God of The Chosen or God of All?

Peter's confession of Jesus as the Messiah has been one of the cornerstones of Christianity and the source of much controversy between Catholics and Protestants.  Jesus' response to Peter, "Upon this rock I will build my church," is seen by Catholics as the rationale for the continued succession of the Petrine ministry of the Pope.  Protestants see it as the affirmation of a strong personal faith which proclaims Jesus as the Son of the living God.  The problem with these interpretations is that they continue the tendency toward exclusivity on all fronts and perpetuates the eternal argument that one way is right and the only avenue to salvation.  It is a controversy which transcends the boundaries of Christianity and has driven people from the church and kept others from even looking to the possibility of faith in God.  The irony is that Jesus calls us all to be one, not seperate in God.  So how do we reconcile this basic tenet of the Christian faith in the very real light of a pluralistic, post-modern, post-Christian society?  Do we as Christians continue to set ourselves apart and call ourselves special, forcing the government to conform, thereby forcing everyone to conform to our way of thinking?  Or do we try to find a way in which we can come to understand that God is for all who chose to seek him, and it may not necessartily be our way.

I truly believe that the rock upon which Jesus intended to build his church was not the broad shoulders of Peter himself, nor his successors, but upon the radical nature of his confession.  Peter's confession was a radical departure from traditional and long-accepted norms.  Peter was a Jew.  He shared the expectation that Messiah would come and restore Israel to its former greatness.  Messiah was seen to be a warrior, a politician, a strong, no-nonsense leader who would drive out the unbelievers and bring the chosen to God.  For him to proclaim Jesus as Messiah, having seen that Jesus' ministry included Jews, Gentiles, tax collectors, prostitutes, and unclean people of all sorts, was a radical departure from what he believed to be the truth.  That is why Jesus told him tht only by the Holy Spirit could he have come to this conclusion.  There was no other way.  Peter experienced a paradigm shift in his thinking which changed him and how he viewed the world forever, but not without a struggle with himself.

We tend to avoid radical ways of seeing things as somehow destructive to our culture and the things we hold dear.  Some are.  But we can never know which are and which aren't unles we are more willing to listen to them than we are to close them out.  We do this by developing a willingness to be open to the Spirit which tells us all things, even things which fly in the face of what we hold to be true.  A willingness to question the very foundations of our faith does not lead to its ultimate demise.  It leads, rather, to a deeper awareness that God is bigger than any box in which we believe we can put him and brings us to a willingness to include rather than exclude those who seem different.  This is the rock upon which Jesus intended to build his church!

A man told a story about growing up with his Christian missionary family in Japan.  One day, when he was eleven, his Japanese nanny asked him if he would go to the Buddhist temple with her while she prayed for her ancestors.  He did, and watched her as she burned incense, worked her beads, and made offerings for her family.  When she was finished, she turned to him and asked him if he would pray to his God for her ancestors, too.  Without thinking (he was only eleven, after all) he said to her,

"Isn't my God the same as yours?"

She replied,

"I thought so, but I didn't think you would."

God asks us constantly,

"Who do you say that I am?"

Is it possible she is someone we never expected?

5:34:19 PM
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