The Confession of St. Peter

The Confession of St. Peter – January 18, 2004

Matthew 16:13-19

What age would you like to be? Some might answer with an age half their present accumulated years. A teen might answer, “Twenty-one.” Think about it, what age would you like to be?

I did a “person-on-the-street-interview” and got this answer from a person who is not a member of Christ Church. “I would like to be forty.” It seems they are a decade or so older than forty.

Following up, I asked, “Tell my why you would want to be forty?” They answered, “It was the year I felt completely independent. I would not want to go through that ‘growing up’ thing again, so I would not want to be a teenager again. Besides, at forty, I was thinner!”

How interesting this answer is. Researchers tell us that there are three important things we do during our adolescent years that set our identity. First, we deal with whether we are smart or not. Have you ever encountered folks who are very intelligent, but tell you they are not? Remember the kid in school who got straight “A’s” but kept telling you they were dumb?

Well, you have to deal with the challenge of intellectually maturing. Thus, when my “person-on-the-street” said, “I would not want to go through that ‘growing up’ thing again,” they were saying the challenge of getting our lives intellectually organized is so tough that once is enough. I certainly agree.

The second observation of researchers is that growing up we are very, very aware of our physical looks. We do not want to be unattractive. Thus, you will remember that my interviewee said, “At forty, I was thinner.” Yes, part of setting our identity is learning to deal with how we look and liking ourselves as we look.

The final part of identity setting in adolescence is to know that you are loved. We desire to be loved by another, and as a teen often feel unloved. Part of understanding and setting our identity is to receive and give love. Thus, when my interviewee said, “Forty was the year I felt completely independent,” they were saying that there was nothing in their way to loving themselves with a healthy self-love.

You see the issue of identity is to be settled in the adolescent years when we grapple with whether we are smart, good looking and loved. Feelings can be really traumatizing during these years and during the searches we make as individuals.

It comes down to asking the question, “Who am I?”

This question is not far different than the one Jesus asked his disciples. And how you answer it will reveal a lot about your relationship with God.

Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” Jesus is doing the normal identity check here, is he not? He is really asking, “Do people see me as I see myself? Do people perceive me as the Savior come to bring God’s kingdom to them?”

Of course, the disciples give various answers: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, or even one of the prophets. Not the answer that we know fits Jesus identity as God’s Son.

So, Jesus asks the question a bit differently: “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter, of all the disciples, gets it right…”You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

In these words Peter is the voice today who reveals that Jesus is our savior. We know the rest of the story, that Jesus not only teaches, but he goes to the cross and dies there that we may know forgiveness and life, resurrected life like his.

So, Jesus knows who he is, his identity is set and now we also know who he is.

That makes a huge difference in our lives. From this revelation we learn that Christ is the savior who dies for us and makes us children of God. You are a child of God in Christ as only you can be in Christ.

Part of your identity now, as a baptized believer is to know you are ageless. That is, you have not only this life, but one more. As Christ is raised and living with God, we, too have the promise of resurrected life. That makes us ageless people.

You are ageless because God has chosen to love you unconditionally in Christ. This is a gift to you, not something you earn or qualify for during some heavenly game show. You have been created good in the image of God. In Christ, forgiving you all your sin, God once again recreates you good.

Part of being the ageless saints of God through Christ means that we are set free to serve others with this great news that Jesus, the Messiah, is our Lord and Savior.

I would raise up once again that encouraging one another is a way to serve. You and I know that adolescents, as they go through setting their identity, can be merciless and mean to one another. Look a little different than others and you may be mercilessly teased. When Saint Paul tells us to encourage one another he is asking that we grow in our faith-identity and leave the actions of adolescence behind. Letting God’s love set in us a new identity as children of God we move beyond being merciless and mean to loving and encouraging one another. Amen.

Pastor Robert F. Holley