2026-08-20
Brooke Strong
Who Do You Say That I Am?
Thursday, August 20, 2026
The Federated Church of Chagrin Falls
There are questions we answer because someone wants information: What time does worship begin? Where is the church? What does this word mean?
And then there are questions whose answers ask something of us. This Sunday, Jesus asks his disciples one of those questions: “Who do you say that I am?”
Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
It is one of the great confessions of Christian faith. But what happens next may be just as important.
Jesus answers Peter’s confession with a calling. “You are Peter,” Jesus tells him, “and on this rock I will build my church.”
In other words, recognizing Christ changes the question of who we are.
Jesus does not gather disciples merely to give them the right answers. He gathers them into a people. He entrusts them with responsibility. He gives them the “keys of the kingdom” and tells them that what they bind and loose on earth matters.
That is an extraordinary amount of trust to place in ordinary human beings.
Or maybe it is extra-ordinary.
Because Jesus seems remarkably interested in ordinary things: bread and water, seeds and soil, meals and tables, neighbors and strangers, words spoken and promises kept. Again and again, the kingdom of heaven takes flesh in the ordinary stuff of human life.
Perhaps the Church does too.
Over these past several weeks, we have watched seeds take root, tended what was growing, looked for fruit, and asked what gifts God has already placed in our hands. We have wondered what might happen when those gifts become nourishment for somebody else.
Last Sunday, we encountered a Canaanite woman whose persistence challenged familiar boundaries and invited us to imagine a widening mercy. This week, Jesus asks us to imagine what all those ordinary lives and ordinary gifts might become together.
The Greek word Matthew uses for “church” is ekklesia: an assembly, a people gathered together. Church is not primarily something we attend; it is something God is making of us.
With every ride given. Every meal delivered.
The prayers offered, cards written.
Every child that is welcomed.
Every stranger that becomes a neighbor.
Every moment at table where people discover that they belong to one another.
As every nothing-particularly-spectacular thing gets bound together, these ordinary acts begin to take on extraordinary significance. Little by little, decision by decision, relationship by relationship, love takes flesh.
And maybe that is why Jesus’ question still matters: “Who do you say that I am?” Because our answer is not finally something we say only with our mouths. Incarnation isn’t just an interesting thought, as though it were the answer to a trivia question.
The Word becoming flesh isn’t something we merely believe. In the ordinary of our everyday lives, we give the Word flesh.
Read Before Sunday
Matthew 16:13–20
Questions for Reflection
- When Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” how would you answer?
- What might Jesus mean when he says, “I will build my church”?
- Where have you seen something extra-ordinary—an ordinary act through which love became visible?
I look forward to gathering with you around the Word this Sunday.
Yours in the Extra-ordinary Grace of God,
Pastor Michael
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