Proper 16, Year One
[Go to Mission St Clare for an online version of the Daily Office including today’s scripture readings.]
Today’s Readings for the Daily Office:
Psalms 16, 17 (morning) // 22 (evening)
1 Kings 5:1-6:1, 7
Acts 28:1-16
Mark 14:27-42
I have become convinced that the best way to ensure that you go through something at some point in your life is to be supremely confident that such a thing would never happen to you. You would never do such a thing. You would never be involved in such a situation. No way, not me, never.
So Peter pretty much seals his fate when he promises Jesus, “Even though all become deserters, I will not.” And when Jesus predicts that Peter will in fact deny him before the day is done, Peter insists, “Even though I must die with you, I will not deny you.” And Peter is not alone in his certainty: “all of them said the same.”
The truth is, we don’t really know who we’ll turn out to be in the face of a moral dilemma, a mortal danger, a dissolving relationship, a devastating loss. And I sometimes suspect that just when we’re most sure of how we will act or what we can prevent, then something happens to remind us that we should never be so sure.
To be a disciple is to be thrown off balance, to face something that shakes our self-confidence and removes our certainties, and to learn that we are loved in our fragility. Peter’s faith in himself is about to be replaced by faith in a Christ who is faithful to him. But it’s painful to watch.
Lora Walsh blogs about taking risks and seeking grace at A Daily Scandal. She serves as curate of Grace Episcopal Church in Siloam Springs and assists with education, young adult ministry, and campus ministry at St. Paul’s in Fayetteville, Arkansas.