Sermon - August 27, 2023 - The Rev. Emily Collette

I speak in the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Please be seated.

So several years ago, I helped teach a series of classes

on the apostles of Jesus.

And I think we're so used to thinking and speaking

about them as sort of a monolithic unit, a group

of people that we sometimes forget

that they were their own individuals within that group,

that they all had their own opinions and fears and hopes.

They were Jesus' closest friends,

his confidants through all the victories and tragedies

of Jesus' life, firsthand recipients of the good news

from heaven that would reshape the world

due in no small part to their continued ministry and witness

after Jesus ascended into heaven.

We're here today because God called those people

to tell the world what they had seen and heard through Jesus.

We're here today because they said yes.

And nothing in the world has been the same since.

But the 12 apostles got in their own way

and made mistakes far too often.

On the way to changing the world, they made many detours.

They fought.

They disagreed.

They doubted.

They attempted to turn people away.

They make snap judgments.

They are soundly rebuked by Jesus more than once.

They get it wrong frequently.

They attempt to one up each other.

And they even abandoned Jesus, leaving him

to face his darkest hour alone, fleeing the cross and persecution

that Jesus has so often warned them was coming.

In other words, the disciples were only human.

One day they make great choices and decisions

that make them proud.

And the next, they fall flat, failing spectacularly

and having to learn how to get back up and try again.

And perhaps no one more fully encompasses

the highs and lows of being a human being,

trying their best in a broken world

to follow a perfect God than Simon Peter.

Peter exemplifies what it means to live a life of faith.

Peter, in his unique role and divine calling,

becomes a model for walking closely

with God of how that walk changes us

over the course of our lives, of how it makes us better

and kinder and more just and braver.

Peter, with his stunning professions of faith

and his striking mistakes, captures

the whole human endeavor of learning

to follow God more closely.

In today's Gospel reading, Jesus and his disciples

have come to Caesarea of Philippi.

And it is here, alone with his followers,

that Jesus asks them who people say that he is.

This is a constant question that Jesus poses

to his followers, his disciples.

On more than one occasion, Jesus will ask this question.

When the disciples give an answer,

Jesus will push them to go further.

Who do you say that I am?

And in this chapter, Peter will name Jesus

as the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

In Mark's Gospel, this scene plays

the role of becoming the first time

that Jesus is named as the Messiah.

And Peter will be the first person brave enough

to name him that.

The narrative is a little bit different in Matthew's Gospel.

Today, the disciples have already

named Jesus as the Son of God.

They've already begun to worship him as the Messiah.

But that does not diminish Peter's profession of faith.

Peter sees Jesus for who he is.

Peter recognizes just how special this ministry is.

Peter believes and he voices that belief aloud,

both with his words and his actions.

Jesus's response to Peter in this scene is incredible.

It is here that Jesus reveals the full scope

of Peter's calling.

Peter, in a long line of faithful followers of God,

from Sarai to Abram to Jacob, will receive a new name.

He will no longer be called Simon,

but he will be Peter, the rock, the foundation.

And through his actions and ministry,

the church will be born, the living body of Christ,

still at work in the world today.

Thousands upon millions of people

will take up the work that Peter began.

To Peter will be given the keys of the kingdom

and the unique power to bind and to lose things.

Peter will begin the church and the powers of evil.

And death and destruction will never prevail against it.

This is a high point for Peter, a moment of joy and glory,

where Peter gets it right, where his loyalty and his faith

are seen and commended not just by the people around him,

but also by God.

Peter is one of my favorite people in the Bible,

but I don't love Peter because Peter gets things right.

I don't love Peter because his faith was always strong

or his actions were always good.

I love Peter because Peter so very often

does not get it right.

I love Peter because he so frequently misses the point.

He fails time and again, publicly, spectacularly.

And yet Peter walked with Jesus, and Jesus loved him anyway.

While this week we get the story of Peter's fantastic profession

of faith, here's a spoiler alert for next week's gospel reading.

Peter will have a unique and different experience

all together.

In the direct continuation of this story,

Jesus will tell his disciples what comes next,

the cross and Jerusalem.

And Peter, unable to bear the thought, decries this warning.

To Peter's protest, we hear one of Jesus's sharpest criticisms

directed to Peter.

Jesus says, get behind me, Satan.

Jesus tells his closest friend this.

In the span of five verses, just five verses,

Peter goes from blessed are you to Satan to stumbling

block to hindrance.

And this will be far from the only time that Peter fails.

Only two weeks ago, we heard the story

of Jesus walking on water.

Peter, overcome with a moment in joy,

he gets out of the boat himself and tries to walk to Jesus.

And he does for a brief second.

And then he has fears which turn to doubt,

and he begins to sink.

And he needs to be saved by Jesus.

Too many times we hear Peter's name mentioned

as part of a group that misunderstands,

who disagrees with Jesus, who misses the point.

And perhaps Peter's worst moment, surely one of his worst

recorded in scripture, Peter will desert Jesus.

He will deny any knowledge, any love,

any relationship with Jesus.

Not once, but three times, again and again and again,

rejecting and abandoning Jesus, his friend and his teacher,

out of his own fear.

But Peter's story does not end there.

Peter is not defined by his worst mistakes,

and neither, blessedly, are we.

Peter will go on to do his share of spreading

the gospel of Jesus Christ in those early days of the church.

Peter will do his part to change the world.

And in the end, Peter will quite literally

find the faith and the courage to face his own cross,

as he is killed by the very powers

that he sought to overthrow with the gospel.

In the end, he will find the bravery and the faith

that he has spent a lifetime growing into.

Peter is an example of a faithful follower of God,

not in spite of his mistakes, but precisely because of them.

We are all of us, only human, living

in a deeply hurting world, doing the best

we can to live our lives in a way that makes us proud,

in a way that makes God proud.

Peter reminds us that God is not seeking perfection from you.

God isn't waiting for us to get it right.

He's not waiting for us to say the best things

or to make perfect choices.

God wants to work with us right now.

God wants to have a place in our lives right now.

God is calling you to take up the work exactly as you are,

with everything that you have and everything

that you will be, everything you want to be.

Very few of us will mess up as stunningly as Peter does.

And yet, to him, we're given the keys

to the kingdom of heaven.

And I'm so very confident that God

wants to do wonderful and amazing things through us

as well.

God chose Peter with all of his flaws and his shortcomings.

And God loved Peter through all of his catastrophic failures,

just like God loves us through our failures, too.

Like Peter, our lives are changed and made better

by walking with God, by learning to more fully and closely

follow God.

God is calling you now, exactly as you are.

And like Peter, you will not be the same

when you choose to say yes.

Amen.