| Who do people say that I am ? |
"What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is… or indeed who Christ really is, for us today. So wrote the German theologian and Lutheran Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer from a cell in a Nazi prison In the months leading up to his execution for treason “What is bothering me incessantly is the question who Christ really is, for us today.” In this morning’s Gospel reading Jesus asks that very question of his disciples; Who do people say that I am? He asks That question has been widely asked and answered the people of the time And so in response they gave him a run down of the current state of the betting – The unlikely odds on favourite – You are John the Baptist, reincarnated Close second favourite – one of the prophets With Elijah at two to one But Jeremiah kept safe at 5/2 Then Peter has this outrageous long shot – You are the Christ – the Messiah The Son of the Living God But what about you – The Gospel reading today is more than reading More than words read out and heard Because it asks a question And it demands a response For in it, the person of Jesus is asking Who do you say that I am? Almost no one today denies that a person known as Jesus of Nazareth lived and died around the time in which the Gospels place him; but Jesus is not asking so much a question of fact – he knows perfectly well that he is Mary’s son and a Jewish carpenter form Nazareth he is asking an ontological question That means it is a question of being a question of identity Who do you say that I am? At some point in our lives we are all drawn to that question And seek an answer to it - For no other single life in history Has exercised such a profound effect on the world in which we live The name of Jesus Christ is known and spoken in third world villages and in the great cities of Europe In almost every language known to humans Here in the Western world Our very calendar And our holidays Are marked by the parameters of his life and his death A young writer by the name of Samantha Trenoweth Who is not a member of any denomination nor Church – And who is broadly representative of the way many young people today exploire the enigma of Jesus; writes “”I am attracted to the figure of Jesus – his compassion, his courage, his fear, his humanity, the way he is born and lives and dies, journeys through the underworld and lives again – yet Christianity requires a leap of faith of such magnitude… I can not make it” Countless books – more than can be recorded – have been written Movies have been made Wars have been waged and atrocities committed Whole lives have been lived Trying to find an answer to that recurring question Who is Jesus Christ? Our ancestors in the faith struggled for decades, centuries, over this question And they believed they had solved it by producing a series of Creeds The well known Nicene Creed, which we say each week as our corporate confession of belief, describes Christ as “God from God, Light from light and of one being with the Father” But what does that really man and how does it help us The Nicene creed itself did not go far enough And there was to come the further expanded Athanasian Creed Which can be found hiding at the back of the Prayer Book alongside the 39 Articles of Religion And even beyond that the very complex Chacledonian statement That sought to explain how Jesus could be simultaneously both divine and human But are all of these creeds really helpful Does it tell us all we need to know Do they tell us who Christ is and what Christianity is Or do they only tell us who he is not and what it is not ? A major barrier is presented by the fact that The Creeds were all written in the language of Greek philosophy And people simply don’t talk and write and reason in the language of Greek philosophy today Normal people don’t anyway Perhaps it will help to hear how other people have answered that same question Spoken by Jesus to us, today Who do you say that I am? Billy Graham said Jesus Christ is the man God wants every man to be like Unfortunately Billy says nothing of women but we can assume perhaps that at leats one mention of the word man in that quote was used in the generic sense The Indian spiritual teacher Radkakrishnan writes Very perceptively “To a Hindu Jesus is the supreme illustration of the growth form human origins to divine destiny he reveals the potential depth in ourselves and he brings home the ideal of human perfection by embodying it in himself For Bishop John A. T. Robinson Cause of a great scandal in the 1960’s with his book ‘Honest to God’ Christ is simply “the human face of God” And for his most passionate and prominent modern day follower Bishop Spong “Jesus is the way into the heart of God whose life makes known to us all what the meaning of life itself is” Bonhoeffer- whose writings greatly influenced both of the afore mentioned Bishops Famously sums up all that Jesus was and is by saying “He is the man for others” Others find these answers to vague to accept and follow And object that they are really functions Describing what Christ did or does Not who he was and is – C. S. Lewis, a convert to Christianity himself Famously wrote in ‘Mere Christianity’ that “A man who is merely man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic – on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man [Jesus] was and is the Son of God, or else a madman, or something worse” I am attracted to the very promising way forward offered by the simple But quite profound Observation of a long forgotten English academic B. H. Streeter Who in one of his many books on the Gospels, Offers this little creed like statement - “Christ, instead of a code instead of rules, a life instead of a philosophy, an art in a similar vein, other theologians have written “Our Lord’s message is himself he did not come to preach a Gospel he is that Gospel” “Jesus is God spelling himself in language that man can understand” The most prominent of all theologians of the last century Karl Barth, writes “The truth of the Christian religion is enclosed in the name of Jesus Christ and nothing else” The singer Joan Osbourne recorded a song a few years ago Called ‘What if God was one of us’ That asks two questions of its listeners “If God had a face, what would it look like And if God had a name, what would it be?” I think we have heard enough to realise that the answer given both by the Scriptures And the ongoing tradition of the Christian Church is – Jesus of Nazareth The human face of God And that answer takes us immediately back to both the Creeds and the Scriptures For it is this very thing the Creeds are trying to say in words and language palatable to their age In statements like God from God, light from light And of one being with the father It is this answer that Peter gives when asked by Jesus in this morning’s Gospel reading “You are the Christ – the Messiah the Son of the Living God” And so, finally in seeking an answer to the question we began with we have heard from Bonhoeffer, Barth, and Billy (Graham that is) From Samantha Trenoweth, writer for Cleo, Dolly and Rolling Stone magazines And from Joan Osbourne, rock star BH Streeter, CS Lewis - scholars Bishops Robinson and Spong The Nicene, the Athanasian, the Chalcedonian Creeds From the Hindu holy man Radkakrishnan From the Apostle Peter And of course, from me – humble Curate and priest But what say you? Jesus stands before us and asks us – Who do you say that I am? Let us go into our week contemplating our answer In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy spirit. Amen. |