13th Sunday after Pentecost – The Rev. Mark S. Winward MDiv, ThM
Proper 16A
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed…” – Romans 12:2
Souvenir Religion
A few years ago, while my wife and I were browsing a local bookstore, a title immediately caught my eye. Its cover featured a blue T-shirt bearing a typical tourist-style image of a sailboat. Circling the image was the slogan that couldn’t help but make me chuckle: “I became a Christian, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.” Written by Vince Antonucci, the book’s subtitle explains its central message: Replacing Souvenir Religion with Authentic Spiritual Passion.
A souvenir tells people where we have been. Christian faith, however, is not merely a souvenir we carry or a label we wear. It is the mercy of God renewing our minds, joining us to Christ’s body, and turning our lives into an offering of love.
Authentic Faith
Authentic faith is the theme I would like us to consider in today’s New Testament readings. A preacher might approach these passages in one of two ways. The first would be to focus on personal faith. In the Gospel, Peter voices the full and decisive confession on which Matthew’s account now turns, proclaiming that Jesus is not only the long-awaited Messiah but also the Son of the living God. In the Epistle, taken from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Paul urges his readers not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by God.
The second approach would be to focus on the Church. In the Gospel, Jesus promises to build his Church—Church with a capital “C”—and gives Peter a foundational role within it. In Romans, Paul concludes today’s passage by describing the different gifts believers exercise as members of one body. In practice, these two approaches can lead to opposing extremes: a Christianity that emphasizes personal faith at the expense of participation in the Church, or a Christianity that focuses on the institution of the Church at the expense of personal faith.
Focusing exclusively on either personal faith or the Church amounts to little more than “souvenir religion,” falling short of authentic spiritual faith. A personal faith that never looks beyond itself can shrink into spiritual self-absorption, while merely going through the motions in church without true conviction becomes the kind of empty religious performance against which Jesus repeatedly warns. Authentic spiritual faith begins with a genuine reorientation of the heart—one that inevitably makes a difference in both our worship and our work in the world.
Peter, got it…
Peter’s confession marks a decisive turning point. In today’s Gospel, we witness an awakening to the truth of who Jesus really is. The scene unfolds in the region of Caesarea Philippi, in the far north, at the foot of Mount Hermon. It was a predominantly Gentile area and an important center of pagan worship, associated particularly with the god Pan and with Roman imperial power. It is worth noting that Jesus asks his disciples about his identity in this particular place—a place filled with competing claims about divine and political power. Here Peter confesses that the true Messiah and Son of the living God is standing among them.
Jesus certainly had followers before this moment, but Peter now brings together the titles “Messiah” and “Son of the living God” in a full and explicit confession of faith. Whenever I hear this passage, I imagine a moment of silence before Peter summons the courage to say, “No, you’re not merely one of the prophets. You’re—you’re the Christ, the Messiah. You’re the Son of God!”
The Greek title Christos translates the Hebrew word for “anointed one.” To many Jewish people suffering under Roman occupation, the Anointed One was closely associated with David, the anointed king whose throne had been promised an everlasting reign of peace and blessing. Peter, however, goes even further. He declares that Jesus is “the Son of the living God.” There, in a city historically associated with the worship of gods such as Baal and Pan, as well as the Roman emperor, Peter makes the astonishing claim that the Son of the living God is standing among them in the flesh.
More Than Saying “I Believe”
This extraordinary confession of faith was the first step toward authentic Christianity. But Christian faith is more than a label we wear or a set of words we recite. Peter’s confession still had to become a life. His convictions would later waver. On the night before Jesus’ death, Peter denied him three times. Ironically, at the very moment Peter’s faith failed, Jesus was preparing to sacrifice his life for Peter—and for each one of us.
Weeks later, after witnessing the risen Christ and being empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter would lead Jesus’ disciples in establishing a Church that would transform the world. In the end, Peter translated his faith into action and, according to Christian tradition, paid for that profession of faith with his life.
Being “Living Sacrifices”
Authentic faith cannot help but bear fruit. That is why James writes that “faith without works is dead.” An old Christian question asks: If being a Christian were a crime—as it has been in many places throughout history—would there be enough evidence to convict you? The question is not whether we have enough good works to earn God’s love. It is whether we respond to God’s love with good works visibily in the way we live.
Paul shows us what Peter’s confession looks like when it becomes woven into ordinary daily life. He calls us to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice.” Notice that Paul speaks of our “bodies.” He is not asking only for our thoughts, feelings, or religious intentions. He asks us to offer our whole embodied lives—our time, our abilities, our relationships, our work, and our possessions—to God.
Paul goes a step further by urging us to respond to God’s grace through action. He calls us to become “living sacrifices.” As Christians living under the new covenant, we no longer offer animal sacrifices as the ancient Israelites did. Instead, out of gratitude to God, we offer ourselves. During the time of the Jewish Temple, animals offered in sacrifice were carefully chosen. They were to be unblemished – the best the people had to offer – and then set apart for God’s purposes.
In Leviticus 11:44, God tells his people, “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy.” For someone or something to be holy means that it is set apart for God’s purposes. We, then, as God’s people and as living sacrifices, are set apart for God and his good purposes.
As a result, we are no longer to be shaped or conformed by the patterns of this age—by all that trains us in fear, contempt, self-interest, and indifference to our neighbors. Instead, we are transformed from within by the power of the Holy Spirit. Rather than being an escape from the world, this transformation is personal renewal for the sake of the world. Lived authentic Christianity, as opposed to souvenir Christianity, thus becomes an offering to God.
Paul immediately makes the communal dimension of that offering clear. “We, who are many, are one body in Christ,” he writes, “and individually we are members one of another.” Personal transformation draws us into a community in which our gifts are offered for the good of others. Some serve; some teach; some encourage; some give; some lead; and some show compassion. No Christian possesses every gift, and no Christian is meant to live the faith alone.
What This Means
This is a grace-centered way of understanding the Christian life. Authentic Christianity is not about closing our eyes, plugging our ears, and simply hoping that we will somehow be good. Sharing our faith, serving our neighbors, and doing good works in the world is our loving response to God’s mercy. We do not try to be good so that God will love us. Rather, we seek to do good because God already loves us.
The point is that authentic Christianity neither ends in the human heart nor stops at the church door. Churches sometimes become preoccupied with particular styles of worship, but true worship extends far beyond Sunday morning. It touches our hearts, transforms our lives, and lifts up our communities.
A transformed life serves when no one is watching, gives without seeking recognition, teaches with patience, encourages the discouraged, and shows mercy cheerfully. It refuses to conform to a culture of contempt and indifference. Instead, it seeks justice, promotes peace, and honors the dignity of every human person.
Authentic Christianity does not end with Peter’s words, “You are the Messiah,” and it does not stop at the church door. By the mercies of God, our confession becomes a living sacrifice: hands that serve, voices that speak truth, gifts that strengthen Christ’s body, and lives that seek justice, peace, and the dignity of every human person.
We do not offer ourselves so that God will love us. We offer ourselves because, in Christ, God already does. A souvenir t-shirt tells people where we have been. A transformed life shows where we are and where we are going. Amen.