Matthew
16:13-20
The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous contains, among
other things, some powerful personal stories. One that I find especially moving
was written by a woman who describes in painful detail her harrowing descent
into addiction to alcohol and sedatives, which led to multiple
hospitalizations, ten days in a coma, and by the age of 33, total despair. Most
of the people around her had given up on her, except for one doctor who
introduced her to A.A., which at that point was new and largely unknown, and it
saved her life. She describes that process beautifully as well, but it’s the
end of her account, written years later, that I want to share with you:
The last
fifteen years of my life have been rich and meaningful. I have had my share of
problems, heartaches and disappointments, because that is life, but also I have
known a great deal of joy, and a peace that is the handmaiden of an inner
freedom. I have a wealth of friends and, with my A.A. friends, an unusual
quality of fellowship. For, to these people, I am truly related. First, through
mutual pain and despair, and later through mutual objectives and new-found
faith and hope. And, as the years go by, working together, sharing our
experiences with one another, and also sharing a mutual trust, understanding
and love—without strings, without obligation—we acquire relationships that are
unique and priceless.
There
is no more "aloneness," with that awful ache, so deep in the heart of
every alcoholic that nothing, before, could ever reach it. That ache is gone
and never need return again.
Now
there is a sense of belonging, of being wanted and needed and loved. In return
for a bottle and a hangover, we have been given the Keys of the Kingdom.
When Jesus gives Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven,
that’s what he’s talking about: setting people free. The Church too often
forgets that. In familiar jokes, Peter is portrayed as the gatekeeper to
heaven, the one who stands guard at the pearly gates mainly to keep people out:
in the popular imagination, the Kingdom has become a gated community in the
afterlife. But that is not what Jesus wants: the keys are given not to lock the
doors or bind the shackles, but to unlock them and set people free now. It’s
the loosing of bonds that he wants. That is not my quirky take on this text:
Jesus says as much himself. You’ll notice that he never gets angry with
ordinary, sinful people — not with prostitutes, thieves, corrupt officials,
Roman collaborators, Jewish terrorists, or any other flawed human being. He
only gets angry at religious people who feel like their purpose in life is to
lock 0thers up. One of the scariest chapters in the New Testament is Matthew
23, his passionate denunciation of scribes and Pharisees. It does not make for
easy reading Let me give you just three verses: But woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For
you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them. Woe
to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a
single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as
yourselves.
We have not been given the keys of the kingdom to lock people
out of it. And I say we deliberately. Peter gets them in chapter 16, but in
chapter 18 Jesus makes it clear that what he gives to Peter he gives to
everyone (Matthew 18:18). We all have the keys of the kingdom: we can bind or
we can loose. We can lock people up or we can set people free. And Jesus always
sets people free. He forgives them, he heals them, he feeds them, he teaches
them, he loves them, he dies for them. You can sum up his entire ministry with
the great words he speaks after he brings Lazarus back to life, the final words
of that story: Unbind him, and let him go. Those words are spoken to us:
You have the keys, you have the authority and the power — you have the Holy
Spirit! For God’s sake, unbind people, and let them go.
And, you know, that is the work of community: God working
through other people. The woman who wrote “The Keys of the Kingdom” in the Big
Book established the first meeting of A.A .in the city of Chicago, in
September of 1939. She wasn’t just set free for herself, but so that she could
also set others free — and she knew that. And that is true for all
Christ-centered and Spirit-filled communities: God unbinds us so that we can
unbind others. So who have you set free recently? Have you forgiven someone who
needs to be forgiven? Have you loved someone who doesn’t “deserve” it but who
desperately needs it? Have you shown mercy to anyone? Are you helping carry
someone else’s burdens? Are you walking with someone who is sick or in pain?
And are you letting anyone do that for you?
And in the wider world, what are we doing to promote justice
and racial reconciliation? Are we reaching out to people who feel marginalized
or afraid, to people who are different than us? Are we taking any time or
making any effort to listen more and to understand what it feels like to be an
immigrant or a person of color in our city? We have not been given the keys
of the kingdom so that they can rust, unused, in some forgotten drawer. We have
been given the keys to use them, generously and often, just like Jesus. And
then experience the joy that comes with that, just like Jesus.
I think about this a lot in my pastoral ministry, and as I
attend Friday prayers at the local mosque. I thought about it as I marched with
other clergy in witness to love during that rally of hate. And there is much to
think about and act on moving forward. But I want to offer you one concrete
suggestion today, one way to use the keys entrusted to all of us: Invite
someone to church. On September 17, we are going to have an Invitation Sunday
and encourage people to invite someone to worship with us that day. The goal
isn’t to convert them or make them into members; they will not be given a
pledge card or a hard sell. It is just an opportunity for people to come and
see. We don’t have a perfect parish, but it is a wonderful community where
people can experience the love of God and be set free. There are people out
there who need what we have, but they are not just going to walk through the
doors uninvited. I have shared the statistics with you before: according to the
research, thousands of unchurched people in Charlottesville and Albemarle County
have never once been invited to church by anyone. From their perspective, those
front doors are effectively locked. But we can unlock them. If what we offer
here has made a difference in your life, then it may well make a difference in
the life of someone you know. We have all that we need to follow Jesus and be
an inviting and freeing church: we have a community grounded in the love of
Christ; we have the Holy Spirit; and we have the keys of the kingdom. Please
use them.
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