Twenty-one years ago, when we started Spiritus Christi, some of you were there, we had kind of a rocky start. The Vatican had fired us. They told us that we were giving grave scandal to the church. The Rochester Dioceses shunned us and threatened the Dioceses employees with their jobs if they attended Reverend Mary’s ordination. Traditional Catholics in Rochester were writing tons of letters to the Editor saying those folks are disobeying the Pope, they are ruining the church. We also had internal struggles. Internal fighting. Some wanted to stay Catholic, others wanted to be non-denominational. We had power plays. Clashes of ego.
One time it got so bad, I was walking around Salem Church, across the river, and I was crying. I was thinking about all the losses that we had suffered at Corpus. I was thinking about all the infighting. I just got discouraged. I was crying. And all of a sudden I hear God’s voice, “You wouldn’t be crying if you knew the great things that are coming.” Does that ever happen to you? Just in the moment that you need it you kind of hear something. That’s maybe not exactly the right words but that’s what I heard. “You wouldn’t be crying if you knew the great things that are coming.”
So, we all need moments like this. It is the old pattern of: Order, disorder, reorder. We have to accept the disorder in order to get to the transformation of reorder.
Well the early church had the same kind of experience. They had a rocky start. They wondered if they would survive. The Roman Empire was persecuting them. In the first 300 years of the church, there were four major persecutions by Rome. When the Book of Matthew was written, what we are reading today (Matthew 16:13-20), that was the first persecution. That was pretty hard. The Roman Empire was putting the Christians to death. The Jewish leaders where shunning them. There was a lot of tension between the Jews and the Jews who had become Christians. Finally, there was a split around the year 88 between the Jews and the other Jews who were following Christ. There were internal struggles. Some people wanted to stay Jewish. Others said it should be a universal religion. There was a lot of infighting.
That’s why there are so many New Testament stories to the boat on the stormy sea. The boat was the symbol of the church. It was called the bark of Peter. The stormy sea represented the persecutions, the shunning, and the turmoil of the church. And Jesus calmed the sea. It always meant to the early church, “Don’t worry. Jesus is here. All is well. We will survive.” Order, disorder, Reorder.
Jesus says in today’s Gospel: You are Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. In other words, “I’m with you and nothing can stand against you.” Not the Roman Empire, not the shunning of the religious leaders, not your infighting, not your lack of faith. Even the gates of hell will not prevail against this community.
That’s a good message for us today during Covid-19. We feel like that boat rocking in the turbulent sea. People say, “It’s a strange time.” “It’s really an uncertain time.” Have you heard people describe this moment. They use words like that. “This is weird!” “It’s just a weird time.” But we have to accept the disorder in order to get to the reorder. Jesus says, “I’m with you and there is nothing that can stand against you.” Not the corona pandemic. Not the economic collapse. Not the widespread loss of jobs. Not the loss of in-school education for our children. Not the infighting and culture wars and the polarization of our country. Not the racial injustice challenges that we face. Not even the gates of hell shall prevail against it.
Then Jesus gives Peter the keys to the Kingdom. Why the keys? Well, keys symbolize the transfer of authority. When you hand over the keys you hand over the authority.
Three years ago, Dellenna Harper left her position as the Director of Jennifer House and she wanted Sarah Lee to be the next director. Both women had suffered addiction and prostitution on the streets of Rochester. Dellenna wanted Jennifer House to be left in the hands of somebody who loved that house as much as she did. When Dellenna handed Sarah the keys. Sarah said, “Dellenna asked me to never give this set of keys to anybody else. I could make copies for other staff members. But I was to keep this set of keys for myself and that way she would stay with me.”
So Jesus gives us the keys the way he did to Peter. He transfers his authority to us. The torch is passed. It is our job to transform this world. To build God’s dream. To build the world of justice for people of color, immigrants and LBGTQ people.
Remember! We are not alone. God is with us. A woman told me one time when she was a teenager she cracked up the family car. She had to call home, hoping to get her mother but her father answered and she just blurted out, “Dad! I cracked up the car.” The first thing he said was, “Are you ok?” She said, “I’m ok but I ruined the car.” So her dad went right over to the accident scene and again he asked, “Are you ok?” And after the tow truck took the wreck away she said Dad handed me the keys to his car and told her to drive home. She said that she would never forget that. How he trusted me after I had screwed up.
Peter made plenty of mistakes and yet Jesus gave him the keys. We’ve made plenty of mistakes and God give us the keys. God still trusts us despite your mistakes. You are in charge. “I’m counting on you to make the world better.”
