Fourteenth Pentecost, Proper 16, 2005:

A couple of good old boys from down home were fishing in their favorite stream off the beaten path.  Sure that no one knew about the spot, they were terribly surprised when the Game Warden jumped out of the bushes.  Immediately, one of the boys threw his rod down and started running through the woods, and hot on his heels came the Game Warden.  After about a half-mile the young man stopped and stooped over with his hands on his thighs to catch his breath and the Game Warden finally caught him.

“Let’s see your fishing license, boy!” the Game Warden gasped.

With that the young man pulled out his wallet and gave the Game Warden a valid fishing license.

“Well, son,” said the Game Warden, “you must be a little slow.  You don’t have to run from me if you have a valid license.”
    

“Yes, sir,” said the young man, “But my Pa back there, he don’t have one.”

Sometimes people run because they are guilty, sometimes people run to protect the guilty, and very often people run to protect the innocent.  Identity is important.  People want and need to know who folks are, especially those with whom they have some contact and with whom they wish to have a relationship. 

 The Gospel for this Sunday, Matthew 16:13-20, puts that need in the thoughts and mouth of Jesus the Christ.  He wanted a relationship with people and it had to be based on clear identification of who he was.  So, coming into Caesarea Philippi, the one place that would rival a Southern town with a church on every block, Jesus posed the question?  “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  He asked it in fear and trembling.  Each response cut a bit deeper into his soul.  “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  His first thought on hearing that might have been that he had failed miserably.  Those responses were all wrong.  Then he takes the ultimate risk.  Using the unique personal pronoun, he turns to the assembled student body and asks, “But who do you say that I am?” 

Holding his breath, hoping against hope, and no doubt praying that at least one of them would speak, Simon Peter jumps in.  I say, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Now he can breathe again.  “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah!  For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.”  It is a moment so profound that we skip over it most of the time.  This human being, this flesh and blood man, has just been identified as fully God!  It is this moment of identification that allows Jesus the Christ to say some crucial things about the mission he is on and the ministry that the disciples will be expected to carry on when he is physically gone.  It was a moment of such gravity that Peter gets a new name.  In Aramaic Peter’s name is Kephos, “Cephas,” a word meaning “gravel,” “pebble.”  Jesus tells Simon that from that moment on his name will be Petros, from the Greek word Petra, “rock,” “boulder.” Peter’s confession moves him from being just gravel, a nuisance that gets into your sandal and makes it difficult to walk, to a rock upon which a church might be built.

There are two great central truths in this story about the Christian faith.  The first is that human definitions, no matter how great they may be, are inadequate to define Jesus the Christ.  It is precisely here that the divinity of Jesus is seen most clearly.  In the Son of Man Peter glimpsed the Son of God.  Human greatness is surpassed and fades into the background.  Some may call him a great teacher.  Others may say he is a prophet and perhaps one of the very best God has ever called to that ministry.  Still others may identify him as God’s ideal human being.

C.S. Lewis said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance.  The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”  I suspect one of the problems with modern Christians is that we want a faith that is of just moderate importance and not one that would draw us from other pleasures and hobbies.  If we move beyond human definitions of the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, we move to definitions that have the ring of eternity to them.  Those eternal definitions also remind me of another C.S. Lewis quote.  He said, “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

The second great truth here is that our discovery of who Jesus is must be a personal one.  The inescapable personal pronoun is directed at each one of us, individually.  “You---who do you say that I am?”

Our knowledge of Jesus can never be adequate if it is based on second-hand information, rumors, what we have read somewhere or an occasional nod to his sovereignty.  Christianity does not consist in knowing about Jesus, but in knowing Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.  We must answer the same question Jesus put to Peter and the others and we must answer it the same way Peter did.

Remember the little ditty, “Every time I pass my church, I stop to make a visit.  So that when I’m carried in, the Lord won’t say, ‘who is it?’”  No doubt, we live in a culture filled with idols, statues, and gods.  Wealth, social status, position, attractiveness, sex, drugs, alcohol, guns, expensive hobbies, square footage of houses, political affiliation, religious opinion, hawk or dove, and who knows what else are posited as the litmus test of ones Christian commitment.  How very sad.  The whirlwind just gets louder and the still, small voice is drowned out.  “You---who do you say that I am?” 

Please don’t confuse an idol, a statue, or a contemporary god with the God revealed in Jesus the Christ who came into the district of Caesarea Philippi one day and asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”  Some say the NRA, others say People for the American Way, still others Focus on the Family, and many say People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.  “But who do you say that I am?”

It is one of the great privileges of being a redeemed child of God that we may answer with Peter, countless millions since that day, and countless millions today, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  Amen.