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1.Isaiah
22:15,19-23
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2.Romans11:
33-36
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Gospel:
Matthew 16:13-20
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" Building the Church of Christ".
In 1960s when John XXIII
was Pope, it seemed that everything was falling apart. The priesthood was in
crisis, religious life was in crisis, marriage was in crisis, faith was in
crisis. The Pope tried as much as he could to settle out the situation and to
address these problems. One evening,
after an exhausting day in the office, he went to his private chapel to do his
daily Holy Hour before retiring but he
was too exhausted and too stressed out
to focus or pray. After few minutes of futile effort, he got up and said,
" Lord, the Church belongs to you. I am going to bed." Difficulties
mighty have driven the Pope to acknowledge that the church belongs to Christ.
But Jesus himself said it in more than 2000 years ago: You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of Hades will not prevail against it( Matthew 16:18)
The highlighted passage
is very crucial in understanding what the church is, and our role in the
church. For this is the most explicit statement that Jesus makes in the Gospels
about the Church.
Firstly it tells us
that Jesus is the owner of the church. Neither Peter nor the disciples owns the
Church. Pastors and church leaders who think and act as if they own the church
are like farm workers who go about posing as if the farm belongs to them. All
God's people have been called together as co-workers in Christ's vineyard,
though some work as foremen overseeing others. But we do not own the church. We
belong to the church. The owner of the church is Christ.
Secondly, from the
passage we understand that Jesus is the one who builds his Church. He is the
master builder who has the building plan in his hands. Human co-operators are
like masons and carpenters employed by the master builder to help him with the
building. Our role is to listen and follow his instructions, doing our own
small part in the grand design of the master. Workers who stick to their own
ideas of what the building should be rather than follow the directives given by
the master may find themselves working at across purposes with the master. If
Jesus is the owner of the church, when do we come in? we come in precisely when
Peter comes in . Together with Peter we are the building blocks of the church.
Peter is the foundation rock and we are the pieces of stones with which the
church is built:
Like
living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be holy
priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus
Christ( 1 Peter 2:5)
In the highlighted text
above we have the passive voice, " let yourselves be built" indicates
that God himself is the builder and not us. Our role is to allow God to use us.
The question we could ask ourselves today is: " How is God using me to
build up his church? Am I letting God use me?" We must not forget that no
matter how small a piece of stone may be, the master builder could still use it
to do something beautiful.
We are told a story
about a famous stained -glass artist who was commissioned to make a huge
portrait for the window of the cathedral in Chartres, France. First and
foremost he laid all of the pieces he
was going to use out on the floor of the cathedral. Among these awesome pieces
of glass was a small, clear piece about as big as a fingernail. As the
stained-glass portrait was assembled, that little piece remained on the floor.
Only the big colorful pieces were used. On the day of the window's completion
the entire city gathered to witness the unveiling of the portrait. The artist
pulled away the cover cloth and the crowd gasped at the beauty of the colorful
window glowing in the sunlight. After a few seconds, however, the crowd grew
silent. They sensed that something was missing, that portrait was unfinished.
The great artist then walked over to where the little clear piece of glass lay, picked it up, and placed it in
the portrait, right in the center of Jesus' eye. As the sun hit that little
piece, it gave off a dazzling sparkle. The work of art is now complete. Without
the small pieces the work was incomplete. In the grand design of building the
church of God, each one of us could consider ourselves to be that small piece
of glass- so small yet so indispensable.
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