Matthew 16: 13-20 - "God and Gates" (8-24-08)

Former U.S. Secretary of Education, Dr. William Bennett, was asked this question by a seventh grader: “How can you tell a good country from a bad one?” Secretary Bennett replied, “I apply the ‘gate’ test. When the gates of a country are open, watch which way the people run. Do they run into the country or out of the country?”[1] Gates open and close; they protect or imprison.

The disciples had seen Jesus setting people free from the prison of sin, illness and disease. Now JESUS was asking the disciple who people thought Jesus was? Many were uncertain about it and so they gave all kinds of answers. The people could tell that Jesus had a heart that was open and people were being set free from their internal prisons of sins to a life of freedom.

Then Jesus asked the disciple who they thought Jesus was? Peter was inspired by God to answer, “You are the Messiah”. Correct answer! Peter, CEPHAS, Petros. Then Jesus said, “I will build my church” upon this confession of faith. Jesus will build his community of believers! Wherever the church has gathered, this confession of faith has prevailed. The Greek word was ekklesia, which meant the calling out group or a people gathered with a purpose.

Jesus said to Peter, “Not even the gates of hell shall prevail. Nothing is going to stop this message of freedom! This image of gates demonstrates that the gates of hell are closed because don’t want to let people go free. Gates are entry and exits of areas. Gates of a city was the place of funneling people for business and leadership. The gate was the place the elders met to discuss important issues. In business, gate keepers are people who guard and also prevent movement and activities. The gate was also the weakest place of attack for a city. In this passage, gates of hell refer to the "power" of the evil one; it designates the dark side of the force, the world of the dead and demonic powers. Even if deathly strength tried to crush the Church, even if the church is persecuted for our beliefs, the seed of corruption would not prevent the CHURCH from accomplishing form accomplishing this mission of salvation.

What is interesting about gates is that they are not offensive. A gate is not an offensive weapon. It guards and keeps people either protected or imprisoned. Notice that there is no two week cooling off period before one can purchase a gate. Police don’t pack loaded gates. Hostages are not held at gate point. There are no weapons inspectors to discover ‘gates of mass destruction”. Gates are not a threat for they are defensive and they hold back something inside. The church and our confession is sometimes held hostage at gate point because we are afraid & intimidated by those gates. The disciples saw how Jesus had set people from the prison of sin, illness, disease and death.

The Message and confession of the church is an assertive statement of belief. It would offend the powers of darkness. The message of grace which the church proclaims is an offensive and sometimes offensive because we have the message of faith that nothing in all creation shall separate us from God’s love. Nothing shall get in the way, not even the gates of hell! [2]

John Napolii was returning with his catch of fish one foggy morning in 1955. He piloted his boat beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, into San Francisco harbor. What he saw next horrified him. There were people everywhere in the water. A hospital ship, The Netherlands, had collided with an oil tanker. People were shouting, “Help me! Save me! I’m drowning!” John Napolii carefully guided his fishing vessel to a cluster of drowning men. Quickly he began to pull them aboard one by one. Soon the small fishing boat was overcrowded. And John Napolii made one of the hardest decisions of his life. He knew that the lives of those men were far more important than his small fortune of fish. Within minutes he dumped his entire cargo of 2,000 pounds of fish, worth thousands of dollars, into the waters of San Francisco Bay and pulled more than 70 people aboard his boat.[3]

We are saved by Grace alone in believing like Peter that Jesus is the MESSIAH, the one who saves us from sin and death! We are saved with a purpose! Purpose – to help other people navigate away from those gates and to Crash the gate doing 98 saying let those truckers role! We’ve got a great big convoy trucking through the night; we’ve got a great big convoy, ain’t she a beautiful site; come on join our convoy ain’t nothing but heading our way; we have joined the Christian convoy, across the earth! God is leading this convoy of people in this journey to set people free to live and love in the power of the cross.

Let us pray, Gracious God, we praise you for the rock of our life that is our strong foundation. You have formed us in community to be your people who are unafraid to proclaim to the world your goodness. You call us to minister to all those we encounter and to not be afraid. Guide us in sharing this good news, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

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[1] Seven Worlds Sermon Illustrations, 2004 CD

[2] Neil Cole, Organic Church, (jossey-bass, 2005), page 10

[3] George E. Knowles in his book A World To Love

Matthew 15: 21-28 - Walking Across the Room (8-17-08)

I was at a restaurant in St. Paul for a course on Teaching the Bible To Transform Lives. I was visiting with a pastor friend when we found out that Bill Murray was in the house. You know the Groundhog Day and Ghostbuster actor. I immediately got up and walked across the room to see him and meet him. He owns the St. Paul Saints Minor League Baseball team and he is a huge Cubs fan. When I met him, I said that I was a big Cub fan too, I was engaged at Wrigley Field. He said, “Crazy Place”. Then I said my wife met you when you did Groundhog day in Woodstock, IL which must mean we are best buddies. He just ignored the statement as he must for tons of people. I then said, “Can I take a picture with you?” He said, “hurry up”. He was looking at someone else when I just stood near him and waved at the camera. I was so willing to walk across the room to meet someone famous. Yet I ignored many other people in the place in this process.

