Two visions of Church

Sermon preached at 11am Eucharist at St Alphege, Solihull on Sunday 24th August 2008
Trinity 14, Proper 16, Year A.

Readings: Isaiah 51:1-6 Romans 12: 1-8 Matthew 16: 13-20


Our readings today encourage us to reflect on two different images of the Church; two different ways of thinking about the Church, and our role in it.
Our gospel reading was the story of Simon recognising Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God. Let’s just take a moment to think about though two titles, Messiah and Son of God, to check that we know what we mean by them.
First of all, the word Messiah. This is a Hebrew word which means “anointed one”. This equivalent Greek word is “Kristos” from which we get our word Christ. Within the kingdom of Israel the tradition was that God would choose a king, and he would tell a prophet to go and anoint that person with oil to show that they were to be king. Perhaps the most famous occasion when this happened is the one recorded in the first book of Samuel, Chapter 16. The prophet Samuel was sent by God to the house of Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king over Israel. Jesse paraded seven sons in front of Samuel, but none of these were to be king. Jesse’s eighth and youngest son, David, had to be called back from the fields. The Lord told Samuel that David was the one to be king, so Samuel anointed him with oil, and of course he went to become the great King David, who established the people of Israel in Jerusalem at the start of what was to become their golden age.
But the golden age only lasted for two or three generations. After that the people of Israel passed through hard times. They were always ruled by some foreign king or empire and they always felt oppressed and downtrodden. God promised them that in the fullness of time he would send a descendent of David to be a new Messiah, the anointed one, to be a great King, to save Israel and to enlighten all the people of the world. The people of Israel were always looking for the new Messiah and in our gospel today Simon recognised Jesus as the long awaited Messiah, the Christ.
Simon also recognised Jesus as the Son of God. This is effectively saying that Jesus is God, is of the same being as God. The rest of us were created by God, but Jesus was in some sense “begotten by God, before all things began.” The virgin birth bares witness to the fact that Jesus had no earthly father, but rather he should be called the Son of God.
So Simon’s recognition of Jesus as Messiah, anointed one, Christ, and as Son of God is very, very profound. Jesus certainly was very impressed and said to Simon, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Now it is not easy to understand what all this means. Jesus later repeats many of these things to all the apostles, so there is a sense in which they are shared by all the apostles, by all of the church. But within this sharing they still all come together in a particular way in the person of Simon, now called Peter, which means Rock. And this image of Peter, the rock, on which the church is founded, and the ministry that Peter shares with the other apostles, has been very influential in the churches understanding of itself; of what it means to be church. In Ephesians 2:20 St Paul compares the Church, the people of God to small stones which are being built together to form a great structure, a temple which is being built up to form a dwelling place for God’s Holy Spirit. In this comparison St Paul says that the prophets and apostles are the foundations and Jesus Christ himself is the chief cornerstone.
And I think that this is a very helpful and useful image of the church. But it is by no means the only helpful image of the church, and in fact it is necessary to lay it alongside other images of the church, in order to develop a fuller understanding of what the Church is, what it is for, and how we play our part in it.
In our second reading today from Romans chapter 12, we heard St Paul set out a different image of the church. It is the image of the Church as the body of Christ, and it is one that Paul repeats several times in his epistles (e.g. 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 1:23, Col 1: 18). In this comparison, Christ is the head of the Church, and the Church is like his body. We are like different members of the body, perhaps we are an arm or a leg, and ear or a nose. We are all very different, but we all have a role to play that is of service to the whole body. We are all joined together in the body; we are members one of another. Just as the different parts of the human body are sustained by the flow of blood round the body, so we in the church are sustained by the presence of God in the Church. God present in his Word proclaimed from the scriptures. God present in the consecrated bread and wine of Holy Communion, God present in the midst of his people gathered in his name (Matt 18:20).
The image of the Church has a great building has it strengths. It makes us reflect on the structures and organisation of the Church, on the bishops and on all the rules and regulations which give us clear guidance on how we all fit together. However this is no more a complete view of the Church, that a skeleton is the complete human body. The body includes many soft tissues, much that is moving and changing all the time, and blood that is in constant circulation.
In our reading St Paul also said, “Do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God - what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom 12: 2) And this is essential. It is by discerning God’s will that we work out how we, personally, fit into the body. Perhaps we are an arm, and rather action focused. Perhaps we are an ear, and draw the Churches attention the cries of the people around us. Perhaps we are good at talking and, with all charity (not as idle gossip!) we keep news moving and circulating round the people of the Church. Perhaps our role is to pray; we are more like the soul of the body, holding the whole body up before God.
So as we reflect on our own role in the church let’s make sure that everything is done in accordance with God’s will, so God will show us our right place alongside all the other people. Let’s remember that those structural bits, the Bishops and the rules, often show us the will of God and give form and structure to the church, just as the skeleton gives structure to the body. But let’s not make the mistake of thinking the skeleton is more important than the flesh and blood; otherwise we reduce the church to dry bones. Rather let’s recognise that we all need each other, and lets rejoice together, each in accordance with God’s will for us personally, so that the church can be a strong and vibrant body.