August 23, 2026 · Rev. Dr. James Olson · Romans 12:1-8; Matthew 16:13-20
Peter gives the textbook answer, but 'Who do you say that I am?' is a question disciples go on answering every day. Rev. Dr. James Olson turns it back on the congregation through Paul's one body with many members: what is your gift, and how will you use it out in the world?
Transcript
Good morning everyone. Jesus asks Peter, who do you say that I am? And Peter, true to form, wanting to be the teacher's pet and the best disciple ever, gives the textbook answer. You are the Messiah, the son of the living God. Okay, Peter, what does that mean? And Peter looked back at Jesus and said. And we've been trying to answer that question for ourselves for the last two thousand and twenty something years.
Who is Jesus? And we've got what we learned in Sunday school, right? Jesus is the Son of God. He's one person of the Trinity, which we'll get to. But who is Jesus? Jesus is the embodiment of the ground of being, said one theologian. Like, oh, I learned that one in seminary. That was a whole day.
And the question asks itself every single day of our Christian lives, who do we say Jesus is? The simple answer is, Jesus is our friend. Jesus is our Savior. And for most folks, that's an okay answer. And folks go about their day.
But serious discipleship, serious engagement with the teachings of Jesus, rooted in the idea that he is the physical, living embodiment of God, demands of us that we wrestle with that question every day. In America. Christian faith sometimes is reductio ad absurdum. Jesus is my Savior. I've accepted Jesus into my heart. And then folks blithely sail on for the rest of their day without giving it another thought.
And that is not what we are called to my friends. Our particular flavor of congregational faith is not that simple. It pervades all of who we are in church and in society. Remember that Congregationalism gave America democracy. Pure democracy. We vote on everything. It takes a committee to do everything here. And the model comes from Jesus. He did not do his ministry alone. He had twelve fifteen named disciples, plus their families who traveled with him. And most things that Jesus did were done in committee.
And so we return to the question, who do you say that I am? Peter gives the textbook answer, which is the place to start and not the place to end, because the truth of the matter is that there is no ending place for us. We explore that question, or we should every single day of our Christian faithful lives. It is, in fact, the path of discipleship. It is no less a significant journey than, say, the one that Jim Krieger is on right now traveling on pilgrimage. It is a spiritual pilgrimage.
That question who do you say Jesus is? I'm not giving you the answer this morning, because the truth of the matter is that for the forty or fifty people that are in here this morning, there are forty fifty different answers today. And then there are forty or fifty different answers tomorrow and forty or fifty different answers the next day. Because Jesus is what we need Jesus to be at the moment that we need Jesus. Sometimes Jesus is the comforter. Yesterday, Scripture, I will not leave you comfortless. Sometimes Jesus is the examiner. Who do you say that I am? Sometimes Jesus is the judge. Sometimes Jesus is the teacher. Sometimes Jesus is simply the living presence of God in our lives that we turn to in moments of joy and sorrow, of hope and despair.
Which then begs the question, who are we in relation to Jesus, in relation to God, in relation to one another? Paul explores this question this morning for us in one body we have many members, and not all of the members have the same function. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Imagine how dull church would be if all any of us could do were bake lemon bars. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the lemon bars, but after a while you want something different. All right. Which one of you made the lemon bars for yesterday? They were delicious.
Church. Any organization? But we're going to talk about church for this morning. Church only functions as an institution. If each of us have the opportunity to lift up and use the gifts that we individually have been given, I am not allowed to be the treasurer. I'm not allowed to have the checkbook at home. It would be a terrible idea for me to be the treasurer. I went to seminary because there was no math requirement. I have gifts and skills. People tell me, oh, Pastor Tim, I don't know how you get up there and speak every week. Well, ask my mother. I never shut up as a kid. Fortunately, now I get paid for that.
Each of us has a different skill, and you might not even have discovered what that skill or gift is fully yet. Or you're afraid to use it. We're going to have a reader training coming up in the fall. So if you've shied away from wanting to be a reader or a liturgist in in worship because you're afraid to get up there, or you don't know how to use the microphone, or you don't know how to say Caesarea Philippi. Remember that Paul said, you know, if you're going to miss in seminary, one of my professors said, if you're going to mispronounce something, do it with boldness. And whoever's going to be the reader for Pentecost Sunday with all those place names, I promise I'll get it to you weeks ahead of time.
We each have gifts that God has given us that then we are expected to use for the building up of the kingdom, not just the church, but out in the world. Lucky is the person who discovers early on that their love something and they're good at it, and then they go out and do it and they get to do it for their living. But sometimes that doesn't happen until later in life. My dad was a very talented wood carver. Birds, little animals that he did not discover until later in life that he had some real skill and gift for. And you wonder what his life might have been like if he had discovered that earlier in his life.
The truth is that we are children of God, every single one of us. That we are members of the body of Christ. That we can never say. To any member. We have no need of you.
Jesus asks Peter, who do you say that I am? We ask ourselves, who are we? What is our gift? What is our responsibility? What is our faith response? As we try to answer the question, Who is Jesus?
That is at the core of discipleship, not just learning the Ten Commandments, the twenty third Psalm, the various scriptures, not just showing up and sitting in the pew passively once a week. Thank you for coming this morning. But the fully engaged life of a Christian is every minute of every day, whether you're actively thinking of it or not. And our responsibility is to respond to God with gratitude and with action for the gifts that we have been given.
Christ has no body on earth but yours. No feet but yours. Yours are the eyes with which Christ looks out. His compassion to the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us.
Now. This little poem, questionably credited to Saint Teresa of Avila, captures, I think, the essence that right now, in this time and in this place, while we are in that place, between the first coming and the second Coming of Christ, we are the ones who are to be the eyes, the feet, the hands, the ears, the bodies of Christ in the world. And where we see need or pain or grief to help it where we see hunger or homelessness or oppression. To cure it. Where we see bigotry. Hate, ignorance. To love it back into a healthy place. That is who we are in relation to Christ.
We come to church for that pause, for that encouragement, for that learning, for that moment of peace. But then we must go out into the world. And help it be better. Our words in here must reflect our actions out in the world. What we profess in here must happen out in the world. What we claim to believe about truth, justice, and the American way. In here must result in action out there. Let us go, then, and be the eyes and the ears and the hands and the feet and the soul of Christ. Today and every day.
Who do you say that I am, Peter? We are you, O Christ. Amen.