21st Sunday Year A 27 August 2023 Sermon

21st Sunday Year A 27 August 2023 Response

To be or Not to be is not the question, but Who do you say I am? That is the question that will determine where we spend eternity, so it is an important one.

It is not just who Jesus is, or what He is, but who we think He is that is vital to the process.

There has to be a response from us. He is the Saviour, but we have to want to be saved, and cooperate with the process.

We have to reply with similar words as Peter used: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God (Mt 16, 16).

Peter’s response was prophetic. He was saying more than he actually knew. It was the Father who gave him these words, bringing forth a deeper answer than he would have made on his own authority.

So God can do for us, bringing forth an understanding and a courage beyond what we normally feel.

The apostles did not normally manifest that much faith, not at least before Pentecost.

They had much to learn, as do we.

The word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us.. That is God's statement. That is His side of the bargain; what are we going to do in response?

One thing we do is to remind ourselves of God's greatness, and our smallness. He is the Son of the living God. Think of the perfect humanity of Christ or the perfect holiness of the Father, and we are inspired to higher things.

Whether received or not, His identity, His mission, do not change.

No amount of human neglect can subtract anything from the power of God.

We must not try to reduce His importance.

We cannot afford to let our faith run down to some sort of partial response. We have to keep up the intensity.

We are on a pilgrimage, so we have to walk on hard ground sometimes, and overcome many adversities. We do not forget where we are going, or that this phase of our lives is not the final state. We are on the way, not there yet.

To receive God's  help we have to be willing to receive His whole revelation, not just bits and pieces here and there.

Receive the whole Christ: He is not just a teacher or philosopher or rebel, or misguided idealist,

We have to take all of Him at once. He will help us if we are humble enough to get the right understanding.

The full vision is much more exciting than the various attempts to minimise Him. There is a lot more yet that we have not seen or discovered.

The full identification of disciple with Master is the key. It is not just the external miracles that impress but the internal miracles which concern faith and related factors.

Jesus died and rose for the good of the human race, but He also wanted to deal with each individual person, to call that person to be a disciple now and a saint for eternity.

Each disciple has to repeat Peter’s confession, if not in exactly the same words, but a full affirmation of Jesus’ unique status.

He is not just this or just that. He is altogether beyond where others have tried to put Him.

We let Him lift us up to His level, rather than pull Him down to ours.

Whoever He is and whatever He is - we want to be one with Him. Once we know Him there is no alternative. But we do not need an alternative, only enough wisdom and courage to stay on course.