#AdventUs WAY

Way

You know we are just all on our way.  Anyone who thinks they have arrived really have a long way to go.  

The road is rather strange in that sometimes we get to share the road with someone who is a lot farther along than we are. And sometimes we are called to walk beside and encourage those who have farther to go than we do.   

Sometimes we lead.  Sometimes we follow. There are times when we need to lean on someone else.  There are times when others lean on us.   

Much of the way we travel alone. Sometimes we stop and rest awhile. 

We are just all on our way. 

Remember You are Dust

I am in my 50s now and very aware that I probably have fewer years left than I have lived.   I pay attention to how old people are when I hear of their deaths and compare that to my own age.

Remember that you are dust and to dust, you shall return.

There are many pastors who want to add something to those words like “Remember that God loves you and forgives you”.  

Well yes, God does love you,  but this body is still going to return to dust.  It is only because of God’s love and forgiveness that I have a chance of something beyond this dusty life, but dust is where I am destined.

Christianity today is very influenced by ancient Greek philosophy which said we are all immortal souls trapped in bodies on earth.  “I am just a stranger here, heaven is my home”

Well, the bible says something a little different.  

Heaven is not our home, earth is our home.  

God created us out of the earth and placed on the earth.  Our bodies are designed to live on earth, not in heaven.   We do not become angels when we die; we go to the dust when we die.

Of course like most other Christians, I long for something more than this broken, lost and often unkind world.  

But rather than a promise of an escape from this earth, the great biblical Christian hope is a redeemed world, not an escape from the world.  

We hope for resurrected bodies, not escape from our bodies.

I am made from and for this world and yet this world will not be like this forever.

I try to let this truth give me perspective.   

So that I enjoy and care for and give thanks for all the worldly blessings I have.  So that I do what God has given me to do so that others benefit more in this world from this world. 

But that I don’t cling to the things of this world so tightly that I lose trust in God to bring me to something better.

And so when those ashes are rubbed on my forehead, I need no other words to give me both humility and hope –

 “Remember you are dust and dust you shall return.

This Month's Newsletter Article

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,* but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love

I Corinthians 13

We live in a time of transition, turmoil and anxiety.  There is conflict, division and incivility, not just in politics but in our churches.  People lament the lack of respect while at the same time refusing to respect those with whom they differ.  Stands are taken.  Lines are drawn.

And yet even in the certainty of the rightness of our stand, the security of our boundaries drawn, there is a sense that something is not right.    Despite how right we know we are, we sense that all this stand taking and line drawing is in fact, not pleasing to God.

We can cite scripture chapter and verse to prove our point but 

“If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal”

We know with all certainty that our stand is correct and true, our faith does not waver and yet 

 “if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.”

Perhaps we have made great sacrifices for our beliefs but still

“If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast,* but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

“But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end.” 

All the things we argue about and which divide and cause us such anxiety will come to an end.  It is only love which is eternal.

We yearn for clear answers and certainty in this world but 

“for now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known”

Why does the world scorn the church?  We can point fingers and come up with all the faults and sins unbelievers, but we still must answer the question, what does world see when it looks a the church?  Does it see love?  Is there an unbeliever such as the pagans in the time of the early church who can point to us and say “See how they love each other?”

God came into the world because of love.  God loves the world, sinful, confused and divided as it is.  God loves us, sinful, confused and divided as we are.  It sounds so simple and trite to simply say “Love one another” and yet if we are looking for commandments to save us – this is the one which will save us.  Love one another.  Love will save us.  Love already has saved us.

May God’s love continue to heal and transform us and empower us to love each other and the world in a way that heals and transforms.

No Such Thing as Too Much Grace - Part Duex

This month's Newsletter "from the pastor"

No Such Thing as Too Much Grace

If there is one thing I know for sure and  will stake my present life and my salvation on, it is that grace is true and sure and the only thing in this world and the next that we can depend upon.

If there is anything in my ministry that I am sure about~ it is that I cannot go wrong as long as I proclaim God’s love, acceptance and forgiveness for all people, won through Christ’s life, death and resurrection –a gift that can only be grasped through the gift of faith.  Anything good we have in this world or are promised in the next is a sheer undeserved gift from God, given to us out of God’s love and generosity and has nothing to do with anything we can say, do, argue, or even believe on our own.

