Weeping Bitterly

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A servant-girl came to him and said, ‘You also were with Jesus the Galilean.’ But he denied it before all of them, saying, ‘I do not know what you are talking about.’ When he went out to the porch, another servant-girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, ‘This man was with Jesus of Nazareth.’ Again he denied it with an oath, ‘I do not know the man.’ After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, ‘Certainly you are also one of them, for your accent betrays you.’ Then he began to curse, and he swore an oath, ‘I do not know the man!’ At that moment the cock crowed. Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: ‘Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and wept bitterly. Matthew 26:69-75

I have wept bitterly with shame anger and frustration, especially when I have faced my own failure. We cry for many reasons. We weep with sorrow and loss, and with overwhelming wonder and joy. Bitter tears come to us when we know better and our fears have triumphed over love. When we are so afraid that we cannot do what we want to do. Peter stands with us all when we are in the dark places, facing our failures and our lack. "Jesus knows our every weakness, take it to the Lord in prayer."

Loving Creator, who fashioned us prefect and vulnerable

we find ourselves surrounded by pain and contradiction

absorbed with our fears, our failures and our lacking.

Yet you loved Peter and forgave him his failing

despite his quick denials and his abandonment

you entrusted him with the future of your people.

Give us your strength to face our very real failings

set our feet on the road of justice and renewal

and make us your followers as we love others. Amen.