Imagine the scene. It’s one that I observed once or twice in my former life as an English teacher.  Chris is a new teacher and he’s just had his first encounter with 11z.  30 15 year olds in the bottom set.  And Chris emerges from the classroom after the worst 50 minutes of his entire life.  Hair dishevelled; the back of his shirt covered in ink-spots from the artillery barrage of fountain pens that opened up every time his back was turned.

The lesson could have gone better.  ‘Just had that 11z’ says Chris to colleague Rob in the staffroom.  ‘What a nightmare!’  ‘11z?’ says Rob, ‘Oh they’re never any trouble for me.’  He knows what Rob is really saying, ‘11z do not misbehave for me because I am a very good teacher.   Evidently you are not.’

And Chris is crushed – silenced.  In future - he decides - he’ll struggle alone.

Let’s replay the scene.  Chris emerging from classroom – staggering to the staffroom.  Getting his coffee.  Confiding in a colleague.

This time though he sits next to Kath   ‘Just had that 11z’ says Chris ‘what a nightmare!’  ‘11z? Oh I know exactly what you mean.  They can be really hard work.  I don’t what you think but something I’ve found works is…’  And so begins a conversation about ways forward.

Two approaches.  Rob, ‘They’re never any trouble for me.’  Kath, ‘I know exactly what you mean.’

On Tuesday it’s St Peter’s Day.  So today – a couple of days early we’re looking at St Peter.  But why the introduction about teachers? Well possibly for no reason at all but let’s look at St Peter then come back to teachers again at the end.

‘You are Peter,’ says Jesus, ‘and on this rock I will build My church.’  Remember the foolish man who built his house on the sand?  It fell flat.  But the wise man built his house upon the rock.  And in all weathers his house it stood firm.

Rock. It’s strong and solid. If you want something to last – build it not on sand but rock.  ‘You are Peter and on this rock I will build My church.’  In fact Jesus changes Simon’s name from Simon to ‘Rock’.  Peter, in Greek, Petros, Rock.  ‘Simon son of Jonah I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.’

So Jesus wants a solid foundation on which to build the community of His followers who will take His message into the whole world and He chooses Simon Peter as that rock.

So why Peter?  What makes him rock-like?  Let’s look at Peter’s career. First picture him in your mind.  He’s sitting dejected on a beach this rugged northern fisherman washing empty fishing nets.  He’s been fishing all night and he’s caught nothing.  That’s how he is the first time Jesus sets eyes on him.  That’s what he’s doing that day when Jesus the Rabbi says to Him ‘Come, follow me!’

Now a rabbi only says, ‘Come follow Me!’ to the very best of straight A grade students who can not only recite the entire bible off by heart but also debate its interpretation with the finest of thinkers.

Very few are chosen.  The vast majority with average ordinary abilities they have left school long before to pursue a family trade.  And there is Peter the day Jesus first meets him cleaning fishing nets – following the family trade one of those with average ordinary abilities.  But this ordinary man – who some will later label an ‘unschooled fisherman’ receives rabbi Jesus’ invitation, ‘Come! Follow Me!’

Peter – chosen to be a disciple, chosen to be the rock on which Jesus builds His church.  Why?  Certainly not because he’s extraordinary, not this average unschooled fisherman.

Another picture.  It’s the middle of a huge lake.  The wind is strong the waves large.  And Peter is getting out of a boat into the water.  He’s seen his rabbi walking on water and so he’s trying it too.  But now he’s sinking and crying out, ‘Lord save me!’

‘On this rock I will build My church.’  Peter the rock who never makes mistakes?  Not really.  5 verses after today’s reading Peter is refusing to listen to Jesus’ predictions about His death and Jesus will say to him ‘Get behind me Satan! You are a stumbling block!’

In the Garden of Gethsemane Peter will draw his sword and attack one Jesus accusers and so be rebuked by Jesus.

Why is Peter a rock?  Not because he never makes mistakes.

Picture number 3.  It’s night and it’s cold.  Peter’s face flickers in the light of a charcoal fire.  ‘You were also with Jesus of Nazareth weren’t you?’ says a servant girl.  Calling down curses three times he says ‘I don’t know the man.’

‘Simon son of Jonah… I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build my church.’  What on earth qualifies Peter to be the strong foundation of Jesus’ Church?  This flawed ordinary, average, man who makes mistakes and fails his Lord.  What sort of a foundation is that?

A fourth picture.  There’s a charcoal fire but it’s no longer night.  It’s early morning on a Lake shore and there’s the smell of cooking fish.

Fish being cooked by a rabbi  who though once betrayed and killed is now alive again.

And there’s Peter.  And the rabbi is putting his arm around him.  Together they’re walking down the shore.  ‘Do you love Me?’ asks Jesus three times.  ‘Yes Lord’ comes the reply three times, ‘You know that I love you.’  ‘Then take care of My sheep,’ says Jesus.

Peter the ordinary Peter the average.  Peter who struggles, who fails and knows what it was to have bitter regrets.  Of course it’s to him Jesus says, ‘take care of My sheep.’ to him Jesus says ‘On this rock I will build my church.’

Because the people Peter is called to care for, the Church Jesus is building - it’s built of ordinary average people who struggle and know failure and regret.  Who together are helping each other to walk faithfully as His followers

Remember our teachers.  Rob’s ‘They’re never any trouble for me.’  Kath’s ‘I know exactly what you mean.’  Which one helps Chris become a stronger teacher?

Peter the ordinary and the flawed - he is the Church’s solid foundation because he is the one who can come alongside all who struggle and truly say     ‘I know exactly what you mean.’  Peter is the Church’s solid foundation because it is out of Peters – out of the ordinary and flawed out of people like you and me that Jesus builds His church.

And we are at our strongest on firmest ground when we dare together to admit that we are weak.  When we rely not on our own strength but on that of God and the fellow Christians whom He has placed alongside us.

‘For,’ writes St Paul, ‘the weakness of God    is stronger than human strength… God chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong…

When I am weak then I am strong…’ For God’s power is made perfect in weakness…’

I want to finish with a short passage from Rob Bell’s book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians.

God’s power is made perfect in weakness

If you’ve ever been to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, you know what this is like. An AA meeting is a room full of people who are done pretending... There’s no acting. And it’s overwhelmingly powerful… They all know each other’s games…; a whole world of posturing and pretending is simply absent. You’re there because you have hit bottom… and you need others who how it feels…

The most powerful sermon in the world is two words: “Me too.”

Me too. When you’re struggling, when you’re hurting, wounded, limping, doubting, questioning, barely hanging on, moments away from another elapse, and someone can identify with you – someone who knows the temptations that are at your door, somebody has felt the pain that you are feeling, when someone can look you in the eyes and say, ‘Me too,’ and they actually mean it – it can save you.[1]

‘Me too’ is the rock you cling too. And the Church is at its most powerful – most fully fulfils her God-given mandate when she is able to say to a broken hurting world, ‘Me too,’ ‘Us too,’ ‘Now together let’s find God’s strength.’