Sermonstudio

In a bookshelf in my living room sits a testimony to change. On the bottom shelf is a row of 45 rpm records. Among them are greats by Gene Pitney, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles. On the next shelf resides several rows of 33 1/3 rpm record albums. Among these are collections by such greats as Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and a dizzying assortment of one-album wonders. Above that shelf are a few old 8-track tapes. Remember those? The labels have long since peeled away from these and who knows what music is hidden inside? Yet another shelf reveals scores of cassette tapes, many of which are personal mix tapes including favorite tunes recorded to suit certain moods and times of life. Then, of course, come the CDs. They, too, have fallen away as I plug in my MP3 player, which contains a full 100 days' worth of continuous music.

In what feels like a few short years, the change within the music medium has been tectonic. The pace of it is dizzying, and it shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. It seems that much of life is changing at the same rate as the technology we use to listen to music. Everything is changing. Fashions, employment, housing, even the church! All of it is shifting and moving quicker than most can even perceive.

It's in the midst of the storms of change that the words to the old Lutheran hymn emerge. "A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing!" Taken from this psalm, these words call us to claim that which will not go away. Through the vapors of a fickle culture we cling to the rock which is our God. Above the squabble and bickering of ideology and politics, we climb upon the rock that is our God.

As we look to this solid rock for safety and security, for something solid in the storm, it seems funny that Jesus used this same language to describe Peter (Matthew 16:18). Volatile, uneven, and finally a betrayer, Peter gets to be a rock as well. Herein is a hint of the possibilities that await us.

There is no doubt that God is our rock and our salvation. There is no questioning that this is the refuge to which we cling, but in Christ Jesus there is the possibility of partnership in and with this rock. It is no accident that Jesus called Peter the rock, and for us it is a hint of our own salvation.

If Peter can rise above his failure to be a foundation stone for the church, what might be possible for you and me? How is it that the unmoving, unmovable love of God can move in and transform us so that we too might be foundation stones for the building of the kingdom?

In this time of new life and new hope such questions are worth pondering. Such possibilities are worth embracing.