Peter was a rock...strong, unyielding, pulled himself up by his bootstraps... which of course was his problem. What he needed to be was a sponge... fragile, open, pliable... Soaking up love and spilling it everywhere he went.
(Reflection from Rev. Andrew Kukla)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Could Jesus have built his "church" on a sponge? Maybe a rock was needed because Jesus knew the church was going to need a strong, unyielding person with the tenacity to spread the word of his ministry no matter what the cost.
ReplyDeleteMatthew 7:24-27
ReplyDeleteIn the Sermon on the mount Jesus said the wise man builds his house on a rock, the foolish man builds his house on sand, or maybe a sponge.
I am sure Jesus and Peter were wrong.
I thought about that scripture as I wrote the reflection. The idea of the sponge and the rock came to me as I listened to Tom's sermon and the idea that the sponge truly abides in the water soaking it up, much as I John invites us to abide in God's love by becoming infused with the love.... I then need a way to do that in a short reflection. Something brought me to Peter...
ReplyDeleteI love Peter. I consider him a biblical mentor in faith - but I think he's wrong almost all the time in the Gospels. So I'd have no problem saying that Peter is wrong... just before being named the rock upon which Jesus will build the church Jesus has berated the disciples for how little they understand. I wonder if Jesus builds "his church" on Peter in spite of his being a rock and not because of it. Certainly what is a valuable "rock" about Peter is his ability to see in Jesus the only one worthy of clinging to! (This evident in the Matthew passage and at the end of John 6). All other ways that Peter is a rock seem detrimental to his faith (thus he wavers when walking on water, is quick to respond to Jesus but seldom on teh right track, and never quite understands what Jesus' love is calling him towards - "Peter, do you love me?") and something that Jesus needs to break him of, in fact Peter doesn't really live into being a "strong foundation" aka rock until after he's become completely broken by the expereince of three times denying Christ.
So I certainly do not wish to question that there is a need for a strong foundation... a rock to build one's "life" (aka house) upon. But in the living of our lives I firmly believe Jesus wants us to be anything but a rock... and certainly not unyielding. (Even Jesus yields to such as the Syro-Phoenician woman when he find another way of being faithful.)
This however is simply my interpretation. And personally I'm quite happy to live in the ambiguity of being call to both be a rock... and be a sponge! And when in conflict between the two I'm more like to think that while the world says be a rock... Christ - who humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross - invites us to be a sponge.