Peter's Painful Memories
Stories
Contents
“Peter’s Painful Memories” by David O. Bales
“The Promise” by David O. Bales
“Name Change” by John Fitzgerald
Peter’s Painful Memories
by David O. Bales
Mark 8:31-38
It was as though Peter was having difficulty talking about it. He shook his head, hesitated, and it became an embarrassing pause. Mark looked around at the others sitting near him in the cramped room. They waited and were confused about what was going on. Mark had arranged this meeting with the revered apostle even though he realized that Peter’s age made speaking difficult. Yet the Emperor’s police were searching Rome for him, which put urgency to hearing him tell about his life with Jesus.
“We were trekking to the northeast of Galilee, a couple three days walk after we left Bethsaida,” Peter said and paused again; but, that was exactly how he’d begun his previous story about Jesus. “We arrived to the villages of Caesarea Philippi and, as we were walking along, Jesus kept asking us what others thought of him” -- Peter repeating word for word what he’d said before. Mark wondered why Peter had backed up and started all over again. “Jesus continued as we walked, like he was interrogating us. We told him the chitchats we’d had with local folks, the hopes of some, the wild dreams of others. But he kept at us.” Mark noted that Peter changed his tone here. He’d known Peter for years and decided that Peter must need to retell the story’s very beginning so he was emotionally able to push on to the end. “He finally asked us bluntly, ‘but who do you say that I am?’
“My answer? My answer? How much was about Jesus and how much about myself when I said, ‘You are the Messiah?’ ”
He placed his right hand across to his left shoulder and pulled down. “I’ve had these years to think about Jesus and me and the other faithful. But I haven’t merely thought about it. First I had to remember.” Peter looked away and over the heads of his hearers. This isn’t what anyone expected. Mark listened intently to what he’d never heard Peter talk about.
“Memory, you know, isn’t a faithful tool. Andrew and I’ve talked about our youth. We remember different things. I asked if he remembers the day we searched for limbs to repair our father’s boat. Had to be strong and bent just right to repair the boat’s ribs. One of the most fun days of my youth and Andrew doesn’t remember it. Yet he asked me about the time we kids, playing on the Capernaum dock, crashed into a crock of brined fish, sending it splashing into the lake. No, I didn’t remember that. I, maybe we, seem to remember what we choose, something within us selecting what we hold and what we discard.”
Although a few people nodded when he said this, no one understood what it had to do with Jesus and him at Caesarea Philippi and his acknowledging Jesus as Messiah. He hesitated, then aimed his gaze at Mark sitting in the front. “It’s hard to admit, but my forgetting was happening when I was with Jesus.
“When I told him my opinion of him -- his being the Messiah -- what I was really doing was expressing my hopes of what he’d do for me. Jesus was one chance in a lifetime, in a worldtime, for greatness beyond anything known before. When I spoke the title ‘Messiah,’ it was as much about my hopes for me as my hopes for him. I proved it when I responded to his prediction of suffering. I didn’t want to hear about Jesus’ suffering. I wouldn’t consider it. Jesus was going to charge straight ahead to Jerusalem and everyone would know what? That he was the Messiah? Or also that I was his follower? We fool ourselves with what we think in the same way we allow our memories to deceive us. I took Jesus aside and tried to talk sense into him. I was so arrogant as to correct him, the one I’d loaded all my hopes on. Then he rebuked me and publicly humiliated me, calling me ‘Satan.’ ”
He shuffled with his feet and shook himself. “Why am I telling Jesus’ story with my mention of memory? Because all of us then forgot what Jesus told us, that he was to suffer and die and that we had to be willing to die to ourselves. Why do you think we were so surprised by Jesus’ resurrection? Because, smothered by hopes and illusions for our own greatness, we’d denied even to ourselves -- chosen to forget -- that he told us he’d suffer.
“Not pleasant to remember. Not pleasant to tell you. Mark’s gathering stories about Jesus and he’ll get them written soon.” He turned to Mark, “Make sure your memory doesn’t slip. Make sure than when you get to the part of us disciples, you tell the truth about us. For the rest of you, no matter what happens to me in the coming days, remember what Jesus did despite our not understanding him or remembering that he told us he’d rise again. Remember it for yourselves. Jesus’ resurrection is the most important thing ever to happen and Jesus is now here telling you through his repeated words what he told us: ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’
“He meant it half my lifetime ago for those of us at Caesarea Philippi. He means it now for all of you.”
Preaching Point: The Christian life is for Christ’s glory and it includes our suffering and sacrifice.
* * *
The Promise
by David O. Bales
Romans 4:13-25
Because five congregations in Halford believed in sharing ministry across denominational differences, the ecumenical senior high summer camp occurred. Because one of the five congregations was without a pastor, one’s youth leaders were on vacation, one was rebuilding after a fire, and one’s pastor always procrastinated, the ecumenical senior high summer camp was a near catastrophe.
At the last minute each congregation trawled their church membership rolls and a few shanghaied lay people agreed to lead and help. In the two weeks before the camp these leaders met three times to scratch out a schedule and distribute responsibilities. Although everyone was courteous, if not excited, the brief meetings approached the chaos of pure democracy until Vanessa, most junior to the community, was selected dean. She proved to be a stable place in the ever shifting event of the ecumenical senior high summer camp. She’d been pastor in Halford 18 months and was agreeable, however inexperienced, to working across denominational differences for Christ. Her flurry of telephoning and making check lists achieved the feat of all leaders, staff and campers arriving at camp by dusk.
Next day, the first full day of camp, became one of survival mode for the leaders, but the campers were mostly thrilled to be with new kids -- boys interested in the girls and girls in the boys. Food was adequate. Enough activities to tire them out. Enough singing to wake them up. Only one camper showed up with a blotch of poison oak to be medicated. Ball hogs in basketball left some bruises and dives for the volleyball resulted in abrasions but no broken bones. All 42 campers arrived successfully for the evening talk. The leader rhapsodized two minutes on the beauties of nature around the camp. Then he got into the meat of his presentation: Slides of four vacations in national parks, repeating, “See the wonders God created?”
By the evening of the second day Vanessa was still smoothing details for where 42 campers were to sleep and that they actually did sleep. She’d become expert at unplugging toilets. The evening’s talk was a leader who recited her wonderful life with God, punctuated by tears as she told of the miracles God had done for her: finding the right sympathy card, a parking place opening for her in a snow storm, her grandson’s football victory.
The third evening’s talk was a man who set to proving that the world was created in 4004 BC in six 24 hour days. He contradicted carbon 14 testing and every geology class the campers ever sat through. His answer to all was, “God created it that way to test your faith in him and not in science.”
By the fourth evening’s talk Vanessa was used to campers coming to her in twos and threes to ask basically, “Huh?” She’d fielded a few complaints about the food and the two personalities that had collided and dragged in friends from both sides. The evening’s talk was a high school teacher. His slant on Christianity was that the center of faith was Jesus’ ethical teaching, no need for intricately interlaced doctrines. He held up his copy of The Jefferson Bible, and said Jesus’ highly moral message helped him live by kindness to others, what goes around comes around.
As the camp’s final evening approached Vanessa had to phone a parent to speak to his son. She figured the parent either threatened mayhem or promised a new car; because the boy became a model camper. Earlier she’d been pleased that she’d speak last to the campers. Each evening she formulated ways to weave together what each leader said. But evening by evening her task became more complex. Her dilemma did, however, lead her to deeper prayer -- to the point of desperation. How to hold these visions of Christianity together to benefit the campers who’d be back in high school soon and in need of faith to last a lifetime?
The final evening arrived. The campers had experienced clashes and crushes, exhaustion and exaltation. Vanessa looked at them from the lectern and their faces filled her with joy. She brought out the cooks, and the campers presented them with “memorial aprons” with the campers’ names and messages written on them. She introduced all adult leaders for the campers to cheer for them.
