8-20-20 - Keys of the Kingdom

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

“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.”

That’s what Jesus says to Simon Peter, after calling him the “rock on which I will build my church.” The keys of the Kingdom. I’ve always thought of this sort of like giving someone an honorary Key to the City. I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind.

We can only guess at what he did mean; this is how theologians and biblical scholars make a living, after all. But we might get a hint of what he intended when we think about what keys do. They lock things, and they open them. They make them inaccessible and accessible.

The Kingdom of God is a reality that Jesus described through story and metaphor, and demonstrated through healing, teaching, and transformative actions that look to us like miracles. The “kingdom” is the realm of God, the reality of God, the Life of God as it unfolds in our own plane of reality. It is power and energy and boundless grace. To be given the “keys” to this reality is to be given power to unlock, release the energy of heaven – or to withhold it. Hence, “…whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

We, apostles in Peter's line, are heirs to this gift, this promise, this frightening spiritual authority. We can keep the realm of God, with all its power and promise and peace, locked up simply by not talking about it, or not exercising the power we’ve been given. Or we can use these keys to open it to everyone who is thirsty for God. We can keep people bound by withholding forgiveness, and loosed by exercising grace. Jesus gave us these gifts not to be locked away in a safe deposit box, but to be spent, drawn down, exhausted… only so does the store get replenished.

In prayer today, you might imagine sitting with Jesus and having him hand you a set of keys. What do they look like? What do they open? What do you want to ask him about them? What does he answer?

There are some things that need to remain bound, I suppose. And so many more that need to be released, set free. I want us to be in the “loosing” business, one lock at a time. That's what the keys of the kingdom are for.

To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Next Sunday’s readings are  here.