Sermon Texts

August 24, 2008

What's the main difference I notice between the Holy Land and Illinois? How green it is here! It doesn't rain in Israel or Palestine during the summer and there has been a drought besides, so there is a lot of brown - dry grass, dusty ground, rocky soil.

With some exceptions. One exception is the area around the city mentioned in our Gospel, Caesarea Philippi. That area, called Banias today, lies at the foot of Mount Hermon, the tallest mountain in the Golan Heights, and at the headwaters of the Jordan River. This area is called the Hermon Stream Nature Preserve today, and it boasts a picturesque waterfall.

The springs that gush out of Mount Hermon, forming these falls and eventually the Jordan River, have made this place an important site for centuries. Before Jesus' day the Greek successors of Alexander the Great had built temples here to worship the god Pan, a god of nature and music. Today's name, Banias, in fact is an Arab name related to that god's name. In Jesus' day Philip, the son of Herod the Great, continued that tradition and enlarged the city, made it his capital, and named it for himself and the emperor. The mountain's gushing waters made it a likely spot for worshipping a god of nature.

Does Jesus intentionally ask his question today in this context? Does he purposely ask who people say he is near a place where Greek gods are worshipped, where the cult of emperor worship was encouraged? I think he did, asking his disciples how people looked on him in the face of a large variety of religious options.

Then comes the important question, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter says, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." On the one hand, this seems to be the right answer, for Jesus blesses him, says the answer comes from God the Father, and now calls him "Peter," making a pun in Greek, for "petra" in Greek means "rock." On this rock, Jesus says, he will build his church. On the other hand, Jesus tells his disciples not to tell anyone that he is the Messiah. This is puzzling. The explanation that makes the most sense to me is that Jesus does not accept the common role Jews of his day associated with the Messiah - that is, a warrior who would liberate God's people from the Romans. Christians came to call Jesus the Messiah in a different sense - as a spiritual liberator who freed people from their sins.

What I think is important, however, is for us to consider this question for ourselves. Who do we say that Jesus is? We aren't in the region of Caesarea Philippi with its association with various pagan gods, but we might reflect on this question while imagining that we are in the shadow of the gods of our culture. Where might that be? Perhaps it might be in Millennium Park, surrounded by the Aon Building and the new Trump Tower and other buildings that stand as symbols of power and wealth. Perhaps it might be right here, in church or at home, where we are surrounded by cable TV and the Internet and all those media that connect us in one way or another to our celebrity-driven culture. This may seem relatively harmless; yet our adulation of celebrities does influence our values - how we dress, how we live.

However we think of our context, whatever cultural gods surround us, who do we say Jesus is? Do we say that Jesus is a great teacher, someone whose sermons and parables give us wise insights into how to live? Jesus is this, but the New Testament claims more for him. If this is all Jesus is, he is no more than Socrates or Confucius or the latest spiritual guru.

Do we say that Jesus is a great prophet, someone whose proclamation of God's will places him in the company of Isaiah and Jeremiah? Jesus is this, but the New Testament claims more for him. Even Muslims believe this about Jesus.

Do we say with Peter that Jesus is the Son of the living God? As Christians we do confess that Jesus is the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity. By that confession we affirm that in Jesus we have seen the fullness of God. Because of Jesus' coming among us we know that God's essential nature is self-giving, unconditional love.

Do we say that Jesus is our Savior? This too is a basic Christian confession, and this is what Christians have come to mean by "Messiah" or "Christ." Jesus is the one who has liberated us from sin and death. By his death and resurrection Jesus has opened the way to new life, new life in community with God that offers us God's love, forgiveness, and power to live out that resurrection life.

Who do we say Jesus is? We might answer in many more ways, ways that we find in the New Testament, ways that range from calling Jesus "friend" or "brother" to "judge at the end of time" or "creator of the universe." But I want to add one more: Do we say as Christians have said since the beginning, "Jesus is Lord"? This is one of the common confessions that Christians share and perhaps the most basic. Is this not what we mean by calling ourselves "Christian" - that we acknowledge Jesus as the one to whom we give allegiance and loyalty, the one to whom we look for the values by which we live, the one to whom we commit our very selves? Paul alludes to this in our Second Lesson today when he says, "I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, which is your spiritual worship." The word translated "spiritual" literally is "logical." If we say that Jesus is Lord, it is logical that in worship we would offer ourselves to God.

If we say that Jesus is Lord in our context, whatever cultural gods surround us, what does that mean? We are blessed with the Christian freedom and opportunity to work out what that means in our particular lives. It will mean following God's will for love and justice over against the values of our culture. Paul reminds us that it will mean recognizing the particular gifts that God has given each one of us and using them to honor God, strengthen the Christian community, and serve others.

When we visited Banias, or the Hermon Stream Nature Preserve, it was the only place that didn't have the remains of some pilgrimage church from Byzantine or Crusader times. "Why was that?" I wondered. Perhaps it was because the place is some distance from the Mediterranean coast and places like Nazareth and Capernaum. But perhaps it was because this place is too challenging. It may be quite challenging, even uncomfortable, to confront Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?"

Yes, the question may be challenging, but remember who Jesus says we are. Jesus said to his disciples, "I no longer call you servants, but I call you friends." And in our baptism God has called us "sons" and "daughters." God's grace empowers us to face what it means to call Jesus "Lord." Amen.