Repository of
Sermons
/ Calendar of Events /
Activities
The Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost
September
13,
2009 The Rev. William Van Oss, Rector
Readings
“Sing to the Lord a jubilant song. Rejoice and sing and let the earth be glad, let the heavens be filled with joy and a jubilant song. Amen” This is from an unknown source; “Once upon a time, famous theologians Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr and James Cove found themselves all at the same time in Caesarea Philippi. Who comes along but Jesus, who invites the four to sit down on the ground and ask them the question; “Who do you say that I am?”
Karl Barth stands up and says, “You are the vestigious trinitatum who speaks to su in the modality of Christo-monism.” Not prepared for Barth’s brevity, Paul Tillich stumbles out, “You are he who heals our ambiguities and overcomes the split of angst and existential estrangement, you are He who speaks the theonomous viewpoint, the analogy of our being and the ground of all possibilities.”
Reinhold Niebuhr gives a cough for effect and says in one breath; “You are the impossible possibility who brings to us, your children of light and children of darkness, the overwhelming oughtness in the midst of our fraught condition of estrangement and brokenness in the contiguity and existential anxieties of our ontological relationships.”
Finally, James Cove gets up and raises his voice, “You are my Oppressed One, my soul’s shalom, the One who was, who is and who shall be, who has never left us alone in the struggle, you are the event of liberation in the lives of the oppressed struggling for freedom, whose blackness is both literal and symbolic.”
All the while, Jesus has been listening, bent over, writing in the sane, and when the fourth theologian finished, Jesus looked up and said, “Huh?”
Who do you say that I am is Jesus’ question today. It’s the question the whole of Mark’s Gospel was written to answer. It’s the central question of the Christian Life. It’s a question of identity. Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? Who was the Jesus of history? Who is the Christ of our faith?
It’s pretty easy to answer Jesus’ first question: “Who do people say that I am?” We can look up famous theologians like Karl Barth, Paul Tillich, Reinhold Nieburh, James Cove. Search for Jesus on Amazon.com and you’ll find almost 200,000 books about Him. But what Jesus really wants to know in today’s Gospel is who do you say that I am? Who am I for you Bill, Mary, Mike, Sue, Dan, Jane and Ed? Who do you say that I am?
A second grade girl named Katie was in art class one Friday afternoon. Her teacher roamed the aisles checking progress.. All at once the teacher stopped at Katie’s desk and asked, “well now, Katie what are you drawing?” “I am drawing a picture of God.” Katie said proudly. “Katie”, the teacher answered, “you can’t draw a picture of God. Nobody knows what God looks like,” Katie replied, “They will when I’m finished.”
That’s our job. That’s our job to draw a picture of God. Artists literally do this with pencil and brush, some work with clay or stone or wood or glass, some write or sing beautiful music, some use words and write poetry or books or essays, to draw a picture of God. How we live our lives, how we love a spouse or partner or child, how we treat the stranger all paints a picture of God. But in order to do that, in order to draw a picture of God whether literally on a canvas, or figuratively with our lives, we must first answer Jesus’ questions, “Who do you say that I am?”
We celebrate Rally Day today, we gather to kick off programs and to celebrate 140 years of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. You hold a wonderful service bulletin that includes pictures and facts. We stand in a long line of people who painted pictures of God, we celebrate all the many people who have dedicated themselves to God through ministry in this parish for 140 years. 140 years of outreach, prayers, music, and Prayer Book services. Liturgy paints a picture of God.
You will notice that today’s service uses some very different language. Pay attention to the images painted by this very different language from 140 years ago. You might notice a focus on unworthiness, the idea of acknowledging and bewailing our manifold sins and wickedness might jump off the page for you, hearing that we are “not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Thy table: paints a certain picture of God and humanity.
Listen carefully and consider how this language differs from what we have become accustomed to in our Rite 2 service. Broken and sinful we are, but also saved, redeemed by a God who loves us in spite of our sins and weakness, a God who loves us through our sins and weaknesses, a God whose love redeems us makes us a new people by water and the spirit, so that we might serve God in unity, constancy and peace. Very different language and a very different picture of God.
It is good for us to reflect, to listen, to answer Jesus’ question: “Who do you say that I am?” because our answer to that question determines the picture we paint of God with our lives.
We paint our picture and then we come together into a beautiful work of art- like this poster we received last week. (hold up poster) From a distance, it is a colorful attractive cross, but look closer and you will see that it is made up of small pictures, pictures of you from our new church directory. Works of art come together to create a work of art, the church, the people of God, the Body of Christ.