Or am I? Depends on what you mean by rock. In the song “I Am a Rock,” Simon & Garfunkel (one of my favorite duos from back in the day) use rock as a metaphor for 
being withdrawn, aloof, independent… totally alone. Take, for example, the second verse in which Simon sings, “I’ve built walls, a fortress deep and mighty, that none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain. It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain. I am a rock, I am an island.”
This is far from the sense Jesus intends when he calls Simon a rock in the dialogue found in Matthew 16.13-20. This rock refers to the strong foundation of faith on which God can build. There is a sense in which Jesus is looking a “fer piece” down the road, because Simon (renamed Peter by Jesus) is anything but a sure foundation at this point in his journey. He will have to be transformed completely; he will have to embrace all of life with its celebrations, growth, suffering, failure and humiliation, and even death. He will have to let God build on the foundation of faith every step along the way. Then and only then will he be a rock.
I won’t speak for you, but I rarely feel rock solid in my spiritual life. I feel more like the fumbling, stumbling, denying Peter we have come to know and love from the gospel stories. But that’s the point. Jesus is looking a “fer piece” down the road when he calls each of us rock. We, too, must become rocks by embracing all of life and allowing God to transform us each step of the way. And, one last thing, we can’t do it alone. On Sunday (August 21) we will explore this image and its meaning for our faith journeys. Between now and then I think I’ll listen to some S & G.
