The Church is Not Just a Building

For today's sermon, I referenced both the gospel, Matthew 16:13-20, and the second lesson, Romans 12:1-8.  The thing I find more interesting about the gospel is that it is not Peter the man who is the foundation of the church but Peter's confession.  And I also find it interesting that we often assume the church has been built.  

Enjoy!

Just two weeks ago as Peter attempted to walk on water, we heard Jesus tell Peter “you of little faith, why did you doubt,” after Peter began to sink and had to cried out for Jesus to save him.  And now, just 2 chapters later we hear that Peter is the rock on which the church is built.  And unfortunately when we hear this, many of us think that the church is done being built. 

Yes, Peter went on after Jesus’ death and started the church.  Through himself and the other disciples telling people about Jesus, the church was formed.  People started to worship the risen savior, Jesus the Christ, who died on the cross for our sins.  And various worship practices were started, many of which we still use today, such as communing together as a group, and greeting one another in peace.  And as people told their stories about Jesus, they were written down and became the gospels that we still read from today, the very thing that we get today’s reading about Peter’s confession and him being the rock on which Jesus will build the church. 

And as the church, the fellowship of people who worshiped Jesus, grew, so too were churches were built.  Cathedrals, basilicas, chapels and church buildings were built in order to provide a space for the Church, the people of God, to worship. 

Our own church building, the room in which we are now in, was built a little over a 100 years ago. The basement was completed about 80 or 90 years ago and the community room was completed around 50 years ago.  Our church building has been built.

So as a result we see the church as having already been built; completed; past tense; finished. 

But that is because we in English often confuse the church building for the church, the people, the body of Christ.   

We see the church buildings completed.  They are made of wood, rock and glass, and other than basic upkeep or the hope of expansion, the church has been built, the church building that is. 

But the church is more than a building.  Bethlehem is more than this building here that we are now in, and the church is more than all the church buildings, great and small, new and old, through out the world.  The church, the body of Christ, the fellowship of believers, is something that cannot be contained by wood, rock and glass nor can it be made by wood, rock and glass. 

Instead the church is a living thing, constantly changing, constantly evolving, constantly growing.  And we are part of that church to which Peter was just the beginning.

Peter was and is the foundation to the church, the rock on which the church is continually being built.  But it wasn’t Peter the man, the disciple of Jesus, who is that rock, but Peter’s confession.  Peter confesses to Jesus “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  That is the foundation for the church, the body of Christ. 

And through this confession, and through Peter telling others about Jesus, even though at the time Jesus told him not to, other people came to believe the same thing and made the same confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and they told more people who then came to believe and tell others.  And so on and so on until us today. 

Because others have told us about Jesus, we have become part of the church, part of the body of Christ. And because the church is a living thing and we believe in a living God, we are not called to stay here stagnate and focus solely on the building and its upkeep.  Instead we are called to continue in Peter’s and the other disciples footstep and in their foundation and tell others about Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, who died to save us from our sins.  We are called to tell others that Jesus came for us and for them.  We are called to tell others that they too are loved with a love so great that at times it can be terrifying because God’s grace as been poured out upon us, even when we feel unworthy and there is nothing that we have done to deserve it. 

And like any living being, this living church that we share in has many different parts and roles so therefore we are each called differently.  As Paul so eloquently says in our reading from Romans today: For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually, we are members one of another.  We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”  We each have been called to tell others about Christ in different ways. We have been blessed with different spiritual gifts so that we might call a variety of people into this church, the whole body of Christ. 

No one person is greater than the rest of this body of Christ.  Peter’s confession is the foundation, the rock on which the church is built, but our confessions, make up the walls, the ceilings, the tapestries, the carpet, the lighting, the chairs, the doors, and the windows on which this church continues to grow, continues to change. 

The church is not yet finished, for we are a part of it.