I believe the problems we encounter in this life are not because we hear too much about grace or depend too much on grace, but because we do not hear enough about grace, nor do we depend enough upon grace.

When we turn away from grace we fall into two traps.  Both these traps are waiting for us when we turn into ourselves.  The traps we fall into when we turn away from grace are arrogance and despair.

We fall away from grace when we turn into the arrogance of thinking we can save ourselves.  We can do this so easily even when we are reciting by memory the beloved Lutheran phrase of “saved by grace through faith”.   We want to help God along and depend upon our own strength or morality, or our certainty of our being right on certain issues.

We can get away with this for awhile because we all have sins that are easy for us to avoid and so we can easily say “I don’t ever commit THAT sin” Or we have sins and temptations we easily catch and can boast “Well at least I REPENTED of THAT sin” .  There are some issues that are clear to us and we can sleep well at night knowing we have taken the correct position.  There are religious doctrines we accept easily and so assure ourselves that our faith is sure.   

But then there are the sins we commit over and over.  Sins we hide or rationalize and refuse to repent of for so long that we have convinced ourselves they aren’t even really sins.  At least not sins as bad as someone else’s.   There are issues and moral dilemmas that seem to have no clear or satisfying answer.  There are questions  to  which we never seem to find any certain answers.  There are doubts we have about God and God’s will that lay under the surface of the certainty we present to the outside world.

The more we deny these resentments, sins and doubts, the more we turn away from God and into ourselves, trying harder and harder to justify ourselves – often becoming more and more judgmental of others because if we can only convince ourselves and the rest of the world that at least we are not as sinful as those other people, we won’t be so convicted of the sin we know lies within us.

It will not work.  It will lead to despair.  We will either become hypocrites, closed to God, yet condemning others for their sins while denying our own, or we will give in even more to sin and deny God entirely. 

Or we can just give up and admit we are sinful as the next guy. We sin every day.  We do not repent of our sin.  We do not trust God.    We could very possible be totally wrong about everything about which we fought so hard to convince others of our rightness.  In this moment of surrender comes the good news – God loves you.  Period.  Even in your sin.  Even in your uncertainty.  Even if you are dead wrong.  Even in your lack of faith.  Trust THAT.  Faith is trusting that God loves you.  Period.  Unfaith adds a but. “God loves you but you have to believe thus and so, but you have to confess FIRST, but you have to do this or that….”  None of those buts are faith.   Faith is trusting that God loves you.  Period.  No buts.

I can hear the “but” coming “BUT” isn’t this just a free pass to sit around and do nothing?  No because grace is what empowers you to DO something, not because you have to, because you want to, because you can.  Those who trust grace do things.  They feed the poor, they forgive their enemies, they try to avoid sin that leads them away from God but they trust that grace will put them back on track when they do stray.  Those who trust grace worship God out of love and gratitude and joy, not out of fear and obligation. 

The body of Christ is built up and sustained by God’s grace, not fear and obligation.   The Gospel is spread by those who trust God’s grace.  The Kingdom grows through God’s grace.  We need to hear more about God’s grace, not less. If I never get anything else right in my life, if I mess up everything else, I stand convinced to my soul that Grace is everything.  Here I stand.  I can do no other.  Amen.

No Such Thing as Too Much Grace

Grace is really hard to get.  What a mean trick of sin that it keeps us from grasping and clinging to this gift.

And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him —provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

Colossians 1:21-23

  

We who were once estranged and hostile in mind have been reconciled sovthat now we, who should be filthy and despicable, are presented before  God holy and blameless and irreproachable.
What astounding amazing good news of God’s love grace and forgiveness.

 And what a tragedy that sin and this harsh broken world has turned us into such cynics that we don't don't believe it.  It can't possibly be that simple.   It's too easy.  "You shouldn't say that to people, Pastor because people are going to think that it is a free pass"  No free passes in this world.  You only get what you deserve.


