I am in the fortunate position of having dual citizenship of both Australia and the United Kingdom. It means that I can always support the winning Ashes side and it probably has some other benefits as well. I always feel a bit like Jason Bourne when I travel as I can decide which passport I want to use. But when you think about it, the passport is an amazingly important document. We use it to travel of course, but we also use it as proof of our identity. When it is necessary to show others who we, the passport does this perfectly. Yet the question of who we are is an important one as our identity is the very core of our being, it is who we understand ourselves to be.
The question of identities is very much to the fore in our two readings today. In the gospel reading, Jesus asks the disciples who they think He is. Simon replies that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. In response, Jesus tells Simon that he also has a new identity, that of Peter. This new identity allows Peter to take up his role as leader of the early church. This new assembly, the church, will be built on the basis of the confession that Jesus is the Messiah. And it is the identity of those who make up the church that occupies our second reading, that of Paul’s letter to the Romans. There Paul encourages members of the church not to be shaped by the world, but to be shaped by God, and to live in the way that God calls us to live.
When we confess that Jesus is Lord, we assume a new identity. We stop being citizens of the world and start being citizens of the Kingdom. We change how we see the world because we’ve seen how it is meant to be in the life, ministry and mission of Jesus Christ. We become humble servants of all, not masters of anyone. We care for the least, we share our resources and we love all we meet because that is how Jesus behaved and calls those who profess to follow Him to do the same. It’s completely different to how the world thinks, but it is how God thinks and it involves us completely changing how we think. We have to unlearn all the world’s ways and learn God’s ways. We don’t get a document to prove we are kingdom residents; it is shown in how we live. May our lives and how we show love, prove our identities as people of the King.