A Sermon preached on Sunday August 23 (Proper 16, Year A, Track II) at St. Augustine’s, WI
Isaiah 51:1-6, Romans 12:1-8, Matthew 16:13-20
There’s a long running British TV series called, Who Do You Think You Are? in which celebrity participants go on a personal journey to trace their family tree and discover hidden and often surprising, and sometimes uncomfortable ancestral stories! Who we are always has something to do with where we come from. We hear this in the prophet Isaiah’s call to his people (Isaiah 51:1) “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you.”
Jesus asks his disciples a similar question about identity and origin: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” (Matthew 16:13) Now you’ll have noticed that nobody answers the question with Jesus’ immediate ancestry, you are the son of Mary and Joseph, nor for that matter with one of either of the two long genealogies that we find in the gospels of Matthew (1:1-17) and Luke (3:23-38) and that lead back to Abraham (Matthew) or even right back to Adam (Luke)! Instead, the people see Jesus’ identity as one in a long line of prophets, one of God’s mouthpieces against injustice and wickedness by those who wield power in their own interest, and neglect their call to serve.
Comparing Jesus with Elijah, Jeremiah or even the recently deceased John the Baptist, could just be the people’s way of describing him as a person following their example as a prophet and witness. It could also reflect those Jewish messianic expectations that some of the prophets would quite literally return. In the book of Malachi (3:23-24), the prophet says “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet,” and Moses told the Israelites before he died that “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites.” (Deut. 18:15-20) There is however no such legend about John the Baptist, and it would be difficult for Jesus to be John reincarnated, as they were contemporaries. But that did not stop King Herod, in his guilt and fear, expressing the belief that Jesus was actually John the Baptist "risen from the dead." (Matthew 14:1-2)
But Jesus now wants to know what the disciples think, “who do you say that I am?” (16:15) a question that leads directly to Peter’s famous confession of faith: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (16:16) In one of his more sensible moments, Peter, still called Simon son of Jonah, has given a good – if not yet quite the right answer, and one much more surprising than any TV experience. To be the Messiah, the anointed King from the house of David is certainly a lot more than just being one in the line of succession of biblical prophets. Jesus is not called to warn, but to rule. Now being called the Son of the living God is not yet the Son of God as a divine being. It will take Jesus’ sacrificial death and resurrection before the disciples and the followers of Christ recognise and realise that truth. The kings of the House of David were often referred to as sons of God, for example in Psalm 2:7: “(The Lord) said to me, ‘You are my son; today I have begotten you.”
But to be called the son of the living God is already more than a normal human title, and still a hint towards Jesus unique relationship with the God he calls Father. Unlike a prophet, Jesus is not speaking God’s word, he is God’s word and God’s king and God’s son. In any case this is good enough for Jesus to praise Simon and to give him a new role, a new name and a new identity: “You are Peter (Greek petra and Aramaic cephas meaning rock), and on this rock I will build my church.” When God gave Abraham his new name, he was told he would be the father of many nations. When Peter gets his new name and identity, he is told he will be the foundation of a new community, a new people united in their allegiance to Jesus the Christ – the Greek for Messiah, the Anointed.
The topic of identity and what is called identity politics is much discussed nowadays and has positive and negative facets. Identity can be a weapon when it is used to exclude and oppress, when one group defines itself as the only true one and, for example claims to be the only genuine Germans, or genuine Americans, or genuine Brits, or genuine Nigerians and when they use this exclusive identity to define and limit other people’s rights. On the other hand, there is much to be said for the sense of solidarity of a shared identity, especially for groups that have suffered or still suffer marginalisation or discrimination based on identity markers such as race, gender, or sexual orientation. This form of identity is a means of achieving visibility and giving groups that face discrimination a distinct voice; sometimes we only feel safe in the company of those who share our lived experience.
In fact, we all have multiple identities, a unique identity that we were created with, the identity formed in our family and by our history, and many shared identities through the many different groups we belong to. But none of these group identities can ever be at the expense of or deny our common identity as human beings and children of, as we believe, one loving God. As Christians we choose to take on a new, additional identity as members of the community built on Peter, the rock, a flawed but still deeply faithful human being. Our identity as Christians is never exclusive, never inward facing. As William Temple, a famous twentieth-century Archbishop of Canterbury, once expressed: "The Church exists primarily for the sake of those who are still outside it," and by that he meant it is outward-facing, missional, and an organisation dedicated to service, or it is not church.
It is at and through baptism that we receive this new Christian identity. It may seem a bit early for Theodore and Rupert, a 1 and a 4-year-old, to be taking on a new identity, when their own is still being formed. But that’s the idea, that’s why we baptise infants and children so that their formation also takes place in a community, guided by the Christian faith and life. And that’s why we anoint them with oil, just as kings and priests were anointed, as a symbol of their new shared identity.
So, who do we think we are, or better who do we know we are? As Christians, we follow Jesus as Lord and Saviour. We are chosen and loved by God and return that love to God and to our neighbour. As human beings, we are all made only “a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and honour.” (Psalm 8:5 NIV) And we are all children of the living and loving God. That’s a wonderful identity to live up to!
Amen.
