26. The Test of Love (pt2)
Monday 18th March
(for more details see here)
Pause:
From the Lectio 365 app:
"Weeping may stay for the night,
but rejoicing comes in the morning."
PSALM 30.5
Holding any particular sadness before You now, I simply sigh, casting the cares of this day upon You Lord. (Psalm 55.22)
And now, breathing in slowly, I consciously receive 'the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. (Phil 4.7)
"The Lord hears His people when they call to Him for help.
He rescues them from all their troubles."
PSALM 34.17
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Peter stands by the fireside, warming his quivering hands near the flickering flames.
Behind him his shadow dances frantically.
He tries to keep his head lowered, and the nervous of his breathing and body hidden.
Around him voices are murmuring.
The bloodlust of the mob.
The evil joy of a predator standing over it's prey.
Their dark eyes turn to him and he can hear the question asked about him before it's asked of him.
A hand grabs his arm, causing him to break his stare off into the flames.
“You aren’t one of His disciples too, are you?” says an gruff voice.
Peter pulls him arm free of the man's grip.
"I am not!"
"That accent..." says another man, joining his comrades side. "That's Galileen isn't it? Isn't that where all this started?"
Before Peter can reply, a third joins the interrogation. This man is armed, a temple guard. Even in the fire light Peter recognises him immediately - he's related to the man whose ear he had cut off not an hour earlier.
"You are a disciple..." the man says, "I saw you with that Jesus in Gethsemane."
"I swear to you" Peter said, desperately grasping for any deception, "I swear to you before heaven itself, I'm not. I don't know this Jesus - I have never met the man!"
Somewhere in the distance, a rooster crowed...
The test had come... and gone...
This was now the third time that Peter had denied His Lord.
Reflection: The Test of Love... (pt2)
You might imagine that the experience of sinning, and the accompanying guilt and shame we feel, might cause us pause in similar future circumstances.
But somehow, that's rarely the case is it?
Once we have trespassed over a line we should never have crossed - that line somehow moves back a little further. And then we eventually trespass over that new line too, until we can find ourselves far outside God's will for us - and often in a place we never imagined we would reach. Compromise has a habit of being contagious.
There is an old prayer that goes:
"Merciful God, we confess to you now that we have sinned.
We confess the sins that no one knows
and the sins that everyone knows:
the sins that are a burden to us
and the sins that do not bother us because we have got used to them...
Father forgive us.
Send your Holy Spirit to us,
to give us power to live as, by Your mercy, You have called us to live;
through Jesus Christ our Lord."
GATHERING FOR WORSHIP (Patterns and Prayer for the Community of Disciples)
The sins that do not bother us
The sins we have got used to
The ever-moving line
This is our prayer.
This is our story.
That's Peter's story here too.
After denying Jesus once to a servant girl at the door, an avalanche of further compromise follows in quick succession.
As Jesus has warned Peter, there would a trial of pledge, a testing of his love - and it was test that he would fail three times.
It not, however, the end of Peter's story.
I wonder if he had this moment in mind when he later wrote to the church:
"Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."
1 PETER 5.8-10
The God of grace restored Peter - and made him "strong, firm and steadfast"! In short, the Jesus who called Peter: The Rock - eventually gave him the strength to live up that name. He can do the same for us too today.
In the second of his surviving letters, Peter describes his body at a tent:
"I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.
And I will make every effort to see that after my departure you will always be able to remember these things."
2 PETER 1.13-15
Peter's "departure" (as far better word for Christians than death!) is near, and he faces it with a calm and clear resolve. He will put his tent aside. He is choosing faithfulness over his freedom and even his life.
Compromise wasn't always part of Peter's story. The line he had crossed eventually stopped moving further backwards. God's grace would restore and strengthen him.
So may we too today know that "the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."
Questions for today:
-
What line might I have crossed that I will need to remain "alert" to, "standing firm in the faith"?
-
God of all grace, is there anything you are wanting to restore in me today?
Prayer:
Sitting still, I plant the feet of my faith firmly on the grace of God afresh today.
Breathing out, I confess my hidden weakness and my secret shame to God.
Breathing in, I receive the mercy that is mine through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
In silence, I listen for the voice of the Holy Spirit.
In stillness, I wait for His power afresh.
Arising, I step into the calm confidence that I face this day renewed in the presence of my Saviour.
I prayed this.
My prayer for today: (if you would like to, please feel free to add your own prayer here):