But nobody gets what they deserve in this life.  Most of us with healthy self-esteems think we probably deserve a lot better that what life has dealt us.  Most of us think we deserve the good things we have. We've worked for them --we earned them.  Nobody likes to acknowledge the gifts we've received,the good things that came because we were just plain lucky or even at the expense of others.   If we dare take a good hard long look inside we will see that we don't really deserve anything good.

 

And yet we are promised to be presented before God holy and blameless and IRREPROACHABLE.  That'sright IRREPROACHABLE - so why are you reproaching others or yourself when Christ himself has declared us irreproachable?

But

There must be a catch. 
There must be something we have to do. 
Surely we have to prove that we are worthy of such amazing grace. 

There is a catch.  Do not waver from this promise.  Cling to this promise.  Trust this promise.  Do not go looking for other ways to make yourself worthy.  Do not shift from this hope that is promised in the Gospel to some other hope, some other promise, some other lie that there is any other way you can appear holy and blameless before God other than clinging to this astonishing gift that he has given us for no other reason than his boundless love for us.  God loves you.  Period.  That is the gospel.  Believe it  or die.

My hope is built on nothing else but Jesus blood and righteous. 
No merit of my own I claim, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name. 
On Christ the solid rock I stand.  All other ground is sinking sand.

Juliet Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation - Worth Repeating

 This is a repeat from last yer:

Arise then...women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly: "We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,  
Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs." From the bosom of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with Our own.
It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe out dishonor, Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity,
I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
  May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace.

1870

Almond Trees, Crocus and God's Sure Promises

The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Jeremiah, what do you see?’ And I said, ‘I see a branch of an almond tree.’^{* 12}Then the Lord said to me, ‘You have seen well, for I am watching^* over my word to perform it.’

Jeremiah 1:11-12

In English this passage from Jeremiah doesn’t make a lot of sense.  But the word for the flowering almond in Hebrew is “watch”.  So God is playing a little word game with Jeremiah.  There are actually a lot of puns and plays on words in the Old Testament.  The almond tree flowers in early spring.  When you see the almond tree flower, you know that spring is coming.  You can count on it.  Like the crocus here.  They may be buried in snow, you may still be wearing your boots and coat but when you see the crocus, you know that it will not be winter forever.  Spring will come.  The crocus and flowering almond are signs of that promise.

In the same God’s promise of his love and care and redemption can be counted on.  Although we look around and see injustice and pain and darkness, God is with us and watches over us. We can count on that as sure as we can count on spring.

Hanging on to Advent

Advent - Rodger Hutchison

I wrote this last year:

Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him Psalm 37:7

This fall the Christmas decorations began to crowd out the Halloween decorations early in October. Radio stations began to play Christmas music long before Thanksgiving.

And again I begin to feel like the Grinch who stole Christmas as I launch my annual battle to save Advent in the church.

Advent is the season of the church to help us slow down and quiet ourselves in order to hear the voice calling in the wilderness “Prepare the way of the Lord” While the world eagerly rushes into it’s version of Christmas, the voice calls us to “Wait” .

Wait for Christmas. Advent calls us to wait, do not rush headlong heedless into the false Christmas the world beckons us to, but wait – wait for God who will come to us in the Christ child at Christmas.

The advent hymns, beautiful, somber but hopeful, often in a minor key, strike a discordant note with the piped in carols we hear in the shopping malls, but those Advent hymns serve to remind us the Christmas proclaimed by the merchants has nothing to do with a small child born to a homeless couple in Bethlehem.

The world changed forever when God became flesh and was born of a woman. The world changed forever when God became flesh and taught us that the first would be last and the last would be first. The world changed forever when God became flesh and taught us to love and forgive one another. The world changed forever God became flesh and died and rose to show us what that love could accomplish.

The world claims it is “celebrating Christmas” and yet acts as though nothing has changed. The opulent displays and calls to “buy buy buy!” proclaim that Christmas is Good News for the rich and powerful.

When we follow the Advent path to Christmas, we hear the song of Mary that proclaims … “he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:53).
Advent takes us past the malls and merchants to a stable, where a young homeless frightened girl gives birth to the Creator of All.

