Tell me he said pointing into the room, "what is it that you believe in there?"

I started to answer him and then realized that I did not know how to put it into words. I stood there with all sorts of thoughts racing through my mind he said, "Never mind, I didn't mean to bother you," and he walked away.

The truth of the matter is, he did bother me. Why do I go to church, why is it I study the Bible, and what is it that I believe? Should I have recited the Nicene Creed memorized for confirmation? That is not the sort of answer you give to someone in the halls of school, even if you think they might stick around until you are finished. That Jesus is Lord? Sure, but what does that mean to your average person on the sidewalk? That in spite of all the evidence to the contrary the world is in God's hands? Says who? So what? What is it that we believe? How would you answer?

In today's Gospel, Jesus himself is the man on the sidewalk, the one who asks the question about what it all means, about what he means. He and his disciples have just come into the district of Caesara Philippi trailing miracles behind them: the feeding of the five thousand, the calming of the stormy sea, the curing of the Cannanite woman's daughter, among many others.

"And then there was that day at Caesarea Philippi, after about two-thirds of Matthew's gospel had been done, when Jesus turned to his disciples and asked,

You rub elbows with people. You get out and about, "Who do people say that I am?"

Immediately they all start shouting out answers.

"Some say that you are John the Baptist."

Another, "A lot of people say that you might be one of the prophets come back from the dead."

Who do men say that I am?" And they are relieved for this is a question that they have answers to.

Becomes a bit of a game...

On and on come the answers. They are like children in a classroom when the teacher asks, "When did Columbus discover America?" And the hands go up.

"Who was the first president?" The hands go up. "Me, me, let me answer," they all say.

"Explain the Second Law of Thermodynamics and why it is under increasing scrutiny." "I know it, I know it!" they all scream.

But that Jesus. Like any good rabbi he follows up a question with a question. The disciples were waiting to be told what the right answer was and Jesus gives them another question, a harder question.

You can almost see their faces when Jesus turns the question back on them. "But who do you say that I am?" he asks them, they who are his nearest and dearest, they who are his own, they who have received that best he has to offer. Who do YOU say I am? What is it that you believe in there?

The hands went down, and they began to fiddle with their feet in the sand. Speak up now; I don't care what nine out of ten average Americans think. I want to hear what you think about me.

I imagine that there was a good deal of silence following the question. Many toes were inspected, Dirt was moved by sandles. Who knows how long the silence lasts before Peter breaks it with his answer. "You are the Christ, the son of the living God."

Peter spoke up.

Thanks goodness for Peter! Right or wrong, he is always the first one out of the gate, the first one to leave his fish nets and follow Jesus, the first one out of the boat to walk on water, the first to volunteer his opinion on any topic. Sometimes it is hard to say whether he is courageous or just plain reckless, but in any case his answer is apparently the one Jesus is looking for, because in one fell swoop Jesus pronounces Peter blessed, the rock upon which the church will be built, and the inheritor of the keys to kingdom of heaven.

Peter made a public declaration. Sort of makes you want to have your own answer ready doesn't it.

I still think about things I have said, things I have said in public. The things we say in public are really important, and I spend a lot of time thinking about them. Once I said in front of a bunch of boys and men, "On my honor I will do my duty to God and my country."

Once in court I was scared spitless when a fellow came up to me and stuck out a Bible and said, "Put your left hand here and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?" "Yes sir," I replied.

Lots of times I have said, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America." I have said that in front of people.

I remember a day, most frightened I have ever been in my life, "Will you have this woman to be your wife?" I finally found the words to say "I do."

Do you think about the things that you say publically afterwards? They just stay with you don't they? There is something about making a statement in public that makes it a kind of commitment. I said all those things in front of people.

But none of those things I have said in public, none of them, is as hard as saying, "I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God. And the first time I said those words I must confess that I did know all they mean. Since then I have come to understand they mean this: I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the one God sent. I believe that Jesus is the one we have been looking for. I believe that Jesus has come for us and for our salvation as an expression of the love of God. I believe that.

And the Son of the living God? Yes. I believe that. I do not know about the mechanics of divinity and things like that, and when people talk to me about it, I discover they do not really know either. But I do know this: I believe that Jesus is the expression of who God is. Do you want to know what God is like? Jesus is what God is like. He is the revelation of God's nature. You see, it is not enough to say, "I believe in God," or "I believe there is a God." People hate in the name of God. People kill in the name of God. People are prejudiced in the name of God. What kind of God do I believe in? This kind: I believe in the God who is presented in Jesus Christ, not just some vague little feeling that crawls around in my heart that makes me say, "You know, I feel funny, I think I must have faith." No, no, no.

And God is not just the kind of experience you have when you're observing nature. I love nature, the mountains, trees and birds. But you know what you could have 500 crape myrtle and be surrounded by daffodils and irises and day lily, spend your whole life in marvelous splendor and still not know exactly what God is like.

