When I was a kid my mom and dad had our patio extended into a large cement slab with a retaining wall and basketball goal. I got to write my name and the date in one corner next to the house. It was a great place to play and now to picnic. I remember the wall being built and the guy that was hired first. I know he was trying to come out level on the top for a wall that was built on a slab that was poured at an angle for rain runoff. I think I was 6 or 7 and I was watching what was going on. He was breaking blocks with a masonry hammer and mortaring them in. Now I was young and I remember thinking, “that looks terrible” and generally “not right”. As it turns out, I was right and some new people were hired. Over the distance the sightline of the slope was really undetectable so it didn’t need to be level on top. But I have found out in later life the correct method of leveling. I won’t bore you with the details, but it involves setting the low corner at the correct height and a special saw for cutting concrete. So if we fast forward in my life to adulthood and my own home ownership and understanding leveling and foundations I learned that pouring footers is a big deal that relies on it all being done in a single pour and stuff like that. It’s a big deal and needs to be done correctly and then inspected. OR, as I also found out from the barns, chicken coops and outbuildings in our yard that was the side of a very large hill, it can be done a different way. I sort of envision it as, “Son, go get me a rock about this big. Ok, go get me one about this big. Now, hold that one on top of the other while we set the end of the beam on it. That was in the 1940’s. I was always a little fearful of the stability and the buildings were in disrepair, so they needed to come down. Seeing those two stacked rocks. They weren’t flat or square. They were just rocks not shaped or chiseled. This will be easy. Take the boards off the sides and maybe pull it over with a truck. We hear in the Gospel this week that Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church.” It has been pretty much assumed that Jesus is referring to Peter here and that is a possibility, however, Jesus has led quite an interesting field trip to a very interesting place and they are discussing some very interesting and popular material at the time. All three are connected to respected Jewish literature that wasn’t included in the Biblical canon but is referenced in it. The book was the Book of Enoch and it discusses this area and uses the term Son of Man. It was written approximately 200 years before Jesus’ birth. The references are strong and say many of the things that are written in the Gospels and New Testament. Rabbis would have led bookclub-like discussions and debates about these writings. We’ve discussed before how important geography is to this moment before, but I think we need to take a moment to review. A lot was said to have gone on in this area of Ceaserea Phillipi. In the book of Enoch it is that Mount Hermon is where the angels that rebelled against God had come to earth in order to mate with human women. That resulted in giants that were evil. It is considered to be the place that sin entered the world. Enoch also addresses the flood as a means of wiping them out. Ultimately the angels were sealed beneath the earth at that spot. Others that worshiped the god Pan felt that that was where Pan would go down to the underworld. There is a very impressive cave there, with at that time a presumed bottomless spring. Pagan temples were erected there and the cave was referred to as the Gates of Hell or Hades. This is also in a remote Gentile region, so Jesus’ trip here is interesting. The book of Enoch does refer to the Son of Man bringing light to the Gentiles. So they are at this place and Jesus essentially asks who people are saying this Son of Man is. They speculate and Jesus asks Peter and he says, “I think it’s you!” and that is when Jesus makes his rock pronouncement. Is he talking about Peter, the place, or the metaphorical foundation of sin and the very Gates of Hell? It’s not completely clear. But to make things even more interesting, let’s add in the first lesson where Isaiah writes, “Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you. A veneration of Abraham as a rock. Here’s what I’m seeing this week, a commonality. Remember my little stack of rocks? Had you seen it, I’m almost sure you would have asked, “You went into a building with that as a foundation?” Peter? The rock? Denying Jesus three times, the walking on water struggle, rebuking Jesus’ mission right after the events of today’s gospel to which Jesus responded, “Get behind me, Satan!”, exhibited cultural biases. For instance, he was initially hesitant to associate with Gentile converts, suggesting a bias against non-Jewish believers until he had a vision that changed his perspective. He was willing to eat with Gentile believers until some Jewish Christians arrived, at which point he separated himself from the Gentiles due to fear of criticism, and he fell asleep on the job several times at Gethsemane. Questionable foundation. Abraham? Out of fear for his life, he told his wife Sarah to say she was his sister instead of his wife, which led to Pharaoh taking her into his household. Abraham fathered a child, Ishmael, with Sarah’s maidservant Hagar. This action was a result of impatience and a lack of trust in God’s promise that Sarah would bear a son. Then when Sarah became jealous and asked her husband to banish them to the desert, he sent away with only small rations of food and water, Hagar and Ishmael were saved from dying of thirst by an angel. He also repeated the same mistake he made in Egypt by misleading Abimelech, the king of Gerar, about Sarah being his sister. Abraham shaky rock foundation. The place? Mount Hermon and Cesarea Philipi? Certainly rock but a very shaky and questionable history focusing on rebellion against God, surrounding paganism, and history of abhorrent practices. There’s a common thread here. One that we should really pay attention to. In Enoch the Son of Man is described as one, “whose countenance had the appearance of a man, and his face was full of graciousness, and one who has righteousness, with whom dwells righteousness, and who reveals all the treasures of that which is hidden, and one that shall raise up the kings and the mighty from their seats and the strong from their thrones, and shall loosen the reins of the strong and break the teeth of the sinners and as one that has always been and always will be. The Son of Man was to be always triumphant, so we can see why Peter might have protested the idea of Jesus being crucified. Victory, salvation, redemption, the foundation of the kingdom of God established on the Son of Man crucified. Sounds shaky at best. Here’s the thing about tearing down my building. Because of the downforce and I’m sure a lot of other things, that building did not want to come down. I finally collapsed the walls and roof and those two rocks stubbornly sat there supporting that foundational beam. It seemed like something that would thwart the coyote in a roadrunner cartoon. I finally got the beam off and I took great pleasure in lightly pushing the top rock off the other. Rocks are solid. Rocks are faithful. Peter messed up, Abraham messed up but they had faith and were faithful. Solid, Stubborn in their belief. The rain comes and sand washes away. Rocks remain and keep doing the job. That’s what you want a foundation to do. Jesus was confident that despite the apparent imperfection of the rocks, the location and the structure, that even the gates of hell would not be able to prevail against it. Alone, one rock tumbles from another. There’s an incredible message of grace here. As Luther pointed out, we are justified or made right by grace through our faith. Made right, squared up. Being steadfast and hanging in there despite our flaws and failures. Realizing that others have flaws and failures, yet that’s the makeup of Christ’s church of the kingdom of God all the way to the foundation. That’s our call, to support, welcome and build up all people. Isn’t that one of the hardest struggles? Building with imperfect materials. Misshapen rocks, odd combinations, sketchy stacks but by God’s grace it’s all made right, it holds, it’s unshakeable.
Leave a Reply