Who do you think I am?

Sermon       Proper 16 A     All Saints    v      8-23-20

Isaiah 51: 1 – 6      Psalm 138      Romans 12: 1 – 8      Matthew 16: 13 – 20

Who do you think that I am?

When I talk to someone about EfM – that is Education for Ministry – because I think that person might be interested in EfM, his or her reaction is always interesting.  Usually the answer translates into:  why do I need to think theologically?  Isn’t that what you went to seminary for?  I come to church – why do you care about my theology?  

I do care about your theology – as much as I care about my theology.  As your priest, I know that my theology has some influence on you, if only to make you angry when I say things you do not agree with.  And, yes, I did go to seminary for a theological education so that I can serve God as a qualified priest.  I went through the long discernment process that our church demands so that others could check out my theology as well as my sanity and my vision as a priest.  Getting that approval was important to me.  I have just passed the 11th anniversary of my ordination as a priest, and it still astounds me that God and God’s church allow me to wear this collar and stole and serve you.

Theology matters because our theology describes how we understand God, how we expect God to show up in our lives, how we live as Christians in this time and place, and how we read Scripture.  Our theology can place limits on the love and grace that we receive from God IF we do not believe that God’s love and mercy is endless and all encompassing.  If we do not believe that God truly means it when the Holy Spirit offers us complete forgiveness of every single sin, we limit the forgiveness we can receive.  

God can teach us only what we are open to learning.  Hear that: GOD CAN TEACH US ONLY WHAT WE ARE OPEN TO LEARNING.  Just as the amount of water you can pour into a glass is limited by the size of the glass, we can limit God’s grace in our lives by the openness of our hearts and minds to God.

Bad theology can reduce the space we give God through the Holy Spirit to teach us how better to live in intimacy with Jesus Christ.  To learn from the Holy Spirit, we must – MUST – be willing to admit that God is far bigger than we will ever understand and far beyond any interpretation of God we can offer.  Far bigger than any words or images or metaphors we can create.

When Jesus asks the Apostles how the people are describing Jesus, what images they are using to describe Him, Jesus hears four specific descriptions:  John the Baptist, Elijah, or Jeremiah or some other prophet.  The ministry of John the Baptist was well-known: John preached redemption, baptized many, and announced the Kingdom of God while living off the grid.  Elijah is the greatest of the prophets known in the Hebrew Scripture.  The only person in Scripture to do more miracles than Elijah is Jesus Himself.  Jeremiah is the great prophet working after the reigns of King David and his son, Solomon.  The Hebrew people were now split into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, fighting each other and all the nations around them.  Prophets came at every stage of the life and politics of the Jews in the Hebrew Scriptures.

These descriptions pointed to roles people already understood: preachers and prophets.  Prophets pointed toward God, often by predicting future events but more often by bringing God’s message of forgiveness and hope, especially in times of great disobedience and trouble.  This aligned Jesus in a space easily understood by the people, but not a to expect a crucifixion, death and resurrection changing humanity for all time.  Not a space occupied by the incarnate God above all gods.

We use the image of the Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 3 in 1 and 1 in 3 – to try to explain how Jesus is not just a prophet but a Messiah and a Savior and the Lord of the Universe.  The Trinity is a mystery, will remain a mystery until we meet God face to face, AND the Trinity shapes how we think about God without pretending that we understand the power and majesty of God.  In that mystery, I can say that God’s own self paid the price of my redemption, not a dead prophet at the wrong place and the wrong time.  

St. Paul tells us that we are to present ourselves as a LIVING SACRIFICE to God.  I grew up with this verse used as an admonition to us teenagers not to smoke, drink, dance or have sex.  It has taken me many years to understand that Paul is saying much more than that.  NOT doing something that would hurt me is not a sacrificial gift honoring God’s goodness.  It is simply common sense.  I think hearing John Lewis’s call for our getting into “good trouble” has given me a better understanding of “living sacrifice”.  “Living sacrifice” is an active thing, not a passive avoidance of things.

Jesus Christ’s mission as given to us requires that we get our hands dirty.  That is, we cannot stand on the sidelines cheering for the good guys, we must get down on the field of play ourselves.  We must become the good guys.  We must be willing to see what God has put in our path.  So much of living a life led by the Holy Spirit is not about standing on top of a mountain while being handed tablets of stone.  More dishes need to be washed than mountain tops visited.  Who today needs what you can offer?  Who today is alone and lonely?  Where do you see human need that you can address directly or indirectly?  What has God given to you that you can share with others?   

IF we are to be a LIVING SACRIFICE to Jesus Christ, we must be willing to LIVE in a manner that is worthy of Jesus’s sacrifice for us.  We can never out sacrifice, out love Jesus, but we can give away our love for Jesus by loving everyone we meet.  God loves and forgives us through all eternity so we will never run out of love and forgiveness to give to others.  We are called to live fully in God as a living sacrifice, holy, joyful, gracious and acceptable to God.                 

Amen.