AN AFFIRMATION OF FAITH
The Rev. Dennis Posno

God is everything to me.
Where would I be without God’s love?
A sinner, without forgiveness …
a wanderer, without a way …
living, without meaning and purpose …
wounded, without a healer …
broken, without a mender …
questioning, without an answer.

Because of God’s love,
spelled out most beautifully in Jesus in a language I can understand,
I know God’s forgiving grace …
I have found my way …
my life has meaning and purpose …
I have experienced God’s healing and mending …
and the answer to my deepest questions is found.
Where would I be without God’s love?
God is everything to me.

Scripture - Mark 1:14-20 (New International Version, ©2011)

Jesus Announces the Good News

 14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

Jesus Calls His First Disciples

 16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
 19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

In my office I have many treasurers.
Paperweights.  Carvings and paintings of ducks. And some Precious Moments figurines.
Among the many figurines are two I received as gifts many years ago.

One of them is a preacher standing behind a pulpit
with a little dog standing beside him.
His preacher’s face is bandaged up.
Things have been thrown at him:
eggs ... tomatoes ... tin cans.
But he’s still standing there.
And the scripture verse written underneath says,
“If God be for us, who can be against us.”

I has been a reminder to this preacher that
if he stays true to his faith
and if he stands tall in it,
then whatever else may stand against him
or attempt to harm him,
God stands with him.

The other Precious Moments figurine is a soldier
standing straight and tall, holding his sword and shield.
His face is bandaged up too.
And the same eggs ... and tomatoes ... and tin cans have been thrown at him.
He’s battling who knows what.
And the scripture verse written underneath says,
“Onward Christian Soldiers.”

And again, I has been a reminder to this preacher that
if he stays true to his faith
and if he stands tall in it,
then be prepared to do battle, Christian Soldier,
with all sorts of things that may attempt to hurt him.

It has also been a reminder to this preacher that life, being what it is,
is also something we do battle with.
After all, it was Jesus who said,
“In this world you will have trouble.”
And the first sentence in one of Scott Peck’s books reads,
 “Life is difficult.”

The other day, when I was moving something
near my little Onward Christian Soldier
I bumped him,
and he fell to the floor,
and shattered into several pieces.
As I knelt over my old friend, sadly,
I carefully gathered up the pieces – some big, some small –
and placed them in a bowl he stood beside.
He still lies there, broken.
He lies here, broken.

As I have thought about that broken figurine,
I have thought about the theme I have been focusing on throughout Lent -
built around the words of Harry Emerson Fosdick, that
“The life of Jesus was lived like music.”

For the next few moments
I want you to think about the “who you are” as a person of faith.

I want you to think about the faith you profess
and the faith you live out.

I want you to think about the things you believe most deeply
and the way those things come to life in your life.

I want you to think about the good in your life as a Christian
and the not so good in your life despite your Christianity.

I want you to think about the commandment of Jesus to “Love one another”
and the ways in which you have and haven’t loved.

I want you to look at the you nobody knows except you and God.

I want you to think about that broken Onward Christian Soldier figurine
and the ways in which you are broken.

And then ask yourself these questions:
What is the song that Jesus sings to me in my brokenness?
And what is the song I can sing, knowing who I am, because of it?

As you think about that
let me tell you about a man named Peter
and the song Jesus sang to him.
Although it is a song for Peter, I believe it is a song for us all.

Peter, according to the biblical record, was Jesus’ first disciple,
There was nothing extraordinary about Peter.
His world was a small world of the sea and his boat and his nets.
He was the fisherman who was called by Jesus
to cast his net for something more than fish:
to cast it for the hearts and souls  and minds of people.

Jesus said, “Come, follow me.”   And Peter followed.

Unlike us, Peter heard Jesus’ voice
          and in that voice he heard the voice of God,
                   Unlike us, he saw Jesus’ healing touch
                             and in that touch he saw the hand of God.
                                      Unlike us, he saw the way Jesus was with people:
                                                welcoming, challenging, forgiving, demanding ...
                                                          but always, and in all ways, loving ...
                                                                    and in Him Peter saw the face of God.

 

 

Peter was probably not the first to see it
but he was the first to say it.
When Jesus asked the question,
“But what about you?  Who do you say that I am?”
it was Peter who answered with divine insight:
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Peter knew who Jesus was.
          He lived with Him.
                   Walked with Him.
                             Ate with Him.
                                      Laughed with Him.
                                                Talked with Him.
                                                         Grew with Him.
                                                                   Grew in Him.
                                                                             Peter, although he didn’t know it all, knew enough.
                                                                                      I’m sure for all of them they were heady days.

Jesus and Peter were friends.  Buddies.  They hung out together.
But a day came when Peter left Jesus hanging out to dry –
hanging out to die.

