Sermon: 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Text: Matthew 16:13-20
In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
“Who do you say I am?”
Is one of the crucial questions… Not just of that age, but of today.
“Who do you say I am?”
Messiah? Son of God? Teacher? Good man? Charlatan? Blasphemer? Threat?
“Who do you say I am?”
…this is not a question for theologians, for priests, for the great and the good. This is a question aimed at you.
And you. And you. To each and everyone of us, personally, we are called to address this crucial question.
“Who do you say I am?”
Jesus will not accept agnosticism. He confronts you with the reality of his presence in your midst. He challenges you with a radical reworking of all that you have previously accepted as the norm, for the Gospel is challenging, transformative, unconventional.
“Who do you say I am?”
You are called to respond, and there is no time for cleverness or theological reflection; for the call to follow him, to be like him, to embrace him and through him to embrace the divine is all wrapped up in this simple, direct and ultimately challenging statement.
This is how Peter reflected on it.
(Show Talking Head from Walsingham 2004)
“Who do you say I am?”
“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God”
Amen