The Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee



Proper 16, Year A, 2008, August 24, 2008, St James' Church, Dickson & Calvary Church, Cumberland Furnace

“He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’” . (Matt. 16:15).

When you sit down to take a test in school, the experience is something like this: there’s usually one right answer, and if you get it wrong, you don’t make the grade. Our knowledge is being tested, knowledge of a certain sort; that is, intellectual knowledge, the kind that resides in the head. The pencil has to be sharp and the wit keen, to organize and present what we know in the time allotted. A good memory helps, but it’s even better if we’ve made the material our own, made it a part of ourselves so that it comes forth effortlessly. There’s no better way to pass the test.

Jesus’ question to the disciples in our Gospel today is a test of a different sort, a very different sort. There is no one right answer to this question, though not just any answer will do. “Son of God”; “Son of Man”; “Alpha and Omega”; “Lamb of God”: the list of correct answers could go on and on, even beyond the answers contained in Scripture. At the same time (and this is a crucial point) Jesus’ question is not really a test of “head knowledge”, an intellectual exercise. It’s a test that reaches down within us for what is most truly our own, for what is a part of us, but what it seeks to weigh is our relationship with Jesus. The answer doesn’t depend on our keenness of wit, but on who we believe Jesus to be. It’s “heart knowledge” rather than “head knowledge”; it’s knowledge that comes from relationship, and not the sort that’s memorized. “Who do you say that I am”: the whole question presumes relationship, the “one on one” of faith.

This isn’t a trick question. Everyone can remember taking tests; some of us can remember the anxiety that goes with them. Remember the dream where you’re in the test room without a pencil, or even without your clothes on? In any case, there’s a long history in Christianity of “religious tests”, rooted in anxiety, and tests like these are never good when they’re used to trip people up or to exclude them from faith. Don’t misunderstand me: some answers to the question of who Jesus is are insufficient or just plain wrong from the standpoint of faith. Not just any answer will do. But Jesus’ question is invitational, not exclusive; it’s meant to invite people into relationship with him so that they can articulate an answer that speaks of wholeness and connection to God.

So who do you say that he is? Today in confirmation our candidates, and indeed all of us, will be responding to the great questions of faith. Please take them question as an invitation to relationship and not as a test; as an invitation to deepen relationship with Jesus Christ, and not as a measure of anxiety. To be authentic, the answer to that question has got to be our own, rooted in our own experience and in our own relationship with God. You’ll start where you are and go on from there: it’s as simple as that. From this perspective, prayer is the key: the conversation we have with God that nurtures our relationship with him.

For Christian faith, the relationship is a “living” one. If Jesus Christ is alive and not dead, then we can enter into relationship with him, come to know him more deeply; we can be nurtured and sustained by our friendship with him. Belief in the living Lord is the key to our prayer and our relationship with Jesus Christ. It’s the key to answering the question.

Part of our role as bishop and priests in our congregations is to keep putting this question before our people, so that faith can be deepened and relationship sustained. It’s a time of transition in these next few months, for both Will Holt and Catharine Regen. It’s a time of celebration and thanksgiving, of gratefulness to God for insight and grace that have been given through their ministries. We are all profoundly grateful. But this question and the answers to it go beyond the span of any single ministry; this question and the other profound questions of faith do not go away with the changing of the seasons or the passing of the present age. God is still inviting us, calling us, engaging us in relationship with Jesus Christ. Who do you say that he is?

The Rt. Rev’d John Bauerschmidt, Bishop of Tennessee

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