It is only when we have waited through Advent for God to come to us in that babe at Christmas that we realize the world will never be the same again.

This season I pray for patience for all of us to appreciate the gift of waiting, preparation and anticipation for the joy that comes when Christmas comes for real.

It is God who Justifies - Who is to Condemn?

So I write a daily (well Tuesday-Sat) email devotion - mostly for some congregation members and some others. Usually I use a text from the Daily Lectionary. I'm leading a summer bible study on Romans so lately I've taken the text from Romans..

I started out writing it every single morning but that got to be too much so first I cut out Sunday and then Monday, my day off. But it is still quite a commitment. Sometimes I forget or blow it off. Or write what I think it's pretty much fluff. But my wonderful secretary will often give me some feedback that shows she's been thinking about what I said. And I got feedback from my never met facebook friend Ruth that she found today's devotion particularly meaningful. So I think I will work harder on these devotions. It is good discipline and prayerful for me to do as well. This was today's

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is probably one of my favorite verses to read at a funeral. But it is a message of hope and encouragement for us today. If God is for us who is against us? Who dares to say that you are not good enough, not pretty enough, not smart enough, not “spiritual” enough, not strong enough, not skinny enough, not popular enough, not wealthy enough, not cool enough, not well read enough, not educated enough, not “straight” enough, not American enough, to stand before God and your fellow creatures as a beloved child of God set apart to love and serve God and your neighbor?

Anyone who would dare say that needs to be forgiven because they don’t know what they are talking about. It is God who justifies. It is God who created and breathed us into life and Christ who lived, rose and died to bring us into new life and it is the Holy Spirit that sanctifies and strengthens and encourages and keeps us in this new life to which we have been born anew. No one can contradict what God has said and done. You are God’s new creation. You have been called to new and abundant life. Go and serve the Lord. Thanks be to God!

Prayer:
Gracious loving God, open our hearts to hear and accept only your message of grace and to those who would condemn us, close our minds to their condemnation but open our hearts to pray for the message of your Gospel to reach their hearts as well. Amen."

The Ascension of Our Lord

So when they had come together, they asked him, 'Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?' He replied, 'It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.' When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. While he was going and they were gazing up towards heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up towards heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.'

Acts 1:6-11

The Feast of the Ascension is something of a lost festival. Churches used to have special weeknight worship services to celebrate it. Nobody pays much attention to it anymore.

Part of the problem is the difficulty we have as post modern folk with the image of Jesus taking off as if he had jet rockets attached to his feet. Perhaps we think of it as a sad day. It seems a cruel trick that they get their beloved Lord back for a short 40 days, only to have him leave them again.


But Jesus did not leave them. We have these difficulties because we think of heaven and earth as different locations in the same space and time. N. T. Wright in his "Surprised by Hope – Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church" says we need to understand heaven and earth to be different dimensions of God's creation. 

I think the Eastern Orthodox icons of the Ascension do a much better job of portraying the "other" dimension than does Western artistic images of Jesus floating up the sky.

So that when the risen Christ "ascends" to his heavenly throne at the right hand of God, he has not left us at all. In fact he has entered a dimension where he is accessible to all of us, regardless of where on earth we are. On earth, Christ is only available to his disciples in first century Palestine. Ascended to his Father, Jesus is available to believers of all times and places

…the ascension therefore means that Jesus is available, accessible, without people having to travel to a particular spot on earth to find him. Second, heaven is as it were the control for earth; it is the CEO's office, the place from which instructions are given "All authority is given to me, 'said Jesus at the end of Matthew's gospel, "in heaven and on earth" (pg 111)

I think this is also the vision in Revelation – where the saints gather to worship God – it is not some future place – it is reality now. Wright argues and I agree that the biblical view of salvation is when God joins and heaven and earth. Christ's ascension is the beginning of that joining of heaven and earth, future and present.


Heaven is not far away in the sky – it is as close as our prayers.

Almighty God, your only Son was taken up into heaven and in power intercedes for us. May we also come into your presence and live forever in your glory, though you Son, Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Holy Saturday - He Descended into Hell

Descent into Hell - Duccio

"He descended into hell"

Of course now we know that the original word "Hades" does not mean "hell" the way we understand it. It simply means the place of the dead. 

