Aug232026
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When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, their diet changed from water and Manna in the desert to delicious food: ribeye, green beans almondine, mashed potatoes, fruit salads, and Cabernet reds. They asked the locals how they got such tasty food. The natives of the land did not tell them about Deere tractors or farming techniques. They told them they had great food because they worshiped the fertility god, who lived under the earth and supplied spring water to water their gardens. The locals asked the Israelites how they got water in the desert for the past forty years. And they said, “We got the water from a rock. Our God, the God of Abraham, told Moses to strike the rock and water would gush out of it.” Once the Israelites settled in the Promised Land they had to choose where they would get their water. Either from the fertility god under the earth, or from their God through the rock.

Many years later, Jesus took the Disciples up to Caesarea Philippi, where they used to worship the fertility God and where the underground spring was. Jesus had the disciples make a choice. Would they get their source of life from the world or from the Rock on which Jesus built the church?

I choose the rock, and here is why. I look at a timeline. Everybody has a spot on the timeline. Abraham has a spot on the timeline, Moses has a spot, Jeremiah has a spot, Abrahan Lincoln has a spot and so does Pope John Paul II. The wonderful thing about a rock is that it does not have a spot on the timeline. Its existence is represented by the entire line on the timeline. That is why Jesus built the Church on a rock: to transform us from a spot into a line on the timeline. Peter, whose name means rock, wrote a letter and, in the letter, described the people who belong to Christ’s church as living stones. I like the sound of that, especially when I am looking at my dot on the timeline. Peter tells us that our lives change dramatically when we are part of God’s Church.

We live in a complex world, with many distractions, and it becomes hard to find time for God. When that happens we can slowly drift aways from God. That will not happen if we have a strong reason. Jesus gives us that reason with a choice: do we want a spot or a line.

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