The Lord Will Fulfill His Purpose for Me

Scripture: Psalm 138:8; Isaiah 51:1–3; Romans 12:1–8; Matthew 16:17–18 NRSVA

The Lord will fulfil his purpose for me;
your steadfast love, O Lord, endures for ever.
Do not forsake the work of your hands.
— Psalm 138:8

Jesus called Andrew and Simon, James and John, Nathanael, Matthew, Thomas, Judas, and others to follow him. After spending some time with Jesus, Jesus asked them, “Who do you say I am?” Simon declared that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

Jesus replied, “Simon, son of Jonah, God revealed this to you.” Then Jesus states, “Peter, upon this rock I will build my church.”

Notice the change. Jesus changed his name from Simon to Peter. Why?

Could it be that Jesus saw something in Simon that Simon did not see at that moment? Maybe Jesus was seeing what Simon would become rather than what he was at the present. Peter means rock. Simon was rash, quick to act, and fearful. Yet Jesus declared, “I am going to build my church on this foundation.”

Was he referring to Simon, or was Jesus pointing to Simon’s confession that Jesus was the Messiah? This is not the point I want to make, but that question has caused much discussion and dissension in the church. In doing so, I wonder if we have sometimes missed the message in our readings today.

The Psalmist states that God will fulfill his purpose for me.

What is God’s will for all of us? To love God and to love others as we love ourselves. This is not an easy task for us. We spend our lives trying to decide who we are, where we are going, and what we are going to do when we get there.

Today, we may be Simon, but tomorrow we have changed and grown, and we are now Peter. This is what happened to Simon because we do not generally refer to him now as Simon. We know him as Peter. This is how history remembers him.

God reminds us of who we are and where we are going through the words of Isaiah:

Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.

This is what the Sacred Writings we call the Holy Bible or the Scriptures do for us. We see how God chooses Simons and turns them into Peters.

Paul explains this in Romans. God calls us to be transformed. The idea here is metamorphosis. An example is the way a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. We see transformation in Scripture when Simon becomes the Peter who preaches on the day of Pentecost and 3,000 people respond in faith.

God does not wait until we are perfect to call us. God does not wait until we understand everything to call us. God sees what we can become, so the call comes:

“Follow me.”

I experienced God’s call at 14.

I am still being transformed.

I have not arrived yet. The journey continues.

What God asks us to do is leave our fishing boats behind and follow wherever he leads.

God does the transforming.