An initial reaction is that this is yet another example of many in Mark of Peter being clueless. One can ponder that if Jesus chooses clueless Peter to be the rock upon which he builds his church, there is hope for all of us. However, that is a meditation for another day.
What caught my attention is that Peter's initial reaction is to want to build a dwelling, other translations say "hut". So Peter is not talking about anything other than a temporary shack but nevertheless, he immediately wants to undertake a project to create physical places in which the three holy men can dwell. Verse 6 says that he said that in his terror because he could not think of anything else to say. When worried, Peter proposes a building project.
I know that when I am worried, I putter. I wander around organizing, sorting and cleaning. I am a very good putterer, having had lots of experience worrying about next steps, ideas, plans, and possibilities. Standing still and just being, being present and waiting is not my natural reaction. I do pray while I am doing all of the action, but I can't just be. Many years of Lenten discipline have taught me that I can more easily give up chocolate for Lent than my natural reaction to putter.
The other place where my attention stopped when reading this passage was on buildings. I've been thinking a lot about of buildings and how attached we are to them. The last two Christ Church Parish Profiles listed our buildings as the number one thing that we value as a parish. How does this square with the fact that Jesus built no buildings and would not let Peter build even a simple hut for him, that the early church met in people's homes or in the example of John Wesley in fields.
Don't get me wrong, I love our church buildings. They are beautiful, well-tended, a home for all of us, particularly during tough times and power-outages! But that current question, "What would Jesus do?" might not include a focus on buildings. In fact, Jesus might include all of our buildings in his parable about the Rich Young Man's quest for heaven. It is worth thinking about during this Lent as we contemplate our future as a parish.
