August 27, 2017
Sermon: Taking Sides
But.. “who do you say that I am”?
This was Jesus’ question to Peter at Caesarea Philippi.
The city of Caesarea Philippi was built by Herod the Great and named after the Roman Emperor: Caesar Augustus.
This place which highlights the epitome of Roman ideology becomes the birthplace of Jesus’ Messianic Identity.
On the foreground of this scene Peter is faced with the question that Christians have been wrestling since the day Jesus showed up.
While in the background the monuments and pillars representing violence, hate and oppression tower over them.
The Gospel of Matthew was written on the heels of devastation.
Matthew wrote in the latter part of the 1st Century, around the year 80AD.
This Gospel comes to us post-war, not long after the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of their Roman oppressors.
The post-war community that Matthew was writing to; no doubt felt the struggle of trying to discern who Jesus was to them in the face of destruction, violence, hate and oppression.
When Jesus asks his disciples “who do you say that I am”, the Greek(the original language) is written in an imperfect tense, this indicates that it’s not fixed in the past tense(Matt. 16:15) (
This suggests that the Gospel writer intended Jesus’ question to be open and ongoing. It’s not a one-time thing.
It follows then, that for all time Jesus is standing before us asking us:Who do you say that I am?
The fact that Jesus asks Peter this question is interesting.
I mean could Peter (at least at this point) really have any idea what he was saying by declaring Jesus the Messiah?
Part of me kind of thinks maybe Peter was just telling him what he wanted to hear.
I mean if Jesus walked up to me right now and said – who do you say that I am?
I would be like umm ya ..your the messiah.
Like who wants to let Jesus down right??!!
It’s great that Peter gets the right answer but what why is Jesus asking and what does it mean to declare Jesus the Messiah?
We can never know if Peter said that statement with purpose and clarity or if he was just simply telling Jesus what he wanted to hear, but in the end I think perhaps what Jesus knew is that it didn’t matter!
Peter was certainly going to be thinking about it now!
See, what we think and what we believe matters!
It matters because our beliefs and our thoughts are formative, they shape who we are and how we impact the world around us.
Whether we are conscious of it or not what we think and what we believe will ultimately manifest into actions.
I think this is what Jesus was interested in ultimately;stirring us into discerning thoughtfulness moulding and shaping who we will become in the world.
Over the past few weeks I have been thinking a lot about these recent white supremacist demonstrations.
I seem to oscillate between anger, frustration, broken-hearted-ness, sorrow and then back to anger!
Then there is the utter shock and disbelief, which usually meets self-criticism for even being shocked in the first place.
Because white supremacist ideology is everywhere, we as Canadians are not exempt.
It can be really hard as Christians to know how to respond.
We’re not supposed to hate but it’s hard to love people whose ideology hurts and oppresses others.
We don’t support racism but we don’t want to go around shaming ourselves for being white either.
We pray forpeace yet the fire of outrage burns inside.
I think perhaps if us regular white people were to be brutally honest ..somewhere in our deep dark recesses, the thought has surfaced at one point or another: I am sure glad I am white.
The unfortunate by-product of complex and messy issues such as racism is paralysis.
It’s the inaction that results from our silent internal protest that creates rage but unfortunately no outward momentum to carry that rage into productive avenues of change.
Christians of European descent depict for us a White Jesus.
How many of us grew up thinking Jesus was white??
I did.
Christians of various cultures and ethnicities of course want Jesus on their side so of course over the course of history for Europeans, Jesus became white.
Jesus was not white.
Martin Luther King Jr. wrote:
"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens' Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice” (
Martin Luther King’s fear lay with the silent moderate white person much more than that of the KKK.
I think sometimes as Christians we tend to shy away from taking sides.
Taking sides tends to feel unnatural because it creates divisions.
But let’s remember Jesus took sides. Jesus took the side of Justice even over peace.
Jesus represents what is possible.
Jesus healed rather than succumb to the presence of disease.
Where Jesus found people hungry he fed rather than giving into the impossibility of change.
Jesus refused to be limited by the status quo and worked not for peace but for Justice.
When Jesus stands before us and says: Who do you say that I am”? He is asking us not so much to declare who he is – but who we are!
In the ultimate sense who we declare Jesus to be is who we will become.
So, who will we be when faced with destruction, violence, hatred and oppression?
This is what Jesus wants to know.
Well, I am angry!
WWII is an example of the World declaring with ONE voice …Nazi ideology is unacceptable. And here we are images of swastikas flying over the media.
I am angry.
I am angry that our current Political Climate in both Canada and the US is breathing new life into the evils of racism.
I am angry that my European roots created a white Jesus
I am inviting you to be angry too.
But more than that … I am inviting you to take sides!
Hate Speech gets all muddled up and covered up by assertion of Free Speech.
So I would like to make it very clear that Hate Speech is NOT Free Speech!
When Nazi ideology and images of swastikas fly we had better lay down our peaceful prayers of neutrality and get down-right divisive.
We better take a side, like Jesus lets work for Justice over peace.
Because in the end, in the words of Elie Wiesel (Author and Nazi Concentration Camp Survivor):
“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented” (
When Jesus asks me what it means to be a Christian in the 21st century. I am going to say:
It means I will take the side of Justice in the face hatred and oppression.
It means I will not be silent.
It means that even though I may not be able to evoke change on my own. I will exercise active resistance by taking a side; and
I will work for Justice over peace!
Amen.
Rev. Jenn Hind