(All our songs this morning are from Singing the Faith (StF) numbers will be given where available)
Welcome to our Sunday Service, this week comes courtesy of The Vine at Home and Twelve Baskets
Click on the blue links to follow them for bible readings and associated links
Opening Prayers
God is everywhere,
In this space and all spaces,
In this time and all times.
God is waiting to meet you and is ready to welcome you,
Just as it has been for all eternity.
So be still.
Pause
Get ready to notice the spirit working,
Through words on the page,
Through sounds around you,
Through familiar and unfamiliar smells,
Through all that you see when you look up from what you are reading,
Through the touch of your hands as you hold them together to pray.
So be still.
Pause
If you feel able speak aloud the following words,
God of all time and space I notice you here,
I am ready.
Amen.
You may now wish to say the Lord’s Prayer in a version or translation with which
you are familiar.
Reading:
Matthew 16:13-20
Responding to the reading
Jesus asks his disciples a simple question: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
The answers come quickly: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets.
People have opinions about Jesus. They always have. Some see a wise teacher. Some a
revolutionary. Some a healer. Some a moral example. Some the Son of God.
Then Jesus asks a second question: “But who do you say that I am?”
Everything becomes quieter. The conversation is no longer about public opinion or
theological debate. It becomes deeply personal.
Peter answers: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus blesses him, not because Peter has worked it all out, but because this insight is
itself a gift of grace. Yet what is striking is what happens next. The very same Peter who recognises Jesus so clearly will, only a few verses later, misunderstand him completely.
Later still, he will deny even knowing him.
Peter is capable of profound faith and profound failure, and Jesus calls him anyway.
Perhaps that is one of the most hopeful truths in this passage: discipleship is not about
achieving perfect understanding. Even Peter, the rock on whom Jesus says he will build
his community, spends much of the Gospel getting things wrong.
Faith is less about certainty than about relationship. What about us? How do we hear this
conversation today?
Jesus is not saying: ‘can you explain every doctrine?’ or ‘can you defend every belief?’, but
“Who do you say that I am?”
Our answer may change as we grow, or depending on the kind of week we have had. The
Christ we encountered as a child may not be the Christ we encounter in grief, or joy, or old
age. Our understanding deepens. Questions emerge. Certainties soften. Love expands.
That is not a sign that faith is failing, but it may be a sign that faith is maturing. Jesus does
not ask us to stop asking questions. Instead, he invites us into a lifelong conversation.
Each stage of life brings us back to the same question, but with new experiences, new
wisdom, and new humility.
Who is Christ for you today? The one who comforts? The one who challenges? The one
who walks beside you? The one who overturns your assumptions?
Perhaps the answer is all of these, and more. And perhaps what matters most is not
having the perfect answer, but remaining willing to keep asking the question. So today,
reflect on this: —
- If Jesus asked you today, “Who do you say that I am?”, how might you answer?
- How has your understanding of Christ changed over the years?
- What might God be revealing to you now that you could not have understood ten
- years ago?
The journey of discipleship is not about arriving at complete certainty. It is about continuing
to walk with Christ, allowing our hearts, minds, and lives to be shaped by the One who is
always greater than our understanding.
May you have the courage to keep asking honest questions, the humility to keep growing
in faith, and the joy of discovering Christ anew in every season of your life. May the grace
that first called Peter continue to call you—again and again—into a deeper relationship
with the living God.
Song – STF 552 – Here am I, Lord
Blessing
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
May I step out into a world full of abuses of power and posturing about strength,
And turn to you, for a different model of leadership, an alternative conversation about
power, a commitment to peace, always.
Help me to follow in your way, this week, by the love in your Spirit I pray
Amen.
