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The guest on Desert Island Discs
last week was Bernard Cornwell, once known as Bernard
Wiggins, who used to produce the TV programme
‘Nationwide’. As a young child, he had been adopted
by a couple who belonged to an extreme fundamentalist sect
known as ‘The Peculiar People’. So he was brought
up in a way which I understand very well, because there was
more than a hint in it of my own father’s views on the
world. He said that the reason he had been adopted was to ensure his salvation, as he bore the stigma of being what was then known as an illegitimate child. He described how this was to come about by experiencing conversion - going to the front of the congregation with whom his adoptive parents worshipped, kneeling at the mercy seat, and begging forgiveness in order to be saved. It wasn’t clear whether this ever actually happened, but, he said that he did study theology (just to annoy them), and had indeed a conversion experience. He said that he saw the light. There was no God, no need for religion, no need for salvation. So thats all right then, I suppose we can now all go home, and never darken the doors of this place again! However, it does rather ignore some of the big questions of life, and the human quest for engaging with the spiritual side of our lives. As Christians, we do this by encountering the one we call (especially at Easter) ‘The Risen Lord’ - also known as Jesus. Other religions have other ways; we do it through him. Along with that, we believe that following Christ opens us to the possibility that he has some claim on our life, something from which, in fact, we often shrink, as it can be a bit too demanding. What, then, are these claims? In our Gospel for today, Jesus asked Peter three times: do you love me? If Jesus stood here this morning, and asked you the same question, what would you answer? Now, on the face of it, Peter was rather poor material for a disciple. He had failed miserably. Yet here, a wonderful thing happens. Peter is restored. And you are inclined to think: was he really worth all that attention? What sort of person was he? Well, he was very human. A man, even a man’s man. Go back to the start. In the very beginning, he didn’t find his own way to Jesus, and neither did Jesus call him directly. He was brought by his brother, Andrew. And as soon as Jesus saw him, he said: ‘Hello, Rockman!’ Rockman! Rockman? Why on earth did he call him that? All his family and friends must have died laughing! What a hoot! Simon, the fisherman, Rockman? Generous - yes. Impulsive - yes. Unreliable - yes. Loyal - weeell, maybe. But a Rock? Hardly Then there was an incident when they were out on their travels, at Caesarea. ‘Who do you think I am?’ said Jesus. ‘You are the Messiah’, said Peter. ‘And you are Rockman’ said Jesus, ‘and I am going to build my church on you.’ Oh! So what was going to turn Peter’s all-too-human weaknesses into what was needed as a foundation for the church? It was at this point that Peter panicked, becuase Jesus started to talk about suffering and dying. He rebuked Jesus, and we can imagine him putting his hands over his ears and not wanting to listen. Well, I can appreciate that. I mean, I’m happy to follow Jesus as long as he doesn’t make it too difficult. Lets face it, can you really cope with the difficult bits? You may say: I’ll go to church, even listen to your boring old sermons, but don’t ask me to do any more than that. Please don’t ask me even to tell anyone. Don’t ask me to live it out, don’t expect me to work for peace and justice, or get my hands dirty. And then there was the business during the Last Supper. Up pops the self-confident Peter again. ‘Others will let you down, but not me.’ To some extent that was true. Peter was ready to fight for Jesus with a sword when the moment came. But that wasn’t the real test. That was to come a few hours later, when there was no thrill of adventure, no hot blood. In the chilly night, in a courtyard, with a girl who teased him, surrounded by a crowd of mockers who booed him, trying to get warm by a fire - then all Peter’s weakness was exposed.. Came the dawn, the crowing of the cockerel, and it was all over. He had failed. It was total failure. It could never be wiped out. No way. He had turned has back on the only one who could help him. Yet here, days later, Jesus comes to him and says ‘Peter, Rockman, do you love me?’ How could Peter answer that? Yes, he loved him! Three years on the road, sharing the life of the Master, of course he loved him! Why all the questions? Jesus knew him inside out. Surely he knew how much Peter loved him. Three times, three hundred times, three thousand times - YES! And then comes this wonderful response from Jesus. He took him at his word. There were no recriminations. No harking back. No ‘but what about...........?’ No further questions. No conditions. No ‘don’t do it again’, even. No ‘in future I expect...........’. All Peter gets is a job to do. ‘Feed my lambs, feed my sheep’. And isn’t this a parable for us about the grace of God? Jesus is making it clear that God’s love for us doesn’t come with any strings attached. To know it and to experience it doesn’t carry any conditions. If there were strings, conditions, it wouldn’t be grace. God’s love is for you - freely offered, freely given, to be freely received. That’s how God works, and we find it almost impossible to believe. Now, I am sure that God gets very upset by all the obstacles we put in the way of being a follower of Jesus. We so want to hedge it all around with our rules and regulations - like the way Bernard Cornwell’s step-parents did - no doing this, no doing that. We so easily make our church life difficult - if you do this, you can’t do that. If your marriage fails, and you divorce, you can’t - well, you know the kind of thing. Can’t make a new start? Tell that to Peter! We make our theology and our customs impenetrable and exclusive. When we do fail, what is on offer for us? When we fail and fall, what then? There can be nobody here this morning, surely, who has not, at some time in their life felt most certainly that they have failed their colleagues, their friends, their spouse, their family, their Lord, and felt terribly guilty about it. Our Gospel today is there to fill us with hope, and Peter would have been the first to testify to that. Of course, this grace of God is open to abuse. Nobody knows the abuse of love better than God in Christ, the man Jesus. But still, that is the offer. This loving, gracious, generous God is, perhaps, beyond our feeble comprehension. All that He asks of us is that in return we love Him, and love our fellow-human being - falteringly, perhaps; failing and falling, most certainly, but asks also that we don’t give up. Never give up - either on the one we call God, or on one other. Peter was given a clean sheet. You can have one as well. Let me close with a prayer for this day from the Methodist prayer book: you ask for our love in spite of our betrayal. Give us courage to embrace forgiveness, know you again, and trust ourselves in you; we pray in your name. Amen. |