Confession of Saint Peter
Sunday, 18, January 2004
Acts 4:8-13
1 Corinthians 10:1-5
Matthew 16:13-19
Psalm 18:1-7
Sermon (Frank Eberhart):
(Cites Matthew 16:13-19). "Who do you say that I am?" Peter repeated what other people thought. Elijah, a reincarnated prophet, or John the Baptist. Jesus was called a teacher, a miracle worker, a healer. They thought he was fraud, or crazy. But Christ asked Peter, and us, "who do you say that I am?"
Some people are more interested in survival than theology. They would not answer as Peter did and say "You are the Christ, the son of God." Thomas said to Jesus, "my Lord and my God!" We didn't go into Jewish diatribes, he just said what was appropriate. Peter did anything Jesus told him to do. Unquestioningly. He was threatened and beaten, but he still confessed Jesus as the son of God, even when separated from his culture and his peers and everything. God chose an old man to be a father of the Jewish nation. God chose the unlikely people. God chose nerds. He deputizes anyone. Ezekiel was borderline schizophrenic, but God chose him to speak for Israel. God gathered together a bunch of misfits and called them "my chosen." God doesn't flaunt his glory. God came to the primitive first century. "God revealed that to you," Jesus said to Peter when he confessed him as the son of God. Who do you say that he is? God revealed us to that which is alien to humanity, love, joy and peace. Welcome to Christian reality. God reveals the counterintuitive. God is a jealous God. God is protective and possessive, because He loves us. He doesn't want anything to take His Spirit from us. When he says "I will put my Spirit in you," it is not an idle threat.