Looking
back, I have to assume they prayed for us. a lot.
But
I also have to wonder if they were pleasantly surprised later, when we both
managed to be pretty normal grownups, who do all kinds of stuff. Successful
adults, you might even say. It turned out we both had the ability to respond to
the challenges of life and do okay.
Even
though neither of our mothers could see it at the time. Sometimes, I guess, the
way it is gets in the way of our ability to see how it might be.
In
reading the gospels, I often look at the disciples of Jesus and think: what a
bunch of numbskulls they are. Hopeless. They can’t seem to learn from
experience. Jesus tells them something again and again and they still don’t get
it. They watch him feed thousands of people with a few loaves and a couple of
fish. Then, the next time they are faced with a hungry crowd they shrug and
say, “What? How can anything be done? There’s no way!”
I
know, I should be more understanding of them. How were they to know any of
these things? All their experiences with Jesus were unlike anything they had
experienced before. All the things he taught them were unlike anything they had
been taught before. They had no framework for any of this. But still, I think,
couldn’t they do better? They were with him all the time. They saw what he was
doing. Why would they deny what they saw with their own eyes?
Yet,
every once in a while, one of them would blurt out something amazing. Like
Peter in this passage: You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God. This is
astounding knowledge, an amazing breakthrough.
But
in the very next moment, in typical Peter fashion, he says something dumb.
Jesus is trying to warn his disciples about the things that will happen to him.
But Peter cuts him off and says, “Ah, go on. Are you kidding? That’ll never
happen.”
To
which Jesus tells Peter, “Get behind me Satan, for you are a stumbling block to
me.” So much for the star pupil; so much for this budding leader of the pack.
He still doesn’t get it.
The
rock upon which Jesus will build his church…he’s not quite there – yet.
Peter
is the kind of guy we all probably know. He is sort of impulsive. He says what
he is thinking when he is thinking it. No censorship going on in his head, it’s
“open mouth, insert foot.” Peter is the guy who jumps right out of the boat
when Jesus invites him to walk on water with him, but then goes into a panic
when he realizes he is walking on water. Peter is the guy who scoffs at the
suggestion that he would ever in a million years deny Jesus. Then within hours,
three times, he denies Jesus.
Is
he really bedrock material? Has Peter got the stuff that foundations are made
of? I’d be more than a little worried. I might be looking at him the way my
mother looked at me when I was trying to learn how to burp my firstborn baby:
This might not work.
But,
in spite of all Peter’s frailties and shortcomings, Jesus sees something in him.
Jesus sees potential in this guy called Simon, and he renames him: Peter, the
rock. To me, the only rock Peter resembled at that point was the scree at the
bottom of the mountain. To Jesus, however, he was the firm foundation. He was
the keeper of the keys of the kingdom. In Peter, Jesus saw his church.
It
takes some kind of vision to be able to see that. But, of course, he was right.
In the book of Acts, we see Peter blossom fully. Peter grows into his full
potential.
And
it could have been so different. What if Jesus could only see Peter as the guy
who makes bad decisions? The guy who says dumb things? The guy who betrays him?
But
in spite of all that, Jesus sees that Peter has inside of him all that he will
need to be a great apostle. He sees beyond what is and sees what could be.
Jesus sees the possible.
This
is important for us to realize because it is still just as important for us to
practice this kind of vision: to see beyond what is, to see what could be – the
possible.
It
is important in our own lives. We all go through times when we really don’t
know what’s next for us. We find ourselves at a crossroads trying to figure out
which way to go. Or worse, we might feel we are at the edge of a cliff, with no
way to go. In these moments it is helpful to be able to see the possibilities.
To be able to step into the unknown and forge a new and previously unimagined trail
for ourselves. To see the possible.
It
is also important in our relationships. Perhaps there is someone in your life
who feels stuck, unable to move forward. But perhaps you can see some possibility
that they cannot yet see for themselves. Perhaps you can help someone begin to
envision a future. To see the possible.
But
even more, I want to suggest that this is very important for us as the church.
The
church has gone through some tough times over the past decades. We have watched
numbers of church members, numbers of people who call themselves believers,
dwindle. We have watched the aging of our congregations, along with the
shrinking. And we have watched the reputation of the church get dragged through
the mud – not unjustly. There have been a lot of bad actions by church leaders
and a failure to atone for them. It is not a mystery why people have drifted
away from the church.
These
things cause us to become discouraged. We begin to think like those first
disciples when they said, “What? How can anything be done? There’s no way. It’s
impossible.”
We
believe we can do nothing. We will say we are too small, too old, too tired. When
we can no longer do the things we used to do we feel we may as well give up.
But what if we, instead of seeing only what is, opened our eyes to what is
possible? To see what is not yet but could be?
Think
of the butterfly. If we didn’t know anything about the life cycle, no one would
ever look at a caterpillar wiggling on the ground and think, “that’s going to
be a beautiful butterfly someday.” In fact, no one would even look at a wet,
wrinkled newborn butterfly hanging from the remains of the chrysalis and say,
“That’s going to open its beautiful wings and fly.” But, miraculously, the
potential for all that is within the fuzzy, caterpillar we see wiggling on the
dirt.
Don’t
we believe that there is just as much miraculous potential in us?
Even back in the day of Isaiah, God was saying,
“Look; I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive
it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
Do
you not perceive it? Do you not believe it?
It’s
all in what we believe. The possibility will be realized when we expect it,
prepare for it, claim it.
To
see beyond what is and see the possibility of what could be is to live into the
future God desires for us.
The
church is at a crossroads – in many ways, big and small. On some days it kind
of looks like it is at the edge of a cliff, with no way to go but down. But
there might be another way. If we are willing, we might be able to spread our
wings and fly.
Of
course, we’ve never done it that way before, have we? And yet…
Do you believe in the possible? Can you imagine things you have not yet seen?
Photo by Bankim Desai on Unsplash
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