Sermon for Sunday 23rd August 2026, Trinity 12

Rev Mark Payne

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FIRST READING

Romans 12.1-8

 

The New Life in Christ
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.

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3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgement, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.

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GOSPEL READING

Matthew 16.13-20

 

Peter’s Declaration about Jesus
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ 14 And they said, ‘Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’ 15 He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ 16 Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ 17 And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.’ 20 Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

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SERMON

Who do YOU say that I am?

Seven simple words, spoken by Jesus to his disciples, that presented a huge challenge to them and still carry that same challenge for us today.

Who do YOU say that I am?

I am part of the generation that grew up without things like social media, smart phones or any sort of internet access at all. I wonder if the children among us can imagine such a world! I am also part of a generation that has bridged this largely tech free world and the world which we inhabit today. Being part of that generation and having a background in IT, I often spend time wondering what benefits all the technology that has developed over the last few decades has brought us as well as worrying about the negative effects it has had, especially on my children.

Now, I don’t want this talk to just be a lament for the “good old days” or a simple bashing of things like social media and, more recently, AI. These technologies certainly have their place and there is no doubt that they have brought a multitude of benefits. For example, would we have been able to stay in touch as well as we did during the COVID lockdown without video conferencing? However, there is also no doubt that the rise of things like social media has also had some negative effects, and one that strikes me is the gradual erosion of people’s sense of freedom to truly form their own opinions, caused by the constant bombardment of online opinions from very persuasive people. There is a reason they are called influencers!

In my childhood and early adulthood, there were basically 3 places where I got other people’s opinions from. The TV (and remember there were only 4 channels back then), the newspapers and our friends and family. Adopting a certain stance on a matter did not carry as much pressure as it does now. Unless you were a media figure, the only people who were likely to know your opinions were your friends and family. This is not to say that taking controversial or difficult stands for unpopular opinions was easy or straightforward in the 1980s and 1990s, however I think that, for most people, the consequence of doing so was limited. 

Now, compare that to today. We, and especially our children, are bombarded by different opinions from people that have taken positions of authority in our lives. I am sure that if we tried, it would not take us long to find someone online who was advocating for any sort of opinion you care to name. Then, when we side with one or another, perhaps simply by liking a post, that information is available to hundreds, if not thousands of people. Surely that causes us to feel more pressured than ever to go with the majority? And doesn’t that pressure mean that we are slowly delegating the forming of opinions to others?

Who do YOU say I am?

I would argue that Jesus’ question is actually even more challenging today than when he first posed it nearly 2000 years ago. Regardless of social media use or not, we live in a culture that has more information and more voices coming at us from every direction than ever before. This can be challenging to those who declare themselves as Christian, especially as I would suggest that our faith has not been helped by the constant scandals that we hear about. Now think about how that might affect someone new to the faith, unsure of what they believe.

As usual, Jesus’ words cut across what has the appearance of being important to what actually is important. He emphasizes this by first asking the disciples, “who do people say that the son of man is”. They answer him by giving the opinions of others. Immediately, Jesus fires back the more pointed question. 

But who do YOU say I am?

Jesus is not interested in the opinions of society at large. He wants to know what the disciples truly believe in their hearts. In this moment, one of the lessons Jesus is teaching us is that we must all form our own opinions of who he is, who his father is and who the Holy Spirit is. 

When Simon Peter answers, Jesus says to him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven”. Peter has weighed up all the evidence he has seen over the time he has spent with Jesus. He has been open to God speaking to him and the Holy Spirit working within him and has come to his own conclusion. Jesus is “the Messiah, the Son of the living God”. This eureka moment for Peter is so fundamental that Jesus declares that he will be the rock on which his church is built!

So, what does that mean for us? I think there are two practical things we can take away from our Gospel reading.

The first is that we should not be afraid to direct people to all the evidence of the love of God that we ourselves are lucky enough to have received on our own journeys of faith. We should give them the same opportunity that we have had to learn about God through Jesus and to open themselves to the Holy Spirit so that they can form their own opinion about who Jesus is. We should encourage them to block out the calls from society to conform to this or that position and empower them to establish their own beliefs and their own faith. And we can do so in confidence knowing that God will guide them through the Holy Spirit, though they may know nothing about it, and so bring them to understand that they are loved and cherished.

The second is that we should all have the courage to examine our own hearts. We too are not immune to the strong voice of others that might drag us away from our faith. We too must be open to the voice of God and to the working of the Holy Spirit within us. We should read or listen to God’s word in the Bible and then, I am sure, when Jesus asks us, “who do YOU say I am”, we will be able to answer with confidence, “you are my saviour”. 

But don’t just take my word for it. Go and find out for yourselves!

Let us pray:
Dear Lord,
In a world where people often value the conclusions of others instead of trusting their own opinions, send your spirit to guide us to your love, mercy and saving grace, made available to us through your son, our saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen.