Wednesday, March 2, 2022 – Ash Wednesday/Lent One – The Peter Principle

“Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell to his knees before Jesus. “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.” (Luke 5:8 The Message Bible)

                Let us walk along side the disciple, Peter, this Lenten season.

                In 1969, Laurence J. Peter wrote a book entitled The Peter Principle. The basic premise was that an employed person is promoted based on their previous job success until they reach their level of incompetence, as skills in one job do not necessarily work at the higher level. Peter, the disciple to whom the keys of the kingdom were bestowed, seems to fit that description. He can be audacious and a strong-willed follower of Jesus, one moment, and an abject failure the next moment. The story of Peter in the Gospels is a roller coaster of faith, love, obedience and reveals the full gamut of the highs and lows of following Jesus.

                Why does that matter? Because Simon Peter is you and me. Some days – a rock; other days sifting sand.

                It begins at water’s edge after a futile night of fishing. Peter and his partners are weary and disappointed as their livelihood depends on a good catch of fish and they caught nothing. Jesus appears and commandeers Peter’s boat to preach from. After the sermon, Jesus dares Peter to go out into deeper water and continue to fish.  Wearily, Peter agrees and they catch so much fish that the other boats had to come to aid in reeling them in.

                Peter is dumb-founded. He understands enough that he has just witnessed something incredible.  What does he want to do? Get as far away from Jesus as he can. This man might be dangerous. He is strange. He is more than Peter can deal with. He is something else!

                “Master, leave. I’m a sinner and can’t handle this holiness. Leave me to myself.”

                We see the struggle of faith right off the get-go. One minute, Peter is willing to obey Jesus by going into deeper water despite his weariness and his spirit of futility and, the next minute, Peter wants to put as much distance as he possibly can between himself and Jesus. “Leave me to myself.”       

                Perhaps he thinks the grace of a full boat comes with another kind of “catch” and Jesus will demand something of him in return. So, if he declares himself a sinner and therefore not worthy of Jesus’ attention, not admirable enough to be of any help or use, not creditable enough or suitable enough to be attractive for Jesus’ purposes, then he has created the necessary space, the gap, between himself and Jesus. And he can go about his business – of being just plain old Simon Peter the fisherman.

                But he is exactly whom Jesus is looking for – a sinner, full of imperfect humanity.  Here is someone who has potential, who can learn to obey, trust, come along-side, and discover Jesus’ Lordship.

                Lent begins a journey of a renewed self-awareness of our human shortcomings. We are all sinners. We can’t get away from that reality. But it is a shame when we can’t get past that reality, when people believe that they are not redeemable, not worthy of the grace of God, not acceptable of any mercy and forgiveness, not suitable to be in the presence of holiness. Leave me alone. Go away.  I am what I am and I can’t change; I won’t change, not for you, Lord, not for anybody.

                Jesus sees through our veneer of our sin and goes deeper himself into the soul and spirit of each of us and pulls out a disciple, a follower, a companion, a learner, a friend, a brave heart and seeks to begin to build his kingdom with such as us.

Sin doesn’t pull us apart from Jesus but draws us deeper together into his fellowship, into his Love, into his forgiveness and compassion, into his service.

                Lent reminds us of our sinfulness but it should also remind us that Jesus doesn’t take “No” i.e. sin, as an answer.

Dale