September 14, 2003 - Sermon preached by Father Armand John Kreft

Associate Rector for Family Ministry
Church of St Paul in the Desert, Palm Springs, California
Proper 19B, September 14, 2003

Often times in the office someone will call out Nathan's name and really mean to call me. Other times they call me when they really want to speak with Nathan. It is not that unusual to confuse people by name. My mother used to confuse my brother and me. Most of us have been in a position where we want to introduce someone to another person and we draw a blank. A little embarrassing, but not unusual. But what about when we are speaking about someone who is not present. How do we tell another person about someone else. A name just doesn't suffice in describing someone.

"Who do people say I am?" Here we see a side of Jesus that we can readily identify with. Jesus wants to know what people are saying about him. What's the gossip going around? All of us like to hear what other people say about us...especially if it's good. That's human nature.

"But who do you say that I am?" Here it's more important. Jesus is asking one of his dearest friends. Someone with whom he has shared his life's work, his ministry. Someone to whom he is revealing all the intimate knowledge that we hold. Jesus wants to know if he has shared enough so that people will recognize the good news.

In this, the great Confession of St. Peter, Jesus is identified as the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son of God, the Messiah. Jesus is identified, and claimed by his followers. You see, Christ, Messiah, Anointed One, all these are titles, not a name. A title defines someone...Bishop, rector, doctor, lawyer, mechanics, friend, companion. Titles help us identify what that person means to us.

And Christ means God's Anointed One. Specially chosen. The Jewish idea of a Messiah was far different from what Jesus represented. The people of Judea were expecting a conqueror, a warrior that would throw off the yoke of oppression by the Romans and would make them, the Judeans, a world power. The Jews had been conquered many times and had been dispersed throughout the world. They wanted and desired a leader that would bring them together as one and make them so strong that they would never again be dispossessed. They believed that this is what the first covenant meant.

So when Jesus of Nazareth gathered around him tax collectors, prostitutes, fishermen, common folk, and preached the love of enemies and the forgiveness of past wrongs...well you can imagine that all the hopes and dreams of conquering the world go up in smoke.

And yet, by identifying Jesus as the true messiah, the true conqueror, we, the followers, indeed do conquer because we are committed to throw off the yoke of past wrongs, to look for compassion rather than resentment, to look ahead rather than behind. To face the rising of the sun rather than the setting. To look with hope to the east.

Jesus went on to say how he must suffer and be rejected. Peter brashly tries to take Jesus to task. But Jesus knows that all of us must suffer and be rejected in some way or another and tells Peter to go away. That if Peter isn't willing to walk the same walk as Jesus, then Peter is not seeking God but is more concerned with what others say. Actually, Jesus calls Peter "Satan", which is a curse...we don't use it much anymore. But it was a hurtful accusation. The opposite identification of that of Peter's.

When we receive a gift from a friend or companion, we get excited and we tell our other friends "look at this gift I received. Isn't it wonderful." Yet we shy away from speaking of the gifts we receive from God or how our lives have changed because we got involved in a church community. Episcopalians don't have much of an opportunity to tell others who Jesus is in their lives. We shy away from such untoward things. And yet Mary sings "Tell out my soul" when she speaks of God's action in her life. Peter exclaims, "You are the son of the living God." Doubting Thomas looks at the Savior and says, "my Lord and my God."

"What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear." How often in a given situation do we pray to God to help us through it, or give us guidance or, in fact, even perform some miracle. And when the crisis has past, do we tell others about the divine intervention or do we take credit of perseverance, courage and endurance? Do we even stop to thank God for the help so freely given? Our faith is based on miraculous, life changing experiences of the divine and we don't know how to tell another person. We are so worried about what others would think of us that we are paralyzed lest they view us as superstitious nut cases. What would people think of us if we ran, like Mary Magdalene and shouted to them, "I've seen the Lord!"? Not only are we called to see things that others don't, hear things that others don't, we are also called to recognize the actions of Jesus in our relationships, our daily interactions with all we encounter, and our way of living. We are called to lead a new life not just revamp the old one. "I was lost and now I'm found, I was blind and now I see."

A Christian must be living proof that God is alive, not by how much we accomplish, but by how much God accomplishes in us. For we are found by the Savior, led by the Shepherd, taught by the Master and Saved by the Redeemer.

The world can so dull our senses that we no longer seek or see God anywhere. We are afraid that if our senses begin to see and hear God, we will have to give up the multitude of trinkets we have amassed for ourselves. Like children, we cling to the toys that glitter and amuse us, and never grow up to see the invisible reality behind all real things. "For whoever will lose their life for my sake will find it."

When we limit our identification of Jesus to the passing things of this world, Jesus soon passes with them. For the limitless One cannot be limited, the Infinite One cannot be finite, the spiritual cannot be mundane, the omnipotent cannot be powerless, and love cannot be constrained.

To be a follower of Christ we must be prepared to walk in Christ's footsteps. As Paul writes in Ephesians, "you must be quit now of the old self whose way of life you remember and you must be clothed in the new self, which is created in God's image, justified and sanctified through the truth."

Believers, followers of Jesus Christ were changed from holding back, hiding behind a set of rules and codes of conduct, and liberated to their fullness in God. True believers speak of the wonders that happen in their lives as they choose to follow the Christ. Mary Magdalene ran with joy and shouted "I have seen the Lord!". Peter exclaimed, "You are the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son of God."

Are you proud to say that you are a follower of Jesus Christ? Or is your faith just a whisper in the deep void of creation? Do you claim to be redeemed and loved by the one you follow. Do you walk in the footsteps of God? The way is simple, Jesus laid it out for us. Simple yet filled with suffering and laden with the weight of the cross. And because of that, if we are to live any kind of Christian life, we must be aware and present to each other, for when the sense of presence is gone, one of us is very lonely. And that is what Jesus is saying, that if we gain every thing, we forfeit life. When friends become unaware of each other, they become strangers. And so it is when we do not identify who Jesus is to us. Jesus stands at the door of our heart and seeks entrance, for Jesus desires to abide there. He wishes to possess us, though he is never possessive. He desires our heart, but only to fill it with compassion, so that we in turn, show more compassion to others. Jesus desires our thoughts in order to raise them to the heights of his love. Jesus wants our whole being so we may be raised to his nature...the Christ, the Anointed One.

Who do you say I am? Just a moment, let me think. I believe I knew at one time.