Faith,
Family & Community
When people profess to be Christian, they and/or the world around them seem to think that they need to be perfect. Perfection is impossible. Even for the faithful. Just ask Peter, one of Jesus’ favorite disciples.
In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 16 Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am? They answered, “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Jesus asked “Who do you say that I am?” Simon, ahead of the rest, eager to please Jesus replies, “You are the Messiah, son of the living God.” Jesus is happy with his response and renames him Peter—in Greek petra means rock. Jesus says that Peter is going to be the rock that Jesus will build his church on. Peter is one of the top 3 disciples. Anytime anything overly significant happens in the gospel, Peter is there with James and John and Jesus.
So, Peter must do everything right, right? The church is built upon Peter and he is recognized as the first leader of the church, so he must be pretty perfect, right?
Exactly 3 verses after Jesus renames him and speaks so highly of Peter, Jesus speaks these words to him, “Get behind me Satan.” What? Jesus had foretold his death and Peter doesn’t like it so he takes Jesus aside. The scripture says Peter rebuked Jesus saying, “You can’t die. This isn’t how it supposed to work. You are to build an army, you are to become strong, you are supposed to bring the people of God back into prominence.” (I paraphrased a bit.) Peter, the first true leader of the church, the rock upon which the church has been built didn’t get it. And Jesus said to him, “Get behind me Satan.”
Several years ago, I had a sermon series titled Please. The subtitle was A request. A command. A chance to respond.
Think how God might ask and even command us to be faithful. God will always provide opportunities for faithfulness. When we respond, we find joy and God is pleased. In the chance to respond sermon, we handed out cards adapted from a game called Play It Forward. Each recipient was to do what was on their card, sign it, and hand the card to the person they had just done something nice for. Each card was different and had five signature lines. The instructions read: If you are the last person, please bring or send the card to First Christian Church. We provided the address. Only one card was returned. The task was to provide a gift to someone for no reason. There was a $5 limit. I was eager to read what the five individuals had done for others. But, the writing was all the same. The recipient, Donna, had done 5 things and mailed the card back to the church. Donna had bought a paper for a friend and provided childcare for a neighbor. She drove a friend to an appointment and a neighbor to the ER.
She provided food to someone after a death in the family.
Donna may not have done the assignment perfectly, but she did understand the intent. And her card was the only one returned. When all is said and done, if we want to find a life that is pleasing to us, we must be intentional about pleasing God.
The first disciples were not perfect and we do not have to be either. Now, the disciples did do some amazing things after their time with Jesus. They spread Jesus’ message and started churches. They intentionally lived faith—not perfectly lived faith, but intentionally lived faith. This is our call.
We won’t be perfect, but we can be intentional to share love and kindness and grace and peace. Imperfect as we are.
Peace friends.
Kelly Ingersoll, Minister
Kelly Ingersoll is the Pastor of First Christian Church of Macomb and resides in Macomb with his wife Anne.
