The Gospel for Monday, February 23, 2004
John 18:15-18; 25-27
Simon Peter, with another disciple, followed Jesus. This disciple, who was known to the high priest, went with Jesus into the high priest’s palace, but Peter stayed outside the door. So the other disciple, the one known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the door–keeper and brought Peter in. The girl on duty at the door said to Peter, ‘Aren’t you another of that man’s disciples?’ He answered, ‘I am not.’ Now it was cold, and the servants and guards had lit a charcoal fire and were standing there warming themselves; so Peter stood there too, warming himself with the others....
....As Simon Peter stood there warming himself, someone said to him, ‘Aren’t you another of his disciples?’ He denied it saying, ‘I am not.’ One of the high priest’s servants, a relation of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, ‘Didn’t I see you in the garden with him?’ Again Peter denied it; and at once a cock crowed.
A Study
Another mystery for us laypeople must be that of the construction of the common lectionary for those denominations which [mostly] follow it. The interjection of this nearly-Good-Friday text at this point in the Calendar is baffling.
Reported by John, "another disciple" is almost assuredly a reference to himself. He always names other disciples, but modestly refuses to proclaim himself. John adds details that the synoptic gospels omit: the fire is a charcoal fire, and the girl who questions him is "on duty at the door," or guarding it. These are the kind of intimate eyewitness details to which we are accustomed in Mark, but which John uses sparingly. This may be his way of saying "I was there!".
And here stands Peter, "the rock on whom I will build my Church," steadfastly denying his Lord, just as his Lord had predicted.
A Reflection
We are, the body of Christ, preparing to enter Lent. Just as one won't find "lectionary," or "Good Friday," or "cathedral" in the bible, one also won't find "Lent." Lent is man-made. Lent expands on the weekly period commemorated in the early Christian Church from Friday, on which Christ was crucified, until Sunday, when he rose from the dead.
In the early Church, this was a period of fasting and contemplation and prayer. As the Church grew and people's lives became more complex over the centuries, the Church gradually lengthened and made more symbolic this period in the spring (to which "lent" translates). The Church has added parallel meanings, comparing Lent to the 40 days Noah waited, and to the 40 days Christ prayed in the wilderness. The Church had succumbed to encouraging its members to worship the season, not its reason.
The early Church was focused quite properly on the death, and then the resurrection of Christ. The Church since then has added to that weekly cycle an annual cycle intended to help us concentrate on the life of Christ and the meanings it has for us. Many of us grew up in a tradition of "giving up" something for Lent as a means of helping us to remember Christ's sacrifice. In retrospect, no meat on Friday or no chewing gum for six weeks seems almost disrespectful.
Few of us fast anymore. Even during Lent, we have mostly discarded the medieval instructions for self-mortification, for continued prayer and fasting. Too much trouble. And Lent isn't "biblical," anyway.
However -- and you could feel this one coming, right? -- what is an appropriate preparation and commemoration for our receipt of the greatest Gift ever given? That gift is not Christmas. Jesus came to us at Christmas, but the reason he came was so that he could go. Every breath he took on this planet was only a preparation for that instant on Golgotha when he became the Christ, the perfect sacrifice and payment for our sins.
God told us in the Hebrew Bible that he did not want our sacrifices, he wants our hearts. He made for himself, on our behalf, the perfect sacrifice. A joyful act of the demonstration of our love and respect for Jesus' offering shows what God wants far better than a resentful and self-righteous meal of beans.
Jesus is not recorded anywhere commanding us to eat beans or abstain from meat. He is recorded commanding us to love one another as he loves us.
Do we, like Peter in the courtyard, deny Him still?
6:14:20 AM 
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