Jesus explicitly told the disciples that they would fall away from Him.  They had just finished what we now call the “Last Supper” and they were heading to the Garden of Gethsemane.  It was here in the garden that Jesus would pray in agony before His arrest and trials.  His disciples would fall asleep during this time of grief and despair for Jesus.  As they are heading to the garden, Jesus says to the group: “You will fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered’” (Mk. 14:27).  He quotes this verse from the book of Zechariah to show that once He is in trouble, the disciples will desert Him.  Peter, the impulsive Peter, of course speaks up and says, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”  That’s a pretty bold prediction from Peter—that took some guts to make a statement, a promise like that.  Jesus, knowing what will happen, tries to straighten Peter out: “I tell you the truth, today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”  But we are told that Peter doesn’t believe a word of it.  He is confident that he will stay with Jesus.  “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you”, he responds.  And we are told that all of the other disciples said the same thing.  We always give ourselves the benefit of the doubt, don’t we?  Oftentimes we give ourselves more credit than we deserve when it comes to our faith and trust in God. 

          Most of us know what happens next.  Jesus is indeed arrested and He is brought to the high priest for a trial which is really no fair trial at all.  While Jesus is being questioned at the residence of the high priest, Peter is in the courtyard below (Mk. 14:66).  While he is there one of the servant girls of the priest comes by.  She sees Peter warming himself by a fire and looks closely at him.  “You were also with that Nazarene, Jesus,” she declared.  But Peter denies it: “I don’t know or understand what you are talking about.”  And he walks away from her and goes to the entryway.  The servant girl again sees him there and says to those standing around, “This fellow is one of them.”  Again he denies it.  A little while later those standing near him said to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean.”  He began to call down curses on himself and he swore to them, “I don’t know this man you’re talking about.”  Then we are told that at that moment a rooster crowed the second time and Peter remembered what Jesus had said to him: “Before the rooster crows twice you will disown me three times.”  And he broke down and wept. 

At the palace, Jesus stands before Pontius Pilate and is on trial.  But out in the darkness, in the courtyard, down below, another trial takes place.  Judge and jury at that trial is a servant girl.  And though we don't know much about her, if she is only a girl, but also only a servant, we know that she is a small, insignificant, powerless person.  She is not only a woman in a patriarchal culture, but she is also a servant woman.  And she is young.  And this little, powerless girl is the one who puts Peter, the premier disciple, through his paces.  Oh, the power of that young woman!  She may have been young, a woman, and a serving woman at that, but in three short sentences, she has completely crushed, "the rock" as Peter is called.  She has forced Peter to deny Jesus, not once, but three times.  And Peter stumbles out into the darkness beyond the fire and weeps like a baby.

Some time ago, on a much brighter sunnier day, Jesus had asked, "Who do people say that I am?"  Peter's hand was the first to go up.  "You are the Christ, the son of the living God!"  And Jesus had said in response, "I'll build my church on this rock."  And from that day on Jesus had called him Peter which means in Greek "rock."  Peter's confession is the very rock upon which Jesus will build His church.  But in the darkness of this dangerous week, with the soldiers on the prowl, and this young servant woman interrogating him publicly, Peter appeared as anything but the rock.  The power of that woman!  There she stood before the best that Jesus could do, by way of disciples, the premier and most powerful of the disciples, and she made him testify, show what he was made out of.  It was Peter's midterm exam and he flunked.  In a little while, after this sermon, you will be asked to "rise and affirm your faith," repeating the words of the Nicene Creed.  And you will be able to do so.  It is easy to affirm the faith, and to swear to the Creed, when we are here in the safe confines of this building.  We are protected in this large space we appropriately call a sanctuary.  And we say our creeds, and we sing our hymns, and we affirm our faith.  But then we go out.  And out there, out there in the world is the exam.  And the faith we have tried to keep private is forced to go public. And that's a different story.

