A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, August 24, 2008
Matthew 16:13-20
Political campaigns can be fascinating – as long as you don’t take them too seriously. In this week before the national conventions of both major parties, we have just enough time to take a deep breath and prepare ourselves for what many had hoped would be a civil and respectful campaign – but clearly will feature as much mud-slinging as ever.
We’re in the age of the packaged candidate. With careful cropping and editing the handlers can make their candidates appear to be what they are not (or not appear to be what they are). And each candidate aggressively tries to paint the other in a bad light.
Of course, we the people want all the dirt we can get, served up in tabloids and TV inquisitions. There are skeletons in their closets just as there are in our own: addictions, shady finances, unfaithfulness, mental health, crazy family members and the like. The public used to ignore such things (“don’t ask — don’t tell”). But now we know the blood pressure, medical history and personal peccadilloes of everyone who dares to step into the limelight.
Still we should ask the question: do we really know who this person is, and do we know how he or she will lead us? Will this leader use true strengths to guide us as a nation toward realizing and manifesting the best that’s in us?
The voters will decide and only time will tell. The healthiest among us, and arguably the best leaders, are those who know themselves – both their strengths and weaknesses – and who are able to balance:
• the persona that the whole world sees
• the secret place that is known primarily to God
• and the self-awareness that leads to humility and integrity.
When these three are in harmony we can live an authentic life:
This is the path that we can follow when we open our hearts to the living Spirit and follow as disciples.
This is the life Christ calls us to.
Jesus lived a truly authentic life that released his followers from the bondage of pride, and self-deception and false gods. Today’s Gospel reading gives us some insight.
Late in his earthly ministry, just a week before his entry into Jerusalem and two weeks before his resurrection, Jesus stood with the disciples at the foot of Mount Hermon in northern Galilee.
This place was rich in meaning and symbol. From here flowed the headwaters of the mighty Jordan River, and all the life it represented to the people of a dry land and barren. Here, at Caesarea Philippi, were monuments and icons to Roman gods and ancient sites of pagan worship.
Standing in stark contrast to this backdrop, with the cross looming, Jesus prepared to give the disciples a final exam. Based on three years of intense and intimate ministry, he called forth Peter, first among equals, and gave him a three part test.
Question number 1: “Who do people say that the son of Man is?” What are the public perceptions, opinions, and prejudices of those who’ve been watching Jesus? That was an easy one to answer. Most everyone thought he was some earlier great leader now returned: John the Baptist, perhaps Elijah, Jeremiah, or another prophet.
So far, so good. At least the public perception wasn’t that the Son of Man was a crackpot or fool, or the devil. No one thought he was trying to be a politician (which is ironic when we see politicians trying to pretend they’re Jesus!)
No, those who were watching thought of this country Rabbi as a godly man who had come for a holy purpose. They also reasoned that he wouldn’t make it very far in his struggle with the authorities.
Jesus continued, moving to a deeper level with question number 2: Peter, who do YOU say that I am? There’s no indication that Peter even gulped before answering “You are the Christ, Son of the Living God.”
“Blessed are you, Peter. You didn’t figure this out because you’re smarter or more faithful than anyone else. God in heaven has revealed it to you.” Peter, as one of the inner circle closest to the Lord, really saw the One he was following. He knew things that those more distant would overlook.
So, two questions, two answers. But I said it was a three part final exam. What’s the third part — the core, the center of this most important test?
Now there’s a twist to the story, because the third part isn’t a question at all. It’s an answer, an announcement really. Jesus said to Peter: You are Petra, the rock, and on you I will build my Church such that nothing, even the powers of death and the gates of Hell, won’t be able to hold you back.
This is Peter, impetuous Peter — the first disciple to follow Jesus, the first to recognize the Christ, the first to deny his Lord not once but three times.
But long before he found Christ, Christ had found him. In recognizing his Lord Peter found himself – the deep, inner core of who he was created to be.
So it is. Each of us lives with an outer layer that others see and an inner layer that God sees and knows. We find authentic life, abundant life, when we can find harmony between them.
Here, in this innermost place, Christ dwells — calling us by name and guiding us to discover authentic life.
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So let’s now ask our own question of this One in whom we find abundant life: If you are the Christ, who are we?
At the outermost layer, we are all labeled and slotted. Comedian and author Steve Allen wrote many years ago:
I am an infant to my mother
I am a captain to my crew
I am a hero to my children
What am I to you?
I am a jawbone to my dentist
And a Gentile to the Jew
I am a stranger to a stranger
What am I to you?
I am no one thing to myself
Were I alone I’d not exist
To a giant I’m an elf
To the mouse a mailed fist.
Though I’m an ancient to a yearling
To the old I’m someone new
I’m a white man to the black man
What am I to you?
To the beggar I’m a donor
By the slave considered free
Love, complete the strange mosaic:
What think you of me?
The world will pigeon-hole you in many ways… but this story tells me that we can best discover who we are by growing as disciples… Christ begins at the core, the heart, and works outward — transforming everything as he does.
When we first let Christ transform the core we then become better in our dearest relationships, then become reconcilers and justice-seekers in the world. Everything else in my life is made richer. I am freed from the tyranny of others’ opinions and freed to place all my days in Christ’s loving hands.
I’m even so bold as to say the work of the church is to help us as disciples to discover who we really are because of our relationship with Jesus Christ.
As Jesus looked into Peter’s heart so he looks into ours: “Who do you say that I am?” Through nurture, community, study, prayer and so much more, God guides us to the answer: “You are the Christ, the son of the Living God”.
Thanks be to God! Amen.