Proper 16
August 21, 2011
The Rev. Marguerite Alley
A Chip Off the Old Block
“You are Peter”, says Jesus, “and on this rock I will build my church”. Now that is just kind of funny to me. Think about it for a second. What comes next in the story? Peter, having been renamed, having been blessed for his intelligent answer to a deceptively simple question, then argues with Jesus about how things are going to go when they get to Jerusalem! I can hear Jesus thinking…”who died and put him in charge?....oh, right, me”! If we read further, we would see that Peter goes lickety spilt from being a perfect little disciple in this passage, to Satan, the Father of Lies in the next! How can this be? And more over, how can this man be turned into our model for being Christians?
Upon first glance it can be very difficult to discover any kind of “good” news from this story. Peter is very quick to respond to Jesus. He almost appears to be “kissing up” in the modern vernacular. Then, when it really matters, he turns tail and runs. In reflecting on this, I thought surely there must be SOMETHING good we can say about Peter, the rock! I guess we can award him high marks for being the first one willing to answer Jesus on the question “and who do you say that I am?”, while the others probably stared at the ground or counted freckles on the back of their hands. We could also say that he isn’t afraid to register his opinion in discussions. I suppose we could also say that at least when he screws up he is willing to keep trying. Perhaps the best we can say is that Peter is a work in progress!
When Jesus renamed Simon bar-Jonah, he might have had his tongue in his cheek a little bit. He actually uses two different forms of the word rock. First, he says you are Peter (petros). And then he says, “and on this rock (petra) I will build my church”. Now the first form, “petros” is masculine, but it really means little pebbles, or small stones. The second form, “petra” is the feminine form, and actually means giant boulder, or in the modern vernacular “the mother of all rocks!”. So, essentially, Jesus is telling Peter that he is a “chip off the old block”!
So, if we can say at least something good about Peter, the rock, then I suppose we can also glean something from this story of value for us as Christians today. So what might that be?
Well, consider this. If someone you know asked you what church you attend, and you stated proudly, I belong to Emmanuel Episcopal Church in beautiful downtown Kempsville, and then they said “what exactly do you believe there”? What would you say? When I first moved to Virginia Beach, I was in a masters program through Loyola University in New Orleans. One of the members of my class asked the 4 Episcopalians in the group exactly what we believe, and one of our folks said this: “One of the great things about being an Episcopalian as that you don’t have to believe anything”. Is that true of us? We could answer with the Nicene Creed, but that hardly seems like a statement of faith so much as a statement of institutional doctrine. We could sing “I believe that children are our future” or “I believe for every drop of rain that falls…” but those don’t really work, do they? What would we say?
In our Gospel this morning, Jesus is the person who is asking us “what exactly do you believe”? During the past weeks, Jesus has been travelling. During this time he has healed people, he has calmed the sea and he has fed several thousand people in one sitting. He was also teaching along the way, and asking people to think about which is more important, words or deeds. Once in a while, he checks his disciples to see if they are understanding what he is teaching, assumedly so that they might explain his teachings to others when he is not around. He is not shy about razzing them when they don’t get it. So, when this time, he asks a whole different kind of question, they are rather pleased that it is, in their opinion, an easy one. “John the Baptist”, “Elijah”, “Jeremiah”……are the answers they offer. They are not afraid to answer this question though, because they are merely parroting what they have heard others say. It is almost as if they are just giving the list of possible answers in hopes that Jesus will somehow react and they will know which it really is. Instead of course, Jesus says in essence..”Yeah, yeah….but I want to know is who do YOU say that I am? What exactly is it that YOU believe?”
Finally, after a very pregnant pause, Peter offers up “You are the Christ, the son of the living God”. Peter is almost always the first one we hear from. He is first to leave his job and follow Jesus, the first to try walking on water and frequently the first to answer Jesus’ questions. I wonder if Peter was courageous or just a quick thinker?
But evidently it is the right answer, because Jesus blesses him, renames him and tells him that he will be the head of his followers. I wonder if the other disciples were jealous of Peter? Considering his disastrous attempts at walking on water, and the fact that he often didn’t really live up to his promises, I think their jealousy might have been wasted.
Peter was certainly no hero. He did not exude the kind of character, intellect or leadership skills that I would look for in a church leader. But, frankly, I am glad that he has a place in heaven because I think, given his flaws, he will look upon mine with a more generous spirit than some others might. Peter might better understand me when I can’t find the right answer, or when I just parrot what I have heard without really trying to come to an answer of my own, or because mine doesn’t sound very theological or deep. Peter may understand me better in the times when I blurt out an answer before I think about it or when I make promises I cannot keep.
If Peter is the Rock on which the church is built, then I think that might be the good news of this story. If he can be important to God, then so can we! Because he is just like me, there may be some hope for me. Whether he is a chip off the old block, or a stone in my shoe, his flaws remind me that being a Christian is not about being flawless, but about being available and being willing. His perseverance reminds me that I need to keep trying to answer the hard questions, and keep getting up and moving on when I have fallen.
So, the next time someone asks about what it is we believe here in this zany little Christian community, don’t be afraid to try and answer them! What you believe does matter in big picture. You may not be very good at articulating your faith the first time, but you might be surprised by what you hear yourself say. The trick is that we must try. Not just to find the right words, but also to incorporate the message into our lives and if we do that, then we can all be chips off the old block. Put all those chips together, we can build a church.
Amen.
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