We confess that Jesus was really dead. 

 He didn't just appear dead, as some were claiming at the time the Apostles creed was formed. He was dead. Whatever happens to people when they die, happened to Jesus.

And yet there is something very appealing about the ancient traditions of Jesus invading hell itself and releasing all the souls trapped there. If Hell is the place of total darkness and absence from God, Jesus' invasion of it shows there is no place that can hold God back.

 There is no darkness Christ's Light cannot illumine. 

 In fact, if Hell is the absence of God, and Christ has invaded Hell, it no longer even exists! There is no longer exists a place where God is absent.

The following is an ancient Holy Saturday homily by an anonymous priest. I rather like it:

The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.

The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear. He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep.

Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory.

At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: “My Lord be with you all”. Christ answered him: “And with your spirit”.

He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: “Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light”. I am your God, who for your sake have become your son.

Out of love for you and for your descendants I now by my own authority command all who are held in bondage to come forth, all who are in darkness to be enlightened, all who are sleeping to arise. I order you, O sleeper, to awake.

I did not create you to be held a prisoner in hell.

Rise from the dead, for I am the life of the dead. Rise up, work of my hands, you who were created in my image.

Rise, let us leave this place, for you are in me and I am in you; together we form only one person and we cannot be separated. For your sake I, your God, became your son; I, the Lord, took the form of a slave; I, whose home is above the heavens, descended to the earth and beneath the earth. For your sake, for the sake of man, I became like a man without help, free among the dead.

For the sake of you, who left a garden, I was betrayed to the Jews in a garden, and I was crucified in a garden. See on my face the spittle I received in order to restore to you the life I once breathed into you.

See there the marks of the blows I received in order to refashion your warped nature in my image. On my back see the marks of the scourging I endured to remove the burden of sin that weighs upon your back. See my hands, nailed firmly to a tree, for you who once wickedly stretched out your hand to a tree.

I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side for you who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side has healed the pain in yours. My sleep will rouse you from your sleep in hell. The sword that pierced me has sheathed the sword that was turned against you.

Rise, let us leave this place.
 

The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you. I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God.

The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager. The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open.

The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity.

Peter’s Denial

"Peter's Denial"
Michael D. O'Brien StudiObrien

When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
And Jesus said to them, ‘You will all become deserters; for it is
written,

“I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered.”
But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.’ Peter said to him, ‘Even though all become deserters, I will not.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Truly I tell you, this day, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.’ But he said vehemently, ‘Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.’ And all o fthem said the same.
Mark 14:26-31

Oh that Peter! Never forget what Peter's role is in the Gospels – he says what the others are thinking. Even more so – Peter represents us.

Peter was in trouble even before he denied Jesus. Actually he is already denying Jesus. Jesus says they will all betray him. Peter denies that Jesus knows what he is talking about. Peter always thinks he knows better than Jesus. He knows Jesus should stop talking about suffering and dying. He knows Jesus shouldn't be washing his feet. He knows that Jesus is wrong about him.

"Listen Jesus, I'm better than you think. I'm better than everyone else. THEY might all desert you but I won't"

And therein lays the sin of Peter. The sin of all of us. Thinking we are better than God gives us credit for. Thinking we are better than everyone else. Everyone else may let you down, God, but not me. You can count on me. Never mind that you just TOLD me that you can't count on me…I am better than that.

And in trying to convince God that we are so much better than God is giving us credit for, we miss the grace that is being offered to us. But Peter is so caught up in justifying himself -he misses that important promise "When I am raised up"! What Jesus is TRYING to tell the disciples if Peter hadn’t interrupted him is that they are all going to run away and abandon Jesus but that it’s still going to be alright. Even that abandonment is part of the plan. Jesus is going to experience the depth of human loneliness as all his friends cut out on him. It is all part of Jesus' task to submit to the evil he will defeat. Jesus will defeat the evil that causes us such fear that we abandon our friends and forget our promises.

Peter had to learn to accept grace the hard way. The evangelist tells his story so that it may be easier for us to receive God's grace.