Rocks, Rockheads and Sunday morning worship .......

The Principal of my Theological College was called Harold Wilson and like Prime Minister Harold Wilson he was a bluff Yorkshireman.

His preferred style of preaching was from notes and each sermon was filed away for future reference.

Occasionally he would ask of the college what sermon would you like today?

The Salt sermon was popular, after all we all feared losing our saltiness.

Another popular sermon was on St Peter and todays Gospel reminded me of that sermon from so many years ago.

On this Rock I will build my Church.

The sermon, as I recall it, involved a play on words, not quite a pun but the association of Jesus depiction of Peter as Cephas or Rock or Rockhead and the Rock on which the Church would be built.

Peter was called Cephas by Jesus. In Aramaic the word Cephas means Rock.

So the Sermon went on to identify Peter, and all the things that he got so wrong, as we will see in next weeks Gospel, not with a rock, a sign of stability but as a rockhead, someone not especially bright, prone to gaffes and more than able to get things terribly, terribly wrong as for example his denial of Jesus before the Cock crew thrice.

The sermon was popular with the student body because it gave us some hope that we, most of us rockheads ourselves, might hopefully be of ‘some use in our ministry’.

Of course we all go from affirmation to denial sometimes in the middle of a difficult meeting, sometimes when we feel that prayer is not answered, sometimes when the cards are being kept too close to the other persons chest, sometimes when life in the midst of a pandemic is just not fair.

From what has God ever done for me? 

As we asked last week to, ‘You are Messiah Son of the living God”.

The New Testament has two versions of this story one in Mark’s Gospel and this one in Matthew’s.

Commentators observe that in Mark’s version the emphasis is on journeying, sometimes used by Mark as shorthand for the journey of discipleship. This is of course the journey we are all travelling, which is why from time to time we need guidance, direction, support, even to use a challenging word, training.



In Matthew however the emphasis changes to the place itself, Caesarea Phillippi. was situated about 25 miles North of the Sea of Galiliee on a trade route near a cave from which flowed one of the sources of the River Jordan which was a shrine to the Greek God  Pan.

Caesarea represented both polytheism but as its name suggests also all the signs of power and authority. 

 It was the administrative centre of Herod’s government and to which the Roman Commander who led the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE returned with his troops to celebrate his victory, as Matthew’s readers would know so well.

So Jesus’ question, ‘Who do you say that I am?’ hangs in the air at the intersection of economic trade, religion and the power of Empire, Peter rises to the question admirably and offers his allegiance unquestioningly.

As Christians we are both stuck in a place and called on a journey and like Peter there will be days when we get it absolutely right and days when we will get it horribly wrong.

We will go from rockhead to the rock on which the Christ’s church is built, from as Paul reminds us in Romans, conformity to transformation.

Currently there are in this community ‘disaffections’ the PCC has struggled with this as indeed I have, yet like Paul, Peter’s life was transformed by his encounter with Jesus Christ, as our lives will be transformed by our encounter with Jesus on our own Damascus roads.

Such an encounter, like Jesus question to Peter will demand transformation which will be uncomfortable because it demands of us that our life becomes consistent with Gospel living instead of conforming to world values that we take a 180 degree turn toward a life of humility both in and outside of our Sunday Morning worship.



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