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Morning Devotion for the Season of Epiphany

January 18, 2023

Confession of Saint Peter the Apostle

Invitatory

I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

Reading: Isaiah Matthew 16:13-19

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist but others Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Meditation – Peter Vanderveen

I discovered early on that many people are reluctant to invite clergy to social gatherings. As soon as I was ordained, the usual invitations that came my way dropped to almost nothing, which was noticeable enough for me to wonder why this was so. What had changed about me simply by means of my profession?

I’ve never been to a party where a dermatologist presumed to conduct impromptu skin checks or droned on about the importance of sunscreen. Nor have I experienced lawyers warning about the need for keeping one’s will up to date or wealth managers offering advice on the proper balance of one’s investment portfolio. Social conversation may touch upon these topics, but it’s rarely expected that people are asked to speak authoritatively, as if they’re making a surprise house call.

Somehow, however, this seems to be different with clergy. I have experienced this; clergy seem inevitably to trail with them a sense of oughtness. It’s as if, even without a word, a constraining moral measure is suddenly interjected. What had been a casual and delightful affair is weighed down by an intrusive element of self-consciousness. Clergy – seemingly by their very presence – impose rules, whether spoken or not, whether intentionally or not.

This is partially due, I think, to how the Bible is perceived and read. It’s been made into an expansive rulebook, full of commands and admonitions and judgments and punishments. And Christians are supposed to conform to the social order it sets out (and there’s always more need for more order, and thus we are always failing). And the church is that God-established institution that has been authorized to make God’s judgments clear and present now – holding, as it is presumed, the “keys to the kingdom” and, thus, ever binding up everyone.

What this kind of reading of Scripture ignores is the narrative flow of the Bible. Peter, the rock, proves to be absolutely unreliable at the critical moment of Jesus’ trial. Put bluntly, he fails, utterly, and the “Gates of Hades” prevail – which completely undermines the authority Peter seems to have been given. It also undermines reading Jesus’ declaration as a rule and, following this, understanding the church as an institution that properly has the role of rendering judgment. Somewhere between the Garden of Gethsemane and the courtyard of the high priests Peter dropped the keys of the kingdom.

And yet, it is precisely on this far more tragic and human figure of Peter that the church is, indeed, truly built. The church’s role isn’t imposing an inescapable sense of oughtness; it’s meant to be a community where oughtness is overcome by grace. For if Peter failed, after being so ordained by Jesus, then there is no one other who will succeed. And since Peter failed, after being blessed with God’s self-revelation, only God himself could deliver the kingdom. The keys aren’t ours, and we don’t walk around with them – which bestows on us an amazing freedom, which should be enjoyed always, whenever, wherever, and however people gather.



The Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

     hallowed be thy Name,

     thy kingdom come,

     thy will be done,

         on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

     as we forgive those

         who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

     but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

     and the power, and the glory,

     for ever and ever. Amen.