God’s love is unchanging
Failure is an opportunity to serve
John 18:15-27; 21:1-19
THE deflating knowledge that we’ve blown it can paralyse any further action. If it involved letting others down, we can’t face seeing them again. We feel awful. Peter must have shared that experience after he denied Jesus.
Jesus’ treatment of him is deeply encouraging. He doesn’t simply offer forgiveness (it is implicit) but does something far better. First, he comes to Peter in a familiar way: on the lake, where Peter is. What had first convinced Peter of Jesus’ divinity? A miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5:1-11). So, Jesus says, in effect, ‘Peter, I’m still the same, and I’m still with you.’
And then Jesus re-commissions him, the triple charge surely being a deliberate reference to Peter’s threefold denial: the restitution was complete, the slate was wiped clean. He was forgiven, he could begin again, and he had a ministry to fulfil.
Having failed himself, he could ‘feed the lambs’ – the new believers who would join the church – with greater sensitivity. Peter, who comes over as quite hard, thoughtless and insensitive, wouldn’t be quite the same again after this; he would be more compassionate.
Christians fail like Peter because they are human. Jesus’ example shows that we cannot hold their confessed sins against them. Compassion, forgiveness and restoration are to be complete, not partial. We are to have short memories for failings and long memories for achievements – not the other way round.
God’s love is unchanging, so we can be reassured that failure in serving Christ does not mean the end of our service for Christ.
Book Review: Padre, Prisoner and Pen-Pusher
Intro: The World War One Experiences of the Reverend Benjamin O’Rorke
THERE are few army chaplains that had as varied a career during the First World War as the Reverend Benjamin O’Rorke. A regular Padre who had seen service in the Boer War he was mobilised along with 54 other chaplains at the start of hostilities. He was deployed to France with 4 Field Ambulance where he was taken prisoner by the Germans at the end of August 1914. He was repatriated in July 1915 and wrote a book of his experiences. Returning to France he served as frontline chaplain before being posted to serve as a staff chaplain to the Deputy Chaplain General.
Posted back to the UK in June 1918 he died on 25th December 1918 during the flu epidemic. The central part of the book is a transcription of the diary he kept during January to June 1918.
At the heart of the chaplaincy administration on the Western Front he recorded an inside view of how chaplains were thinking, particularly about post-war British society. His notes include record of sermons preached throughout the war which give a fascinating record of one chaplain’s perspective on the developing war. The book puts the experiences of Ben O’Rorke within the context of chaplaincy during the First World War.
This book will appeal to all who are interested in how a regular army chaplain coped with mobilisation, life as a prisoner of war, and then of the ever-lengthening war. It provides information on the large number of chaplains with whom he came into contact whilst keeping the diary. As well as an introduction and notes to explain the diary and other writings there is a discussion about the value of chaplains’ diaries and letters in understanding the First World War.
– Padre, Prisoner and Pen-pusher is published by Helion & Company (2015), 164pp
