August 23, 2026

“Between A Rock and A Hard Place”

“Between a Rock and a Hard Place , ” A Sermon based on Exodus 1:8-2:10; Romans 12:1-8; and Matthew16:13-20  delivered at The First Congregational UCC of Onekama on August 23, 2026 by the Reverend Alison Dutton Jacobs.

As we heard in our Gospel lesson this morning, Peter declares a strong confession of faith in Jesus as “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” at Caesarea Philippi. Peter does this in answer to Jesus” questioning of the disciples” view of what is his true identity. As you can imagine there was at this time much speculation as to the identity of this Galilean miracle worker, and all of the Synoptic gospels are interested in making sure that their readers know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus was not just another one of the prophets, but that Jesus and the Messiah are one in the same. . . .