Sunday Homily - February 23, 2020 - Dismissive Skepticism Vs. Faith (A Call to Repentance)

St. Peter Icon

I.

Have you ever had an experience
 that was so out of the ordinary
  that you felt afraid to share it with other people?

And, like I said, it is not an ordinary experience that I'm talking about.

Being there when Tracy Porter intercepted Peyton Manning
 and effectively won the Super Bowl for the New Orleans Saints in the 2009 season
  is absolutely incredible, but it isn't necessarily out of the ordinary.

Witnessing the launch of a space shuttle into space
 is a marvel of technology,
  but again,
   it is not necessarily supernatural,
    since our engineering is by necessity rooted in the natural world.

No, I'm talking about the supernatural.

Have you ever had an experience of the supernatural
 that you felt afraid to share with others
  because of what they would say?

I would wager to guess that some of us in here
 have had those experiences.

But I would also wager that you have had the same resistance
 creep into your consciousness that assails all of us
  who have had these supernatural experiences.
   And that resistance has a name:
    skepticism.

In our modern world,
 skepticism of the supernatural has had a profound effect on all of us
  even if you might not think so.

When I drive to work in the morning,
 do I naturally think that God gave me grace and mercy to make it safely there?
  If I am honest with myself, that's not what I think in the moment.
   Instead, the way I would describe what happened was,
    I got in my car and drove myself to work.
     I didn't even have a reference for God's grace in my un-reflective framework.
   
I'm skeptical to even think that supernatural assistance kept me safe
 on my drive to work.
  To be clear, after the fact, I can certainly reflect with 20-20 vision on God's provision,
   but nonetheless, skepticism is a rut that I often find myself within most days.

And as a Christian,
 skepticism of the supernatural is a subtle but incredibly wide-reaching stance
  that most of the secular world takes toward believers in Jesus.

After all,
 there are presidents of Christian seminaries
  that apparently don't think the bodily resurrection of Jesus happened,
   nor do they believe that it is essential to our Christian faith.
    And maybe this is overstepping my reach here as a simple parish priest without a doctorate,
     but if the bodily resurrection didn't happen,
      why do we have so many reliable accounts from the New Testament
       that give eyewitness accounts to the resurrection of Jesus?

[https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/seminary-president-admits-she-doesn-t-believe-in-heaven-miracles-or-christ-s-resurrection.html]

Skepticism is all around us,
 seeping even into the academy that studies the Christian faith for a living.
  Which should give you a hint as to where skepticism can lead:
    it can lead to a "Christianity" that is not Christianity anymore.

A denial of the trustworthiness of supernatural action,
 on the basis of our modern skepticism,
  means an erosion of the very core tenants of our faith:
   the bodily resurrection of Jesus,
    the supernatural healing miracles actually being a historical event,
     the provision of God opening the Red Sea to the Israelites to escape Egypt,
      the giving of the Law of God to Moses on the Holy Mountain,
       the transfiguration of Jesus and the manifestation of his divinity as Very God?
        all of these become...

Old books meant to for interesting anthropology of the Jewish people?
 Interesting stories meant to draw the imagination of the reader in to an imaginary world?
  "Cleverly devised myths"
   that are too old and out of touch with reality to mean anything anymore?

II.

This is exactly the danger that St. Peter warns us of this morning
 when we trust too much our skepticism
  and leave no room for God to do anything out of the ordinary in our lives.

In fact, Peter might be the best person to communicate this to us,
 because of Peter's own discipleship under Jesus
  when Jesus revealed that he is the Messiah, the Christ,
   in ways that St. Peter would never have imagined in his wildest dreams!

Think about what Peter has seen and done in his lifetime:

Simon Peter was a fisherman,
 and Jesus called him to come and follow him.
  (Matthew 4:18)

Then, he witnesses something weird about Jesus:
 he heals people, casts out evil spirits, and teaches as one having authority
  and not as the Scribes do in the synagogues.
   (Matthew 4:23; 5:1-7:1)

But not just this,
 in response to what Peter sees,
  he, too, believes that Jesus is the Messiah.

Peter witnesses Jesus feed 5,000+ people with just a few loaves and fish!
 Then, Jesus turns right around and feeds another 4,000+ people again!
  (c.f. Matthew 15)

Dead people are raised,
 the sick are healed,
  and something weird is going on.

Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah,
 the very Son of God,
  and Jesus exclaims to him,
  "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood,
     but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter,
      and on this rock I will build my church,
       and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
       (Matthew 16:13-20)

And yet, even at Peter's best,
 he still could stick his foot right back in his mouth,
  because immediately after he confesses Jesus as the Son of God,
   he then scolds Jesus for saying that the messiah must suffer and die
    and in three days rise again from the dead.
     And Jesus then turns again and says,
      "Get behind me, Satan! You set your mind on mortal things and not on heavenly things!"

Boy, you can get whiplash if you read about St. Peter!