Her service had earned the campers’ attention. Her talk about Jesus’ love for them concluded, “We’ll go home tomorrow morning. If you can’t walk, someone will carry you. As we prepare to vacate this wonderful place, I remind you of why we’re here. We adults have tried to introduce you almost-adults to parts of the Christian faith you need to consider and pray about. I assume you’ll go home thinking about God’s beautiful creation and about the Holy Spirit who meets you daily. I hope that you’re open to ways different people understand our faith in Jesus and that you realize Christians above all others are supposed to live in loving, selfless ways.
“I want you to ponder something else. I’d like you to close your eyes. I will also. I trust that no one will open their eyes until I ask you to. Now, with all our eyes closed, I’d like you to raise your hand if anyone has ever broken a promise to you. Please leave your eyes closed and put down your hand. Another question, with our eyes closed: Have you ever broken a promise to someone? Raise your hand. While our eyes are closed, I’ll tell you that my hand is up. Okay, let’s put our hands down and open our eyes.
“I asked us to do this because of how important promises are and yet how hard it can be to keep them and because of the many times the Bible refers to God’s promises. You’ve already, in your life of less than two decades, been confused by faith. Who’s God? How am I supposed to live? Some of you have slid gently into faith. Some of you have banged against faith until your soul is bruised on all sides.
“No matter your current experience of faith or doubt, God promises to love you and be with you. You won’t always feel God’s presence and, pray as you might, you can’t just squeeze out of God what you want, no matter how good it is. You’ll be perplexed by what faith means, and how life works. But, your leaders are here to promise that God loves you and is with you. That’s not just our promise, but what God did in Jesus. Jesus is God’s no-matter-what promise to you. In Jesus’ resurrection God promises to love you. God made the promise and God’s the only one strong enough to keep it. God’s promise isn’t just to others elsewhere, Christians long ago, or people who seem to have faith explained and under control. It’s to you. In Jesus God’s saying, ‘I promise to love you, even if it kills me.’
“Now,” she paused, “about those promises we’ve broken. Maybe some of us need a good night’s sleep to be strong enough to go home tomorrow and ask someone’s forgiveness for breaking a promise. God will be with us then, too.”
Preaching Point: Jesus is God’s eternal promise to love us no matter what.
* * *
Name Change
by John Fitzgerald
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Harlan grew up in Indiana with his dad tasting death when he was only 5 years old. At a youthful age of 18 Harlan married and his wife quickly became pregnant. He lost his job working with railroads and the family faced a depressing future.
Harlan drifted from job to job working while finally settling upon employment as a chef at a restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. No doubt about it, Harlan was a loser with nothing much to offer.
By the time retirement came at age 65, Harlan had little financial resources. He took his first Social Security check of $105.00 and tried a new venture. The chicken he prepared for customers at Corbin’s restaurant had a different flavor. Harlan took his recipe and created a new food product.
The different kind of eating which Harlan demonstrated soon became wildly popular. The recently retired chef had enough money to start his own restaurant. It did not take long for the public to learn of the name, “Harlan Sanders.”
This man born into poverty and a life of barely having enough money discovered unbelievable wealth as an older gent. Before he died, Harlan Sanders gained a new name -- “Colonel Harlan Sanders -- Founder of Kentucky Friend Chicken.”
Harlan Sanders took on a new name due to his elevated status in life. In the Bible this sort of thing happened on a regular basis. People in scripture had a name change when something significant occurred in their walk.
Our scripture reading describes a married couple who received a divine name change. According to the Bible, “Abram” became “Abraham” and “Sarai” became “Sarah”.
Abraham had a name change due to his covenant made with God. Abraham was destined by the Lord to be father for all future generations. Sarah experienced a similar event. Sarah was blessed by God to be mother for all who came after her.
