ARE YOU READY for CHURCH?
Romans 12: 1-11
MATTHEW 16: 13-20
AUGUST 16, 2026 – FOCUS
Dear friends … I found my keys this week. Some of you were aware that before my desperately needed escape to Buffalo a few weeks ago … I lost my set of keys that included my car key, the key to the parsonage, the key to my home in Buffalo and a few sundry other items that one puts on one’s key chain.
You might wonder out loud … how could your pastor be so careless? If all these keys were on one key chain …, how could they simply vanish into thin air. That Saturday morning, I had walked from the parsonage, which I had left unlocked, with Tyler, my dog, here to church. I had gone into Hickman Hall … I was in this beautiful sanctuary, and I walked Tyler around the church property before walking back down Church Street to Woodland all that time with my keys. But suddenly … gone … POOF!
Well, it happened and I did what one does when one loses something essential … I freaked out! I panicked! I retraced my steps probably a thousand times and I asked several of you to be on the look out for my keys. Jim Clement even went out on the streets bending down over drainage openings in the street trying to find MY keys … and this past Thursday morning … there they were in a corner of a couch I never use … in my living room … I spotted the lanyard Megan made for me so many years ago … she made this lanyard so I would never lose my keys. I can still here her saying ‘you can never lose your keys now dad.’
When I saw this lanyard … I just wanted to celebrate, I took a deep breath and sent out a text message to those who had been part of the search team … and I felt really stupid because my keys had always been there … close to me … ready as always to open or lock doors or to start my car’s engine.
What helped me get through this moment of panic was having a collective of people willing to focus on finding something I lost … caring enough about me to give up some of their precious time and to even look high and low stretching out their bodies in hopes of making me whole.
It sort of sounds to me what church should be all about. Do you think so too? A church should never be a mere building that people admire as they drive by. So many churches around the world have incredible interiors with vaulted ceilings, amazing statuary, and yes awesome stained-glass windows that make visitors want to pull out their phones to take photo’s including selfies <<SMILE EVERYONE>>
I remember walking into St. Patrick’s in New York, the National Cathedral in DC, St. Peter’s in Rome, and Our Lady’s in Buffalo and literally having my breath taken away from me … followed by a desperate need to get on my knees to pray and celebrate God. I have often told people about the first time back in April 2016 when I walked into this sanctuary and looked up at our stained-glass windows …
But friends when churches are only about their appearance, they become museums of sorts. Attractions to visit before going on our way to join the rattle of the world’s chaos. It is then that churches lose God’s intent … if they are buildings for a moment rather than active ongoing church collections of people taking on God’s mission. Actually, God never said to build huge cathedrals of stone … God never said to contract with amazing artists … God never said to install flashing light shows that are reminiscent of disco dance floors or the best rock n roll concert venues. We heard today in our Gospel reading … God was focused on building the church on humans who are the faithful.
Simon Peter when asked who he thought Jesus was replied, “You are the Christ … the Son of the living God.” And then Jesus said, “I tell you that you are Peter. And, I will build my church on this rock” and Jesus meant on Peter … a human would be the foundation of God’s church in the world. He continued, “the gates of the underworld won’t be able to stand against it. I’ll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” That would be the start … a human who got the message!
Jesus was creating something that day that would inspire Peter and the disciples after Jesus had gone to the cross. After the women had discovered the empty tomb and declared to His disciples, HE IS RISEN <<He is Risen Indeed>>. After Jesus had shared the seaside breakfast cookout and after Jesus had ascended into heaven. Jesus’ church … God’s church … comes from the people who are the followers and the believers. Jesus did not hand out blueprints for cathedrals but shared love lessons. “They will know you by your love; that what you do for the least amongst you you do for me.”
It was implied in those moments north of the Sea of Galilee that the FOCUS of church … the responsibility of church would be to care about those who have lost their souls … to reach out to those who have lost their sense of balance … embrace people who are upset, frustrated, and unsure where to go next … a good church … God’s church … dependent on the faithful would be a gathering place of rescue and restoration because of who is involved rather than the roof structure or some cross on a steeple serving as a beacon of identification that would fade once someone stepped inside … a good church offers hope and then a direction to a loving Jesus solution for those who have been lost from God.
