The Transformation of Simon
Epiphany 3 - 2012 – Year B - Family Eucharist
‘You are Simon – you will be called Peter.’ This is from John’s account of the calling of Simon that we read from Mark’s Gospel. What was the difference between the Simon that Jesus first encountered and the Peter at the end of the story.
To set our thoughts on their way; take a look at this egg. If you were to find something like this in a nest (and you are never, ever to take a egg out of a nest), what do you think would be inside it? Let us have a look at this short video clip.
Show video of hatching swan
I am now just going to ask a couple of people a question so could I have a couple of volunteers:
Ask each of them what they want to be when they are older
Do they now look like a ………….
Maybe not – but there is a ………. lurking inside them waiting to come out
Does anyone remember their Baptism? (Someone may say yes)
At your Baptism, either Canon Hyland or myself will have said this prayer for you as your parents and godparents stood around this font holding you in their arms:
May almighty God deliver you from the powers of darkness, restore in you the image of his glory, and lead you in the light and obedience of Christ. Amen.
There is something special about each one of you – I am not talking about the fact you are pretty, or clever, or good at sport. The Bible says that we are all made in the image of God – what that is saying is that there is a bit of God in each one of us – we can hide it at times selfishness, pride, greed – but that bit of God is still there - and God sees it.
When Samuel was choosing a new King of Israel from among the sons of Jesse he was going to go for the tallest, the strongest but, in the story in the Old Testament, he hears God saying to him, ‘Man looks at the outside – God looks at the heart.’
In our Old Testament Lesson we have the story of Jonah preaching to the people of Nineveh. Nineveh was a pretty grim place – in truth Jonah probably liked the idea of God punishing them. The story tells us that Nineveh had a change of heart and they were not punished – God saw beyond the disobedience to something that was good. Jonah was confused, even angry with God.
As Simon came towards Jesus that day, other people would have seen a big fisherman, not the most important on the social scale of that day, probably a rough manner and accent. But Jesus looked beyond that – he saw the Peter inside, the Peter he knew he could be, would be. The rest of Simon’s life was a process of changing from the Simon he was into the Peter God intended him to be.
There is something special to God about each person here. A big part of the Christian life is discovering that, building on that, becoming the person God wants us to be.