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Love and Obey

21st Sunday : 24 August 2014  : Matthew 16: 13-20

Some years ago with a Sunday to myself while on holiday I decided to attend Judah, the church located in central Christchurch, for people who didn’t like church, where informality and spontaneity reigned supreme. True to its reputation it seemed to avoid any hierarchical leadership, and the Service proceeded with a variety of people moving things along. Then, at the point where anyone in the congregation was allowed to share a variety of charismatic gifts, a most interesting thing happened. An individual began to give a long, rambling, disconnected prophecy – a mental health consumer by the look of him. Just as he was getting in to his stride a Maori gentleman dressed in an army greatcoat stood up and said in a loud commanding voice, "The Spirit is not with you brother, sit down," and was immediately obeyed. The phrase has stayed with me, and I have been longing to say it to somebody in church ever since.

We live in an age where freedom is valued very highly, and in which obedience is seen as the virtue of dogs. In such a world authority must make its way gingerly and apologetically. We are told that the only kind of authority that counts is self-authenticating authority. I guess this means that the person in charge is required to be wise, consistent, and without any trace of hypocrisy in their character – quite an ask of leadership in a fallen world of less than perfect people.

In a world in which freedom reigns supreme the customs and the culture of the Christian church are a counter cultural phenomenon. Take for instance the stole which every Bishop; Priest or Deacon wears as a badge of office. It symbolises taking the yoke of obedience upon you. It means that this particular spiritual leader promises to present the gospel on the church’s terms and not on their own, to abide by the house rules of the church, and not to shift the boundary markers of acceptable behaviour to suit themselves. In the Christian world-view love and authority and obedience aren’t seen as opposed realities. In fact when they can be brought to fit together appropriately they give birth to true freedom.

This love and obey reciprocal rhythm plays itself out in today’s gospel passage. On the strength of being the first with true insight in to who Jesus really is Peter is given a role of primacy in the early Christian community. He is also given the power to bind and loose, to admit or deny entrance in to the kingdom of God, an astounding act of devolutionary responsibility.

In many ways he is a surprising choice. Just a few verses on he will go from being the rock on which the church is built, to being a stumbling stone, when he gets it wrong about the Messiahs destiny of cross bearing in Jerusalem. His impulsive nature and uneven track record is well known to us. But there are a couple of things about Peter that help us to understand why Jesus gives him the affectionate nickname "Rocky." He tends to be the first in things – the first disciple to be called for instance – and he notices changes quickly, and is not slow to point them out, today’s dialogue of true identity being a case in point.

So 25 years after Peter’s death Matthews community gives him a place of honour, despite the fact that Paul had far outperformed him in the front rank leadership of the church, and that James the Lord’s brother had emerged as the authoritative leader of the Jerusalem church. But again Peter continued to have moments of greatness when he was the firstest with the mostest. On the day of Pentecost he preaches the sermon of a lifetime, and converts thousands. And in the "kill and eat" vision at Joppa, what some critics have called "the second Pentecost," he is the first after Paul with the God given insight that the gentiles, and their unclean dietary customs, are now the primary mission field.

It is this deep immersion in the things of God, and the ability to sense where the gospel adventure is moving to, that gives Peter the privilege of authority. It gives him the right to take his place with Paul and James as people the church needs to listen to with respect. Peter’s authority was handed on to others. Anglicans and Catholics may disagree about the extent of the authority handed on to the Bishop of Rome and his successors, but that is something that need not detain us this morning. What matters is the claim the Church has on our lives to our loyalty, and respect.

It is not just a hobby or affinity group we belong to as it suits us. It is the family of God, the house that God built, the place where God is enthroned on the praises of his people. Here God dwells in a way that he is not present anywhere else in the creation. And the stabilising role that the apostles had in the life of the early Church has been handed on to the Bishops as the successors of the apostles. They are to teach, and to lead, and to discipline.

The Church of course is full of fragile, and sometimes wounded, and often incomplete people. And its leaders will always have their blind spots, and limitations, and moments of folly. Yet somehow God is working through all these all too human behaviours to encourage his friends and followers to become more than they thought they might be, to grow and mature into the kind of people they will become when the Kingdom has finally and fully arrived. And as part of this maturation process comes a mature attitude to authority. It is a ministry of service to help the body grow, and to assist in its wise decision making.

There are churches, like that Christchurch assembly I spoke of called Judah, so named after a Christian rock band actually, that try to pretend that nobody is in charge, and that authority is widely dispersed among the membership. But look carefully at what happens in crucial moments in their life when the stress comes on, and one soon sees that the reality is different. At such times the concealed leadership comes out into the open.

And when leaders decline to lead, when they shrink from the exercise of power and authority, then major trouble can come the way of their Church. I once went to a parish where my predecessor had had often proclaimed that Christians should be powerless people. Some of the parishioners had taken him at his word, and rent him limb from limb. The ensuing civil war divided the parish, and halved its membership.

We live under authority. Christians have no need to have the hang-ups about this that unbeliever’s do. Yet at the same time the kingdom has checks and balances against the exercise of unreasonable and high handed leadership. The Anglican Church has built them into its structures of diocesan and parish life.

And there is a thing I forget to mention about Peter, another of the reasons Jesus liked him so much. Maybe he had a big mouth, but he didn’t have a big ego. Having put his foot in it a number of times, some of them quite important, he would be inclined to have a gentle touch and a humble approach to the exercise of authority over others. His successors are invited and encouraged to be like that too.