So, this morning my focus is going to be on church. My challenge to those of you listening to my voice is for each of you to consider if you are ready for church. Are you prepared to be the active living church … the rock of God on which the church based in West Deptford is built. Humans … people … the faithful … we have our Bibles to give us guidance … we know how to pray and to worship with joy but in the times, we are living … with the challenges that lie ahead … In these moments I am looking at the Peter’s of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church of West Deptford … here in the year 2026 this church will be built upon each of you in the coming days … you are God’s rock and foundation because no one else is going to represent God and Christ here … if you don’t.
And, as I have been doing, I am going to toss out some Greek because after all the New Testament was written in Greek and our English language gets all messed up attempting to offer clarity to what the original Scripture lessons offered to us.
There is a Greek word that we will consider today as we contemplate our readiness for church. The word is ‘ekklisia,’ which is the word used by New Testament writers that we translate into church. It is a term referring to an assembly of citizens gathered together to take on a specific purpose. Those participating in an ekklisia are “called out ones” or a gathering. Scripture is not referring to a building but to activist people. People on a mission … with a cause … energized together for a purpose. EKKLISIA
Matthew uses ekklisia when quoting Jesus’ reference to Peter in today’s Scripture lesson. Basically, Jesus was forecasting that Peter’s preaching and teaching would lead to the gathering of individuals who would faithfully carry out Christ’s mission. “On this rock I will build my “gathering of the called-out ones” who will then take on the mission of God. That is a clearer translation of the Greek … of what Jesus meant.
I would argue that we have disconnected the dots of God’s original calling to engage in ekklisia or “be activists of faith working together” by establishing a scattering of beautiful buildings called churches whose primary focus is internal rather than external. I seriously doubt that most folks who are in church today would consider themselves to be called out into action … we come to worship, we come to see friends, we come to sing, and we come to head out for breakfast. But the essence of being part of church is that we need to understand that we belong to the Lord not to the world. And God is calling!
Yes, all of us … including those of you watching online … we are associated with this special church. But when that day comes when we see Jesus … at that moment in our journey into eternity will our first words be … Hey I attended St. Paul’s United Methodist Church regularly or watched it online and had some great breakfasts afterwards at The Piston Diner God … I even helped out with coffee hour on occasion and enjoyed the music too. Or will your faith statement be a bit more than that?
This morning we heard from Paul’s letter to the Church of Rome about “We have different gifts that are consistent with God’s grace that has been given to us.” If we read past where Rich stopped; Paul writes, “Contribute to the needs of God’s people, and welcome strangers into your home. Bless people who harass you—bless and don’t curse them. Be happy with those who are happy, and cry with those who are crying. Consider everyone as equal, and don’t think that you’re better than anyone else. Instead, associate with people who have no status. Don’t think that you’re so smart.”
Lots of stuff for the faithful … lots of action items … for gatherings of believers … ekklisia. When you wonder where is the church in today’s world … where has that church we all once knew disappeared to … it’s just like my keys … POOF out of nowhere in the midst of a journey back and forth to a building called a church … buildings have emptied and priorities have shifted … God’s teaching and love lost in dirty corners.
Now, God has not vanished … We have merely misplaced God perhaps in the crevices of our lives that we don’t look at and therefore out of sight and out of mind.
But truthfully, the church of Jesus Christ can have an impact again if we focus in on finding who we are meant to be. Paul encourages his readers to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and pleasing to God.” We are not to “conform to the patterns of the world but we are to be TRANSFORMED by the renewing of our minds so that we can figure out what God’s will is- what is good and pleasing and mature.”
In the days to come … each one of us will make a decision as to whether we will take on God’s love for us and others using our gifts to grow and strengthen the ministry and mission of this church or NOT. Jesus turned to Peter “On this rock I will build my “gathering of the called-out ones” who will then take on the mission of God.” Look around … we are the gathering … but about that mission? mmm
We are the Peters of the 21st century in West Deptford … we are gifted in so many ways. We have a West Deptford Family Day coming up in a few weeks that needs people to volunteer at. We have empty Sunday School classrooms that need children. We have the potential to take on new mission challenges and to go back to Red Bird if … if … if each of us is willing to find where the keys of the kingdom have been hidden in our lives. Going forward with all the other called out faithful ones to serve God and Christ. AMEN
God wants our churches to be FOCUSED on active discipleship, mission and the pursuit of unity. – Francis Chan