What is God like? Here is the answer. Jesus. Do you remember the time when there was a crowd gathered to hear Jesus and they were a long way from home and hungry, and Jesus fed them? That is what God is like. Do you remember the time he took those little children on his lap and blessed them and talked to them and talked to their parents? That is what God is like. Do you remember the time the leper came up to Jesus and said, "Please help me," and he was made clean and healed? That is what God is like.

I do not want you to think that to be a Christian you have to believe in God and then you add Jesus. You do not add anything: it is Jesus Christ who tells us who God is. This is the kind of God in whom we believe.

Do you remember that time when Jesus was with the disciples and they were arguing who was the chairman and who was the greatest? Jesus took a towel and bowl of water, knelt down in front of them, and washed their feet. Do you remember that? That is what God is like.

Do you remember when he took that old cross on his shoulder and started up the hill to Golgotha? That is what God is like.

When you join this church we do not ask a lot of questions. We do not ask questions about gender, race, family background. We do not ask any of that. But we insist on asking one question. It's the same question that Jesus asked. Do you believe in the God who is revealed in Jesus Christ?

Yes, there are times when we should not say, "I believe in Jesus the Messiah the son of God." But there will come a time when it is the most fitting thing of all to say. There is a lot in the Bible that I don't understand. A lot of people say things about God and the Trinity and all, and I do not know about all that. But I do believe that Jesus is God's messiah, the Son of God. And I think today is a very good day to say it.

Let us stand and say what we believe. Speak up. (Here the congregation stands and recites the Apostles' Creed.)

Now, in the world, help us to embody your word. Give us the power that we need to enact your word. Enable us to be your word in the world, witnesses to your love. Amen.

Maybe it's because I am a preacher and I speak in front of people for a living, but I am always surprised when, in the church, someone says that they are glad to do anything that the church asks, anything but speak in public.

A person was telling me that she still has nightmares of being in school and being asked to go up in front of the class and recite a poem, or to conjugate a Latin verb, or say some memorized speech. She says that she woke up trembling all over, soaking with perspiration, in the middle of the night, thinking that she was back in school and the teacher had just asked her to go to the front of the class and recite the Gettysburg Address!

And this woman is in her fifties! One time a teacher at the university, told a class of mine that when she was a graduate student there were many times after a seminar when she would go back to her carrel in the library and weep. She would weep because, during the seminar she knew the answer to the professor's questions and had something to say, but did not have the courage to speak.

She said, looking back, that she thinks that she did not have the courage to speak because as a woman, one of the first graduate students in this field, she did not feel that she had permission to speak. She was uncertain that anybody wanted to hear what she had to say.

It's hard, when the teacher says, "Come to the front of the class and recite Longfellow's "Ride of Paul Revere," and you can't do it. You tell the teacher, "Oh, I studied it, I tried, but I just can't memorize that poetry stuff."

What you should have said was that you could memorize the poem, but you couldn't stand up in front of the class with the poem.

And yet I have observed, in this matter of public speaking, that even people who have no fear of giving a speech - have never had any problem with standing up in front of the class and reciting Wordsworth, maybe even people who majored in drama in college, people for whom speaking is no problem - have a problem speaking in church. Why is that?

It is not just a matter of standing up and reading something that bothers people in church. As you know, we have laypersons to read the scripture on Sunday. People enjoy doing it. We never have any trouble getting enough people to read the scripture on Sunday morning.

But if we were to ask those same people, "Now next Sunday we want you to stand up and give about a five-minute speech in church on a topic of your own choice spoken from the heart," do you know how many people would want to do that? Not many, I would guess. Now why is that?

On my mission trip to Haiti, our first evening there, we sat around under a big tree, in the cool of the evening. Our leader asked, "How did you get here? What has brought you to this place?"

One by one we took turns telling how our faith journeys had brought us to Haiti. It was one of the most inspiring evenings in my memory. It was amazing to hear the diverse ways that the risen Christ had acted in people's lives.

It was also inspiring to hear people speak up, to hear people testify, to tell what had happened to them, why they were here, what God had done and was doing with them.

We ought to have more opportunities in the church for people to speak up.

There is a crowd in church today, and we sing and speak. But say, next week, someone should ask you, "You go to church, don't you? Do you really believe that Jesus is the Savior of the world? What do you believe?"

That's different.

On what are you willing to bet your life? What commitment, which attachment will determine how you live and move and have your being? Speak up now, can't hear you.

As she approached her death she said, "I never thought much about the resurrection. Never needed to, until now. Now, everything hinges on what I believe to be true about the end."

Speak up! Who cares what nine out of ten average Americans think? What do you believe?

"Ah, religion! So many different opinions, all these conflicting points of view! Who's to say what's right? It's all so complicated. I just don't know what to say."

Which is, curiously, to say something after all. Even to say, "I don't know what to say," is to demonstrate that modern, socially acceptable point of view that regards it as intellectual humility not to admit to having a point of view, never to settle down or to admit to having a position - which is also to have a position.

Not to know everything, not to have settled all possible areas of questioning, but yet to find the words, to locate oneself, to be in relationship with the One who is the "way, the truth, and the life," this is the "rock" on which a whole church could be built.

And your life could be built as well.