Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Luke :
Just about
every time we see an interaction between Jesus and Simon Peter, or when we see Peter
by himself doing something, I imagine Jesus’ putting his head in his hands and
shaking it and saying “Peter, Peter, Peter,” because Peter just never seems to
get it. He wants to get it. He wants it so badly you can feel for
him. Peter is the impetuous one. We could say that he is the extraverted
extravert, but I’m not sure it has anything necessarily to do with extraversion;
instead it appears that Peter has no filters in his life. Whatever he thinks to say immediately comes
out of his mouth, and whatever he thinks to do he immediately does. Most of us know someone like this, and while
there is something endearing about it, there is also something totally exasperating,
and that is what we see with Peter
During the
Sundays of lent we are looking at the people we find in the passion story. So far in looking at those we find at the
cross and the trial, there are characters we know little about. They have little back-story or little other
involvement in the gospel narratives.
Even with people like Mary, Jesus’ mother, we are truly told very
little. We have her at the beginning, we
have her at the cross, but there are few stories of her in between, and where
she does have interactions they are very limited. Peter, on the other hand, is someone who is
crucial to the story that is told not only when Jesus is alive, but also post
resurrection and in the beginning of the church. Peter is maybe the most important disciple, and
while it has been said that besides for Jesus himself that Paul is the most
important person in the history of Christianity, it could be argued that Peter
comes in third in importance.
Peter
according to most gospels is one of the first disciples called by Jesus. It is said that he and James and John are
fishing on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus says, “Come follow me” and they drop
everything they are doing and begin to follow Jesus. John tells a slightly different story, in
which it is said that Peter’s brother Andrew who is the first to be a follower
and he invites Peter to become a follower.
But what is also part of these stories is that Peter’s real name is
Simon, and his nickname is Peter or Cephas, which means rock. It is not clear why Jesus’ gives him this
nickname, which is how most accounts record it, because in many ways Peter is
anything but solid. The old hymn On
Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, might really
be about Peter. But while we think about
Peter being the rock, the term here can also have the connotation of that he
head is full of rocks, or that he is a blockhead, and so rather than being a
statement of solidness, it can also maybe be a term of endearment because of
his sort of fecklessness.
We know
that Peter was a fisherman, and that he was from a small backwater village in a
backwater area of Palestine. He was
illiterate, which would not make him an exception, but instead would include
him in the vast majority of people in the ancient world. Now some of you might be asking if Peter was
illiterate how we could have two letters in the Bible from him, and that’s a
good question. The first point, which we don’t have the time to really cover,
is that few scholars believe that Peter is actually responsible for either 1st
or 2nd Peter, instead they were written by someone else in his name, which was
not uncommon in the ancient world. But
even if Peter is responsible for them, while the ability to read was rare, the
ability to write was even rarer, and so Peter probably would have dictated the
letters to a scribe who would have written them for him. This is what Paul did with his own letters,
and we know this because Paul will occasionally say that he is writing
something with his own hand and remark about how large the letters are.
We know that Peter was married, the only disciple we are
told this about and in this he was certainly in the minority of the disciples,
if not the only one. And we know he was
married because we are told a story where Jesus heals Peter’s mother-in-law,
and Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians that Peter would travel with his
wife. Along with James and John, Peter
is part of an inner circle of disciples who are present for things that the
other disciples do not see or participate in.
It is Peter, James and John who go up the mountain and see Jesus
transfigured and see him talking with Moses and Elijah, and of course it is Peter
about whom we are told says that they should build some tents for the three of
them, because he didn’t know what to say.
James and John are smart enough to keep their mouths shut. It is Peter, James and John who follow Jesus
into the garden of Gethsemane to pray before his arrest, and Jesus tells them
three different times to stay awake, and each time they fall asleep. Some will remember that sleeping is used in
the gospels as a term for spiritual weakness or sloth.
