Who do you say Jesus is? Who does Jesus say you are?
Revd Poppy Thorpe, Vicar of All Saints and St Frideswyde (ASSF), Crosby, home of the Open Table Sefton community, who preached at the Open Table Liverpool communion service on Sunday 17th September 2023.
An original altar frontal artwork designed by Buddhist artist Tony O’ Connell for the first Open Table community in Liverpool. When Poppy chose to preach on this Gospel reading, she didn’t know that this would be at the front of the communion table during the service. The celebration marked the start of Bisexual Awareness Week - The bisexual flag (with blue, purple and pink stripes, is draped around the lectern from where Poppy preached. PHOTO: Poppy Thorpe.
AT THE FIRST Open Table community in Liverpool this month, the communion service was led by Revd Poppy Thorpe, Vicar of All Saints and St Frideswyde (ASSF), Crosby, home of the Open Table Sefton community.
Poppy wrote on her blog about the service:
‘Open Table is one of my favourite bits about being Vicar at ASSF… I preached on a reading where Jesus asked the disciples “Who do you say I am?” But I also asked “Who does God say you are?” The truth is that God says we are created, chosen, forgiven, worthy, accepted and worth caring for! A good message, I think, especially given how badly The Church has treated some members of this community… It was a powerful and healing time for me.’
This is Poppy’s reflection:
I would like us to think about two questions:
Who do you say Jesus is?
Who does Jesus say you are?
In the reading [Matthew 16.13-20], Jesus asked the disciples: ‘who people say the Son of Man is?’
He asks his friends:
‘What’s everybody saying? ‘What’s the gossip? Who do they say I am?’
It was a question designed to provoke thought, but it also needed an answer.
You see, at that moment in time, at this point in the story, Jesus was not understood to be God’s messiah.
So the disciples throw some ideas around in response to Jesus’ question:
‘Well, Herod Antipas says that you might be John the Baptist resurrected’
‘Elijah, some say’
‘Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets of old, perhaps’
But then Jesus reframes the question:
‘Yes, but who do you say I am?’
Jesus moves from the general to the specific. Initially, he got them thinking about how people were reacting to him, what the crowds and politicians and religious leaders were saying, and then he asked:
‘But what about you? Who do you say that I am?’
Back in August, at Open Table Sefton, we were thinking about that passage where Peter walked on water [Matthew 14:22-33]. Do you remember the one? It’s where Peter got out of the boat, walked on the water and then started to sink. He made such a huge step of faith, but then a few seconds later, found himself sinking beneath the waves. As soon as he cried out, ‘Lord save me’, Jesus’s hand was there to pull him back up.
Peter was a person of such highs and lows. He has mountain top moments, but he also messes up a fair bit. Maybe some of us can empathise.
And in today’s reading, we see Peter at one of his highs. Because when Jesus asked the question:
‘Who do you say I am?’
it was Peter whose eyes were opened enough to say:
‘You are the Messiah, the son of the living God’.
In that moment, Peter glimpsed something of God’s plan. In that moment, even if later on he forgot and fluffed it up, in that moment, Peter had got it. Jesus is the son of God.
So, to think about the first question: who do you say he is?
Who do you say Jesus is?
You, in your heart.
Who do you say he is?
It’s not always an easy question to answer, is it?
Some days we may be full of faith and certainty, and other days we might wonder, what is the point?
Some days, we may feel God’s presence with us, and others it’s as if our prayers bounce off the ceiling straight back into our laps.
Our faith may look like Peter in the Gospels: highs and lows, highs and lows.
But when we need it, there is always one place we can turn to, to know God more, and to understand him better: the Bible.
If you are asking, have ever asked, or ever find yourself asking the question: ‘Who do I say Jesus is’, you can turn to this text. Because Peter says it loud and clear: Jesus is the son of the living God.
So, have a think about that question: who do you say He is?
God is interested in you, and your thoughts, and your heart.
But you might well be thinking, why? Why does God want to know what I think?
Well, that comes down to the second question today: who does God say you are?
Who does God say you are?
Again, for the answers, we can turn to the Bible.
In Romans [15:7], it says you are someone who is accepted by Christ.
So when the world says that you don’t belong, or you feel left out or forgotten, God says ‘no, you are accepted’.
In Ephesians [4:32], God says that you are a person who is forgiven. There is not a thing you can do in this world that God cannot forgive. God’s love covers all things.
Who does God say you are? He says you are a person who is forgiven.
Also in Romans [12:5], it says that we are part of Christ’s body. That means that each of us is needed to make up the whole Church.
Who does God say you are? He says you are part of Christ’s body.
In Psalm 139, we are told that we are each of us, everyone, is fearfully and wonderful made, because he knitted us together before we were born.
Who does God say you are?
He says you were made by him, very much on purpose.
In Paul’s second letter to the Thessolonians [2:16-17], it says that we have a Father who loves us, comforts us, gives us hope, strengthens and encourages us.
When the world around you tells you that you aren’t worth bothering with, who does God say you are?
He says that you are someone who is worth loving, comforting, strengthening and encouraging.
And above all, God says that you are somebody who is worth dying for.
For the chance of a relationship with you, God sent his only son to die, so that our sins can be forgiven, and that we can live in freedom.
So, who do you say he is?
I hope that on your better days, you can be like Peter, proudly proclaiming that he is the messiah, the Son of the living God.
And who does he say you are?
I hope than on your worst days, in times when you struggle in your heart, in your faith, in your life, in the world, I hope you will remember all those things that God says about you in the Bible:
You are forgiven
You are accepted
You are part of his body
You were made for a reason
You are worth comforting, strengthening and encouraging.
