousness. This is why Jesus took the disciples off on a team building retreat. Interestingly, this time the retreat location was to a place outside their comfort zone. As we read in Matthew’s Gospel, this unusual place was named Caesarea Philippi. Caesarea Philippi was an ancient Roman city known for its worship of foreign gods. There was a sacred cave at the entrance to Caesarea Philippi, and all around this cave were carved niches filled with small statues of the various gods worshiped there, gods like Hermes and Echo. The region was also full of pagan religious sites, many devoted to the Greek god Pan. Pan, as many of us know from Disney cartoons, was the half-man, half-goat god who had the ability to create a feeling of sudden and overwhelming fear in humans. It’s from his name that we get the English word panic.
Put yourself in the disciples’ shoes for a moment. Jesus leads you to a place that makes you very uncomfortable. Having been raised in the Jewish faith which rejected all forms of idolatry, you feel like a fish out of water in such a place. Everywhere you look, you see evidence of shrines and statues and inscriptions to various pagan gods. You’re confronted with abomination in every direction. And as you begin to stare at your sandals to avoid staring at these ungodly idols, Jesus asks you a strange question: “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Say what?
You take a moment to let Jesus’ question sink in. Is this a trick question or is He taking some sort of a survey? For the disciples, they must have thought Jesus was taking an opinion poll!” So, to answer His question they respond, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Everyone it seems has their own idea about Jesus. And they’re all relatively positive ideas. When you think about it, there’s nothing wrong with being compared to some of Israel’s greatest prophets . . . you can’t do any better than John the Baptist, Elijah and Jeremiah . . . unless, of course, you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the Great I AM. Then it’s a little insulting. Now there’s something interesting to note here, something I never stopped to consider myself. Jesus doesn’t correct His disciples. Instead, He just asks them another question: “But what about you?” He asks. “Who do you say I am?” So, this isn’t about taking an opinion poll, this just got personal.
This isn’t Jesus making small talk. The line of questioning has taken a decidedly intense turn. “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” To this, Simon Peter responds. “You are the Messiah,” he testifies, “the Son of the living God.” Simon Peter doesn’t realize it, but he’s just stepped through a one-way door. He’s crossed a dividing line. He has announced that Jesus is the Anointed One promised of God to the nation of Israel. He is God in the flesh . . . not the image of a dead idol, but the Son of the living God. To this Jesus turns to Simon and said, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Then Jesus orders the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
We like to think of Pentecost, the day that the Holy Spirit fell upon a group of Jesus’ followers and gave them the power to do ministry in Jesus’ name as the birthday of the Christian church. But the first time the church is mentioned in the Bible is in this passage here, in verse 18. Notice how Jesus announces it: “. . . on this rock I will build my church.” Not the church. Not a church. My church. This is Jesus’ church—not my church, not your church, but Jesus’ church. The word Jesus uses for “church” is ekklesia. That term doesn’t refer to a building. Ekklesia means a “called-out people.” Jesus is casting a vision for His disciples. He’s showing them that His ministry isn’t just for this time and this place and this people. His ministry will continue long after His death, resurrection and ascension.
Jesus, and later their ministry, will attract people from all over the world. His church is for all time and for all people. That’s why we’re here today, isn’t it? Over 2,000 years ago, Jesus envisioned you, me and billions of people all over the world coming together to do His work. What then does it mean to be His called-out people? In His teachings He gives us some clear instructions. First of all, Jesus calls us to be a light to the nations of the world.
In Matthew 5:14-15 we read these words: “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” What does Jesus mean when He tells us that we’re to be the light of the world? Simple, it means we’re not only to pursue righteousness, but we’re to also be a living example of what living in the kingdom of God is all about.
According to a story in Leadership magazine few years ago, the city of Jackson, Mississippi, once endured a scandal among their city council members. The council president, along with another member, had been caught in an unethical situation. A number of community leaders were brought together for a televised panel discussion on the issue. Journalist Matt Friedman participated in the panel. At one point, the moderator asked, “Matt, whose fault is this?”
Matt savored the question for a moment. He admits that he was ready to denounce the council president in no uncertain terms. But suddenly, another man spoke up. It was Pastor John Perkins, also a participant on the panel. And Pastor Perkins said simply, “It’s my fault.” Everyone turned to stare at this strange comment. “I have lived in this community for decades as a Bible teacher,” Pastor Perkins continued. “I should have been able to create an environment where what our council president did would have been unthinkable because of my efforts. You want someone to blame? I’ll take the blame. All of it.”
