Flickering Firelight

A Sermon Based Upon Luke 22: 54-62

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Third Sunday of Lent,   March 8th, 2015

" But Peter said, "Man, I do not know what you are talking about!" At that moment, while he was still speaking, the cock crowed. (Luk 22:60 NRS)

We all make mistakes.  But some mistakes are greater than others.   Some mistakes are bad and can hurt us.  Other mistakes are the best thing that could ever have happened.

As we shared last week, Judas made a tragic mistake and never recovered.   Even though he repented for what he did, he was never restored into the community of Jesus because he never came back to Jesus.  Peter also made a terrible mistake, but he did recover. He found forgiveness, renewal and redemption, because he did come back to Jesus and to the community of grace.  Judas’ failure ended in tragedy, but Peter’s failure gives us all hope.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.  We need understand what Peter’s own discipleship failure can teach us about both the strengths and weaknesses of our own Christian discipleship.   Who can forgot the flickering image of the firelight or the ominous sound of that lone rooster crowing as Peter begins to realize what he did?   What will take us back to the time we denied our Lord?  Will it be something we see?  Will it be something we hear?  Or what is it that we are now doing that proves that we are indeed being faithful in how we are  following Jesus right now, this very day?

WHOLE HEARTED DESIRE

Before we consider Peter’s denial of Jesus, it is important to remember that the last disciple we see, before Jesus is crucified, is Peter.   Even when Jesus is being betrayed and being arrested, Peter is right there.   John’s gospel tells us that when Jesus is arrested, how Peter takes a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the religious leaders who is trying to make the arrest.   It’s not a pretty sight, and Jesus is not at all happy with Peter for taking up the sword.   But we can all understand why Peter did what he did.  He was passionate.  He was afraid.  This was Jesus.  Peter is supposed to be the Rock.  He thought he had to do something, and he did.

We know that Peter’s heart was right, even when he failed, while Judas’ heart may never have been.  What makes Peter’s denial so surprising is that it is not what we have come to expect from Peter.  This is not the Peter we all thought we knew.

Back in 2001, in the summer before 9/11, were able to travel back to Europe, one week on mission and on the other week, we drove to Rome.   It was our first visit to Rome and of course, we had to see St. Peter’s Basilica, the headquarters of Roman Christianity.  As I stood amazed at the largeness of St. Peter’s, I could not forget that this magnificent cathedral was supposed to be built over the bones of Peter, who is said to have finally come to Rome, where he preached the gospel which lead to him being crucified upside down, because he refused to be crucified as a mockery to his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.   What also made the whole spectacle even more amazing, is that while most of the New Testament was written by the apostle Paul, who has a much more modest church built over his remains, the center of all Christian witness in the Roman world focused more on Peter’s faith, as Jesus said,  “Upon this rock I will build my church!”

We know that the ‘rock’ upon which the church is built upon is Peter’s own ‘great confession’ that Jesus was and is the messiah---the true Jewish king whom God has empowered not just to rule the hearts of people, but to one day rightly rule the world in peace.   When Jesus initially came unto his own and his own failed to recognize him, however, it was the faith and great confession of a very simple fishermen whose expression of whole-hearted faith established the heart of Christian desire for and belief in Jesus on earth, forever.  

Today, more than ever, we too need to realize that the church of Jesus Christ lives and dies, not based on history, not based it’s own goodness or righteousness, but the church was given birth and still either lives or dies, based upon the faith and actions of simple people, with simple, daring, determined faith, who will stand up and be counted as a disciple and follower of the Galilean who preached the nearness of God’s kingdom that comes by faith. 

Peter’s faith was a great faith.  No one moment of failure or frustration can ever take that away, just like no one moment of weakness can take away the strength and power of our own, intitial commitment to Jesus.  We must not ever any one moment keep us from seeing the big picture of who Peter was, or who we also can be, in spite of our humanness, our weaknesses, or our own personal failings.  

Not long ago, I read about the early days of Abraham Lincoln and how, his early genius and even his early promise as a lawyer and politician were often accompanied by moments of weakness, failure, depression and frustration.  Did you know that Lincoln always resented his father?   Did you know that Lincoln was a terrible manager of money?   Did you know that Lincoln had faith in God, but struggled with his faith and with going to church?   The man we consider the greatest president of our United States was a real man, but he was real with both great strengths and real weaknesses.  He was also a very clever and shrewd political opponent too, who could most naturally out-think even the most clever, educated or experienced politician around.  Lincoln was Lincoln because of who he was, but he was also Lincoln, in spite of who he was, too.   You just can’t take the weaknesses out of a person, no matter how much greatness they may achieve  (For more details see A. Lincoln, by Ronald White).

What we still see in Lincoln is what we also  see in Peter, which is first and foremost their great desire--their whole-hearted desire to do right, to believe in the right, even to be willing to stand up against greatest threats of darkness the world can muster.   With Lincoln it was his unwavering commitment to the Union that we remember.  With Peter it the confession of his faith that never changed, even though he did waver in fear.  Under the circumstances of losing your own life, who of us would fare much better than Peter?  Don’t we all know the failure induced by the fear of a moment?

