Proper 16A; Isa. 51:1-6; Rom. 12:1-8; Matt. 16:13-20 St. Paul’s, Smithfield

8/27/2017 Jim Melnyk: “The Triple Crown of Faith”

The first time I can recall paying attention to the phrase “Triple Crown” was as a kid watching baseball back in the late 60s.  Frank Robinson and Carl Yastrzemski won the Triple Crown in back-to-back years – leading the major leagues in batting average, home runs, and runs batted in.  To date it’s only happened 17 times in 139 years.  Later, in 1973, Secretariat captured the world’s attention becoming only the 9^th horse in the world to win the Triple Crown – the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont.  Only 3 horses have won since then.

“Where in the world is he going with this?” you might ask.  Well, this morning we have what I would consider to be a Triple Crown of Biblical passages – top passages from the Old Testament, the Epistle, and the Gospel.  And they all tie together to say something about who we are, what our relationships in this life can look like, and how God joins us all in the mix.

The Prophet Isaiah, speaking to the Judeans who are in exile, says, “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; for he was [just one person] when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.” (51:1-2).  First verse of the Triple Crown: “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.”  Look to your spiritual home.

Meanwhile Paul, writing to Gentile – that is non-Jewish – followers of Jesus in Rome, seeks to help them understand how to live faithfully as Christ-followers in the midst of Jewish communities in Rome.  “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 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” (12:1-2).  Second verse: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds….”  The Episcopal Church doesn’t expect us to check our minds at the door.

And finally, we have an exchange between Jesus and his disciples – the turning point of Jesus’ ministry as he sets his face toward Jerusalem and the cross.  Jesus has basically taken the crowd’s temperature by asking his disciples what everyone is saying about him – who they seem to think Jesus might be.  There are a lot of answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or one of the other great prophets come back to life.  Jesus looks at them and asks, “But who do you say that I am?”  Simon Peter responds for them all, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (16:14-16).  Third verse of today’s Triple Crown: “But who do you say that I am?”

Look to the rock from which you were hewn.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed.  Who do you say that I am?  I believe that even if these three passages of Holy Scripture were the only passages available to us in our faith libraries, we could stand firm in our faith and help bring about the kingdom of heaven.

The people of Israel exiled in Babylon are both desolate and desperate.  While life isn’t particularly harsh in Babylon, they are strangers in a strange land – separated from their homes and from the temple where they have come to know God in their lives.  Remember the faithfulness of Abraham and Sarah, and remember the faithfulness of God in Israel’s life.  This is God’s promise to bring about a reversal of the exilic grief expressed in the book of Lamentations.  Israel will be restored, and her people will live.

We look around us today and see a world where so many people seem to feel desolate and desperate.  We see protesters and counter protesters.  We listen as everyone seems to have the inside story on what each group – especially those with whom they disagree – really means.  We see lots of anger and violence and little talking.  Nerves are frayed.  People have died.  We watch as world leaders threaten each other with conventional and even nuclear weapons, and even more women and men are sent to battle overseas in what has become the longest war in our history. 

Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.  Claim the faithfulness of Abraham and Sarah – our spiritual ancestors – and claim the faithfulness of God.  Claim the faith of those who have gone before us – those whose life-giving faith we cherish. And as we choose to live faithfully in this age, we will become the rock from which others will find strength – we will become the quarry from which the foundation stones for the kingdom of heaven will be dug.

Paul gets this.  Gentile and Jewish Christ-followers in Rome are struggling with each other – and with each other’s understanding of the faith.  Present yourselves as a living sacrifice, he tells them.  You’re not here to fight with one another, but rather to model Christ’s self-giving love – that is what spiritual, or reasonable, worship is all about.  We are one body made up of many members – we can be one without being identical – the only supremacy in the body of Christ is Christ.

In essence Paul tells them – and now tells us – not to be conformed to the culture in which they live – the bickering and the discounting of one another’s value as human beings created in the image and likeness of God.  In other words Paul tells us, don’t be conformed to an operating system that vilifies the other.  Let your minds be transformed and renewed in Christ, so that you may discern what is good and perfect – or in other words, what is good and has integrity.

As followers of Christ it all comes down to how we answer Jesus’ question to his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” and what I believe to be an implied follow up, “Are we willing to live our lives in a way that reflects Peter’s answer to Jesus – in way that reflects our answers to Jesus?  Will what we profess with our lips be an honest reflection of what we believe in our hearts?”  For as Jesus said in our lesson last week, it’s out of the heart that comes both blessing and curse.

Whether we believe that Jesus was simply a good teacher who proclaimed a kingdom of love and peace, or we believe him to be the unique Son of the Living God, who seeks a home in our hearts and the transformation of the world into the dream of God – or something in between the two – we get to choose how we will live in this world.

We may struggle with what it means to have an inclusive faith – just as Jesus seemed to struggle with the Canaanite woman last week – or it may come easy for us.  We may be open to being transformed – as long as we can hold some things back – much like the soldiers of Constantine’s armies who held their sword arms out of the baptismal waters so they could fight without a burdened conscience. 

On the other hand, we may find ourselves able to “go all in” as we said several weeks ago – ready to let go of even some of our most treasured beliefs, and some of our most treasured stuff, finding within us a transformation that becomes a hallmark of the kingdom of heaven.

Writing a century ago the poet Rilke offered this insight into God:

I am, you anxious one.

Don’t you sense me, ready to break

into being at your touch?

My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.

Can’t you see me standing before you

cloaked in stillness?

Hasn’t my longing ripened in you

from the beginning as a fruit ripens on a branch?

I am the dream you are dreaming.

(Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God)

In the end we are a people of faith who come from a long line of others who have found their home in not only the dream of God, but who have found their home in God.

We are Christ-followers who know what it means to be transformed, because we’ve experienced transformation in our lives.  But we are also Christ-followers who always stand in the need of transformation as we struggle with the brokenness of this world around us, as well as the brokenness that finds its way into our own lives.  We are followers of Jesus, who says to us “I am, you anxious ones…. I am the dream for this world you are dreaming.  And you are part of that dream.  Follow me.”