God never gives up on us

"Which of the two did what the father wanted?" They said, "The
second." Matthew 21:31

Do you remember the Gospel episode in which Jesus asks the disciples, "Who do
people say that the Son of Man is?" and "Who do you say that I am?"
(Mt.16:13,15). It is then that Simon Peter has one of his finest hours, and one of his
worst.

At this point in the Gospel no one has openly acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah. It is
Simon Peter who blurts out the answer first:

"You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." The power and the strength
of the faith this revelation from God has given Him evokes high praise from Jesus. Peter
reminds him of hard rock. "You are Rock…I will entrust to you the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven," Jesus tells Simon Peter. (Mt.16:18,19). It is the apostle’s
finest hour.

But, as someone else has said, Peter was not yet a very stable rock. He was a rock that
moved. He fell, he faltered, he failed, he shifted. He made mistakes. In that very
rewarding moment with Jesus, he made a big one.

Christ was using that moment as an opportunity to try to explain to the disciples that
He was going to be tortured and executed; that He was not the kind of Messiah they had
been looking forward to; that He was not going to be a political hero or great military
leader. He was going to be humiliated, made to suffer and die, as the Prophet Isaiah had
foretold.

Peter could not accept that. To the same Jesus he had just acknowledged as Messiah, he
said, "God forbid that any such thing happen to you." Peter was correcting the
Messiah, and Jesus whirled on him and called him "Satan." In seconds, the Keeper
of the Keys to God’s Kingdom became the personification of Satan. The "rock" had
moved.

Peter was constantly blowing hot and cold, making mistakes, catching the ball and then
dropping it. He was impulsive and impetuous down to the very last night of Jesus’ life.
Peter was right there with the Master, pledging his loyalty and support to the death. But
Jesus knew His man. He looked him in the eye and said, "Peter, the cock will not crow
today until you have three times denied that you know Me." (Lk.22:34).

Peter, of course, knew that that was impossible-but it happened. Three times he denied
that He even knew Christ. This was Simon Peter: A strong man and a weak man; a solid rock
and a rock that moved. But that is not the whole story, because God never gave up on
Peter.

There is much of Peter in each one of us. We have come here today as a People who
intend a good life. We want to be Christ’s women and men. We honestly have good intentions
about changing our ways.

There is a rock-like quality in us down at the center. But, like Peter, we are rocks
that move. We fall, we falter, we fail, we make mistakes, we hurt other people (often the
people we love most). We talk about Christian love and we mean to love, but oh how we
fail!

Time after time after time, even in our own families we fail in love. Maybe someone
else’s ego is getting in our way! Maybe we’ve become emotionally drained from the
pressures of our day-to-day  situation. Maybe we’re just overly tired, physically.
That’s the way it is. In spite of our good intentions, the edges become a little sharp and
they begin to rub up against each other, and we wilt!

There is a wonderful story of a grandmother who went to Church one Sunday, aglow with
joyful anticipation. Her grandchildren were coming next day to spend a week with her. She
was so happy about it she put five dollars in the collection basket. The very next Sunday,
after the grandchildren had just left, she put twenty-five dollars in the collection
basket.

We fail so often, not only in our close relationships but also in our involvement with
the "outside" world. As Christians, we know that we are called to personal
involvement in God’s mission of love  to the world. We know that we are on mission,
all our lives. We talk about this and we intend that we shall become involved in whatever
way the Holy Spirit will direct us, but the fact is that most of us never go out into our
Father’s vineyard. Most of us love only a very few people and we need to be shocked into
seeing how narrow we have become and who we really are.

In Albert Camus’ novel, "The Fall," there is a devastating line that
expresses the truth of this. It comes in a scene where the respectable lawyer, walking in
the streets of Amsterdam, hears a cry in the night. He realizes a woman has fallen or been
pushed into the canal and is crying for help. Then the thoughts come rushing through his
mind: Of course he must help, but… A respected lawyer getting involved in this way? What
would the implications be? … And what about the personal danger? After all, who knows
what has been going on over there.

By the time he has thought it through, it is too late. He moves on, making all kinds of
excuses to justify his failure to act. But, Camus, in that devastating line, says,
"He did not answer the cry for help. That is the man he was." This is precisely
what happens to us. We come here with good intentions. We resolve to be Christ’s women and
men as never before. Then we go back out and we hear the cries for help but we just move
on, making excuses all the way. And we stand under the judgment of Camus’ devastating
line: He did not answer the cry for help. That is the man he was.

In today’s Gospel Lesson we have the simple little story of how two brothers responded
to their father’s call for help in the vineyard. One son expressed his good intentions,
saying, "I am on my way, sir." But he never went out to the vineyard. The other
responded negatively, saying, "No, I will not." But he later changed this
attitude and he did go out to do his father’s work. "Which of the two did what the
father wanted," Jesus asks the chief priests and the elders of the Temple. They
answer correctly, of course, "the second."

Jesus doesn’t put on this little quiz to see how smart His listeners are. He is making
a crucial point with them about their relationship with God. It is not what you say, not
what you promise, not what you teach that matters most. Far better to move from bad
intentions to positive action than to remain locked into your good intentions and no
action. This is a lesson in repentance.

You stumble, you fall, you hedge, you shift, you fail, but God is always there, ready
to pick you up, if only you will repent. Repentance takes you beyond good intentions.
Repentance is the process of actually becoming the person God wants you to be. Only the
power of God was great enough to do this for Simon Peter. And the power of God can do this
for you and for me, if we will let it come into our lives. No need to sit there turning
yourself over the coals and blaming yourself, over and over again, for your failures and
your misdeeds. The forgiveness, the healing, the New Life is here and it will change
everything for you if only you will open yourself up to receive the Resurrection Power of
a loving God. 

One Church Historian describes the last years of Simon Peter as follows: "We have
a picture of a saintly man, laden with years and fame, still bearing on his face the
radiance of that light which he had received on the day of Transfiguration. An old soldier
of the Gospel, whose presence alone constituted a lesson in the faith, making his way from
city to city, blessing, healing, exalting souls and bringing the peace of Christ into
men’s hearts. The solid stability of Peter, the Rock, was sorely needed (by the early
persecuted Church) … He died on a cross, in his humility having asked to be hung there
not upright, as his Divine Master had been hung, but upside-down, his head dangling
towards the earth."

This miracle of life which was the Apostle Peter, is the constant miracle-of-the-moment
with God. A loving God transforms rocks that move into solid pillars of strength. This is
what He did with Simon Peter. This is what He is doing, at this moment, with you and me.

At this moment God is offering us the strength to answer those cries in the night with
more than good intentions. Carry your mission into your Father’s vineyard. And have no
fear. The strength will come. God is with you. 

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From the "Sunday Sermons CD-ROM Collection"

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