But the rest of the Gospel tells of Peter's growth in understanding
 just what Jesus, the Eternal Word of God
  was up to in Peter's own life.

Peter witnesses the Transfiguration of Jesus in his glory and splendor,
 as we read in today's Gospel.

And yet, this is the same Peter who charges in with Jesus
 and swears he will never forsake Jesus even if it means he must die,
  then turns around and denies that he even knew Jesus 3 times.
  (Matthew 26:69-74)

Peter goes back to fishing because he truly believes that Jesus is done for and buried.
 And yet, after Jesus was resurrected from the dead,
  he appears to Peter and restores him to the faith,
   "Simon, do you love me more than these?"
    (c.f. John 21)

So, when Peter writes his second letter this morning,
 [which, by the way, the letters of St. Peter
  can be found right near the end of the New Testament,
   sandwiched between the letter of James and the letters of 1-3 John]
    he strongly pushes back against mere skepticism of the stories circulating about Jesus.

Instead, he, as an eyewitness to Jesus's miraculous life,
 sacrificial death,
  and completely unheard of resurrection,
   desperately wants to point us to the reliability of all of the eyewitnesses
    that attest to these things.

What does he say in his letter again?
 "We did not follow cleverly devised myths
  when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
   but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
    For he received honor and glory from God the Father
     when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying,
      “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
       We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven,
        while we were with him on the holy mountain."
        [2 Peter 1:16-18]

We are eyewitnesses of the things we attest to,
 Peter says.
  And Peter, like the rest of the New Testament,
   says don't just believe him!
    Search the Holy Scriptures and you will see for yourselves!

Peter and the disciples witnessed something supernatural.
 Something completely unexpected,
  and when they share this astounding truth with others,
   the natural human reaction to anything extraordinary creeps in:
    dismissive skepticism.

Dismissive skepticism,
 that sounds like, "Peter, how can you say Jesus is alive again? We know where the tomb is,
 and if there isn't a body there, then clearly someone like you must have stolen him."
  [c.f. Matthew 28:11-15]

Dismissive Skepticism,
 that is sneaky,
  and sounds like, "Even though Jesus was dead, the disciples still experienced him
   alive in their lives and in the lives of the people they met."
   Which is a snobby 21st century American way of saying
    that the 1st century disciples were not telling the truth.
     Because claiming the experience of Jesus while still claiming he is dead
      is not belief in the bodily resurrection that Christians have always claimed.

St. Peter will not let us get away with dismissing the supernatural,
 especially for us who walk in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

III.

But what St. Peter also does
 is free us to actually listen to how God is active in our very lives today!

When we throw off the weight of dismissive skepticism,
 we allow ourselves to be open to the possibility
  that the God will speak to you anew even as you join here in worship this morning!

A whole new reality is opened before you,
 one in which God actually
  "walks with me,
    and he talks with me,
     and he tells me I am his own"
      and the old hymn would say.
      ["In the Garden" - C. Austin Miles]

But what is a way that we can throw off our skepticism,
 the thing that affects us so often in our modern day?

Well, here's a couple of really good suggestions
 that the entire Christian tradition has found effective:

1) Read your Bible every day.

And, friends, if the suggestion to read your Bible every day strikes you as strange,
 you have been affected by dismissive skepticism.
  The Holy Scriptures, the revelation of God,
   have always been sure and certain means to hear the Gospel of Jesus
    and have always been a means for the Holy Spirit to speak anew into your lives.
     Never neglect your Bible study.

And guess what, we here at Trinity Parish Church
 have a way to hear the Bible everyday:
  its called Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer.
   This Lent, we are doing Morning Prayer every Tuesday - Friday morning at 8:00 A.M.
    How about join us in reading the Bible every day!

2) Examine your assumptions by studying Christian theology.

We all inherit ways of thinking about Christianity,
 whether we were brought up in Church or not.
  And often we don't examine our assumptions and preconceived notions
   in real, hard, faithful, and constructive ways
    that benefit our souls.

So, once again, let's get together and talk about this stuff.
 If you want a deep, hard, theological look at Christian theology,
  join us on Sunday mornings for the next couple of months
   as we study our Christian faith with a book that changed my life:
    "The Mosaic of Christian Belief."

This is a wide-ranging primer on the unity and diversity of Christian theology,
 and it will give you tools to evaluate your assumptions.
  But we will do it in a faithful fashion that can do nothing but enhance your love for God
   and teach you how to do so more faithfully.

And, most importantly,
3) Let Jesus change your mind about things.

And here's where we get to Lent,
 which starts on Wednesday this week.
  "Repentance," that word that we all love?
   It means, "Change your mind."

In our repentance this Lent,
 maybe consider letting Jesus change your mind about some things.
  Be open to Jesus's illuminating light in your life
   and be willing to follow Jesus into an uncomfortable new path
    that leads to life.

Because we all struggle with skepticism, friends.
 But thank goodness for St. Peter to encourage us to be faithful,
  and thank God for Jesus who has come to save our souls.

In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.