Keys also represent ownership. Reverend Mary was originally a Methodist growing up. I think you know that. Out in Sonoma, California. When she was a teenager she got confirmed in the church and everybody that got confirmed got a key to the church. An actual key to the church. She had that in her bedroom and she said, “You don’t know what that meant to a little kid. I really felt that I belonged to that church. That I owned the church.
There is a man named Ben who was on the Court Street Bridge – over here at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. He was over looking the river for along time. He was a drug addict. He was contemplating suicide. He had burnt all his bridges. Somebody said to him before he jumped off the bridge. “I think there is a bed open at Grace of God Recovery House.” The man brought him there and Ben said, “Sister Margie trusted me. The first day she gave me something I hadn’t had in years. A key to the house. She gave me a key to the house! I was finally home.”
Keys are meant to open doors. Saint Peter used his keys to open the doors of the church to the gentiles. Originally it was Jewish and he and others made it into a church for all people. It was a landmark decision to open the doors to outsiders. We use to say when we were young: Roses are red, violet are bluish, if it weren’t for Peter, the church would still be Jewish. So Peter helped the church to expand its boundaries instead of becoming a tribal church it became a universal church. And that set a paradigm for years to come.
For example, us at Spiritus. We use those same keys to open more doors. We open the doors of Holy Communion to everybody. We open the doors to priesthood to not just men but women. We opened the doors of marriage to LBGTQ community. Today we are opening up more leadership positions for people of color. We always use those keys to open up to expand.
This past week we celebrated a milestone. The 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment. Women used their keys to open up voting for women. They were not “given” the right to vote. Some people use that term. That women were “given” the right. They were not given the right. They fought for it. They won it. It was hard work. Frederick Douglass, who was part of the struggle said: Power never concedes anything without a fight. It never did and it never will. Woman staged one of the longest social justice movement in the United States history. But it started centuries ago with the Haudenosaunee women. Sometimes they are called Iroquois but are more properly called Haudenosaunee. They lived in upstate New York right where we are. They had voting rights for centuries. Indian women voted on who their male chiefs would be. They passed that ideal of gender equality on to European American women and African American women. When the Status of Liberty was installed in 1886, not everybody was happy. A lot of women objected. Woman suffragist said, “The Statue of Liberty is a gigantic lie. It is a travesty. It is a mockery. It is the greatest sarcasm of the 19th century to represent liberty as a woman while not one single woman throughout this land is in yet possession of political liberty.” The Statue of Liberty was the ultimate metaphor about the pedestal of powerlessness on which woman were placed. So when the Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York City, the New York Woman’s Suffrage Association rented a steamer and they got in line with all the other steamers around Ellison Island and at a certain point they unfolded a banner. Written by Susan B. Anthony, Matilda Joslyn Gage and three other women. It said: Today at this celebration women are just onlookers. Voiceless. Unrepresented. A denial of the provisions of the Constitution. Everybody thought that the Statue of Liberty was great.
Passing of the 19th Amendment, 100 years ago, was not the end of the struggle obviously. Even thought it guaranteed women the right to vote many women were left out. Voter suppression. Jim Crowe. Racism. Black women did not get true suffrage until 1965 Voting Rights Act. 1965!
Despite the fact that Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Maria W. Stewart, Ide B. Wells-Barnett and other black woman fought just as hard as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Who else was left out? Chinese women. Chinese immigrants couldn’t vote because of the Chinese Exclusion Act that denied them citizenship. Who else was left out? Native American women. They weren’t even considered citizens. Native American women were not considered citizens until 1924.
Who opposed the 19th Amendment? Well many men. Not all men but many men. Male cartoonist portrayed women suffragist as old, mannish, dowdy and unattractive. Who else opposed the 19th Amendment passage? The liquor lobby. Who else? The Roman Catholic Church. Did you know that. The Roman Catholic Church officially opposed the passage of the 19th Amendment. Even women opposed it. They believed that woman’s place was in the home. They shouldn’t get dirtied up in politics.
So the boat in the stormy sea was a metaphor for the early church. It is a metaphor for the early years of Spiritus Christi. And it is also a metaphor for the Women’s Rights Movement because there were a lot of shaky moments.
So it was a pattern of: Order, disorder, reorder. At times people doubted if the 19th Amendment would ever pass. Susan B. Anthony said in her final speech, one month before she died, you know, “Failure is impossible.”
Today in the midst of our tumultuous world Jesus assures us: Don’t worry. I am here. You are not alone. The boat is rocking but you are not alone. He gives us the keys. Keys to open up racial equality. Keys to open up a cleaner global climate. Keys to open up justice for farm workers and for immigrants. Keys to open up a post-pandemic world to a better future. He tells us: I am with you. Failure is impossible. Not even the gates of hell will prevail against it.
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