Sermon August 24: "Built on a Rock . . ."

THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Year A, Lectionary 21

August 24, 2014

Isaiah 51:1-6

Psalm 138

Romans 12:1-8

Matthew 16:13-20

Pastor David Tryggestad

Concordia Evangelical Lutheran Church

Duluth, Minnesota

“. . . on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).

This rock is the faith of Peter, the faith of the disciples, the faith of the gathered congregation, the faith of the church through the ages!

“Built on a rock the church shall stand, even when steeples are falling . . .” (ELW 652).

Our prophet Isaiah shares the image of the rock:

Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug. (Isaiah 51:1b)

Isaiah is comforting a besieged and beleaguered people, a people who have suffered catastrophic calamity and exile. We can’t help but think of the destruction being suffered now, this day, in numerous places throughout the world. A headline in today’s Duluth News Tribune reads: “UN: 4 Countries Face Humanitarian Crises; Worst Since WWII.”

These situations are not unlike what Isaiah’s people had endured. Even as the rocks around them have crumbled into ruin, our prophet reminds them from whence they have come:

Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.

They were hewn from Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his brothers, Moses and Aaron and Miriam, Samuel and David, and the whole host of God’s people, nurtured by the covenant of God’s unfailing promise, which had been with them for centuries.

Our psalmist sings a song of thanksgiving in the midst of trouble and distress. Our psalmist invites us to join in the song: “Lord, I thank you for your faithfulness and love” (Psalm 138, paraphrase). Our psalmist knows the rock from which we were hewn and the quarry from which we were dug.

The Apostle Paul knew the rock from which he was hewn and the quarry from which he was dug. Paul himself experienced endless hardship: unending rejection, arrests, floggings, stoning, shipwreck, trials, left near death. Yet Paul admonishes us: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).

Paul knew the rock from which he was hewn and the quarry from which he was dug. It was the rock of Jesus Christ; it was the quarry of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we do not conform ourselves to the world, but rather we conform ourselves to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They reply, “Some say John the Baptizer, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

Then Jesus asks the question that he asks of each of us: “Who do you say that I am?”

This is the question that has served as the guiding and driving principle of our year in the New Testament in our Confirmation curriculum: “Who do you say that I am?”

I believe it is the most important question any of us will ever answer, and we answer it every day of our lives. We answer it with our decisions. We answer it with our words. We answer it with our actions.

Either Jesus is Lord of our lives or he is not.

“Who do you say that I am?”

Peter speaks for all the disciples: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”

And on this declaration of faith, our Lord will build his church: “. . . on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

“Built on a rock the church shall stand, even when steeples are falling . . .”

This hymn is often considered second only to Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” The lyrics were written by Danish pastor Nicolai Grundtvig, and steeples were literally falling in Copenhagen in 1807 when the English bombarded the city. The title of the collection of Grundtvig’s hymns refers to the carillon that hung in the tower of the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen, which was destroyed in that bombardment.

Grundtvig experienced steeples falling around him throughout his personal life. In his trial sermon as a pastor, he challenged the establish church, insisting that the word of God had departed from the house of God and that human pride and confidence in reason were preached in its place. He was censured by church officials. He suffered what was called a “nervous collapse” due to what appears to have been “manic depression,” or bipolar disorder. He was married three times. Through it all, it was the rock of the word of God, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Sacraments, that sustained him in his suffering. In his life he penned 1500 hymns, served in the Danish parliament, and founded folk schools, from which the Danish folk school movement was born. One of the churches he served was Our Saviour’s in Copenhagen, which spire we could see from our apartment while Lynn and I lived there for a year.

When steeples are falling around you, remember the rock from which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were dug.

Remember Jesus’ promise: “. . . on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.”

Thanks be to God!