Prayers for School

On behalf of everyone at St Timothy's Episcopal Church, our prayers are with and for the family of Matt Gfeller, the young Reynolds High School student who lost his life this weekend.

Rest eternal grant unto them, O Lord; and let light perpetual shine upon them.

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Yesterday's Sermon:

I’m glad I don’t have to go to school tomorrow, aren’t you? Oh, I’m sorry, there’s a significant portion of folks here who DO have to go to school tomorrow. I know because I can see it in your faces! All the stress and anxiety and angst. And I can see it in your parents’ faces too! All the joy and freedom and happiness. But even though I wish you well tomorrow and later we’ll ask for God’s blessing on your new school year, I’m glad I’m not going tomorrow.

I’ve already spent 20 years of my life in school. That’s 20 years of homework, tests, and trying to impress the brunette sitting beside me. I plan to go back to school some more and have more homework and more tests and Cherilyn has said I can’t flirt with any brunettes, but for right now, I’m glad I done.

No more pop quizzes, projects, homework, extra-credit, or being sent to detention. No more two-a-day football practices or late-night cram sessions for a test I waited to the last minute to study for.

But that’s not really telling the truth. Because everyone here who has already finished school will agree that there are always pop quizzes, projects, homework, extra-credit and the threat of going to detention. There will always be long practices and late-night cram sessions for tests we waited to the last minute to study for. At least in high school you have a mascot.

I say all of this because today Jesus gives his disciples perhaps the first pop quiz in all of the bible. As they were walking into the cosmopolitan seacoast town of Caesarea Philippi, Jesus stops class and tells his disciples to pull out their pencils.

This is a two question test, Jesus basically says.

Question number one: Who do people say the Son of Man is?
Now first of all, I think that is a trick question. That would make me chew on my eraser for a minute because Jesus used that enigmatic phrase ‘Son of Man.’ And I don’t like trick questions. But his disciples respond quickly to that one.

John the Baptist, one disciple said. Elijah, another answered. And the others said Jeremiah or one of the prophets. I guess that wasn’t too hard of a question. All Jesus did was ask his disciples what other people thought.

I actually like those kinds of questions. It’s not that hard to explain both sides of an argument. It’s purely academic – which makes sense seeing as this was an academic exercise. If we had a pop quiz right now and asked the same question and you pulled those little pencils out of the pews we could all answer.

Who do people say Jesus is?
Well some say he is a great teacher, a prophet even. Most everyone believes that the person Jesus lived in the first century and he started a movement. Most everyone believes that he died from the Roman form of crucifixion.
And there are others who say that he was the Son of God, in fact he WAS God. Some say that he rose from the dead destroying death and sin, and ascended into heaven and all of this – his life, death, resurrection, and ascension – saves us from the power of sin and death, too.
But like all tests, like all pop quizzes, the second question is harder:
Now that you’ve told me what everyone else thinks, now that you have given me an academic explanation as to the diversity of opinion – tell me what you think. Who do YOU say that I am?

When Jesus asked the first question, many, maybe all of the disciples answered. John the Baptist! Elijah! Jeremiah! One of the prophets! But with the second question, we don’t hear a chorus – we only hear a solo.

Simon Peter raises his hand and says “You are the Messiah, or the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

And the teacher smiled.

But do you realize what that meant for Peter to say that? If Jesus was like John the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah or any of the other prophets, he would have been a great teacher, his words would have been full of wisdom and the disciples would have been wise to listen to him and learn from him.

But to say that Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed One, the Son of the Living God, was to say something completely different.

Peter was saying that Jesus was the Revelation of God, he was the image of God. And if Jesus is the image, the revelation of God, then Peter’s life should be completely and totally oriented by the life and message of Jesus.

How should Peter live? By following the pattern of Jesus. How should Peter deal with other people? The same way that Jesus dealt with people. How should Peter handle hardship, suffering, horrible news? In the same way that Jesus handled it.

When Peter said Jesus is the Christ – he confessed that Jesus is his Lord.

But do you know what happened immediately after Jesus praised Peter? Do you know what happened immediately after Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter and called him the Rock (Peter means Rock) and declared that the church will be built on him and that he will have the keys to the kingdom of heaven?

Four verses later, Jesus basically calls Peter the devil. Four verses after Peter aced the pop quiz and correctly identified Jesus as the Son of God, he pulls Jesus aside and starts telling him what to say and how to act.

It’s easier to answer correctly than to live correctly, isn’t it?

That’s the thing about Peter. Look at his life. He takes a leap of faith to walk out to Jesus on the water and falls. He confesses that Jesus is the Christ and then he acts like the devil. He fights to defend Jesus and even cuts off someone’s ear in the process, but when the question came if Peter knew Jesus, he denied him three times.

But of all the disciples, I’m glad Jesus looked at Peter and called him the rock. Because of all the disciples Peter is the one that I can relate to the best. There are times when I feel as if I’m so close to God it’s hard to explain, and then there are times when I do things, when I say things, when I think things…that are hard to explain.

I think that’s why Jesus called Peter the rock – because we all can see ourselves in him. We can see the process of faith – high one minute and rock, there’s that word again, rock bottom the next. Jesus called Peter the son of Jonah – do you remember Jonah from the Old Testament? He was the one that ran from God and spent three days in the belly of a fish and was spit out before he did what God called him to do.

But even on a rock as shaky as Peter, even on rocks as shaky as the flawed souls in this room, the Church stands strong. And if that’s not evidence of God’s grace, I don’t know what is.

Even though most of us aren’t going to school tomorrow, that doesn’t mean that we aren’t daily faced with homework, projects and pop quizzes. That doesn’t mean we don’t need our backpacks blessed!

Who does the world say Jesus is? That one is easy.
But who do we say Jesus is?
If he’s just a prophet or good teacher, then his words are valuable and we should listen.

But if he is the Son of the Living God, he is the Revelation and Image of God. If Jesus is the Christ, and that is our confession, then like Peter our lives should be completely and totally oriented around him.

How do we live? We pattern our lives after Jesus. How do we deal with people day in and day out? We remember how Jesus dealt with people? How do we deal with hardship, pain, suffering, and terrible news? We carry our cross with Jesus.

By saying Jesus is the Christ, we are saying that he is the stick by which all things are measured, he is the plumb line – he is the standard.

Who is Jesus of Nazareth to us?
That is the most important question we will ever have to answer in our lives.
And this one is not just academic.

Amen.