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Sixteenth Sunday of Pentecost August 31, 2008 |
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Sixteenth Sunday of Pentecost August 31, 2008 |
Following the heels of last Sunday, today’s Gospel gives another glimpse of Peter. His parents named him Simon, but Jesus called him Peter – meaning Rock. Perhaps it was because he had a rocky personality – or because Jesus saw in him the potential to be the rock upon which to build the church. Both seem true. Peter had as many misses in life as he had hits, but more importantly, Peter was humble enough to gain insight and grow.
Throughout the New Testament whenever the twelve disciples are mentioned, Peter’s name is included and always first. It’s Peter, James and John, with Peter in the lead. Right or wrong, Peter is the spokesperson. Many places only name him: “Simon and those who were with him” or “Peter and those who were with him.”
Peter, James and John are the ones named at the great catch of fish; Peter, James and John are named when Jesus goes to Jairus’ house – the synagogue ruler who begged Jesus to heal his daughter. In the Transfiguration story Jesus takes Peter, John and James with him up the mountain; in the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus takes Peter, James and John with him to pray. Jesus sent Peter and John to prepare a room for the Passover.
It was Peter who said, “Lord, you will never wash my feet,” but it was the same Peter who learned to never say never and changed his words to “Not my feet only, Lord, but my hands and my head.” Jesus goes to Peter’s house in Capernaum. Imagine – Jesus coming to your house! Jesus uses Peter’s boat as a podium from which to teach people standing along the shore. Wouldn’t that be something – Jesus using your stuff -- your car or bike or computer! Jesus was that close to Peter: he didn’t even ask to use his stuff.
In last Sunday’s Gospel it was Peter who first confessed Jesus as the Messiah. In today’s Gospel he’s the first to put his foot in his mouth in misunderstanding what it means to be the Messiah. One minute Peter gets a hit – the next, he misses badly. His idea of how God should save the world didn’t match God’s idea. But oh, how I like Peter. He’s so human – so real – so willing to take risks. And sometimes he gets it wrong – like in today’s story where he argues with Jesus about his going to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed. Peter didn’t like that. I don’t like it either.
But it’s Peter’s denial of Jesus that wears on his reputation the most – and I’m sure wore on his heart until the day he died. When Jesus was being interrogated, Peter denied knowing him and that denial gets revisited every time we enact the Passion story. Peter never lives it down. It stands out all the more perhaps because Peter seems like Jesus’ second-hand man. It wouldn’t have been so bad had it been Bartholomew or Thaddeus. We wouldn’t have expected so much. Why did it have to be Peter who denied him?
Yet it is this same imperfect Peter who is one of the first witnesses to the resurrection. He himself says, in Acts 1, that witnessing to Christ’s risen presence is the central role of any disciple of Christ. That’s the importance of Peter for us today – his being called the Rock yet sinking like a stone; his being convinced that Jesus is the Messiah but then becoming a stumbling block, but getting up from each stumble to try again.
Peter demonstrates the human potential for growth and change – a potential dependent on humility and resiliency. Had Peter hardened his heart after his misinterpretations or miss-steps – he’d have gotten stuck in them. But he doesn’t harden his heart. That’s why I like imperfect Peter so much. He may flounder on the outside, but on the inside he remains pliable and open to grace.
He reminds me of good friends of ours whose recent college graduate left last week for the Manhattan School of Music. When the son was going off to bed on his last night at home before leaving he first went and found his dad and apologized for the mean-spirited things he had said to him in recent years. They all slept well that night. Both father and son have hearts like Peter – pliable on the inside so they can gain insight and grow. The father had long modeled it for the son.
If you ever watched the cartoon of Wile E. Coyote, you may remember that he doesn’t seem to gain insight. He always misses getting Roadrunner who would “beep, beep” and be out of harms way before Wile E. Coyote can get him. One of the things that bother me about the series is that Wile E. Coyote never seemed to gain insight. He never seemed to learn or grow or change. Cartoons can get away with that. But God has given us the gift and grace of growth, though God never forces it.
Jesus helped Peter grow by challenging his wrongheaded-ness – firmly even, but holding onto him at the same time. Jesus never turned his back on imperfect Peter and Peter grew and gained insight and made a lasting contribution to Christ’s church.
Jesus’ toughness in deep love for Peter made a difference, and so did Peter’s response. He didn’t crawl in a hole when he got it wrong. He grieved his mistakes. The Bible tells us he wept when he heard the cock crow three times remembering Jesus said he would deny him. He wept, but didn’t pull himself down in a hole covering himself with dirt. Instead, Peter was the one who rallied the disciples after Jesus’ arrest had scattered them
Peter must also have been deeply hurt to hear Jesus say to him, “Get behind me, Satan.” I don’t know how I’d recover if Jesus said that to me, but Peter models the way. He recovered because he stayed open to Jesus’ love for him. Jesus never excluded Peter even after he misunderstood and even after his denial. Jesus didn’t say, “Get away from me,” but “Get behind me.” In other words, “Forget your self-absorption, Peter, and follow me. Don’t wallow in regrets, get out there and feed my sheep.”
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” The denying of himself Peter had to learn was to deny taking himself and his failures too seriously. He had to learn to depend on the grace of God.
The Good News isn’t in our ability to get it right all the time. The Good News is in Jesus who keeps the door open – and more than open – bids us come – like he bid Peter come. And when we like Peter begin to sink, Jesus reaches out to help us back into the boat.
I like Peter because he points us to God’s grace that always makes up for Peter’s lack. I also like Peter because he gains insight. He grows and changes. That’s something I hope for in my life: that I too will gain insight and grow in grace as I encounter Christ in my life and seek to live according to God’s purposes.
We begin new educational opportunities for all ages here at FLC next Sunday. The desire is that we grow more open to God’s love in Jesus Christ whose presence through the Spirit is as close as our own breath. That we gain insight and openness to God’s love, mercy, delight and call is our hope for – for young and old alike.
If by next June we will have realized we didn’t know as much as we thought we knew; or if we will have discovered God’s grace is broader and wider than we thought; or if we will have experienced mercy is ways we assumed were for others but not for us – if any of this happens, our hopes will have been met.
God transformed Peter from a stumbling block to a stepping stone upon which others could rise to faith. The same grace that reached out to Peter is here – even at this altar – reaching to us! May we, too, set our self critical selves aside and humbly welcome this mercy. As the youth reminded us when they reported on the Western States Youth Gathering, the Good News isn’t found in our getting it right all the time, but in God being good all the time. And God is good – all the time. Thanks be to God!
Amen
+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, CA