Pastor Sarah R. Cordray
Luther Memorial Church
August 24, 2014
Matthew 16.13-20
Buckets Flowing of the Word
Countless buckets of ice water have been flowing this week! Challenges from friends
and families have been accepted. Numerous videos have been streaming on the news,
television broadcasts and FaceBook! Person after person keeps accepting the ALS Ice
Bucket Challenge where each person is challenged to either dump a bucket of ice water
over their heads with a gift of donation of $10 or if no ice-water—then give a donation of
$100 to the ALS foundation for research. All is done to raise awareness of the life-taking
disease ALS. ALS, often referred to as "Lou Gehrig's Disease," is a progressive disease
of the degeneration of the motor neurons which eventually leads to death. The ALS Ice
bucket challenge has led to thousands upon thousands aware of this disease and
growing funds for its much needed research. It has lead to more than double the
contributions from last year as the ALS association reported Thursday morning that it
had received $41.8 million in donations from July 29 until Aug. 21. What an awesome,
amazing, ever-flowing spread of love and care! With buckets flowing and challenges
accepted, there is no stop to this love spreading on this journey of finding life!
There is no stop to this love spreading! Goodness such as this bucket challenge…loving
your neighbor who suffers from disease…acceptance and welcome of those who are
often forgotten…reaching out—there is no stop to this love spreading!
There is no stop to this love spreading because it all started with one and has gone from
person to person to person! It all started with one…the one whose love was poured
over you in the waters of baptism. It all started with Jesus Christ, our Messiah, God’s
anointed one, who became flesh and blood and stood in those waters of baptism with
us and for us as he took the challenge his Father gave him to spread the Word with his
love and his life. Jesus took the challenge and has been spreading the Word ever since.
The Word has been spreading and Jesus wants to know how it is spreading. Word of
mouth has been their social media in Caesarea Philippi when he asks the disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Just as different as the kinds of buckets
used in the ice bucket challenge these last few weeks, the responses about Jesus are
just as different. Some say John the Baptist. Others say a prophet like Jeremiah or
Elijah. Word is spreading and others are not quite sure what to make of it. BUT Peter
knows what to make of it! With a direct question from Jesus himself, Peter boldly
responds, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!” In so many ways Jesus
issues a challenge himself for others to respond…he issues a challenge for Peter and
us to respond by confessing that Jesus is the Messiah…Jesus is Lord!
A few weeks ago I got such a challenge myself. After a burial up at the cemetery while
riding back to the church with the funeral guys, one of the funeral helpers, Neri, who
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many of you know, asked me plain and simple, “Who is Jesus?” You would think that a
pastor could quickly respond, but all of a sudden I found myself trying to think of the
“right” answer…the “correct—coming from a pastor” answer. So I stumbled my way
through my acceptance of Neri’s challenge of a question and I said, “Jesus is the living
Word of God who came in flesh, died on the cross, rose from the dead, and who is now
present to us through the Spirit.” Not too bad for a “correct-coming from the pastor”
response, right? Or so I thought. Just then Neri got a funny smirk on his face and made
a quick giggle and said, “I was just looking for the answer, ‘Jesus is Lord!’”
Jesus is Lord! That’s it! That’s all it takes to accept the challenge of confessing in whom
you believe! That’s all it takes to accept the challenge of confessing your faith…your
passion…your savior! With the waters of baptism poured over your head as love is
poured at for you first, you boldly take the challenge of confessing, “Jesus is Lord” in
your life…in all you are…and in all you do! You boldly do so not because you can, but
because Jesus is already moving in and through you!
Because Jesus is already moving in him, Peter accepts that challenge as he boldly
confesses Jesus as Messiah and Lord. He accepts the challenge by giving his word of
devotion and love in response to one in whom all things started, Jesus Christ. And when
Peter accepts the challenge in boldly confessing, Peter’s life changes! He’s given a new
name, Simon Peter! Jesus calls him the rock on which Jesus will build Christ’s church.
In that moment of that confession, a new way of life…a new journey begins for Peter,
the rock on which Christ will build the church.
One would think that with such a life-changing confession…challenge accepted and
boldly done, that Peter now would be flying forth in this new journey of spreading Christ,
but not so. Peter sadly steps into a gap in his journey. He steps into a gap and slips as
he can’t later take the news that Jesus must be betrayed and killed, after which Jesus
says, “Satan get behind me.” Peter also steps into a gap and slips as he denies Christ,
not once or twice, but three times when Christ is arrested and crucified. From bold
acceptance of the challenge of confessing Jesus is Christ to stepping in the gap and
slipping on his new journey, Peter’s life suddenly shows no change as he was told he is
the rock on which Christ will build the church. Suddenly the rock becomes a stumbling,
tripping stone himself.
We are very much like Peter. We are humans who step in the gap and slip up on our
journey of following Jesus too. Many of you have seen of what I am speaking. When
you travel in London on their subway or train transit system, you are always met at the
door with a decal on the floor and words through the speakers that remind you, “Mind
the gap.” These printed and spoken words, “mind the gap,” cause you to look down as
you step from the train platform onto the train. These words cause you to pay attention,
mind the gap, lift up your feet so that you get onto your train safely without stepping into
gap and tripping up! How I wish that we had printed words all over and spoken words
throughout our day that reminded us to mind the gap in our daily lives as disciples of
Jesus. How I wish that when we go from this place of confessing that Jesus is our
Messiah and Lord that as we stepped out into Monday through Saturday, we heard,
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“mind the gap”…where we could hear warnings to look down, lift up our feet, keep our
hearts and minds tending to the gaps where we so often trip up in our faith walk and let
the boldness of our confession die to nothing.
We can be so like Peter because the ice bucket challenge may have awesomely
reminded us in such a powerful way to confess with our lives that we love our neighbor,
but this too will die down and disappear. It too will slip into the gap and be gone.
Yet something has happened! Peter did not stay tripped up and slipped into the gap!
You did not stay tripped up and slipped into the gap either! Christ’s church is here!
2,000 and some years later Christ’s church is here still pouring buckets of water over
each others’ heads in the waters of baptism and boldly confessing Jesus is our
Messiah…Jesus is our Lord!! Yes we are going to have to mind the gap, but we do so
knowing that Christ defeated that gap when he went down into it himself and defeated
the sin that trips us up on the journey of following him. We mind the gap, but we do so
knowing that when we carefully walk over it or even stumble at times Christ is there
catching us…lifting us up through the waters of that baptism where we are set forth on a
journey of Jesus’ love spreading with no end!
What an awesome, amazing, ever-flowing spread of love and care! His love may spread
with no end through buckets of ice water…his love may spread through quilts and
blankets for across the world…his love may spread through “God’s Work, Our Hands”
day…and his love will never stop spreading because we are Christ’s church, rocks upon
which Christ builds today’s and tomorrow’s church! We are Christ’s church! Thanks be
to God!!
And all of God’s people say, “Amen!”
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