Rev Francisco BilogLuke 1:26-48
The Australian have an expression: “Peter’s Choice.” It seems there was a certain man named Peter who kept a livery stable in Sidney somewhere around the early twenties. If you came to him to hire a horse, it was his rule that you took the one next to the door. If you didn’t take that one, you’d get none at all. It is from this Peter and his insistence on taking the horse next to the door that there came the phrase “Peter’s choice.” To be faced with Peter’s choice mean that you have no alternative, you must accept what is there.
One of the biggest difficulties in life is coming face to face with Peter’s choice. Something bad happens. Some disappointment, some misfortune, some pain, some awful tragedy come our way. We’d like to pretend that it’s all an illusion. We’d like to forget it, ignore it, or run away from it. But we can’t. It’s “Peter’s Choice.” We have to accept it. We have no alternative.
There’s a story about a mother of a family talking to John. She’s telling him that he must go to school. “But I don’t want to go!” he says. “You must!” she replies. He complains, “I don’t want to, a;; of the kids pick on me!” She says, “Never mind, you have to go to school!” He says, “I don’t want to; all the teachers pick on me!” “Never mind,” she says, “John, you are the principal, you have to go to school.” When we’re faced with the reality of “Peter’s Choice,” we often feel like John. We’re not very happy. Everything seems to be working against us. We long for alternative, but there is none. School’s in session and we’re the principal. Sure, I suppose we could stay at home, but it’s not going to change anything. Sooner or later we have to accept our “Peter’s Choice” and make the best of it. To do otherwise means resigning from life, sitting at home in misery, heartache, bitterness, anger and despair.
Take the “Peter’s Choice” of broken relationship. I’ve counseled on numerous occasions with men or women who have had a relationship die, their pain and their grief is overwhelming, often more so than that of a relationship which was ended by death. Be it a marriage or a long courtship, there’s nothing that hurts more than the realization that what once was is now over. The man and the woman will spend endless hours berating themselves, spouting all sorts of “if only” litanies “If only I had this, if only I had done that, if only that didn’t happen!” And what’s worse, they’ll fool themselves into thinking that one day they’ll get back together again. I’m not discounting the possibility of reconciliation, but all too often the relationship is beyond that. Forgiveness is needed but it won’t result in the rekindling of a love that is no longer there.
In the book of Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations” is the case of Miss Havisham. Jilted by her lover hours before the wedding, she lives the rest of her life in a darkened room with the wedding dress she was to be married, and the wedding cake moldering and uneaten among the cobwebs. Of course, Miss Havisham is a fictional character. But she can stand for far too many who have experienced a broken relationship. They literally stop living, feeding endlessly on their own bitterness. Somewhere along the line they have to accept the fact that the relationship is over. They have to move on with their lives because not to do so will mean a life not much different from that of Miss Havisham.
Then there’s the “Peter’s choice” of a crippling handicap, something like that “thorn in the flesh” that St. Paul talks about in his letters. He prayed constantly that the thorn be taken away. But it wasn’t. He had to live with it. He had to accept it. So must we if a crippling handicap comes our way.
There’s a story about two men, both Italian sculptors and contemporaries. Michelangelo and Donatello. One day Donatello received a huge block of granite. After examining it carefully, Donatello rejected the marble because it was cracked and it had a hole in it. His studio was near Michelangelo, and knowing how hard it would be to take back the stone to the quarry, the haulers decided to drop it off at Michelangelo’s studio. He was absent minded and they figured that he would think he ordered it. When Michelangelo inspected the marble, he saw the same cracked and the same hole that Donatelo saw. But he also saw the block as a challenge to his artistic skills. so Michelangelo proceeded to carve from that seemingly worthless piece of granite what is considered to be one of the world’s greatest art treasure, the statue of David.
When faced with the “Peter’s Choice” of crippling handicap, we can practice denial. We can wish it or pray it away. But the fact of the matter is that it is there to stay. Like St. Paul with his “thorn in the flesh” and like Michelangelo with his block of granite we have to live with it, we have to accept it. It is then, and only then, that we can realize a new life, a new life that might produce a treasure greater than the statue of David, a new life that might be more saintly than that of St. Paul.
In case you haven’t guessed by now, I’m talking today about acceptance and how critical acceptance is to the carrying on of life. Our Gospel story today is a classic story of acceptance. Mary is facing an unbelievable challenge. She is with a child which is not to be because she is a virgin. Now she was informed that that child is to be the son of God. Much as she wish that someone else should bear that role, she realized that it was a “Peter’s choice,” that she had to do, there was no alternative. She accepted it fully with those beautiful words, “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me as you say.”
Mary is our model and our inspiration when we’re faced with “Peter’s Choice,” when something happens to us for which there are no alternative, for which as much as we’d like things to be different, they can’t be different.
When we’re faced with the death of a loved one or death of a relationship, when we’re faced with a crippling handicap or when we’re faced with the need to come up against a reality that we’d just as soon not face- cry we must; grieve, we must’ be angry, we must; be upset, we must. It is important and it is necessary to do all of the above as long as it takes. But there comes a time for acceptance and unless we come to grips with the necessity of that acceptance, we’re destined for nothing but misery, pain, heartache, and despair. As Michelangelo proved and showed that acceptance doesn’t mean standing pat, it simply means making the best of life despite the cracks and holes in its structure. For all you know, like Mary, the seemingly shameful and burdensome problems that comes our way are God sent for us to participate in God’s mission here on earth. Acceptance of it and doing our best about it, is the kind of obedience that brings glory and honor to God.
Brothers and sisters accept your “Peter’s Choice”! Get on with your life! Carve your statue of David. Joy and life will be yours!