If you are a parent of school-age children, then by now you have probably settled into your back-to-school morning routines.  I don’t know about you, but as much as I love the slower pace of the summer months, I am glad to be back into a regular routine; there is something comforting about the rituals and familiar patterns of the school year. 

 

We may have many different rituals which go with many different events and special times, and such rituals can sustain and give shape to our lives.  They can provide meaning and direct us toward a deeper awareness and understanding of who we are and what’s important in our lives.  And our rituals can renew and deepen our relationships.

 

Of course, rituals may change over the years and be replaced with new ones.  I cherished the mother-daughter chats Lizzy and I had every morning when I used to drive her to school.  Now she drives herself to school.

 

And I used to exchange “I love you” good-byes with Ian as his school bus pulled away.  Not anymore.  In a brand-new ritual, he now puts on his size 9 men’s running shoes and accompanies me to the Y every morning before school to work out on the treadmill in preparation for his black belt test.

 

Well, rituals may change, but one that has stayed the same for Christians is Sunday morning worship – coming together as a community in Jesus’ name to be the church, the body of Christ.  The most important and meaningful ritual in my life is the practice of getting up on Sunday mornings and coming here.  This is the place, and you are the people, around which my spiritual week revolves.  If I can’t be here with you on Sunday morning, then something is missing out of my week.  And I hope you feel the same – that being in this place, with all of us, is important to you and that when you can’t be here, something is missing out of your week.  For this is the time we come together as a family of faith; this is the time we renew and deepen our relationships – with each other, and with our God.

 

But we are in a minority.  Although 40% of American Protestants claim to attend church regularly,[1] a 1998 study showed that the percentage is really only about 20%.[2]  We are living in a society in which religious observance competes with secular activities, especially on Sunday mornings.  And the question for us is -- how can the Christian church survive in such an age?  How can we proclaim our faith and the Good News of the Gospel when our culture values power and money above all else? 

 

As we were commissioning our Sunday school teachers last week, you heard me say yet again that the Christian faith is always only one generation away from extinction.  And I make that statement repeatedly because in every age the Gospel is threatened and in every age Christians are called to respond with renewed commitment to the one we call the Christ.

 

Two thousand years ago, a little band of people followed a charismatic preacher who was doing things that made people sit up and take notice: healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead.  And a lot of people didn’t quite know what to make of him.  There were some who thought he must be insane, or an enemy of the nation, or an instrument of the devil.[3]  And certainly there were people who accused him of being a blasphemer, a glutton, and – rightly so -- a friend of tax collectors and sinners. 

 

In this morning’s Gospel lesson, there’s a lot of speculation going around about who Jesus is and so he asks his disciples: "Who do people say I am?"  But when the disciples answer, they don’t give him the whole story.  They pass over the ugly criticisms that have been said and tell him only the complimentary things they have heard -- that there are people who have been so impressed by his fiery earnestness that they think Jesus might be John the Baptist come back from the dead; that others have felt his rugged strength and have called him Elijah, come again to proclaim the New Age.

 

And then Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”  And because Jesus has promised to be wherever two or three are gathered in his name, we know that he is here right now, and he asks each one of us, “Who do you say that I am?” 

 

When Jesus asks his disciples that question, Peter -- never one to be shy or hesitant -- answers Jesus’ question with, “You are the Messiah!” 

 

But now, as was true then, some people won’t go that far; they will say Jesus was a great teacher, a social reformer, a political activist, but that’s it.  Some will say he was a prophet, a miracle worker, the greatest man that ever lived – but still only a man.  Jesus asks each one of us, “Who do you say that I am?”  What say you?

 

It's the beginning of a new church year and a new season in the life of this body of Christ.  And it’s a time for all of us to consider: how shall Christ be embodied in the life of this family of faith?  But first we must determine what Christ means to us, as individuals and as a community.  Because how we answer will determine whether we are willing to follow him, to abide by his commandments, be his church.

 

If we answer like Peter, proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah and that we are Christians, then we are also making the pledge to follow him.  And following Jesus means being committed to being a Christian community – a community that is drawn together in the shared experience of our baptism.  Today, we have had the joy of baptizing little Cole.  And baptism is the first common experience of Christians. 

 

We might have idealized notions that being a “community” means everyone gets along and likes each other.  But a Christian community is not a group of individuals who think alike and act alike and look alike.  Rather, it is a place in which – drawn together by our common baptism -- we are willing to give ourselves over to the Holy Spirit by learning how to live and work with people we may not like at all.[4]

 

Those who originally followed Jesus built up such a community.  And that is the kind of community that Jesus calls us to be – a place where we see his image in our neighbor and in the person sitting in the pew next to us; a place where others can recognize him in us; a community of encouragement and healing; a place of reconciliation and forgiveness where we build each other up, not tear each other down.  Our new mission statement describes such a community:  “We are a Christ-centered family of God, reaching out to all in holy love and service; welcoming all who seek God’s love and grace; journeying together in faith, mission, and spiritual growth, and building up the body of Christ, the church local and universal.”

 

To follow Jesus means being a community in which we focus not on our individual interests or desires, but on the health and well-being of the whole.  A community in Jesus’ name is where we replace our need for control with trust; our cynicism with hopefulness; our hurtful behaviors with graciousness and kindness. 

 

“Who do you say that I am?”  Jesus asks us, both individually and as a Christian community of faith, whether we are willing to follow him, willing to live out his commandments by loving one another, by supporting and understanding one another, and in sharing a vision as a community of faith? 

 

“Who do you say that I am?”  What say you?  May each of us be willing to claim through our words, our deeds, our relationships, our very lives, that we are a community that is willing to follow Jesus.  May we each be able to answer Jesus with Peter’s bold assurance, “You are the Messiah!”  Amen.

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