Chinese Presbyterian Church

Romans 12: 1-8                     “Jesus is ________”                         Matthew 16:13-20

August 21, 2011               10^th Sunday after Pentecost                Claire Vonk Brooks

             We are now two games into the Saints’ exhibition season—and wouldn’t another Super Bowl be lovely?  I can’t help myself this morning—we begin the sermon with football! 

               Notre DameUniversity inIndiana used to be a major football power.  It still has good years—just not as often—and it still has some of the most loyal football fans in the country. Notre DameUniversity is a Catholic school, of course, not a public university, and there is plenty of religious artwork in the architecture and around the campus.  Perhaps the most famous is a mosaic that is 134 ft high and 68 ft wide.  The background of this mosaic is made of many different kinds of granite.  On the stone are thousands of small pieces of tile.  The official name of the artwork is “The Word of Life” mural, but that is not what most people call it.

             The central part of the mosaic is a picture of Jesus with his hands raised in blessing—pretty much the same way the referee signals a touchdown at a football game.  Yes, I’m talking about Touchdown Jesus.

             We Christians talk about Jesus as the one who is victorious over sin and death, but sin is everywhere and death is—we hope—a long way off.  It’s hard to stay focused on either of those victories for very long.  Now a football victory is something else—a football victory is something we can taste and see and hear and celebrate! 

             Our Saints team has its own chaplain, Father Tony Ricard, and the week before the Super Bowl game in 2010, the Times-Picayune printed Father Tony’s prayer for the Saints.  It was called “The Prayer of the Who Dats,” and it was a pretty good prayer!

             I suspect, once the “real” season starts, there will be a lot of “who dat nation” football prayers.  I suspect, in the heat of each game, there will be prayers from some of you directed straight to “touchdown Jesus.”

             So: who is Jesus, for us?  Who is Jesus for you?  What does he do—where does he touch your life?  Beyond football, beyond the baby Jesus of Christmas carols, who is Jesus, for you?  If you think of him as Savior, what is it exactly that he is saving you from—or saving you for?  If you think of him as Healer, who does he heal?  And what if he heals others, but not you?  If you think of him as the Son of God, then what does it mean for us to be his brothers and sisters?  And if you think of him as the Messiah, as the one who has come to us from God, who has FINALLY come to us, then how has that changed your life? 

              When Jesus asked Peter, Who do people say that I am? Peter’s first answer was “Some of them say that you are Elijah, come back from the dead.”  For first century Jews—and of course Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and his first disciples were all Jews—for them, Elijah and Moses were the two most important people in the Bible.  Elijah is remembered every year, even today, in every Jewish household at the time of Passover.

              Passover is the most important of all the Old Testament celebrations.  It’s the time when Jews come together as families to remember the time when Moses led his people out ofEgypt—when God freed the people ofIsraelfrom slavery.  The Passover meal comes with the very best china, the best silver, crystal wine glasses.  There is special food and there are special prayers.  It is perhaps the holiest evening of the year for Jews today, just as it was for Jesus and his family.

             At the Passover table there is a seat for everyone—the young children sit at the table, too, not just the adults—and there is one seat extra.  There is one extra knife and fork and spoon; one extra plate and wine glass; one extra napkin and one extra chair.  That is the place saved for Elijah.  Elijah’s seat at the Passover table comes from the old prophecy that when God was ready to save the world, first the prophet Elijah would return. 

             For the Jews, every Passover is a reminder that another year has gone by and their savior has still not come—and it is also a reminder that they do believe that someday Elijah’s chair will be filled.  Someday, they believe, God will come to save his people. 

             For Christians, the time of waiting is over.  For Christians, the Messiah has come already, the one who was promised, the anointed one blessed by God, Jesus, the Christ.  When Jesus sharpened his question—Peter, who do YOU say that I am?—Peter answered, “the Son of God, the Messiah.”  And Jesus replied, Blessed are you, Simon [Peter], son of Jonah.  God has revealed this to you.

             IF Jesus really is the Son of God, IF Jesus really is the Messiah, then the time of waiting is over.  IF Jesus really is the Son of God, the Messiah, then it is time for us to be fully alive.

