Proper 19, Year B
Proverbs 1:20-33
James 3:1-12
Mark 8: 27-38
In the spring of 2000, when I went to Israel with a group
of Episcopalians from NYC, one of our stops was at Banias, the
site of ancient Caesarea Philippi. It is in the upper Galilee,
in the Golan Heights and is full of hills, ravines, rushing,
roaring streams and waterfalls. Caesar had put Phillip, one of
his sons, in charge of this city and named it after him. It is
striking that it was in this place, named for a human person
respected as a Roman god, that Jesus asked that most central
of all questions, "Who do you say that I am?"
Today I will ask you that question. Who is Jesus? Peter speaks
the answer written in the Gospel of Mark, "You are the Messiah."
It is an answer struggled over for three centuries by the best
minds the church had to offer until in the year 325, the Nicene
Creed was written to put this question to rest. Yet, if we are
honest, the answer is still one that raises questions in our
minds as we hear Jesus say to us, "And who do you say that
I am?" Some days I know for sure. Other days it is not such
an easy question. Like Peter who gave the answer revealed to
him by God, and then turned and rebuked Jesus, I can give an
answer with confidence and then moments later ask, "Wait
a minute Jesus, who are you anyway?" The question will haunt
us and shape us over a lifetime, and bring us back again and
again to search for yet a deeper understanding and a more profound
truth.
On Friday we drove to Doylestown, PA. to celebrate my mother's
88th birthday. Yesterday, our family gathered at the Forest Grove
Presbyterian Church and I baptized my great nephew, a blond,
blue-eyed 14-month-old toddler who thought that our baptismal
service is too wordy. However, all was forgiven when he got to
put his hands in the font and splash in the cool water. I was
holding Reid and was surprised when he showed signs of becoming
a Baptist as he threw his leg toward the edge of the basin and
indicated that he'd like to get in.
No matter how old you are now, in God's time, it was only
moments ago that you too were being held at the font. You were
washed by the waters of baptism and marked, as Christ's own forever.
A family said, "We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God." and promised to raise you in the larger family
of the church. Only moments ago, you had a small fuzzy little
head that was wet with the water and you were fast asleep or
wiggling to get back into mama's arms. You heard the words, "I
baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit." Those words, mere sounds to infant ears, are
words that would shape your spiritual journey.
You, a newborn servant, not all that long ago in God's eternal
time, wore on your brow the shine of holy oil, the seal of him
who died. This seal of the Holy Spirit is the physical sign of
an inner grace. No matter where your journey of faith takes you,
God, in Christ believes in you and will be with you always -
even on the days you do not believe in God and have no idea why
Jesus is called the Christ. Even then, the Spirit of God will
not leave you nor forsake you. That inner grace will continue
to guide and give light to your spiritual path.
Recently, a man I would never see again, 85 years old, learned
that I am an Episcopal priest and said to me, ' I am a life long
Episcopalian, and yet I've never been sure about who Jesus is
when the Church speaks of him as the Son of God. " I told
him that he must know by now that we are a church of seekers.
We are a church where questions are welcome and answers are relatively
few. All we need to know is that God in Christ, who created us,
believes in each one of us and gives us unconditional love. In
God's eyes we are all newborn servants who are learning to live
into our questions, as is the 85-year-old man I met. The gift
of such love is staggering. From the moment the consecrated water
touches our brow, we are part of a covenant people who look for
meaning in this life and seek God as we wrestle with life's difficult
questions. We have a home, foundation on which to rest. How we
respond, how we live out our questions packed as they are into
our tiny mustard seed of a faith is the answer we offer to Jesus
who says to us a hundred times each day, " and who do you
say that I am?" How do you answer him today? What will you
say tomorrow?
Let me close with one of my favorite quotations from the poet
Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the greatest lyric poets of the 20th
Century: Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart
and try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers
that cannot be given you because you would not be able to live
them and the point is to live everything. Live the questions
now. Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, live along
some distant day into the answer." Amen
