NRS Matthew 16
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14 And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 17 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. 18 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. 19 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." 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

May the blessing of the Lord rest and remain upon you always. Amen!

Many of us have grown up with the idea that Christianity is basically about going to heaven. You believe in Jesus and when you die, St. Peter, the first to confess Jesus the Son of the living God, will meet you at the pearly gates. There, he will take out his keys to the kingdom and admit you to eternal life. That's kind of a jokey way of putting it, but for lots of people, that's how they see Christianity. In this model of faith, the real action happens when we die, and in the meantime, while we're alive, we're supposed to keep up our faith and stay out of trouble. If, though, we get in trouble, whether physically, spiritually, or otherwise, Jesus will be there to support us, forgive our sins and walk beside us until we get back on track.

In football terms, this understanding of Christianity is all about defense. We stand on the rock of faith and hold our ground. Clinging to the faith of the apostles, prophets, and martyrs, we hang tough; we don't give an inch; we resist the devil and all his evil temptations. And by this same definition, the church becomes a kind of fortress, a safe place within whose walls we can securely gather to praise, pray, and give thanks. There are, of course, gates and doors to the church for letting new people in, but mostly, we're about holding our own against a cold and hostile world. Or in other words, all defense, no offense.

There's no question that the Bible proclaims Jesus the way to life everlasting, "so that whoever believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." On the cross, to the repentant thief who defends Jesus' innocence, Jesus promises, "Today you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23: 43). Likewise, when Simon proclaims Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus renames him Peter, from the Greek petros for rock. Jesus then declares that this confession will be the rock on which Christ will build his church. Rock solid, rock hard, built on a rock, "the church shall stand, even when steeples are falling" (ELW 652), but then Jesus adds, "And the gates of Hades will not prevail against it" (v. 18).

Now that's a very interesting turn of phrase. Hades is the Greek word used to translate the Hebrew Sheol, that is, the underworld or abode of the dead. Sheol was not the same as hell, with fire and brimstone, but it was understood to be a place of great darkness and gloom. Psalm 18 describes Sheol as a place of entangling cords, pulling you down, and Job pictures it like a prison, with bars. If the Temple was defined by the presence of God, Sheol was defined by God's absence. "For in death," says Psalm 6, "there is no remembrance of you [O Lord]; in Sheol who can give you praise?" Of course, the answer is no one, because once the doors of Sheol slam behind you, there's no coming out. There's no contact with God or the world of the living. What the poet Dante imagined as inscribed on the portal of hell could also be posted on the gates of Sheol: "All hope abandon, ye who enter here."

Now gates can keep people in. Gates can lock people out. But what gates cannot do is attack. They're strictly defensive. Yet Jesus explicitly says, "The gates of Hades will not prevail against" the church of Christ. Now if the gates are on defense, then who's on offense? Who's taking the fight to the realm of darkness and gloom? Who's storming the barricades and banging on the doors of death? That's right! Us! Jesus envisions his church at the tip of God's spear in God's showdown with the very the empire of death. We've got the ball, and according to Jesus, we're the team that's carrying the battle to whatever opposes the good and gracious will of God, whatever crushes hope and destroys life, whatever wrings the joy out of life and imprisons hearts and souls to the dungeons of despair.

This is a very different approach to Christianity from the kind of defensive posture many of us grew up with. This means that there's actually more to Christian life than just fending off this mean old, wicked world until we can fly away and be with Jesus, by and by. The church not only stands on the great rock of faith, but the church also marches in the steps of Jesus who set his face to Jerusalem to take God's fight into the very teeth of death. So of course, this understanding has vast implications for our individual lives as Christians and likewise for our life together in the Body of Christ.

You know, under the pressures of daily routine, I think our lives sometimes become so contracted and constricted that life becomes just a series of tasks: beds to be made, bills to be paid, kids to be fed, lawns to be mowed, jobs to be done, and on and on and on until we die. Maybe we clear out a little space for a nice weekend, or maybe we scrape enough change together for a little vacation, and maybe we even make it to retirement with a few bucks in the bank, but week in and week out, it's just one thing after another. Do you ever feel that way? Well, thanks be to God on account of Jesus, the goal of life for us is not to simply to get out of it; rather, God has named and claimed us in Jesus to be agents of life, to be people who bring life to the dead, light to the darkness, and hope to the hopeless.

I think the single best expression of this vision of life can be found in the prayer attributed to St. Francis. Do you remember how that prayer begins? "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace."
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

Can you think of a single home, school, or workplace that couldn't do without a little more love? Do you know people whose lives are so guilt-ridden and conflicted that they're dying for a single word of pardon and forgiveness? Have you stepped into situations where people were paralyzed with fear and apprehension for lack of one, tiny mustard seed of faith? Have you seen what happens to people when hope, light, and joy go out of their lives? We're the people God has appointed to bring life to the dead. I know, it's crazy, because sometimes we feel like we're as good as dead. But God has given us the ball, and God says, "Run with it. Run with it, and not even the gates of Hades will be able to stop you."

I've been speaking about our lives as individual Christians, but much the same applies to our corporate life together in the Body of Christ. Our church life also tends to become contracted and constricted to a series of tasks: opening the doors, turning on the lights, handing out the bulletins, singing the songs, saying the prayers, listening to the sermon, taking the offering, drinking the coffee, eating the doughnuts, and if we end the month with more than we spent -- whoo-hoo! - we're a successful church. No, because by that definition, things like feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger and caring for the sick become the stuff we do once we've paid the utility bill and resurfaced the parking lot. That's like Esau, exchanging his birthright for a mess of pottage. Our birthright, born of water and the Holy Spirit, is to carry the cause of God right to the gates of death. We are the vanguard. We are the shock troops. We are the first wave in the coming kingdom of God.

Make no mistake. The empire of death is strong. Its legions are countless, its defenses are vast, its gates are massive. And yet they cannot, they will not withstand the charge of God's people in Christ.

In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.