Preached at St Peter’s, Poulshot; St Mary’s, Potterne; and Holy Cross, Seend
Romans 12.1–8; Matthew 16.13-20
“…who do you say that I am?”
Our two Bible readings today are an interesting pairing – one asks who Jesus is; one explores what His Church should be.
In the Gospel reading, Jesus and His closest followers are on a bit of a road trip, away from the lakeside villages where He began His public work of healing and teaching. Apparently, the district is abuzz with gossip about Jesus. Everyone is talking about Him, because He is doing things well beyond what people have come to expect from local faith healers – powerful works, so much so that sometimes they even leave people frightened. Many people are wondering if Jesus is a prophet – perhaps one of the great prophets.
Jesus asks His closest followers, “Who do you say that I am?” This is one of the great hinges of the Bible. Peter gets it right first time – Jesus is far more than a prophet, but the Messiah Himself – the saviour of the human race, sent by God, the Son of God.
This is the perfect reading for a Sunday with baptisms and renewals of vows, because one of the promises we make in baptism is to turn to Jesus Christ as Peter identified Him, as our Saviour and the Saviour of the world. We join the biggest family in the history of the world, uniting people across time and space. This is a family that crosses divisions of nationality and race and class and political opinion. In baptism, we are united in the same family as baptised Christians in Albania and Zimbabwe, and all the other countries from A to Z. We are united across time with St Peter, and the people who built this church all those centuries ago. And we are united not only with Christians on Earth, but with those who have gone before us into heaven.
And here’s the thing, we aren’t united because we agree on everything, and certainly not because we’re perfect people – we are united by Jesus Christ, whom Peter correctly identified on that road trip all those centuries ago. We are united because we trust that Jesus Christ will save us even though we often mess up, because God loves us as we are.
That doesn’t mean we should be content to fester in the worst parts of our character, though, or indulge our worst habits and attitudes. There is some quite powerful symbolism to baptism: it is a symbolic drowning. We die to our old selves and rise to new life.
People often think that Christians try to be good because they’re afraid God will be angry at them and send them to Hell if they aren’t. That’s getting things precisely the wrong way round. Christians know that they often aren’t good – none of us is, all the time – but Christians also know that God loves them and always has loved them, and know that God sent Jesus Christ to save them. Instead of trying to live a good life to win God’s favour – which is silly, because you have that anyway – remember that if Jesus really is the Messiah, then so much of what consumes us in this world – the search for wealth and status and security – really means very little. Live a good life in response to God’s love; live a good life, because you know that’s the only life actually worth living.
St Paul says in our first reading “present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” – live your life for God, and that is a form of worship.
We can’t do that on our own, however. St Paul also says Christians should “be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God”. It’s not always easy to work out the will of God on our own. You can’t be a Christian on your own. We need the wisdom of the whole family of the Church to help us do that – and the Church needs each of us also.
The Church needs each of us because we all have different gifts, as St Paul reminds us. Some of us are called to be knowledgeable, and to teach; some of us are called to be encouraging; some to give generously, some to lead, some to be compassionate and cheerful. Bet you never thought of being cheerful as a special role in the Church. But that’s what St Paul writes. Your cheerfulness could be a gift to the whole Church; or your willingness to clean; or your IT skills; or your ability to see and bring out the best in people. Living a Christian life isn’t about being a superhero – if God wanted us to be superheroes, we would have been born with capes. Living a Christian life is about being, to the full, the person God made you to be, and that starts with accepting that God loves you as you are.
And because none of us ever manages to be that full person all the time, there’s one other thing symbolised by baptism that we should talk about: the washing away of sin. God is always ready to forgive our sins, if we truly and sincerely confess them to Him and seek to live a better life. Jesus’ mission began when He accepted baptism from John, who came proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; one of Jesus’ last instructions to His disciples after His resurrection was to forgive sins in His name. Forgiving sins is central to why Jesus came to us; sin is what He came to rescue us from.
Who is Jesus? That is a subject that can occupy you for a lifetime. Discover Him as part of His family, the Church, and He will show you fullness in this life and eternal life in the world to come.
And now to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, be ascribed all might, majesty, dominion, and power, as is most justly His due, now and for evermore. Amen.