Matthew 16:13-20 (Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that Son of Man is? Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus then calls Peter a rock, because he is going to build the church on that rock.)

When we call on Jesus as Christ, the Son of God, God builds the Church on us.

When we start high school or college, very often we are assigned books to learn from. And our teachers will give us questions, which we are supposed to ask of our books, like "What is this book about? When was it written and for what audience? What are its main points. How does it back up those points?"

This is a good way to learn. But you and I know that the best books, the books we learn the most from, are the ones that ask us questions. "What would you do in that situation? What is my purpose in life? What is my calling in the world?"

It's the same when we come to church. I said last week that the church is a good place to ask questions. We may not always have the answers, beyond the One Answer which always leads to mystery and eternity and can never be fully understood, the infinite love of God. Church is a good place to ask questions.

But you and I know that the days when things work well, the days when we can see the realm of God breaking into the present time, are the days when, in addition to us asking questions of the church, the church asks questions of us, like "Who do you say that I am?" And "How is your life different from the way it would be otherwise because of it?" And "What are you going to do about it?"

In the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus asks his disciples: "Who do you say that I am?" Peter answers "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." I want to stop for a moment to think about what a wild thing Peter has just said. He says, "You are the Messiah," literally the Anointed one. To understand this, I think we need to look at who Jesus is talking to. Jesus' people were living under a Roman occupation force. The possibility of starvation struck them on a regular basis, not because of drought or plague, but because of the pressure of the Roman economic system. Every once in a while you would be walking down the road and you would see somebody hanging from a cross. This was someone who had spoken up too loudly against the Romans. It took them two or three days to die. They would drown in their own bodily fluids.

The Messiah was going to put an end to that. He was going to lead a righteous army to drive off the Romans and bring a rule of justice and peace.

Now, Peter is saying that Jesus is the way of freedom. Jesus is the way to overthrow oppression. And remember, Peter may have been wavery in his faith, we heard about that a couple of weeks ago. And he may not have had a formal education. But Peter was not stupid. He had been around Jesus for a good long time now. He had heard what Jesus said and seen what Jesus does.

He had heard Jesus say, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. He had heard Jesus attend to the people around him who were weakest, not strongest. Jesus says to make our internal attitude match the behavior God expects on the outside. Jesus says to give without expecting anything in return (again, this is in a society where everyone is close to poverty). Jesus says to take what little we have, give thanks for it and share it.

This is the way of freedom. This is the way to overthrow oppression.

Not only that, Jesus is "Son of the living God." Loving enemies and attending to those who are weak is not only the way to overthrow oppression, it is the essence of freedom. When the son of a family went to another village in Jesus' day, then whatever that village did to the son, they did to the whole family. If they honored the son and showed him hospitality, they honored the father and mother. If they struck the son in the face, it was as if they had struck the father and mother in the face. The son was the embodiment, the physical presence of the family in that other village.

So Jesus is the physical presence of God on the earth. And if Jesus is this way, calling us to love our enemies and to live with personal integrity, then God is that way too. "You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

Who do you say that I am?

And what difference does it make? How are things different than they would have been otherwise?

Here's how Peter is different. Jesus says to him, " I will name you "Rock" and on this rock I will build my church." The word for church in Greek is ekklesia, called out people.

That's what happens when we call on Jesus as Lord, when we say with Peter, "You are the messiah, the son of God." When we say such a radical and shocking thing, that the foundation of existence blesses the most insignificant of us, and requires us to do the same, then Jesus makes us into rocks, builds the church, the called out people on us.

Very often when I ask people to be leaders or teach in our education hour and so on, they say "I don't feel I know enough about the Bible, I don't think my life is holy enough. I'm terribly sorry, unworthiness does not disqualify us from service. God does not call those who are equipped. God equips those who are called.

Peter, for example, wavers in his faith sometimes. We heard about that last week. He doesn't fully understand what Jesus is saying here, and eventually he pretends he doesn't' even know Jesus. Sometimes we act or speak as if we didn't even know Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus still makes Peter the "Rock," as well as us too.

And what are you going to do about it? Peter ends up working as a leader in the church until he is martyred for it. What do we do? Many, many stories come into my mind, but I can't tell you because they're private. As you all tell me your struggles, efforts to live according to God's love, I hear stories of courage, of heroism. We all try to serve Jesus in our lives.

And what are we going to do about it at church? Well, here's what's going on this fall. We are increasing our ministry with students at EKU and Berea College. Thursday Sept. 4 we'll be at Citifest on EKU campus with a baggie of cookies attached to our refrigerator magnet, and a slip of paper saying "A taste of home, a taste of faith," and an invitation to church. We'll be doing the same thing at Berea College Sept. 7.

"Who do you say that I am?" "How is your life different than it would have been otherwise?" "What are you going to do about it?"

Jesus is the Messiah, Son of the Living God. We are rocks, whether we like it or not. We try to work with God's Spirit as it takes moments of the coming realm of God and brings them into this time, these days.