Who Do You Say That I Am?

Homily Aug. 21/11 Proper 21 Yr. A


When I was a newspaper or magazine writer there would sometimes come a time when after researching a story and interviewing many people that I’d have difficulty knowing where to start—how to capture what my readers would be interested in.

This was particularly true when I went to write about my experiences in foreign countries visiting churches and mission groups there.

Sometimes there just seemed to be so much to tell, yet so little space, and where to start?

In a way that’s how I feel approaching preaching this morning. Today’s Gospel isn’t one of the miracle stories of Jesus. It doesn’t involve healing. It isn’t a parable. It isn’t a confrontation with Roman or Jewish authorities.

Instead Jesus is talking to his disciples and, as usual, asking questions.

Who do you say that I Am? he asks.

While driving yesterday, I saw this as a sermon text on several church signs.

The task for the preacher is at once simple, and daunting.

Perhaps more books have been written on Jesus than on any other person in history. And they have all tried to answer that question.

What can I offer . After all it was only ten years ago—August 19, 2001, that I was ordained as a Deacon in the Church by the Right Reverend Barry Hollowell, the sixth Bishop of Calgary, at a service at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Toronto.

A few months later I was ordained priest at my first parish, St. Cyprian’s Didsbury.

So I don’t profess to be a theologian, or expert. But I was called to ministry after almost half a century as a lay person in the Anglican Church of Canada, having completed theological studies and the candidacy process of the church.

With that call comes the humbling task of reflecting weekly on the scriptures during this sermon time, usually through our three year lectionary.

I see part of this task as helping you to understand the Biblical context of our readings, and reflect on what they might mean for our lives.

It means asking questions, like who do you say Jesus is.

Because unlike the fundamentalist Christians, we Anglicans have always believed in interpreting scripture, through reason and tradition—the so called three legged stool.

One of the dangers of approaching our Christian faith, as well as other faiths, is to engage in a literal reading of the sacred text—the Bible, or the Quran.

Our scriptures are inspired by God, but reading them in the plain sense of the words just doesn’t work. The text is a mixture of allegory, poetry, prophecy, vision and story.

So when Jesus asks Who do you say that I am, he isn’t asking for a twelve point description of things we must believe about him---he wants us to respond with God given faith, as Peter did—You are the messiah, the Son of the Living God.

But we can’t stop there. Jesus can’t be pigeon holed. Think of all the terms used to refer to Jesus: Redeemer, Friend, Brother, Lover, Saviour, Healer, Teacher, Rabbi, Prophet, Preacher. The list could go on.

All are true. But none holds all the truth.

Naming Jesus is , like naming and defining ourselves as followers of Jesus, is a process of learning and growing, moving from doubt to belief, from call to action.

Ours is not intended to be a passive faith, a consumer faith, a faith based on unthinking formulas.
We have to see our scriptures not as the fundamentalists have—a closed book with cut and dried answers, but as a living text which helps us learn more about God, and ourselves, through the inspiration of those who created those texts so many years ago.

Who do you say that I am? It’s a question we need to always be asking about Jesus as we respond to the needs of our families, our communities, our nation and our world.

When I visited a vacation bible school at St. John in the Wilderness this week to help out with music, most of the counselors were wearing bracelets—WWJD. What would Jesus do.

That question—along with Who do you say that I am? -- is one we need to think about. Because our answers help define our lives as individual Christians, and as members of a Christian community.

You’ll notice when Jesus asks the disciples people say the son of Man is---and that’s how he referred to himself—they answer John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah—all prophets.

Then comes that little word, but. “But Who do you say that I am.”

And that’s when Peter, the brave one, at least at this point, makes his declaration.
And that question still must be asked today, as it has for generations: “But, who do you say that I am?”