Peter is the one who when he sees Jesus walking on the water
asks Jesus to have him come out, and when he realizes what he is doing he
begins to sink, until Jesus rescues him and we hear him say “oh ye of little
faith.” When Jesus says that he is going
to wash the disciples feet, it is Peter who says that he won’t allow Jesus to
wash his feet, and when Jesus tells him that unless Peter allows Jesus to wash
his feet, that Peter will have no share with Jesus, and so Peter says “Lord,
not only my feet but my hands and my head.”
When Jesus say that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die and then
to be raised on the third day, it is Peter who rebukes Jesus, only to hear
Jesus say to him “get behind me satan!
You are a stumbling block to me; for you are setting your mind not on
divine things but on human things.” Peter
is the totally impetuous one, as I said if Peter thinks it he says it or does
it. There are no filters.
But, Peter
is also the first one to make a declaration of faith in who Jesus is. When Jesus asks who people say that he is,
unsurprisingly it is Peter who answers, and when Jesus says who do you say that
I am, it is Peter who proclaims “You are the messiah, the Son of the living
God.” Now it is clear that Peter, and
the other disciples did not understand what being the messiah truly meant, an
issue we will cover next week when we look at Judas, but Peter is still the
one, and the only one, to have made this declaration. And for this Jesus says, “you are Peter,”
petros, “and upon this rock,” petra, “I will build my church.” (Matt 16:18) Now the Roman Catholic church has
traditionally interpreted this statement to mean that the church would be built
on the work of Peter, that he would be the head of the church, the founder of
the church in Rome, and the first bishop of Rome, so that he was the first
pope
Now there are some problems historically with that claim,
but as Protestants we have interpreted Jesus’ statement to Peter, not that Peter,
petros, is the rock on which Jesus would build his church, but instead Peter’s
proclamation of Jesus being the messiah that the church will be founded
upon. Of course as Protestants we are a
little biased in our own interpretation, but I think Jesus use of two different
words here for rock illustrate that while Simon is petros, the rock, he is not
petra, the rock.
Peter clearly plays a significant role after Easter, and is
crucial in the spread of the gospel message, but then we have his role in the
passage we heard from today. At the last
supper Peter, of course as impetuous as ever, tells Jesus he will follow him
even to death, and then Jesus tells him that not only won’t he follow, but that
he will deny Jesus three times before the night is through, and of course that
is exactly what happens. Peter follows
Jesus after he is arrested, but not before, according to John’s gospel, Peter
slices off the ear of one of the guards.
I think this again highlights that Peter does not understand Jesus’
understanding of what being the messiah means, and thinking back to last week
he wants to follow Jesus Barabbas, the violent revolutionary, rather than Jesus
the Christ, who goes to the cross. But Peter
does follow Jesus and goes into the courtyard of Caiaphas, the high priest,
where Jesus is on trial before the Sanhedrin, and while he is there, three
different people accuse Peter of being a disciple of Christ, and each time he denies
that he is. After the third time, Jesus
looks at Peter out a window, and Peter remembering what he had been told leaves
the courtyard and weeps bitterly.
Every time I hear of Peter’s denial I wonder why we have
made Judas such the enemy for his betrayal, but Peter doesn’t get similar
treatment. Some commentators have said
that Peter was really being a spy and so it’s not really that he denied Jesus,
but instead that he couldn’t be honest because that would cause him to break
cover, just like a spy is not going to truly admit who he really is if
asked. It’s an interesting
interpretation, and at least it gives Peter some cover, but it’s not a story
that holds much true meaning for me.
This is one of those stories you wonder why it was included in the
gospel accounts, and all four gospels tell this story, because it makes Peter,
such a key figure in the church look badly, and I think it’s included because
it’s probably a story that Peter told himself numerous times about forgiveness
and about grace
Woody Allen says that 80% of success is simply showing up,
and I think we have to remember that Peter showed up. None of the other disciples were there, they
had all fled, but Peter was there. He
showed up, his faith did not hold up, but who among us has always been entirely
faithful to each other and our loved ones let alone to God? I’m sure we have all at one time or another
denied Jesus or denied our faith in some way.