We may not encounter a name change in our walk with God. But we can have a life changing event which forever rearranges our walk with the Lord. We believe in the promise of scripture which says: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard and no human mind conceived -- the things God has prepared for those who love him.” -- 2 Corinthians 2:9
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 25, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
“Peter’s Painful Memories” by David O. Bales
“The Promise” by David O. Bales
“Name Change” by John Fitzgerald
Peter’s Painful Memories
by David O. Bales
Mark 8:31-38
It was as though Peter was having difficulty talking about it. He shook his head, hesitated, and it became an embarrassing pause. Mark looked around at the others sitting near him in the cramped room. They waited and were confused about what was going on. Mark had arranged this meeting with the revered apostle even though he realized that Peter’s age made speaking difficult. Yet the Emperor’s police were searching Rome for him, which put urgency to hearing him tell about his life with Jesus.
“We were trekking to the northeast of Galilee, a couple three days walk after we left Bethsaida,” Peter said and paused again; but, that was exactly how he’d begun his previous story about Jesus. “We arrived to the villages of Caesarea Philippi and, as we were walking along, Jesus kept asking us what others thought of him” -- Peter repeating word for word what he’d said before. Mark wondered why Peter had backed up and started all over again. “Jesus continued as we walked, like he was interrogating us. We told him the chitchats we’d had with local folks, the hopes of some, the wild dreams of others. But he kept at us.” Mark noted that Peter changed his tone here. He’d known Peter for years and decided that Peter must need to retell the story’s very beginning so he was emotionally able to push on to the end. “He finally asked us bluntly, ‘but who do you say that I am?’
“My answer? My answer? How much was about Jesus and how much about myself when I said, ‘You are the Messiah?’ ”
He placed his right hand across to his left shoulder and pulled down. “I’ve had these years to think about Jesus and me and the other faithful. But I haven’t merely thought about it. First I had to remember.” Peter looked away and over the heads of his hearers. This isn’t what anyone expected. Mark listened intently to what he’d never heard Peter talk about.
“Memory, you know, isn’t a faithful tool. Andrew and I’ve talked about our youth. We remember different things. I asked if he remembers the day we searched for limbs to repair our father’s boat. Had to be strong and bent just right to repair the boat’s ribs. One of the most fun days of my youth and Andrew doesn’t remember it. Yet he asked me about the time we kids, playing on the Capernaum dock, crashed into a crock of brined fish, sending it splashing into the lake. No, I didn’t remember that. I, maybe we, seem to remember what we choose, something within us selecting what we hold and what we discard.”
Although a few people nodded when he said this, no one understood what it had to do with Jesus and him at Caesarea Philippi and his acknowledging Jesus as Messiah. He hesitated, then aimed his gaze at Mark sitting in the front. “It’s hard to admit, but my forgetting was happening when I was with Jesus.
“When I told him my opinion of him -- his being the Messiah -- what I was really doing was expressing my hopes of what he’d do for me. Jesus was one chance in a lifetime, in a worldtime, for greatness beyond anything known before. When I spoke the title ‘Messiah,’ it was as much about my hopes for me as my hopes for him. I proved it when I responded to his prediction of suffering. I didn’t want to hear about Jesus’ suffering. I wouldn’t consider it. Jesus was going to charge straight ahead to Jerusalem and everyone would know what? That he was the Messiah? Or also that I was his follower? We fool ourselves with what we think in the same way we allow our memories to deceive us. I took Jesus aside and tried to talk sense into him. I was so arrogant as to correct him, the one I’d loaded all my hopes on. Then he rebuked me and publicly humiliated me, calling me ‘Satan.’ ”
He shuffled with his feet and shook himself. “Why am I telling Jesus’ story with my mention of memory? Because all of us then forgot what Jesus told us, that he was to suffer and die and that we had to be willing to die to ourselves. Why do you think we were so surprised by Jesus’ resurrection? Because, smothered by hopes and illusions for our own greatness, we’d denied even to ourselves -- chosen to forget -- that he told us he’d suffer.
