Who Has the Keys?, First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 8/21/2011, Rev Steven R Mitchell

Who Has the Keys?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, 8/21/2011
Based on Matthew 16:13-20

How many keys do you have on your key ring? Do you have more than one ring to which you keep keys on? Do you know which key works on what lock? I actually still carry around a few keys to locks that no longer exist. It was once said that you could tell the importance of a person by the number of keys that he or she possessed.
Keys are very important. They give you access to what’s on the “other side” of the door. Many people will give a spare key to their house to a friend or family member. When you are dating an individual and you are given a key to their house or apartment, you are being told that you now have access to their personal space. A key represents “trust” in the individual who holds it.
Every parent of a Teenager goes through one of the worst days of their lives when asked to give their child the “keys” to the car. Before handing over the keys, we start taking mental inventory, “does this child have the maturity to handle this tin can that has the capability to go 100 mph or more?” “Will my child really focus on the serious task of driving on a public street?” “How many stop lights and stop signs are there between here and there?” And the list continues to go on as you surrender your keys to the trusting hands of your child.
I wonder if Jesus really understood what he was doing when he was turning over the keys of heaven to Peter! Peter, who tended to react to situations. Peter, who often spoke without thinking about what he was saying. The same Peter who loses focus when given a task; remember what happened when he started to walk on water, he sank when he started to look around. Just a few verses back in Matthew, Jesus calls Peter “Satan” for setting his mind on human things instead of the divine. Peter was constantly missing the point and even ended up denying knowledge of Jesus when Jesus most needed the support of his friends. How does someone give the keys to the kingdom of heaven and build the church upon them with a track record like Peter’s? Clearly Peter’s authority is not based on his rightness or righteousness. Then what is its basis?
Back at the beginning of this passage, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”(v 13) Their response seems to depend on what particular faction they are a part of – whether they are partial to John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or another prophet. In the Protestant church today, people might respond by interpreting Jesus through the lens of Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Karl Barth, Aimee Semple McPherson, Billy Graham, or even Marcus Borg. The tendency, in other words, is for people to project onto Jesus their particular cultural, theological, and denominational allegiances.
In the next verse, however, Jesus responds by making the question to his disciples more pointed: “But who do you say that I am?” (v.15) Simon Peter, as he often does, speaks first and replies, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (v.16) Jesus responds, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 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.” (v.17-18)Feasting on the Word, YR A, Vol. 3, pg 382
Peter did not receive this promotion, if you will, because he had the answer that Jesus was looking for, but rather, Jesus was responding to Peter by what his “testimony” was about Jesus! Peter wasn’t describing Jesus by his theological understanding, but rather by the experiences he had had with Jesus. It was because of what was in his heart, not in his head, that Jesus singled Peter out to give the “keys to the Kingdom of Heaven” too.
Over the last couple of millennia, Christians have been arguing the point as to the meaning of Peter being the foundation that the church is built upon. In the Roman Catholic tradition, it is believed that Peter, through the response that we just read by Jesus, literally gives Peter the authority of Christ, here on earth, and in turn, each succeeding Pope receives this direct authority over the church.
I personally look at what Jesus said to Peter, from the understanding that it was not Peter himself that the church is built upon, but rather it is the “faith” to which Peter was “testifying” about Christ, that is the foundation in which the church was built upon and continues to be built upon today. This then makes the church a living organism that survives because of its “profession” of Christ, which can only come through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the United Church of Christ, we would say the church is alive today because of the Ever Speaking God!
We call ourselves the “Church of Christ”; we as part of this church carry the “keys to the kingdom of heaven”, pretty impressive isn’t it! When you look at your key ring, do you see the key to heaven there? What does it look like? What do the doors look like that this key open? Do you believe that you and you alone are the rock, the foundation in which Jesus is building up his church?
Jesus told Peter that even the gates of Hades, would not be able to stop this church. Do you believe this? I mean, do you really believe that the First Congregational Church of Christ is a part of this reality and that it will never die? Just last year, we experienced the death of one of our sister churches in this community. Why did that church not survive? The “gates of Hades” that Jesus is referring to here is not the image of “hell” but rather it refers to a physical death. So why do some churches burst at the seams while others are withering on the vine? Do not all churches hold the keys to the kingdom?
Jesus was asking a very important question to the disciples when he asked them, “Who do people say that I am?” We need to be asking that question of First Congregational, “Who do people of Rock Springs say that we are?” Are we seen as a social group? Are we seen only through the eyes of the annual bazaar? Are we seen as a non-biblical people? Are we seen as a church that is open to all peoples? Are we seen as a spiritual people?
The rock that Christ was speaking about is not founded in a person of Peter, but rather it is founded in the Testimony that we have about who Christ is. “Who do you say that I am?” This is the question that Jesus asks each of us. Whether we have the key to the kingdom of heaven will be revealed in our answer to Jesus’ question. Who do you say Jesus is? The answer isn’t found in theology. The answer is found deep within your heart. Amen