HALF-HEARTED DISCIPLESHIP

Now, let’s consider Peter’s weakness in that moment.   It was only a few hours after Peter pulled out his sword and was ready to fight for Christ and the Kingdom, that all the emotions, excitement and energy have dissipated.  Reality has set it.  Peter is waiting by the fire, watching for his Lord to come out of the interrogation room.  Maybe he is hoping for the best, even while he is expecting the worst.  Again, to his credit, Peter is the only disciple left standing, when a woman stares at him in the firelight and questions his identity: “This man also was with him’.  What would you say?

I recall one of the most interesting debates we ever had in philosophy class in college.  We were studying ethics and we were debating something called the teleological suspension of the ethical.  It might sound really sophisticated, but was about a simple question:  If you were a parent of small children, and a child molester or killer showed up at your door and asked you if you where or not your children were at home, would you tell him the truth or would it be O.K. to lie.   The point we were arguing was exactly this,  sometimes you can suspend what is right, if what is right is threatened by a great wrong.               http://www.christianethicstoday.com/cetart/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.main&ArtID=1324. 

I don’t want to get into any kind of debate about absolutes, because its really not about what is right or wrong, its about doing what is necessary to save lives and maybe that was what Peter was trying to do.  Maybe he was not trying to deny Jesus as much as he was trying to save his own skin.  Maybe he was just trying to get out of a bad situation.  Who are we to judge Peter, when most of us would probably have done the same thing?

That may have been true, but it’s still not the point.   If we read on, Peter did not deny Jesus one time, but three times.  Yet, that is not the point either.  What the point is, is what Jesus said to this first woman and how he said it.  He not only, did not let his ‘no’ just be ‘no’, but he added, “Woman,  I do not know him.”   The point is, here and in the following two denials, that Peter does not have the strong faith he thinks he has.  Before he can lead , he needs to realize just how human he really is.   He can only do this when he realizes that Jesus was right:  “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me.”  You’re not as strong as you think you are.  You are person with weaknesses too.   Peter, you can’t lead, you can’t love, and you can’t follow, until you know exactly what your weaknesses are.  When you think about it, neither can we!

GOING THE WHOLE WAY WITH JESUS

None of us can go the whole way with Jesus until we confront and allow ourselves to be humbled by our weaknesses.  Denial gets you nowhere.  You can only go where you could go or should go with Jesus or in anything, for that matter, when you take a serious look at who you are, and who also you aren’t.

Many times people become surprised when great leaders disappoint them.  We are disturbed when a president commits adultery.  We are disappointed when a Pastor is not what we expected him or her to be.   All these great failures are terrible in and of themselves, but we must also realize that many times, we, with all the expectations we put upon our leaders, are the ones who create the monster leaders can become.  

I recall something that Pastor and fellow Missionary Paul Box told me years ago.  He had been the founder of a large church in Oklahoma, but the expectations of that church he founded, wore him out.  He tried to meet them all, but he couldn’t, even if it killed him, and it nearly did.  He was put in the hospital, and after he recovered, he did not go back to that church, but he went on the mission field.  Isn’t it interesting to think of someone going to the mission field to relax and find peace of mind?

I asked Paul what happened to the church after he left.  “It is still growing, but it’s still a little crazy.”   What do you mean?  He told me how he and his wife had recently gone back to the church to tell of their mission work, and how the current Pastor would not let Patti speak, because she was a woman.  “Patti is an even better speaker than me, and the pastor would not even let her speak nor approach the altar, because as the Bible says,  “A woman should be silent” in church.

When I heard about the pastor’s counterproductive, and wrong-minded interpretation of that Scripture, I asked Paul, did the church not know better?  Of course they did, but because the church was growing and the pastor was such a dynamic speaker, no one would try to reason with him.   They kept putting their preacher on a pedestal, overlooking his weaknesses and not encouraging him get real, even though he needed too.  “The youth group is growing,” they said.  “We don’t want to do anything that might halt that.”

We create the monster leaders we have, most often because we expect too much of them.   But Jesus did not expect too much from Peter.  Jesus expected that Peter would fear like all the rest, even though his heart was right.  It was Jesus who tried to get Peter to face the humanness of being human long before Peter ever did.  Peter had to come to grips with his weaknesses, not by realizing who he was beforehand, but only buy realizing what he had done, afterward.  That is never the best way to learn---the hard way.   The way of Jesus might be hard, but it’s not as ‘hard’ as the hard way.

So how do we face our own weaknesses?  How do we go all the way with Jesus?  Isn’t our greatest fear, not what we haven’t done, but that we haven’t done enough?   Maybe you want me to say that the best way to follow Jesus is do something daring and great.  I’m going to surprise you.  Maybe the greatest thing you could ever do for Jesus is to make a mistake and admit it, and then start following or leading in humility, just like everyone else who gets real.  When you do this, you have great potential.  You have the greatest potential to lead or do great things for Jesus, not because of who you are, but because of who Jesus is.   To discover this great truth could be the greatest, most freeing thing that could ever happen to you.   But trust me, it not easy.  Think about Peter.  Facing, Admitting, or Conceding your weakness is not easy.    But if you get honest with yourself, you’ll begin the journey of true greatness.    Amen.