“Not pleasant to remember. Not pleasant to tell you. Mark’s gathering stories about Jesus and he’ll get them written soon.” He turned to Mark, “Make sure your memory doesn’t slip. Make sure than when you get to the part of us disciples, you tell the truth about us. For the rest of you, no matter what happens to me in the coming days, remember what Jesus did despite our not understanding him or remembering that he told us he’d rise again. Remember it for yourselves. Jesus’ resurrection is the most important thing ever to happen and Jesus is now here telling you through his repeated words what he told us: ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.’
“He meant it half my lifetime ago for those of us at Caesarea Philippi. He means it now for all of you.”
Preaching Point: The Christian life is for Christ’s glory and it includes our suffering and sacrifice.
* * *
The Promise
by David O. Bales
Romans 4:13-25
Because five congregations in Halford believed in sharing ministry across denominational differences, the ecumenical senior high summer camp occurred. Because one of the five congregations was without a pastor, one’s youth leaders were on vacation, one was rebuilding after a fire, and one’s pastor always procrastinated, the ecumenical senior high summer camp was a near catastrophe.
At the last minute each congregation trawled their church membership rolls and a few shanghaied lay people agreed to lead and help. In the two weeks before the camp these leaders met three times to scratch out a schedule and distribute responsibilities. Although everyone was courteous, if not excited, the brief meetings approached the chaos of pure democracy until Vanessa, most junior to the community, was selected dean. She proved to be a stable place in the ever shifting event of the ecumenical senior high summer camp. She’d been pastor in Halford 18 months and was agreeable, however inexperienced, to working across denominational differences for Christ. Her flurry of telephoning and making check lists achieved the feat of all leaders, staff and campers arriving at camp by dusk.
Next day, the first full day of camp, became one of survival mode for the leaders, but the campers were mostly thrilled to be with new kids -- boys interested in the girls and girls in the boys. Food was adequate. Enough activities to tire them out. Enough singing to wake them up. Only one camper showed up with a blotch of poison oak to be medicated. Ball hogs in basketball left some bruises and dives for the volleyball resulted in abrasions but no broken bones. All 42 campers arrived successfully for the evening talk. The leader rhapsodized two minutes on the beauties of nature around the camp. Then he got into the meat of his presentation: Slides of four vacations in national parks, repeating, “See the wonders God created?”
By the evening of the second day Vanessa was still smoothing details for where 42 campers were to sleep and that they actually did sleep. She’d become expert at unplugging toilets. The evening’s talk was a leader who recited her wonderful life with God, punctuated by tears as she told of the miracles God had done for her: finding the right sympathy card, a parking place opening for her in a snow storm, her grandson’s football victory.
The third evening’s talk was a man who set to proving that the world was created in 4004 BC in six 24 hour days. He contradicted carbon 14 testing and every geology class the campers ever sat through. His answer to all was, “God created it that way to test your faith in him and not in science.”
By the fourth evening’s talk Vanessa was used to campers coming to her in twos and threes to ask basically, “Huh?” She’d fielded a few complaints about the food and the two personalities that had collided and dragged in friends from both sides. The evening’s talk was a high school teacher. His slant on Christianity was that the center of faith was Jesus’ ethical teaching, no need for intricately interlaced doctrines. He held up his copy of The Jefferson Bible, and said Jesus’ highly moral message helped him live by kindness to others, what goes around comes around.
As the camp’s final evening approached Vanessa had to phone a parent to speak to his son. She figured the parent either threatened mayhem or promised a new car; because the boy became a model camper. Earlier she’d been pleased that she’d speak last to the campers. Each evening she formulated ways to weave together what each leader said. But evening by evening her task became more complex. Her dilemma did, however, lead her to deeper prayer -- to the point of desperation. How to hold these visions of Christianity together to benefit the campers who’d be back in high school soon and in need of faith to last a lifetime?
The final evening arrived. The campers had experienced clashes and crushes, exhaustion and exaltation. Vanessa looked at them from the lectern and their faces filled her with joy. She brought out the cooks, and the campers presented them with “memorial aprons” with the campers’ names and messages written on them. She introduced all adult leaders for the campers to cheer for them.