Jesus took the disciples on a long walk across a roomy area and out of the comforts of Galilee and home. It was the first time Jesus left the Galilee area and walked over to the Tyre - Sidon region in what we would call modern day Lebanon. This was the only time Jesus the gospel of Matthew reports that he would go outside the comforts of the world of Jewish faith. When he arrived in one of the towns, he was immediately greeted by a woman who was in great need. The stench of her crying out could be sensed clearly by everyone. Wafting in the air was the odor of outsider and Jesus could also smell the candle of fear of the disciples. The smell of danger was wafting in the air. The hyper-allergenic smell of a dog was wafting around as they reached this town.

Son of David, help me. My daughter needs help! This woman turned to Jesus out of desperation. She had such a great love for her child that would shift all her priorities to help her daughter. This woman’s daughter was possessed by a power she could not control. She must have heard the stories of this Jewish healer named Jesus who had the power to set people free. The disciples are more annoyed than anything. They responded by encouraging Jesus to give her what she needed but primarily as a way of getting rid of her. You know, the here’s a few bucks now go away, kinda of compassion that stinks of disconnecting the need with a reel person.

Then Jesus said on the surface what appears to be a cold statement. “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Many think Jesus said this as a way of expressing what everyone was thinking and feeling about this woman but was afraid to say anything. What is interesting is that Jesus called this woman a dog, a pet that was only fed by what fell from the table for dogs then didn’t have there own bowl and food. Kinda of like the way my niece yesterday was pushing her food off her tray while we were camping which fell to the ground for the dog. Yet this woman was desperate for a crumb of help. She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”

Jesus then said, “Great is your faith. Let it be done as you desire” and her daughter was healed. This woman realized that they only thing that could free her daughter from the power of the demoniac was the truth of God’s grace and mercy. The most important thing a parent can give to their possession filled children is a faith that is rooted in life as a gift, a crumb of grace. You see, there are people all around us who have tons of possessions but who are possessed by a power and a force that causes them to do crazy things. There are times when we feel we are in this dog-eat-dog world and we become possessed not with grace but with a terrible force of evil. There are many of us hungry for healing and restoration in relationships.

Parents are being reminded today that our children need to be influenced by faith more than anything else. We might throw money and gifts at our kids in order to deal with the guilt of not having enough time with them. But faith in Christ is the greatest gift we can give them to deal with the great powers of marketing that convinces us that our dis-ease can be cured by buying more stuff. Our children have tons of possessions but they need to possess the faith in Christ that as parents we can encourage.

We are being called to be like dogs who gather at the table where the crumbs of faith are freely given. Faith in Christ still brings healing in our relationships. Come to the table for the crumbs of faith. We are called to be fed by the one who possesses our hungry souls. We are called to cry out to God for help in prayer. We are called to walk across the room[i] to places out of our comfort zone. Bill Hybels, in the book Walk Across the Room described these three things as 3D:

Develop relationship - Listen to the other; sense where they are at in the journey; Not judgmental but be open to developing relationship with your friends, relatives, acquaintances and neighbors. Remember that 1 Corinthians 4:3-9 talks about we each do some planting in the soil and others may water it and you may pull weeds; but God gives the growth

Discover their story - Ask people if they attended church growing up. If you do this with the desire to just get a notch in your Christian belt, you are doing this for the wrong reason and people will tell. Ask people about where they find hope and joy. If you get a negative response, don’t get judgmental or argumentative.

Discern next steps - What can you say or not say that shows empathy. What follow up question or information can you share? I just met a lady and she told me she was Catholic. I asked her the name of the church and we shared a few things. I said that we were all catholic with a small “c”. It’s like my large family growing up and we would say to one another that “You’re not my sister anymore.” When denominations do that I think we need to remember that even if we don’t like the fact that we are related, we are related. There is just one Christ and one baptism. This is the call to listen to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to know what to say or not say.

The calling we have is to walk across the room toward others. Today we are training people on a new step that will reach out to people who have connected with Living Waters. We are basically just attempting those who are guests at Living Waters to let people know that God cares. We are attempting to walk across the room of distance that lies between us.

Max Lucado told a story about the time he took his daughter for a walk around the neighborhood when she was four years old. “Let’s cover some new territory”, Lucado said to his daughter as they went out beyond the safe harbor of their neighborhood into the unknown. The area was known to Andrea. They petted new dogs; saw a wilderness of new yards and home; meeting strangers and greeted them. At a certain point Lucado thought the changes might trouble Andrea. “Annie, are you okay. Sure she said. Do you know where you are? No! Do you know how to get home? No! Aren’t you worried? Annie said, “I don’t have to know how to get home, you already do”.

We gather today because we perhaps feel more like dogs than children of God. The people we are called to care for perhaps feel more like dogs than children of God. Yet today we see Jesus walking toward us after he left the fellowship of God and the angels to walk across the cosmos to demonstrate God’s great love for God’s people. Today we are barking up the same tree like cross to beg God for grace and mercy so that we may share that with others.

Let us pray: Gracious God, we gather to beg for your healing power for ourselves and our children. Help us to point them and others to your mercy, and help us to walk toward others the way you are walking with us today. In Christ we pray, Amen.

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[i] Theme comes from the Bill Hybels book of the same name