Sermons

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This Is a Rock?!
June 2, 2002
First in a series on Peter and his letters
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

Nancy mentioned that our Elders’ Retreat was this weekend…we ended up Saturday night with dinner on the beach on Vashon Island, watching the sun go down on Mount Rainier…absolutely beautiful. And as Nancy mentioned, most of the elders are off this morning in pairs, visiting other churches around the Seattle area. Now, we didn’t sent them out as spies. The idea was simply that they would experience worship in a different style, and that they would remind us that the body of Christ is so much larger than just here at Bethany. Now, I told them that the objective was simply to go and experience worship…but I did also say, hey, if you notice something you think would be helpful here at Bethany, let’s talk about it. So, sure enough, 8:30 am this morning my phone rings…it’s one of the elders who is going to a big megachurch over on the Eastside, saying “Hey, Dan, I know what Bethany needs to have!” What’s that? “Parking lot attendants!” I guess that means we need the parking lot first!

For the next couple months, June and July, we will be looking at the two letters in the New Testament attributed to the apostle Peter, 1 & 2 Peter. They will have some rich insight for us into what it means to live faithfully in a relationship with Christ in the midst of a culture that is not necessarily friendly to the Christian faith. However, before we go there I want to look today at just this person Peter. Peter has much to teach us about faith.

Read with me Matthew 26:69-75.

So here is this Peter, the one Jesus called THE ROCK. We know there’s a play on the Greek words here, petra, rock, petra, Peter…but I’m actually not sure that “Rock” is a good fit for Peter. A rock is a big lump, not always so pretty, not the best-looking part of God’s creation. We know that when a rock starts rolling the wrong way, we need to watch out. But once a rock of any size settles down, there are few things more solid. A rock is stable, nothing moves a rock (except maybe an extreme earthquake). You can depend on a rock…it will still be there tomorrow. So I’m not sure this name fits, Rock. In fact, with Peter, it seems like a better nickname might have been…Super Ball! Peter’s personality, and his faith…were so up and down, so inconsistent and just ricocheting all over the place. That may be one reason we seem to enjoy reading about Peter. Peter is so accessible. We feel like Peter acts. So Accessible. So Inconsistent. So ORDINARY.

I get in lots of conversations with folks about faith, and inevitably I hear folks say something like: “I get so frustrated. My faith life is so inconsistent. Sometimes I feel close to Jesus, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I think I understand what life is about, sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I think I know what God wants me to do, other times I don’t…or if I do, I don’t do it. I’m so inconsistent.” If that’s ordinary… that’s certainly Peter.

Peter’s relationship with Jesus is very interesting. Think about some of the characteristics we see in Peter:

a) Peter is demanding. When he is out on the lake, in a crisis on the lake, in a boat, and the storm sweeping in, and everybody scared. Jesus appears, and says “Don’t be afraid.” But it’s Peter who demands evidence: “Lord, if it’s really you…you tell me to come to you.” He’s demanding.

b) Peter always has to DO something…when it’s time to just sit. On the top of the mountain with Jesus, at the Transfiguration with God’s glory shining, revealing Jesus, and Peter says “Get me a hammer, I’ll build some worship spaces here!”

c) even more than that…Peter always has to SAY something…when it’s time to be quiet. On that mountain, Peter is busy yapping and talking, looking for his hammer, until finally the voice of God booms out, and says of Jesus “This is my Son the Beloved,
with Him I am well pleased…(pause)…Listen to Him!” My translation?: “Peter…be quiet!”

d) Peter is overconfident. When things start to get tough, and Jesus acknowledged that some people will desert…it’s Peter who says, “NOT ME! I”LL never leave. I”LL go prison with you Jesus, in fact, I”ll happily die w/you.”

e) Peter sleeps instead of praying. [I know none of us do this] In Jesus’ darkest hour, He agonizes in prayer in the garden just before His arrest. And He asks Peter specifically to stay awake and pray…and Peter falls asleep. And Jesus wakes him up, and asks him to stay awake and pray. And the same thing happens. NOT once, but 3 times!

f) Peter doesn’t understand Jesus’ ways. When Jesus is about to be arrested, Peter grabs his sword and strikes a man with it, tries to stir up riot...and Jesus has to rebuke him. Jesus’ power was not physical force or military power. Peter didn’t get it.

g) Peter utterly fails: When Jesus is arrested, Peter disappears. And when confronted about that relationship, Peter denies even knowing Jesus…NOT once, but three times.

This Peter… Jesus said, “And on THIS rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Jesus, you’ve gotta be kidding. You call this a rock?! Gonna build your church on THIS? Peter is too inconsistent. He’s too weak. He’s too much like me, you. Too ordinary.