            There are a lot of ways to fill in that blank: Jesus is … the Messiah; Jesus is a healer; Jesus is a teacher; Jesus is a miracle worker; Jesus is the one the Virgin Mary said would turn the world upside down.  There are a lot of ways to fill in the blank, but the first and biggest question is this: do we live like people who are still waiting for God, or do we live like people who know that he has come?

            When we wait, we always hold back the best.  Over the centuries, many women have bought or been given beautiful pieces of silk fabric and kept that fabric for something truly special.  While they waited for the event that would be grand enough, exciting enough, perfect enough to cut that gorgeous material into a dress or a ball gown, they kept it carefully folded, stored away in a safe place.  Then, one day, checking it to see that it was still as beautiful as they remembered, they found that everywhere the silk was folded, the fabric had deteriorated.  Instead of a beautiful length of cloth, they had a pile of smaller pieces with rotten edges.

            When we live as people who wait, we pace ourselves.  We hold something back.  We keep something in reserve.  We do not throw ourselves fully into anything.  Forgiveness for others?  Maybe, IF they show us that they are truly sorry and apologize in the right words and the right tone of voice.  Service to others?  Sure—as long as it fits into our busy calendars.  When we live as people who wait, we are always counting the cost, estimating the benefits, making sure that whatever we give away—time, talent, money, love—whatever we give away, we know in advance that we will get a good return on it.

             If Jesus really is the One—the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior—then the time of waiting is over.  If Jesus really is the One, then we can throw ourselves into the Christian life with all our hearts and souls and minds and strength, and we really can love our neighbors as we love ourselves.

             If Jesus really is the one, then fear has no more control over us.  If Jesus really is the one, then we can take chances, we can take risks.  We can act with love toward people who do not act with love toward us, free from worrying about whether our feelings will get hurt.  If Jesus really is the One, then we can give in ways the world finds foolish—we can choose to give our money to help people in need and choose not to take that luxury trip.  If Jesus really is the One, then we can spend time with people who do not look like us or act like us—people who are poor or in prison, or soldiers badly damaged by the wars we send them to fight.  We can choose to use our power for the sake of people with very little power—immigrants, the unemployed, the mentally ill.  We can do these things without fear because if Jesus really is the One, then the time to follow him is now. 

            Next Sunday the choir will present a wonderful service of scripture and anthems.  The theme is the Christian Journey, the journey that begins when God calls us and continues through this life.  There will be much food for thought and for prayer in the choir’s musical offering next Sunday.  There will be many answers to the question Who is Jesus, for you?

             Throughout September we will return each Sunday to the question Jesus asked Peter and asks us: Who do you say I am?  This morning we find one answer in Paul’s letter to the Christians inRome:

           Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God--what is good and acceptable and perfect.

           Do not be conformed to this world.  The world tells us always to hedge our bets.  We have sayings like, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”—play it safe.  If you are a farmer taking eggs to sell at the market, put some in one basket and some in another basket.  That way, if you stumble and drop one basket of eggs, you will still have the other basket of eggs left to sell!  We talk about having a “nest egg” or putting money aside “for a rainy day,” and the world tells us to live that way, too.

             Don’t get too involved with other people—you’ll get hurt.  Don’t overdo it—save yourself.

             Jesus comes to change us. 

 Jesus comes to tell us that the time we have been waiting for, the time we have been saving ourselves for, is now.  Who is Jesus?  Here is one answer: Jesus is the One who has come to change us into God’s people, fully alive, here and now.

             Think for a moment about a caterpillar.  It eats leaves, grows big and fat, and forms a chrysalis, a hard brown coating that makes it look like something that is dead.  Then the chrysalis cracks open and a butterfly comes out.  The Christian life is a little like that: Jesus does call us from an old life to a new life that is very different.

             For the butterfly, however, this change is something that just happens. It’s the natural order of things.  Unless the caterpillar is eaten by a bird, this transformation is going to happen, whether the caterpillar wants it or not!  For us there is one big difference: our change, our transformation does not happen without our cooperation.

             We can live as people who wait, always saving the best for—for what?  Or we can live as those who know that Jesus has come, that the time to live for him is now—to live for him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength; all our money and time and energy and creativity and love, right here, right now.

             To God be all glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen and amen.