The night before that day came,
the night before He died,
Jesus was with Peter and the others
in the upper room of a house.
They had shared the Passover meal together.

And it was there that Jesus said that everyone,
including every one of them, including Peter,
would fall away, would scatter like sheep without a shepherd.
And it was Peter who said to his friend, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

When Jesus said to Peter, even with all of Peter’s professed loyalty,
          that Peter would disown Him, deny Him, leave Him hanging out to dry,
                   Peter insisted emphatically:
                             “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.”

But Peter, for all of his declared faith,
did just as Jesus predicted: he denied he ever knew Him.
Not once.  Not twice.  But three times.

But Peter, for all of his declared faith,
did just as Jesus predicted: along with the others,
at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion, he scattered like a sheep without a shepherd.

Peter, for all of his declared faith,
despite all of his protestations to the opposite,
failed the One whom he had seen as the Son of God,
in whom He had seen the face of God.

And like that Precious Moments figurine he was shattered to pieces.
     When the realization of what he had done swept over him
“he broke down and wept.”
This flesh and blood Christian Soldier was not able to go onward.

Like Humpty Dumpty who had his great fall
nothing, it seemed, could put him back together again.

It is a tragedy of monumental proportions.
And if that was the end of the story it would break our hearts.
But it does not end there.

Not wanting to get ahead of myself
          but needing to in order to tell Peter’s story,
                   days after the crucifixion
the disciples had gathered at the seaside.
        What were they to do?
                 What was to become of them?
                           Was it back to doing whatever they were doing
                                    before they met Jesus?
                                              For Peter, was it back to the sea?
                                                        Back to the boat?
                                                                 Back to the nets?

It was then that a stranger came ...
but He didn’t remain a stranger for long ...
for it was Jesus, crucified, now risen.
And Peter recognized Him.
Recognized the One he had lived with
                                                                             walked with
                                                                             ate with
                                                                             laughed with
                                                                             talked with.
The One he had denied
      and run from
      and wept for
      as much as he wept for himself.

And Jesus spoke to him.
He asked Peter a question.
Not once.  Not twice.  But three times.

“Simon, Son of John, do you love me?”

And three times, like the three times he had denied Him, Peter answered.
“Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”
And three times Jesus said:
“Feed my sheep.”

And then, Jesus said something to him that was unexpected
unwarranted
unbelievable.
As He had when He first saw Peter three years earlier
at the seaside on his boat casting his net,
Jesus said to this shattered man:
“Follow me.”

The man who was ready to go back to his boat
back to the sea and back to the nets,
was invited to follow again.

Peter, who had lost so much in his denials ...
who had lost so much in his falling away ...
who was as shattered as my Precious Moments figurine ...
in that place, in that moment, found so much again.

It was as though Jesus had picked up the shattered pieces of the man Peter was
and lovingly, piece by piece, put him back together again.
In those words “Follow me” Jesus sang His song to Peter.

It was Jesus’ song of grace.

Despite everything, Peter was still loved.

Despite the worst in him.
Despite the failings in him.

Peter would discover, as Paul would later write, that
“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

Peter would discover, and sing, as John Newton would later write:
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now I’m found,
was blind, but now I see.”

Peter would discover, as another has written, that
“God is a God of second chances and new beginnings.”

Peter would discover, as I have written, that
“No life is so lost that grace cannot find it ...
no life so wasted that grace cannot give it a new purpose ...
no sin so grievous that grace cannot forgive it ...
no life so small that grace cannot enlarge it ...
no person so defeated that grace cannot lift them ...
no situation so hopeless that grace cannot transform it ...
no life so shattered that grace cannot mend it ...

no life so full that grace cannot fill it to overflowing ...
no life so happy that grace cannot fill it with joy unspeakable.
No one’s life is beyond the reach of it.
Not yours.  Not mine.  Not Peter’s.  Not anyone’s.”

That’s the song Jesus sang to Peter.
For the joy of loving him.
For the joy of seeing him whole after he had been shattered to pieces.
For the joy of seeing him stand up after he had fallen.
For the joy.

The God of second chances and new beginnings, in Jesus,
loved Peter the most when he deserved it the least.

And what was the song Peter sang because of it?
Who was the man he became because of it?
Peter came to be known as The Big Fisherman.
He cast his net, as Jesus said called him to, and became a “fisher of people.” .

As the old gospel song puts it,
“It is no secret what God can do:
what He’s done for others He’ll do for you.”
What God did in Peter’s life, God can do in yours.
The shattered pieces of anyone’s life can be put together again.
So listen to Jesus’ “Follow me” song ... and sing “Amazing Grace” as you follow.

HYMN:  “Amazing Grace”

SOLI  DEO  GLORIA
To God Alone The Glory