Her service had earned the campers’ attention. Her talk about Jesus’ love for them concluded, “We’ll go home tomorrow morning. If you can’t walk, someone will carry you. As we prepare to vacate this wonderful place, I remind you of why we’re here. We adults have tried to introduce you almost-adults to parts of the Christian faith you need to consider and pray about. I assume you’ll go home thinking about God’s beautiful creation and about the Holy Spirit who meets you daily. I hope that you’re open to ways different people understand our faith in Jesus and that you realize Christians above all others are supposed to live in loving, selfless ways.
“I want you to ponder something else. I’d like you to close your eyes. I will also. I trust that no one will open their eyes until I ask you to. Now, with all our eyes closed, I’d like you to raise your hand if anyone has ever broken a promise to you. Please leave your eyes closed and put down your hand. Another question, with our eyes closed: Have you ever broken a promise to someone? Raise your hand. While our eyes are closed, I’ll tell you that my hand is up. Okay, let’s put our hands down and open our eyes.
“I asked us to do this because of how important promises are and yet how hard it can be to keep them and because of the many times the Bible refers to God’s promises. You’ve already, in your life of less than two decades, been confused by faith. Who’s God? How am I supposed to live? Some of you have slid gently into faith. Some of you have banged against faith until your soul is bruised on all sides.
“No matter your current experience of faith or doubt, God promises to love you and be with you. You won’t always feel God’s presence and, pray as you might, you can’t just squeeze out of God what you want, no matter how good it is. You’ll be perplexed by what faith means, and how life works. But, your leaders are here to promise that God loves you and is with you. That’s not just our promise, but what God did in Jesus. Jesus is God’s no-matter-what promise to you. In Jesus’ resurrection God promises to love you. God made the promise and God’s the only one strong enough to keep it. God’s promise isn’t just to others elsewhere, Christians long ago, or people who seem to have faith explained and under control. It’s to you. In Jesus God’s saying, ‘I promise to love you, even if it kills me.’
“Now,” she paused, “about those promises we’ve broken. Maybe some of us need a good night’s sleep to be strong enough to go home tomorrow and ask someone’s forgiveness for breaking a promise. God will be with us then, too.”
Preaching Point: Jesus is God’s eternal promise to love us no matter what.
* * *
Name Change
by John Fitzgerald
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Harlan grew up in Indiana with his dad tasting death when he was only 5 years old. At a youthful age of 18 Harlan married and his wife quickly became pregnant. He lost his job working with railroads and the family faced a depressing future.
Harlan drifted from job to job working while finally settling upon employment as a chef at a restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky. No doubt about it, Harlan was a loser with nothing much to offer.
By the time retirement came at age 65, Harlan had little financial resources. He took his first Social Security check of $105.00 and tried a new venture. The chicken he prepared for customers at Corbin’s restaurant had a different flavor. Harlan took his recipe and created a new food product.
The different kind of eating which Harlan demonstrated soon became wildly popular. The recently retired chef had enough money to start his own restaurant. It did not take long for the public to learn of the name, “Harlan Sanders.”
This man born into poverty and a life of barely having enough money discovered unbelievable wealth as an older gent. Before he died, Harlan Sanders gained a new name -- “Colonel Harlan Sanders -- Founder of Kentucky Friend Chicken.”
Harlan Sanders took on a new name due to his elevated status in life. In the Bible this sort of thing happened on a regular basis. People in scripture had a name change when something significant occurred in their walk.
Our scripture reading describes a married couple who received a divine name change. According to the Bible, “Abram” became “Abraham” and “Sarai” became “Sarah”.
Abraham had a name change due to his covenant made with God. Abraham was destined by the Lord to be father for all future generations. Sarah experienced a similar event. Sarah was blessed by God to be mother for all who came after her.
We may not encounter a name change in our walk with God. But we can have a life changing event which forever rearranges our walk with the Lord. We believe in the promise of scripture which says: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard and no human mind conceived -- the things God has prepared for those who love him.” -- 2 Corinthians 2:9
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 25, 2018, issue.
Copyright 2017 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