BUT the funny thing is…that MIXED IN with this very ordinary Peter…are these moments of the EXTRAORDINARY. When we stand there on holy ground with him, the presence of God all around. And it’s NOT that Peter gradually matures and gets better and better. It’s NOT that once Peter met Jesus, he was totally transformed, became instantly a totally different person. No, it’s that IN MIDDLE of the ordinary…come these moments:

a) Early in Jesus’ ministry, Peter the professional fisherman is fishing when Jesus says , “Go put your net out,” and Peter is very reluctant to do it…he KNOWS how to fish. Peter KNOWS there are no fish there, but he agrees, and when the boat is overwhelmed with fish, it’s Peter that falls down at Jesus’ feet and says, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” It’s a holy moment.

b) Or the same night mentioned earlier, when Peter and the disciples are in the boat on the water, in a storm, and very afraid, and Jesus appears and Peter says, “Prove it.” But when Jesus calls his bluff and calls him to come, it’s Peter who does it…and steps out of the boat and begins to walk towards Jesus, even just for a moment on top of the water, keeping his eyes on Jesus.

c) Or in the passage Nancy read earlier, Jesus asks the disciples “What’s the word on street? Who do people think I am?” There are lots of answers, even some pretty good ones: John, Elijah, Jeremiah, etc…but it’s Peter, Peter who provides the pivotal point in the gospel story: “YOU…YOU are the Christ of God, Son of Living God. You are THE ONE.”

c) And after Jesus’ death, the disciples return to fishing, and they spot the Resurrected Jesus on shore…and while others start to bring the boat around to head towards the beach…of course it’s Peter who jumps overboard and heads in as fast as can towards Christ.

d) And when they gather there, Jesus takes Peter aside, and in that very famous conversation says, “Peter, do you love me?” Three times he asks. And three times, Peter says, “Lord, I love you.” Three times. One time for each time Peter denied Jesus. One time for each time he fell asleep.

These moments are holy, when we stand on holy ground. And the really confusing thing is that these moments of ordinary…and glimpses of extraordinary…are all mixed up and meshed together in same person trying to follow Jesus. It’s why I love Peter. Peter is just so ordinary, so much like you and me… such a great model of God using an ordinary person to do something extraordinary.

So after reading this, I looked around my life to see if this is still going on. Is God still using ordinary folks to do extraordinary things?

Right now, I’m doing a lot of premarital counseling. Normally, each couple and I spend a whole hour on family of origin issues, tracing patterns back through generations. Sometimes you can find out about how things like addiction, temper, unbelief, track back through generations…until SOMEBODY, somewhere along line…a grandpa, an aunt, somebody…some ordinary person…breaks the destructive cycle…and literally changes the family for generations into the future.

I thought about a friend who has given her life to a little boy with Down’s syndrome. The boy isn’t part of her family or anything. But she has become grandma, aunt, friend, caregiver to him. Now, don’t get me wrong. My friend has plenty of her own issues, frustrations, and inconsistencies in her own life. But Lord, what an extraordinary thing is going on there. In fact, I had a picture come to mind the other day of God greeting her in heaven, and simply saying “Way to go…you did it. You have loved this one child of mine.”

In the last week, I have had great conversations with three different people now in their 50’s. In every case, they have told me a story about God meeting them in some way they’d never dreamed about, and that hadn’t happened in the previous 50 years. These are ordinary folks, with ordinary frustrations and inconsistencies. But as we talked, their eyes lit up, and they get excited to tell where God is taking them, and it’s obvious to me that I am on holy ground, just listening. Just ordinary folks…that God is doing something extraordinary with. It’s what God is doing with Peter. “God, you gonna call this a Rock…gonna put all your chips here?” That’s exactly what God is doing.

There are a few characteristics that mark this Rock named Peter that I want you to carry away this morning.

a) Peter is always looking for Jesus. Once he meets him…Jesus gets Peter’s attention. In the boat, on the mountain, walking on the water, the Last Supper. Even as Peter denies knowing Jesus, he’s hanging out in the vicinity. Then after Jesus dies and is resurrected…it’s Peter running to the tomb, Peter scanning the beach. Peter always has his eyes out for him. Jesus gets Peter’s attention. It’s a question for us: Are we looking for Jesus around us? And if we’re not…what is getting our attention?

b) Peter loves Jesus…with abandon. He gives himself to Christ. When Jesus wants to wash Peter’s feet, Peter says no way. But when Jesus insists, and says “If I don’t wash you, you can’t belong to me!” Peter says “OKAY…then don’t just stop at my feet…dump the whole bucket over my head! Don’t wash my toes, give me a shower!”

There’s no caution, no holding back. I was in Phoenix last week with my study group from seminary for our annual study trip. We ended up getting to stay for free at a Hilton golf resort outside Phoenix, one of these beautiful places with about 18 swimming pools. Well, above one of the pools was this huge water slide for kids. And since we’re mostly in our 40s, we decided we’re still kids, and that we should try this thing out.

The other 2 guys decided I should go down first to make sure it was safe. Now, what that meant was that I plopped into the pool below first, so I was there to watch the other two come down. The first guy came out the way I probably looked myself: eyes closed, fists clenched, mouth shut, enduring this experience, and just sort of plopped out of the tube and into the pool. But the second guy. He came flying out, whooping and hollering, arms and legs everywhere, bathing suit first in a glorious cannonball into the pool. See, that was Peter. Peter loved Jesus with abandon.

c) Lastly. Peter was willing to be changed. Peter may not have understood much, but he understood at least that God wanted to use him, to change him. I think Peter had this growing recognition that it was God who was doing something remarkable. Eugene Peterson’s book, The Wisdom of Each Other, is a series of letters written to an old friend. At one point Peterson says: “What is essential is to know that the Christian life is mostly what is being done TO you…not what you are doing.” To know that GOD was doing something extraordinary. God was doing something extraordinary to Peter…calling him, saving him, using him to build His church on earth. Such an extraordinary task. Such an ordinary guy. Isn’t it amazing that is exactly the kind of person Jesus needed to build His kingdom!? Just an ordinary person. Let’s pray.