This summer when you have come to church and you hear us proclaiming the Gospel, Jesus is telling parables and healing people and working with his disciples. Now, everything is going to change. Because both Peter, in the name of the disciples, and Jesus have developed their relationship. Peter says tonight that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And now Jesus will act more decisively. Come back next week and you will hear.
But we do not have to wait until next week to put into action tonight’s Gospel. Whenever we fully express our identity in relationship, the mission also becomes clarified. In any important and living relationship — with our spouse, our children, our God — the relationship is dynamic and always changing a little bit.
So who is God for you today? Who do you say Jesus is for you? Your answer about their identity will give you a clarified mission, too.
We can make a big claim in a relationship: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” “You are my wife,” “You are my child.” But the proof of that is in our actions. Day to day, little by little, we see in our actions our relationship with this God or special person. Hopefully, our claims and our actions will be in harmony.