wfn.org | `Dawn' Bible Studies Conclude with an `Icky Sandwich'

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

4-January-2000 
00002 
 
    `Dawn' Bible Studies Conclude with an `Icky Sandwich' 
 
    God uses good and bad to transform creation, Hodges tells youth 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
INDIANAPOLIS-After exploring the lives of Jacob and Mary the mother of 
Jesus during the first two morning Bible studies of "Dawn ... an Epiphany," 
the Rev. Houston Hodges turned for his final Bible study on Dec. 31 to the 
apostle Peter. 
 
    "If you take these three characters together you have two `ickies' and 
one nice," Hodges told his 2,000 young congregants, "kind of an icky 
sandwich." 
 
    And the point of all this?  "Each individual has intrinsic worth and 
doesn't have to become something else because God is looking for all of it 
- the icky and the nice - in order to transform creation." 
 
    Recalling the story from John 21 of Jesus' encounter with his disciples 
by the Sea of Tiberius just after his resurrection, Hodges painted a 
picture of a disconsolate Peter, still grieving over his three-fold denial 
of Jesus at the time of his arrest. 
 
    And Jesus gave Peter another chance, Hodges said.  "Three times over, 
as if to wash away that terrible night, Jesus gave Peter the opportunity to 
make it right, to reiterate his love for Jesus." 
 
    Even then, the impetuous, impulsive Peter "almost blows it," Hodges 
continued.  "Rather than recognizing the irony, Peter got impatient at 
having to answer the same question three times over." 
 
    But that's how it is with God, Hodges insisted.  "We look before we 
leap like Peter, we get all grabby like Jacob, or like many of the 
disciples we simply don't understand.  Do you think this disqualifies us 
from being used by God?  Good heavens, no!  Those are all things - the icky 
and the good - that God is looking for in us to help transform the world." 
 
    And the "gospel-job" - the instructions given to Peter and the 
disciples at this final encounter with Jesus are the same as at the 
beginning, Hodges concluded, "Follow me.  Feed my sheep." 

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