Sermons

Who do you say that I am?

Preached by Deacon Robyn Arnold on 15th Sunday after Pentecost (Sunday, August 24, 2008)

“But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered,
“You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.”

Matthew 16:15-16

“But who do you say that I am?” In the past week or so I’ve been spending a great deal of time pondering Jesus’ question. Partly because I knew I would be pinch-hitting in the pulpit for Bertie this week and partly because the answer to this question is foundational for understanding Christianity. Who do we, as Christians say….think… believe that Jesus is? And how is that reflected in our lives…or is it?

So, a week or so ago, I’m sitting at the counter in a café in Alameda having coffee and reading when two women come in and sit at the counter a couple of seats away. It soon becomes apparent that it’s a mother and daughter—the mother very elderly, the daughter not young either. After a while the daughter starts to talk to me. I suspect because I’m reading a book on neuroscience she asks me if I’m in college. I tell her that I had graduated from the Episcopal Seminary in May and had recently been ordained a deacon in the Church.

So, she nods her head and then proceeds to tell me that she is a born-again Christian, like the folks at Pentecost. Now, being from the South I probably should have expected what came next—except we’re in California, so I didn’t. Anyway, the woman starts to look really uncomfortable and then she sort of scrunches up her face and says quickly, “Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Savior?” I must admit I had a very unpleasant visceral response to this question. But I sit quietly for a couple of seconds and then I answer, “Yes ma’am I have.” And that seems to satisfy her.

I thought about telling her that I don’t really think of Jesus as my personal savior, but rather as the savior of the world, but it didn’t seem helpful at the time.

This interaction was enlightening for me. First of all, I realized that telling people I’m an Episcopalian—even clergy—is apparently not the same thing as saying I’m a Christian. Secondly, even among professed Christian believers there are radically different ideas about who Jesus is and how the Incarnation is understood.

In the Gospel today, there are a number of responses from the disciples when Jesus asks, ”Who do people say the Son of Man is?” Some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. It’s interesting that all of those mentioned were actually already dead. This tells us that some people thought Jesus was a prophet, definitely holy, and in some way supernatural, possibly a reincarnation of some great dead leader.

However, when Jesus asks them, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter, who never thinks before he speaks, pops right up and says, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” In this moment Peter testifies to the disciples and shares a revelation about the true identity of Jesus. Peter reveals that Jesus is unlike anyone who has come before. He is the long-awaited messiah, the anointed of God, and he is something that was never expected—the Son of God. Essentially, Peter says that our God is alive and is now in some real way in this man’s flesh. We find out later of course that Peter really only partially understood what he said. Even at the time Jesus himself comments that Peter could only have received this knowledge from God and not of his own understanding.

So, that’s the question of the day—in fact it’s the question of our lives: Who do we say Jesus is? And to give it some teeth: How willing are we to reveal to those around us who we say Jesus is?

I often think of us Episcopalians as stealth Christians. We don’t like to talk about what we believe. We can have neighbors and coworkers who have been around us for years and never know we’re Christians, because we never mention it. Or we can talk all day about Church and never give any indication of what we actually believe about God. We will readily share our thoughts on the quality of the music or how the clergy should be dressed, or whether the people should stand or kneel for corporate prayer, but we rarely discuss our personal theology or how we experience God’s grace in our lives. We don’t testify—to use a good old Protestant term.

Who is Jesus? And why would anyone want to be a Christian?

For those of us who came as refugees from other evangelical traditions there can be a lot of pain associated with evangelism. In our past experience one or more people may have tried to cajole or coerce us into believing something or to profess a belief in something, or worse, they simply gave up and excluded us because we didn’t express the “right” belief, or because in some way we failed in our actions or even in our very being.

Others of us just don’t want to be those people—those people who knock on doors or force themselves into conversations at lunch or on the train…or in cafés, even if they have the best intentions.

But that type of evangelism is not what I’m talking about.

Think for a moment of something or someone you really love. For some it’s cars or sports or gardening or your grandkids or, in my case, science. Think about how often you bring those things up in conversation. We talk about and participate in and find time for those things and those people we love and value most. Those around us can see our excitement and joy and often want to share in it with us. They look at our photos and go to the ballgames with us or read the books we suggest.

This is how I see evangelism. If we love God and if we have experienced the love of God in our lives then it seems natural that we would want to share that. It seems natural that we would be curious and want to learn and think as much about God as we can—that God and our experience of life in Christ would come up in conversation without us even planning it.

If we release ourselves to fully experience the living God, prayer can become like breathing and love flows from us like springs of water from the earth. Not only our conversation changes but so do our actions. Every encounter becomes an opportunity of Grace and we begin to recognize Christ in every person we meet and to greet that person as friend.

This is evangelism. This is to what the apostle Paul calls us when he says, “Present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”

As beautiful and important as our liturgy is it is only part of our worship. The rest is what we do when we leave this place; it happens out there. Each act of kindness, each moment of silent prayer, each word we speak in praise of or in teaching about our Lord is an act of worship.

Each time we lift up the weak or we speak out against oppression and injustice we worship. Our bodies can become the temple and what we do in these bodies can become worship.

Paul reminds us that there are a variety of gifts and each of us is given a unique set. So we are better at some things than others. But all of us have the means and opportunity to reveal God to the world. In our baptismal covenant we vow before God that we will proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ. We promise to show the world who Jesus is by what we do and by what we say.

Remember too, brothers and sisters, that when others are baptized we also promise to do all in our power to support them in their life in Christ. None of us can or should do this alone. We are called into community and when we go out to do the work of the Kingdom—to worship in the world. We do it nestled in the supportive arms of the Communion of Saints—that great cloud of witnesses, past, present and future, whose prayers and praise join ours.

When we go from here today may we remember that we are called to be witnesses to the love of God in Jesus the Christ and to live our faith openly. Spend some time talking with God and thinking about Jesus. Who is he to the world, and who is he to us personally? In the Holy Scriptures read the inspired words that speak of God and Jesus, his life and his teaching. We must begin to find our own language if we are to freely express what we believe.

We can trust that if we let our faith and joy as Christians spill over into our everyday life the Holy Spirit will give us opportunity and ability to use our gifts in the world as servants of the Risen Christ. We will be able to share with others that which we love best.

Like all new skills speaking our faith openly gets easier with practice, and it’s always nice if someone else goes first. So, I’ll start.

Who do I say Jesus is?

I say that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ—the Son of the Living God.

Jesus is God Incarnate and the Savior and Redeemer of the World.

Jesus is my friend, my parent and my lover.

Jesus is everything I desire in this world and in the world to come.

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