Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

All Sermons are © Copyrighted and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express permission of the author.

Our older daughter, Kathy, talks to her girls about right and wrong in terms of choices. It's a more sophisticated approach than the one I used. For example, if one of the girls' friends were to use a bad word, I would have said, "Well, she's a dumbhead," but Kathy says, "She made a bad choice, didn't she." Of, if there's a question about sharing, I would say, "It's her turn. Give it to her," but Kathy says, "It looks like you have a choice to make." The merit of Kathy's system is that, by emphasizing a person's ability to choose, it puts the responsibility for one's actions right where it belongs: on the actor. And it eliminates excuses. One can't say, "Well, her father uses words like that. She comes by it naturally." Maybe so, but it's still her choice what she says." One can't say, "Well, children are naturally selfish; they don't like to share." Maybe so, but it is still a choice. Kathy's approach focuses on the moral dimension of life, which has been broadly overlooked.

We choose. And each choice tells us something about ourselves and provides momentum toward the next choice. Life is a bundle of choices. They take us where we go. Sometimes we make choices that are logically consistent. Often we don't. I, for example, choose every day to lose weight and choose to eat a lot. (I am lying to myself about losing weight.) Likewise, the Bible points out that if one chooses to love God, and at the same time choose to hate his neighbor, he's a liar. Some choices eliminate others. In the moral world, you can't eat your cake and have it, too.
Jesus is leading his disciples toward a choice. It is a fateful choice for them (no less than what they will live for and what they will die for), and they will not finalize it until after Jesus is glorified (that is, crucified, resurrected, and ascended). But, all along the gospel road, with these young men, there is a decision in the making. And this pivotal event, near Ceaserea Phillipi (when it is spoken aloud, for the first time, that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah of Israel), is a giant step in their deciding.

"What are they saying about me?" "You wouldn't believe it, Lord. You're spooking them. Some insist you're John the Baptist, others think you're Elijah, or Jeremiah, or some other prophet, back from the dead." "How about you? Who do you say I am?" (Whoops! Always easier to answer for others than for oneself!) "You are the Messiah ("Christ" and "Messiah" are the same word - one is Greek and one is Hebrew) -you are the Messiah, the Son of the living God," Peter blurts out. And, for saying that, Peter gets to be the head of the church. He made the right choice. It makes no difference if they all were thinking it. Peter is the one who said it. By Catholic theology Peter here becomes the first Pope, and it is hard to minimize the authority Jesus bestows upon him: "I give you the keys to the Kingdom of God. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven." Wow!
One joyful mystery of our faith is that when we choose God we discover that he has already chosen us. Another joyful mystery is that God often chooses the most unlikely men and women to do his work. If we forget these things, thinking it is we alone who are doing the choosing, or that God receives us by our merit, we will not move toward God (ironically enough) because we will think we're not good enough - which is the exact opposite of the gospel. The gospel says that God has chosen us in spite of ourselves. Not our choice, but his. Not our merit, but Christ's.
In the Old Testament God rescues the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery (sees them safely through the Red Sea, drowns Pharaoh's army behind them, sustains them in the wilderness, and gives them the Promised Land) certainly not because they chose to follow him - they fought Moses every step of the way - and certainly not because they deserved it. The miracle is not in the escape but in God's grace. Christ, we Christians say, is "our Passover." He delivers us from slavery to sin and death, sustains us in the wildernesses of our lives, and sees us to the Promised Land. And not because we choose it or deserve it. A major theme throughout the Bible is how God uses one frail human being after another to do his will. He chooses them. The rest of the world knows there are better candidates. But he chooses the least likely.

Peter, of course, is our prime example. (You know, I'm sure, that "Peter," although it is a very common name today, was not a name at all until Simon Peter. Nobody in the ancient world was called Peter. "Petros" means rock. Our word "petrified" is a derivative. It was a nickname Jesus gave Simon, his lead disciple. Jesus' words in this passage should read, "Rock, thou art the rock…and upon this rock I will build my church…") But look at this man, Peter, to whom Christ gave the keys to the Kingdom. He has every human flaw and foible. He's loud, he's cocky, he's a boaster, and before the story is over, to save his own skin, he will hit a new low, even for him, denying even that he knows Jesus. But Peter, this sinful man, becomes the head of the church. And that fits. For the church is sick people showing other sick people where the hospital is. And nothing more.
Bill Welsh, a pastor in Desert Hot Springs, California, tells of a family in his congregation with a little boy who suffered from seizures. The seizures were painful for the child, and painful for his loved ones who could only look on helplessly. One day in church, the father was holding the little fellow on his lap, when the child began to spasm and writhe in pain. The father got up slowly and carried the boy to the back of the church, where he rocked him in his arms and whispered his love quietly into the little boy's ear, until finally the writhing stopped and the child relaxed. And Bill Welsh says at that moment God said to him, "That's the way I love you, through your imperfections. I'm not embarrassed to have people know you are my child." And that's the gospel.

If we are hesitating to make a decision for Christ, to make the right choice, it may be because we misunderstand the gospel. We say, "Surely God is looking for someone better than I." "I'm old and frail, with a hundred aches and pains - too old to change." "I'm painfully shy, afraid to speak even a word in public." "I'm not well educated and sometimes make grammatical errors." "I'm a teenager with pimples." "I'm a grouch." "I'm full of anger." "I feel guilty all the time." "I have no self-confidence." But God loves you through your imperfections and is not embarrassed to have people know you're are his child. Choose God, discover, to your amazement, that he has first chosen you, and see what marvelous things God can do with damaged goods.