It might just be as simple as scheduling in choosing to do one thing
over another. And therefore I think we
can all have some sympathy with Peter, after all even though he said he would
follow Jesus to death, saying that and doing it are two different things, and
this time Peter found his conviction lacking, although we also have to admit
that it took Peter enormous strength to be in the courtyard in the first place.
But something else to consider is can we ever become better
at anything without failing first? The
only way we can learn anything is by working at it and working at it and working
at it, and that will require that we try and fail, often many, many times. The only way we can get better, the only way
we can excel, the only way we can reach our highest potential is not only by
taking the risks that might cause us to fail, but even to fail. It’s said that it took Thomas Edison 1000
attempts to perfect the light bulb, and when he was asked what it was like to
fail a thousand times, he is reported either to have said “I didn’t fail, I
simply found 1000 ways not to do it,” or perhaps “the light bulb simply had
1000 steps.” Peter learned about his
faith, and where he had room to improve and grow, through painful
experience.
But what really stood out for me when I read this scripture
this time was what Jesus says to Peter before telling him that he will deny
him. “I have prayed for you that you
faith may not fail,” Jesus says, “and you, when once you have turned back,
strengthen your brothers.” We have a
word for turning back, it’s repentance.
That’s what it means, to turn around.
But, there is a difference
between apologizing and truly seeking repentance. I had a teacher who used to say, “are you
sorry you did it or are you sorry you got caught.” If we are merely sorry that we got caught,
then nothing can be learned and we are prone to make the same mistakes over and
over again. When we are sorry we did it, then we can learn our lesson, we can
recognize our failure, we can repent and go down a different path so that we
can move on to something better. But
it’s not enough to just go back to where we were before, but instead to
recognize that we need to go back to a different path. Once you have turned back, Jesus says, once
you have repented, strengthen your brothers.
Peter is a model of discipleship here not because he failed,
because we all fail. Peter is a model of
discipleship because he turned back, he repented which made his way for
restoration not only with his community, but most importantly with Christ. I think we know this story of Peter, because Peter
told this story. I think Peter talked
about faithfulness and about failure, about repentance and forgiveness, and how
Christ could forgive him even for this, and if Peter could be forgiven for
denying Christ in his time of need, certainly we too can be forgiven. And in the end Peter does remain faithful to
what he says to Jesus, that he will follow him even unto his death as tradition
holds that Peter was executed by Emperor Nero by being crucified upside
down. It is said that Peter was
crucified upside down at his own request.
One tradition holds it is because he did not consider himself worthy to
be crucified in the same way that Jesus was, but another tradition says it was
because Peter wanted to make a symbolic message that Christ turns the world
upside-down, that we need to look past the way things appear to the way things
truly are.
We should not see Peter’s denial as ultimately a failure,
although at the time it was, but instead we should see it as an example of true
discipleship. We will all fail. We will fail each other, we will fail those
we love, and we will fail God, and yet grace, and mercy, and forgiveness and
redemption are there for us. I don’t
imagine that Jesus’ look at Peter in the courtyard was one of contempt, or him
saying “see I told you so,” but instead one of love, of saying to Peter, “yes I
know what you did, and I love you anyway, now turn back and go strengthen the
brothers.” Peter’s denial is an example
of failure, of remorse, of repentance, of forgiveness, of restoration and of
success in the end. Like Peter we will
sometimes fall short, but in spite of it all, God still loves us, and God
offers us unconditionally and without price, mercy, peace, reconciliation and
forgiveness, and God says it’s okay to fail, because failure will make you
better as long as you are willing to learn from it, get up, dust yourself off,
and move on to something bigger and better.
May it be so in our lives my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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