Who Do You Say That I Am?

Meditation on Matthew 16:13-20 and Romans 13:8-14 for Rally Day

First Presbyterian Church of Smithtown, NY

Pastor Karen Crawford

Sept. 10, 2023

I am so glad that Rally Day is finally here! We’ve been waiting and planning for this day of new beginnings. Our choirs are singing and ringing. The children are back in worship after their busy summers. They came with their backpacks, and we blessed them. I love doing that!

We have begun a new program year for Sunday School. New technology will be used with a curriculum called Whirl. The program connects with the scripture we study in worship. And it has animated video clips with lovable characters trying to figure out how to live out their faith.

Today after worship, we will have our first Confirmation gathering with 10 students starting a new program year. Rabbi Stephen Karol and his wife Donna from Temple Isaiah will be our guest speakers, sharing their personal faith journeys and talking about Judaism.

An important part of our Confirmation program is the work of mentors. They will be meeting with their students once a month. They have a mentor guide to help them connect with the student’s learning in class and engage in meaningful conversations.

I have stressed that the mentor guide is ONLY a guide. The most important thing is that they be a friend to their students. Meet them right where they are. And be their authentic selves when they are with them. Help them grow in confidence and self-esteem so they won’t be afraid to be the people God is leading them to become. And in the mentors’ kindness, the students will sense God’s love for them and their true identities in Christ as God’s Beloved Children.

Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that love is the most important commandment and that when we love, we fulfill all the law, all of God’s commands. “Owe no one anything,” he says, “except to love.” In one of his letters to the Corinthian church, in 1 Cor. 13, he says love is the most important gift. “And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.”

In our reading in Matthew today, Jesus and his disciples visit Caesarea Philippi. It’s a curious thing that they end up there; this is the only time they will go to this beautiful, scenic, and sparsely populated place about 15 or 20 miles north of the Sea of Galilee and at the base of Mt. Hermon. One of the largest springs feeds into the Jordan River at Caesarea Philippi. The abundant water supply made the area fertile and attractive for worship of Roman gods.

Why would he choose such a time and place to declare the beginning of building his church? Why not choose a place where he has been preaching, healing, and feeding large crowds? I think the one who liked to go off by himself to the mountains to pray wanted to claim this place of natural beauty for the one true God he called Father. He also wanted to be alone with his closest friends in this serene setting. He has two questions for them. He doesn’t want any interruptions. Because that happened to Jesus all the time! He would be busy doing ministry or on his way to do ministry when someone would interrupt and ask for healing or the casting out of demons. And he would stop and do it, of course.

Now is his chance! The first question leads into the second, which was the most important of all. He trusts his disciples, his closest friends, to tell the truth. “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” he asks, and I wonder about his mood. Is he being playful? Is he really concerned what people think of him? Does he already know the answer to this question? They say, “John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah. Other prophets.”

“But who do you say that I am?” he asks. This is the important question!

When it comes right down to it, what your closest friends think of you is what matters to you. They have spent private time with you, sharing stories, meals, celebrations, adventures, and struggles with you. Your closest friends understand you—they get you!–or at least they want to understand you and know you for who you really are so they can care for you even more.

This is true for Jesus, the Son of Man, fully human and fully God.

The question is really for just one of the disciples, the one whom the Lord has chosen for a particular work. Simon, not the other disciples, is the one who answers this important question. Ever notice that he is named in almost every gospel story with Jesus? He always plays a strong supporting role. He doesn’t always get it right, but he is the one who may be Jesus’s closest friend.

Simon says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Today, at this beautiful place, at the base of a mountain, with abundant water from a spring that feeds into the Jordan River, Simon gets it right!

Jesus gives him a new identity that will fit the work he will do for God. He calls his friend by his full given name, “Simon son of Jonah.” They didn’t use last names back then. You were identified by your father’s name and hometown. Then, he gives his friend a nickname to strengthen him in his ministry. He is now “Rock.”

The name Peter comes from the Greek petra, which means Rock. Petra appears 15 times in the New Testament, and it normally describes a large rock formation, not just a single stone. “Upon this Rock formation (Petra), I will build my church,” Jesus says, then declares his divine authority given to Peter, “and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

Will Peter follow Jesus perfectly? No, he makes mistakes, some serious ones. But the identity of Rock stays with him. He will always be Peter after this day. And the calling to build Christ’s church is something that cannot be taken away from him. It is a gift from the Lord, just as your calling from Jesus Christ can never be taken away from you, no matter what you do or what happens to you. You are always called to be Christ’s disciples—to follow him with your lives each day.

For the first time in my years of parish ministry, I will be serving as a Confirmation mentor. And to not just one, but two of our students. I am a little nervous. It’s one thing to serve as the pastor and another thing to commit to helping two students find God’s will for their lives. That’s a big thing! I am fully aware that I am not a normal person. You are kind to me—accepting me as I am—and not expecting me to be a normal person all the time. But what if my students think I am, I don’t know, weird or something?

One of my students whom I will be mentoring came to the Sunday school picnic in June. At the picnic, her mother told me that her grandmother had given her a bird feeder for her birthday—a clear plastic one that sticks to your window with suction cups, so you can see the birds eating at your feeder up close! Well, the student was worried. She had put out her feeder with some mixed bird food inside, but no birds had come. After a discussion with her and her mom, I put together a container of the bird foods that I use and gave it to her. I waited to hear back from them.

This week, I received an email. They sent me two photographs of birds at her feeder. One was an ordinary blackbird, I think. The other, well, I kept looking at it and looking at it. It was a big red bird. Too big for a cardinal. It had a strange face. I zoomed in, and it dawned on me, it was a chicken!

Must have been the mealworms I mixed in with the sunflower seeds! I took this as a sign! We are going to have adventures together—my students and me. And it’s OK if I am not exactly normal all the time. I pray that they will see Jesus in me!

To all who are commissioned as mentors, teachers, and Bible study leaders in our congregation today, remember the words that were spoken to you at the baptismal font today. “Friends, the grace bestowed on you in baptism is sufficient for your calling because it is God’s grace. By God’s grace we are saved, and enabled to grow in the faith and to commit our lives in ways that serve Christ. God has called you to particular service.”

Remember to show the love of God. Don’t be shy about revealing your true identity as God’s Beloved Child. Today is the day when we owe no one anything, except to love, which fulfills all the commandments.

Let us imitate the One who loved us before the foundation of the world, before we ever loved him, the One who still wants to know the answer to the question he asked his closest friends long ago. He wants to know not just what’s in your mind, but what’s in your heart.

He is asking us now, as we seek to serve him with our lives and walk more faithfully with him every day,  “Who do you say that I am?”

Let us pray.  Holy One, Your Son is our Messiah, Your Anointed One, our Savior, Redeemer, and Lord. Through our faith in the work of Your Beloved Son on the cross, we are all your Beloved Children. Thank you, God, for the gift of Christian friendship, and for your love and grace—grace that is sufficient for our callings because it is YOUR grace. Thank you for taking away our sin and shame and giving us new, abundant, and everlasting life. Lead us to serve you with confidence, remembering our baptisms and to whom we belong. Help us to be a friend to others and not be afraid to be our true selves so that others would see Christ in us and come to know you and your love. In our Triune God we pray. Amen.