Gospel: Matthew 16:13-20
1st
Reading: Isaiah 51:1-6
2nd Reading: Romans 12:1-8
Ok,
pop-quiz everyone, Jesus announces, “Who do people say that I am?” The Disciples who were nervous, sigh with
relief when they realize they will only have to regurgitate what other people
have been saying. Yay, it’s an open-book
test! Peter, the teacher’s pet, who can’t seem to keep his mouth shut, raises
his hand. “Pick me! Pick me!” He carefully leaves out the most offensive of
what people are saying and picks the ones he think might please Jesus a
little. He goes with the safe responses. “John the Baptist. Elijah. Jeremiah, or one of the
prophets.” Then Jesus asks a follow up question, “But who do you say that I
am?” Peter’s face falls. His blood drains from his head. His head beats loudly in his chest. He swallows with a cartoonish, “Gulp!” I can just see him hesitate, flip through all
the possibilities in his mind, and the words leaving his mouth. Did he even know what he was about to
say? It is like the spelling bee when
the kid spells the word like it’s a question and by their lack of confidence
you know they are going to spell it wrong, and they get it right. Peter says it. Does he say it like this, “You are the
Messiah, the son of the living God.” Or
like this, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God?” Is he asking or telling. Unfortunately, we can’t hear it, but St.
Peter is supposed to be the first one we meet at the pearly gates, so I think
I’ll ask him when I get the chance.
Knowing
who Jesus is, means knowing who we are.
Partly because it means knowing who our relatives are. The reading from Isaiah is about a people who
are forgetting who they are. They are
listening to all sorts of messages. They
are anxious and afraid as they have returned from captivity, and it was their
parents or grandparents who were the ones who were carried off. They don’t know this land. They don’t know this religion. They don’t know how to relate to the people
who never left. They don’t know who God
is. So Isaiah is telling them the first
thing to do is listen. Shut up and
listen. Don’t ask questions. Don’t worry.
Don’t argue. Just listen. Listen to stories of your ancestors Abraham
and Sarah. Listen to stories of where
you come from and why God made you.
Listen to stories about your proper place in God’s Creation. Listen to God’s plans for you. You’re not alone. You matter to God. There is
reason to hope and that is that many things in this life are temporary, like
gnats which is good, and people which may or may not be good, depending on your
point of view. Even heaven and earth are
temporary. However there are some things
that last and the main one is God’s salvation, in other words, healing, and
God’s deliverance. Knowing Jesus means
knowing that we are blessed and that God made us to be a blessing to all the
families of the earth, as God explained to Abraham.
Knowing
who Jesus is means knowing who we are.
We are part of the body of Christ.
If we are the body, then it would be good to know who the head is and
where Jesus is directing us. Because we
are the body of Christ, we depend on each other, we work together, we have the
same values, we aren’t jealous of each other, we are part of something good,
our gifts are to be shared. To be part
of the body of Christ, we are fully involved in what Jesus is involved in.
I
wonder what we would say if we were called upon in a pop-quiz to answer who
Jesus is to us. And I wonder what our
actions say about who Jesus is. Because
our actions reveal what we really think, what our true priorities are. They speak volumes about who Jesus is. If we believe that Jesus is our great
Physician, we focus on healing on many levels.
If we believe that Jesus welcomes us all to the table, we make sure that
food is distributed to all in need so that all may experience Jesus. If we believe that Jesus is the living God, we
let him live and love and move in our lives, transforming us, making us see
what we didn’t see before, helping us to live in new ways, generous ways.
Peter’s
declaration of faith, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God, “
becomes an example to us who are trying to put our faith into words and express
it in our actions. Jesus then says, “On
this rock I will build my church.” Some
have said that rock is Peter himself, whose name means rock and this and the
keys to the kingdom stuff somehow means a pope.
But Jesus is more likely saying the rock he is building his church, or
gathering on, is this confession of faith, “You are the Messiah, the son of the
living God." How can we make this
confession with our both our lips and our lives?
Whether
we pass or fail Jesus’ pop-quiz, whether we are teacher’s pet or in detention,
Jesus passes the test. He knows who he
is, first of all, that he isn’t here to do things the way we do things, to
treat rich people better than poor or to follow rules that benefit and few and
hurt many. He remains who he is through
the misunderstandings of all his disciples, betrayals and challenges, even on
the cross. And he passes the test of
really knowing who we are. The world may
tell us we aren’t enough. “Who do people
say that I am?” the message is the world says we are not young enough, smart
enough, good-looking enough, important enough.
But Jesus sees the true value in us.
When we ask Jesus what he sees in us, he says, “You are my beloved child
and nothing can ever separate you from my love.” And not only the singular you, but also the
lot of you. As a whole we belong to
Jesus our Savior, and he makes us into his body, and he is bringing in the
Kingdom of God through us.
Knowing
who Jesus is gives us hope. It gives us
hope that God will comfort us and all who are anxious. It gives us hope that
God will transform the places in our lives that are desolate. It gives us hope that justice and light will
go out to all people. It gives us hope
that we will claim what is healthy and life giving and loose what is
hurtful. It gives us hope that God’s
Kingdom will one day be fully realized
No comments:
Post a Comment