The strength of weakness

Simon Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, where are you going?'"
Jesus answered, "Where I am going, you can't follow me now, but you will follow later."
Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I'll give up my life for you."
Jesus replied, "will you give up your life for me? I assure you that you will deny me three times before the rooster crows."

Have you ever wondered if you are who you think you are? Are you the persons you want to be? Are you done, finished, over, without spiritual work to be done?

If the answer to any of that is yes, I've got incredibly difficult words to say to you this morning.

You're wrong.

Now, we know the end of the story. We know what Peter became. We know what tradition tells us happened to him. We know he was forgiven by a loving God. We know all that, and yet, we still fall in the exact same manner as Simon Peter.

And the manner is (Alex for $1,000), we believe we're okay. We believe we're doing fine. We believe there is nothing that can knock us off our spiritual perch.

And I assure you that you will deny him in some form or fashion before the rooster crows tomorrow.

That's, among many other things, life.

See, what I believe is my biggest problem in my calling is most of the folks I know, almost all of them in fact, are church folks. And of course church folks can't deny, can't fall, can't falter. So, there's no reason to worry. Right?

And, you're wrong.

Church folks fall, falter, fail all the time. All the time. Hear me clearly, all the time.

So, what do we do?

Let's finish Peter's story.

Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel and James and John left Jerusalem broken after the crucifixion and even after the resurrection. In John's Gospel, we read this: Simon Peter told them, "I'm going fishing." They said, "we'll go with you." They set out in a boat, but throughout the night they caught nothing. Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples didn't realize it was Jesus. Jesus called to them, "Children, have you caught anything to eat?" They answered no. He said, "Cast your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some."

So, long story short, they did. And they caught fish. And when they did, John turned to Peter (because this all seemed so much like the first time they came across Jesus), and said, "It's the Lord.

Peter jumped out of the boat and swam in.

Jesus' only question to Peter, when the fire was going and the fish were cooking for breakfast, was this, "Do you love me more than these."

Three times this gets played out, and each time Jesus said, "Feed my lambs or feed my sheep."

And they were together again. And Peter was forgiven his doubt and denial.

Jesus closes by saying, "Follow Me."

It strikes me that even in our denial, failure, fault and sin, Jesus is calling out to us -- not in condemnation but in love. "Do you love me more than these?"

And if the answer is "Yes, Lord, you know I do," Jesus can keep on molding us, changing us, preparing us and, yes, forgiving us.

When it seems like it's time to buckle, it's time to fall, it's time to give up, you can do one of three things, it seems to me.

You can quit.
That's easy enough. Go get the next drink, or the next bout with anger, or the next sexual sin or whatever it might be.

You can try harder.
Somewhere along the way a coach or a teacher or a parent said to you, "You're not trying hard enough, working hard enough, doing enough." And you believed them. And in some cases, that will work.

But the answer is and must be the third choice. What you must do is surrender. Fall not for good but to your knees.

Paul said it this way, "But he said to me, 'my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."

Look, when things are falling apart (as far as we can see), we can have our Peter moments and never look for him again. Or we can understand that whatever it is we are going through, it is but a moment in a relatively long life. You, I, we will make it through it.

Again, Paul wrote this about his situation when he was in prison. "Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the things that have happened have actually advanced the gospel. The whole Praetorian Guard and everyone else knows that I'm in prison for Christ."

Bad is gonna come. Storms are gonna arise. Pain and suffering are part of the gig.

It's how we handle it that matters.
Quit.
Try harder.
Surrender.

That's the way out of what appears to be the hard days. Maybe through it all someone can use what you're going through to help them.