We Will All Be Changed by the Victory of Our Lord Jesus

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Sermon

The Gift of the Holy Eucharist...how thankful are we?

The Gift of the Holy Eucharist...how thankful are we?

Homily 21st Sunday of Ordinary Time A • Who do you say He is?

 

Preparing for today...
I started thinking about names.
What names mean,
Why we are called certain names,
It brought me back to the time when Mary Jo and I
had the privilege of naming our children...
Most parents take naming their kids seriously...
There are plenty of resources to help.
I got thousands of hits
when I Googled 'naming your baby' on the computer
There's the Official Baby Name website
The 'How To Choose The Right Name For Your Baby' website
One website mentioned that there are over 50,000 names
in the English language to choose from.
Naming someone is a great honor,
but it's kind of scary too
After all, that person will be called that name forever.
My birth name is Gerald James
Gerald is an old German name
meaning "brave spear carrier"
James is of Hebrew origin
and means one who takes the place of another by force
So I guess my two names
in a violent way go together
If I asked you Who do you say I am?
Some of you would say Gerald or Gerry
others Deacon Gerry, OR just Deacon
or Deac, some might call me by my last name
Mattingly or Deacon Mattingly...
I might even be able to learn something
about what you think of me..
by the name you call me.
So in today's Gospel
when Jesus asks
Who do you say I am?”
He could tell what the disciples thought of him
by the name they called Him...
They had a lot of names to choose from.
Jesus is referred to by
256 different names in the Bible
They could have called him Immanuel, God with us...
Jesus of Nazareth,
Jesus, son of Joseph, or son of Mary.
Son of Man, the gate, the bread of life,
Alpha and Omega, the Great High Priest,
or the Lamb of God,
How they answer tells Jesus,
and US, a lot about their faith...
The only disciple who speaks up is Peter
He answers
"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus replies,
"Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood
has not revealed this to you,
but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of the netherworld
shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Peter gives the right answer for a change
He wins the prize
How would we answer that question today?
Nearly everyone has an opinion on who Jesus is.
If you are an atheist
you might say Jesus was a good teacher,
A man who had high morals, but that's it.
If you are Jewish you would say that
Jesus was NOT the Messiah.
If you are Muslim
then you see Jesus as one of the Great Prophets
but not God.
And if you are a child you might think of Jesus
as another Santa Claus
You talk to him and he gives you stuff.
If you were face to face with Jesus today and he asked,
“Who do you say I am,”
how would you answer that question. Your answer might say a lot
about the state of your faith and soul.
Would you say...you are Jesus Christ...you are Lord
and if we did...
What does that mean anyway?
Jesus is his human name.
He's 100% human.
Christ is his divine name,
THE Christ, as Peter puts it,
names Jesus as 100% God.
And Lord means we've
committed ourselves 100% to him
That's what makes us Christians
different than any other religion in the world
Believing Jesus Christ is Lord
is not simply adhering to a set of moral standards
or grasping a set of great ideas that He taught...
It's deciding to walk hand in hand with our Savior.
It's a journey. It's a relationship.
Sometimes, People are hesitant and afraid
to give the answer Peter gives.
If Jesus Christ is Lord,
if he's the Messiah,
the Son of the living God,
Then everything he said's true.
The way he told us to live,
The way he told us he'll always be with us,
The way he died for our sins
It's all true.
That's a scary reality to live with...
Because if we admit that Jesus Christ is Lord...
than everything in our life has to change.
One preacher said that
“Real change happens in our lives
when the God we thought was our enemy to be feared
is really our friend to be loved.........
So if today Jesus asked“Who do you say I am?”
What would your answer be?
You have plenty of names to choose from...........
but they all point to the answer Peter gave
“Jesus, you are the Christ,
the Son of the Living God.”
How are we living with the reality
that Jesus Christ indeed IS Lord of our lives?

Deacon Gerry