Moses and Jesus are out for a round of golf. On the 12th tee Jesus grabs a 3 iron. Moses says, “are you out of your mind, no way you can clear that water hazard with a 3 iron.” Jesus replies: “if Nicklaus can do it, I can do it.” He then tees off and plop, the ball lands in the water. Sheepishly, Jesus asks Moses to retrieve the ball, so Moses goes down to the hazard, parts the water, walks in and grabs it. Two more times, Jesus insists on the 3 iron, with the same result: the ball splashes into the water, Moses fetches it. The fourth time, Moses refuses, saying, if you want it YOU GO GET IT. So down Jesus schleps to the hazard, walking across the water, bending down and pulling the ball from the depths. As he heads back across the water, someone waiting to play through says to Moses, “who does that guy think he is, Jesus Christ? “Moses replies, no, Jack Nicklaus.
Who does Peter think he is, Jesus?
When Peter looked at the storm that surrounded him, he forgot that it was God who was holding him up. He got scared and he began to sink. He did what a lot of us do when we become overwhelmed. We forget that we aren’t in this alone. We forget to live our faith. Peter assumed that following Jesus, that following God was a matter of saying all the right words. He forgot that it’s also about believing those words. He forgot to live them.
Living our faith isn’t about pretending to be what we’re not. Living our faith is opening ourselves to be instruments of God, directed and guided by the Holy Spirit to be the best “Me” we can be. We’re not Jack Nicklalus, we’re not Jesus, we’re not Peter..we ‘re (name people). It’s about following the nudging of the Spirit, it’s about trusting that the Spirit is leading us into places and situations that we would neer enter into on our own.
This is what sank Peter. He had all the words in the world to praise God and Jesus, but that all came from his head. Our faith, when it’s really taken hold, when it really is a part of us, comes from our heart. It comes from a place deep within. so deep that it drives us in ways that we can’t explain.
It drives us to risk ourselves for love.
It drives us to speak the truth, even when it isn’t popular, even when it’s not “acceptable.”
It drives us to do things that, if we really stopped to think about, we’d never try to do.
Faith, when it really takes hold, leads us to places unimaginable and seemingly unattainable. And usually completely surprising.
Three years ago, Ascension was a parish that was in a bit of turmoil. They had a core group of about 9 people who were, against all reason, committed to being a community of faith that reached out to the Allentown neighborhood. 3 years later we are the recipients of an incredible gift of the spirit: the Pet Food Pantry. This outreach program has grown our parish, strengthened our parish and shown our neighborhood the love of Christ one 5 lb bag of pet food at a time. Today, we know that we have to give up a good portion of our building. The adaptive re-use of our beautiful space will be painful, scary and sad. But we, as a parish, have no concerns that we won’t survive and thrive because the Holy Spirit is clearly working in through and between us. If anyone had told us, three years ago, that the PFP would be serving hundreds of households and thousands of pets each month and that the pantry would be staffed and supported by our small parish we would have laughed. But we didn’t really think that much, we just listened to the urgings of the Holy Spirit and walked in faith. So, even though the endowment at Ascension is just about out, even though our building is old and expensive, even though we have no idea where we will be worshipping next year, we emboldened by the power of the Holy Spirit, are moving, step by step, into the future. It’s terrifying, and if we thought we had to do this by ourselves, we, like Peter, would sink like a stone. But somehow, some way, we have learned to trust the Spirit, somehow some way we are stepping out in faith, holding on for dear life to our faith in God and our love for each other.
So, what does the story of Ascension have to do with Good Shepherd? Well, I think we are at a Peter moment. Just what is the Spirit calling us, the Church of the Good Shepherd to be and to do?
We are a beautiful church on an amazing corner in one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in our city. We have a hugely successful and vitally important outreach program through our Food Pantry. But the truth is, only a handful of us are involved in it.
We host the longest running (and one of the largest) AA groups in Western New York. Other than those of us who may be in recovery, we have no hands on experience with these folks.
In no way to I mean to diminish the importance of this work—it is vital and holy—but it doesn’t really involve us.
Yes we have a beautiful building with a wonderful community that gathers weekly for well done liturgy and heartfelt prayer…. but is this all the Spirit is calling us to be? If our building was taken from us tomorrow, would we still be us?
If we weren’t in Parkside would we still be us?
What are we being called to do? Who are we being called to be? We, like the Jesus in my dad’s bad joke must be true to what we are called to be. We aren’t Jack Nicklaus, we aren’t Jesus, we aren’t Peter. Who are we?
Your vestry has already begun grappling with these questions, and in the fall we all will have the opportunity to grapple with the fundamental questions of this, our community of faith: who is God calling us to be, whom is God calling us to serve?
I for one can’t wait to find out.
Amen.
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