This little serving girl gave Peter the opportunity to testify to what he believed, to take his faith into the real world.  And he flunked.  The world is quite right in judging Jesus by the sort of lives He is able to produce.  The world is not being cruel or accusatory when it asks us, "Weren't you with Jesus?  Does that make a difference?"  What would your response be if someone were to ask you: "What difference does it make in your life that you believe in God?”  What would your answer be?  Could you come up with a single thing in your life that was different because of your faith?  Isn't it odd how sometimes these people who don't know Jesus have an uncanny way of knowing more about Jesus than we who do?  Maybe each of us, if we are to follow Jesus, need not only a prayer partner or a Bible study group, but also someone like that little serving girl who is there to question us, to challenge us, and to make us say what we believe.  In the Apostle’s Creed, we mention that Jesus "suffered under Pontius Pilate."  Pilate has a place in our Creed, because he was the one who tried Jesus and condemned Jesus to death on the cross.  Pilate unwittingly enabled Jesus to shine forth from the cross, to show the world the depths to which God would stoop to save us.  Maybe we ought to put this little nameless servant girl into our Creed.  She was the one who put Peter on trial.  She was the one who demanded that Peter confess before the world what he held to be true.  Of course, Jesus passed the exam that Peter flunked, and maybe that is why we do not give her the credit that she deserves or even remember her name.  All of us need, in the middle of the night, when things are dangerous, to meet some little servant girl, who demands that we say what we believe.  It’s 3am and you are in the courtyard with the servant girl.  She asks you about Jesus.  What do you say?  Will you have an answer?  I expect as you go forth from the safe confines of this fortress of faith, this Holy Week, there is a good chance that somewhere, sometime, you will meet someone like this young woman.     What do you or what would you say to someone who asks you what you believe and then why you believe it?  In our culture today, we need to explain what we believe because we can no longer assume that people have any sort of Christian background.  People don’t grow up learning Christian values—unfortunately, it seems many learn no values at all period.  One in four adults age 18 to 29 claims no affiliation with a religious institution.  Less than 20% of Americans regularly attend church.  Could you tell them what you believe and why?  Could you explain to them what Jesus was all about?  I realize some of you are new to the church and to the faith and may not even believe yourself.  But I am willing to bet that there are some who have been here for several years or many years and you couldn’t articulate too well what you believe or why you believe it.       Another problem is that some Christians will hand out a tract or hold a sign that says “Jesus is the only way” but they won’t build friendships and trust with people to dialogue with them about what that means.  And often we don’t care to learn about other faith traditions.  Not only do we not know enough about our own faith, we are totally ignorant about other faiths.  I’m guilty of that and I’ve studied several of them to some degree.  Many people, particularly those who are more conservative, don’t want to learn about Buddhism or Hinduism or Islam—they just like to say that they are right and everyone else is wrong.  It’s not that people aren’t open to spiritual things or God.  I am confident that when we provide logical answers to questions with compassion, understanding, love, and prayer, we will be surprised how many people end up putting their faith in Jesus. 

          Remember the text from 1 Peter we heard this morning?  “Always be prepared to give an answer to anyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  This is Peter telling us this—the same Peter who earlier was not prepared to give the servant girl any sort of answer regarding his faith.  But now Peter has been restored to the faith and he tells us we should have an answer for people when they ask us why we believe what we believe.  We should be living differently from others who do not know God and if this is the case, then we may expect that people will ask us what is different about us.  We need to be prepared and take that opportunity when the time comes.  But there is a certain way that we should present our beliefs.  Peter says we should do this with gentleness and respect so that people will have no reason to speak maliciously against us.  How we say what we believe is just as important as what we actually believe.  No matter what the issue, when you are dealing with people in general, but particularly if you are explaining your faith to a non-Christian, how you say what you believe is critical.  People don’t so much have a problem with what Christians believe—it’s the way we go about holding and teaching our beliefs that usually upsets them.  Always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have—and do it with gentleness and respect and humility.      

          You may be sitting there thinking that you wish you knew what you believed or how to best communicate it to others.  That is a good thing if you are wondering that—it shows you are alive.  As we seek to revitalize our church this is one area we need to address and will address.  Starting up some more small groups and giving people opportunities for learning, teaching, accountability, community and building friendships will be one of our goals.  The purpose of the church is to reach out to people and then teach them, grow them to maturity in the faith and make them disciples of Christ.  The church is to be all about spiritual growth—think of the church as a greenhouse that is constantly growing disciples of Christ.  And the church is not a building—you, we, are the church.  The church is made up of people, not bricks and wood or concrete.  We need to have a process whereby we go out in our community and our network of friends and plant seeds and then seek to grow them in the church.  Then when they bear fruit and are mature, we send them back out into the world to repeat the planting and growing process all over again.  Trust me, there will be more opportunities for spiritual growth—there have to be.  That is the goal, the reason for our existence, so if we are not doing it, we might as well shut our doors.    

          What do you believe and why?  Have you really stopped to think about it lately?  It’s not always easy to communicate that to others—it’s even hard with those whom you know and trust and who share your beliefs.     One reason we ask you to stand to repeat the words of the Creed, to affirm your faith, is the hope that if you get enough practice in doing that in the safe confines of this dear place, you will be able to do it when you are tested out there in the world.  So….let us stand, and I invite you to affirm what we believe as we recite the Nicene Creed together.