Pastor Perkins understood what Jesus meant when He said, “You are the light of the world.” We’re called to be the embodiment of righteous living. We are expected to be the example of what living in the kingdom of God is all about. “Let your light shine before others,” said Jesus, “that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Jesus calls us to be a light to the nations of the world. As we were reminded in last week’s Old Testament reading, God reminds us to “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my righteousness be revealed.” (Isa. 56:1). Righteous living is more than simply doing a few good deeds, it’s about our whole lives, our attitudes, our thoughts, our words and our deeds mirroring Jesus for the world.
Additionally, Jesus also calls us to be a community of love. Ekklesia is a plural word. Once we become a follower of Jesus, we’re called to become one in heart, mind and spirit with every other follower of Christ all over the world throughout time and history. We cannot follow Jesus and look out for our own self-interest. We cannot follow Christ and look down on a fellow believer. We are a community that spans more than 2,000 years of history and covers every nation, every ethnicity, every language, and every social class on earth. And Jesus’ last prayer before His arrest and crucifixion, His high priestly prayer, was that we would all be one—one in heart, one in mind, one in spirit, one in love.
In December 2019, a five-year-old boy named Michael was adopted out of the foster care system in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s always great news when a child gets adopted, but Michael’s adoption was extraordinary. When Michael’s foster parents told his kindergarten teacher that the adoption hearing was coming up, the kindergarten teacher arranged for every child in Michael’s class to attend the hearing and show their support for Michael.
Michael’s foster parents said the kids in his kindergarten class had been exceptionally kind and welcoming toward him from the very first day. They loved him. So, it was only appropriate that on Michael’s special day they all showed up. Imagine the judge’s surprise when she entered the courtroom for a standard adoption hearing and saw 39 five-year-olds waving red paper hearts in support of Michael. The judge even took the time to ask the children to share what Michael meant to them. When we were baptized, we became followers of Jesus, we were adopted into the church, we became part of a called-out people.
This means we’re no longer alone. We’re part of a family that shares our joys and heartaches. We belong to Jesus and we belong to each other. That’s what it means to be the church. Jesus calls us to pursue righteousness, to be a light for the nations. He also calls us to be a community of love. We’re called to keep justice and do righteousness, and to do that, we look to and be like Jesus, our Rock and Salvation as our example for living, loving, and obeying. Finally, Jesus calls us to reach out to those who do not know Him.
Look again at Jesus’ words in verse 18: “. . . and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” “I will build my church”—Jesus is building the church through you, me and all His faithful followers. Two thousand years ago, Jesus had a vision of people all over the world, joining together in prayer and Bible study and worship, going out to minister to the hurting and the needy in our communities, and loving each other with a sacrificial love that’s so contagious that it draws others to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.
Francis Chan, the author of the book Crazy Love, visited church congregations around the world and studied what passionate, committed, courageous Christian faith looks like. He told of his conversation with a Chinese pastor who served the underground church in China. For most of the last century the church in China was forced to exist in secret cells because of state persecution. Amazingly this didn’t hinder the church’s growth. This pastor said that the persecution faced by the underground church forced them to focus on Jesus’ mission even more.
The Chinese pastor stated that the underground Chinese church is built on five pillars. These pillars are, studying the word of God, devotion to prayer, the expectation that every single believer would share their faith in Jesus with others, regular expectation of miracles, and embracing suffering for the glory of Christ. That’s not a formula that you would think would be all that attractive—particularly the part about suffering. And yet, it’s estimated that there are currently 100 million Christians in China. The so-called underground church accomplished amazing feats in Jesus’ name.
“. . . and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not overcome it.” That’s a promise Jesus made over 2,000 years ago. Jesus is still building His church, His called-out people, and nothing, not even the gates of hell can stand against us. We look at churches that are dying in this land and conclude that the battle is being lost. I beg to differ! There are more people serving Christ around the world than ever before in human history. Many are still being persecuted. Many are still practicing their faith underground, but the church of Jesus Christ is still a battering ram against satan and the forces of evil.
As baptized children of God, you and I have been “called out.” Called out to be a light for the nations of the world; called out to be a community of love; called out to reach out to those who do not know Jesus. You and I are commanded to keep justice and do righteousness. To do this we must look to Jesus and His example of how we’re to live a life that’s pleasing to God. Jesus is still asking us today, “who do you say I am.” Because the Holy Spirit has revealed to us that Jesus is “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” we can leave this place to pursue righteousness and be the light of the world. Amen
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