I love a story with a surprising twist at the end. You’ve been gripped by it all the way along and you reckon you’ve got a good idea of what’s going to happen at the end. Then there’s the change and you’re left shocked; you never saw that coming! Movies like “the Sixth Sense” or television shows like “Broadchurch” spring to mind. Yet the shock is always because we assume that the writer thinks along the same lines as us. There’s also been a few occasions where the direction the church has taken has thrown me. Those times when, following God’s call expressed through the Spirit, the church has discerned a move in a new direction that can leave us surprised and wrestling with the consequences. We can think it’s a hard teaching and wonder how we can accept such a thing?

In our reading today we are looking at how to deal with these occasions. People believed Jesus to be the Messiah, but now He’s saying people must eat his flesh and drink His blood to be saved. Furthermore, He’s saying that He will die and ascend to heaven. Whatever people thought about the role of the Messiah, it was not this. Because Jesus does not fit in with their understanding of the role of the Messiah, because they don’t like the direction in which Jesus is heading, they fall away. They cannot accept what Jesus is saying, they want to believe what they want to believe, not what Jesus is telling them. They are relying on their own wisdom rather than God’s. When Peter is asked if he too wants to leave, he replies, “where else can I go?” He knows Jesus is the one he must follow so he does. Peter’s faith in Jesus and His leading is enough to overcome any doubts, fears, or concerns that he has even where Jesus leads him along some strange paths.

We’ve been looking at God’s wisdom recently and seeing how it isn’t necessarily the same as ours. We assume we know God’s mind pretty well, so when we are faced with a challenge, we assume we know the outcome. Our tradition believes in discerning God’s mind together in community rather than listening to one or two voices. We actively seek God’s leading and test it together in community then follow it through, regardless of how some may see it. This can put a stress on our faith when it looks so different to what we imagined it would be. If we have strong faith in God, like Peter, we will follow the Spirit’s leading because we trust God’s wisdom more than our own; we can withstand these changes. There have been hard teachings, there will likely be more to come. A strong faith that God’s wisdom is better than ours will keep us following Jesus rather than falling away, will reassure us that God is faithful and will never forsake us.