A Life Lived Authentically

good morning this morning's gospel passage passage which deacon bud just read from the eighth chapter of saint mark's gospel presents us with what is probably the most profound and the most important question ever articulated in human history that question asked by jesus himself echoes down all through the corridors of time to this very moment and it's just as relevant and just as compelling as it was two thousand years ago when jesus first asked the question who do you say that i am the question takes place as part of a brief dialogue between jesus and his disciples the lord initiates the dialogue with the probing question who do men say that i am the question comes almost as a summary of many of the questions that people had already been asking about jesus throughout his public ministry especially as recorded in saint matthew's gospel for example in matthew 8 27 the disciples themselves had asked what sort of man is this in chapter 11 verse 2 john the baptist sent two of his own disciples to ask jesus are you he who is to come or shall we look for another and in chapter 12 verse 23 the people ask can this be the son of david so by now those who have asked those questions should have more than enough information and evidence to answer their own questions and so jesus asks the disciples who to men say that i am and the answer that the disciples give testifies to the fact that the vast majority of people that jesus had encountered did not yet get it here's what they said in verse 28 they told him john the baptist and others say elijah and others one of the prophets jesus ministry his miracles and his words were by now widely known throughout the land but the fruit of all that in the lives of most people had not yet caused them to embrace the ultimate truth about his identification so there was broad speculation about jesus true identity but even those who got it wrong managed to at least somehow identify him with prophecy and with the end times specifically and with at least two of the great voices of salvation history that led up to jesus namely john the baptist and elijah some say john the baptist interestingly one of those who thought that and said that was the very man who had had john beheaded namely herod in matthew 14 2 we read that when herod heard about jesus he said to his servants this is john the baptist who he has been raised from the dead that is why these powers are at work in him now john the baptist of course was the prophet of repentance and a preparation for the coming of the kingdom of god elijah on the other hand was the prophet of miraculous signs and wonders so to many of the people jesus seemed to form a kind of composite image of these two as well as other prophets but the image that they had was lacking in something it was incomplete because it lacked an openness to the full revelation of jesus true identity as the christ the son of the living god and so jesus asks the question the second time but this time he makes it very personal for his disciples but who do you say that i am it was almost as if jesus was sent was rendering the first question and its answer irrelevant it was almost as if he was implying that first question that i just asked was just to introduce the topic now here is the real question here is the question i really care about you men have been my friends all this time we've been together day and night in all kinds of places and through all kinds of situations i have taught you mentored you trained you discipled you you've heard me preach and teach you've seen me heal the sick restore sight to the blind deliver the demon possessed calm the storm and even raise the dead and so now i ask you the most important question you will ever be asked this side of eternity who do you say that i am as i said a moment ago this question is just as timely and just as compelling today as it was when jesus first asked it think about it ask this question who do you say that jesus christ is ask it among any random group of people in today's culture and the answers that you will receive will be all over the map but here's the important thing all of our efforts at discipleship all of our efforts at evangelization all of our efforts to win the lost must ultimately come down to this one question who do you say that jesus christ is i'm sure you're aware that c.s lewis was one of the greatest christian writers of the 20th century he addressed this question in a very well-known quote that i'd like to repeat here this is what c.s lewis said quote i am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him i'm ready to accept jesus as a great moral teacher but i don't accept his claim to be god c.s lewis goes on that is the one thing we must not say a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things jesus said would not be a great moral teacher he would either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says that he is a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell you must make your choice either this man was and is the son of god or else a madman or something worse you can shut him up for a fool you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him lord and god but let us not come up with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher he has not left that open to us he did not intend to and that's the end of the quote that clear-cut need for a decision was behind jesus question to the disciples the need for a decision i don't know if there was any hesitancy on the part of the other 11 or not but as you would expect it it's peter who answers this simple uneducated brash impetuous man responds clearly and straightforwardly with these words that have been forever to his credit you are the christ in saint matthew's record of this account he adds the son of the living god peter's answer is profoundly and substantially different from those answers offered by the people jesus peter is saying is not merely one identified with prophecy about the end times not a precursor of the last days but the coming one the one to whom all the end time prophecies point the one upon whom all of human history converges peter's answer is calm and deliberate a response to all that he had seen and heard and experienced from jesus all of which now served as the foundation for this explosive revelation to him from the father you are the christ the son of the living god peter has made his declaration about jesus and again in saint matthew's longer version of this encounter jesus then makes a declaration about peter the declaration that serves as the very foundation for saint peter's appointment by jesus to lead the church as the first pope you are peter jesus says and upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it i will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatsoever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven whatsoever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven i'd like to suggest to you that we take jesus question today two thousand years later and make it personal for us just as it was personal for peter and the eleven so i'll ask you this morning who do you say that he is don't answer too quickly let the question sink in so that your answer is not a mere casual reflex a reflexive answer is easy for us isn't it why because it's so familiar after all we answer that question every sunday when we recite in the nicene creed don't don't we we say i believe in one lord jesus christ the only begotten son of god but the danger in saying it reflexively or casually is that it can all too easily lose its meaning and therefore lose its impact in our lives saint peter and countless numbers of early christians went to their violent deaths because of their heartfelt and steadfast profession of faith in christ what about you and me we may never be called to give up our lives for the faith it's possible it's becoming more and more possible as time goes on as we're presented with more and more tyrannical government leaders but what about christ's call to live the faith consistently steadfastly day in day out year in year out why that's important because one of the greatest scourges of the church today one the one which i believe has mightily contributed both to the secular secularization of our culture and the diminishing of the church is the specter of catholics and other christians who profess faith in christ but whose lives communicate anything but that faith and that scourge is all the more hideous and all the more destructive when the person in that category is a priest or a bishop victimizing the innocent and the vulnerable in our epistle reading this morning saint james teaches that faith without works is dead and he says show me your faith without works and i will show you my faith by my works it wasn't very long after peter's profession of faith that he came to understand just how important it was to allow his faith energized by grace and empowered by the holy spirit to transform his life forever and oh what a transformation it was but again what about you and me is our faith mere lip service do we really believe what we verbally profess in the creed because if you do if you really believe what you profess in the creed guess what that makes you responsible responsible before almighty god to frame your life and behavior around that belief to do otherwise is to make your faith a lie or at the very least a contradiction and so let me conclude as i say this let's you and i commit to the lord as we profess our belief in him to live lives that are both formed and informed by that belief both formed and informed by the word of god and by the teachings of the church let us as saint james instructs be doers of the word and not hearers only so that we can offer to our lord both today and on that future day when we step into eternity so that we can offer him a life lived authentically a life lived in the truth of our faith profession you are the christ the son of the living god in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen

Channel: Fr. Edward Meeks

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Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021