Feast of SS Peter & Paul 1 July 2018

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

 

I have taken the liberty of moving the Feast of St. Peter and Paul from their calendar date of June 29^th, to today, so that we could honour these two great ‘apostles of Christ.

They belong together in so many ways but chiefly as foundations for the building up of the Christian Church.

Two little dickie birds sitting on a wall; one named Peter, one named Paul. Fly away Peter, fly away Paul, come back Peter come back Paul.

I have often pondered whether this little rhyme has any connection with the Peter and Paul that we honour today. These two saints are very different, and yet have much in common.

One was a fisherman living a simple married life beside the Sea of Galilee; the other was a tent maker but also a well educated Pharisee, having studied under the great Gamaliel. The lives of both were transformed with a call to follow Christ.

Peter’s call was from Jesus directly. Peter was one of the close group of disciples that Jesus gathered around him. So Peter is an eye witness to the things Jesus did, and the things that he said. As we see from this morning’s gospel reading, Peter acknowledges this Jesus as Messiah.

Paul never met Jesus in this same direct way, yet there was some type of powerful encounter with the risen Christ that we learn about in the book called the Acts of the Apostles that turned Paul’s heart and mind towards being the greatest apologist for Jesus as the Christ.

The book known to us as the Acts of the Apostles is divided into the exploring the missionary lives of Peter and Paul, the former in Galilee and Judea, the latter as he travels around the Mediterranean visiting small emergent Christian congregations, to whom he wrote letters, letters that are packed full of one man’s grappling with the effect of his new understanding that Jesus fulfilled all Jewish expectation, and is in fact no less than the mirror image of God, God’s self emptying characteristic of servanthood.

By different routes and at slightly different decades, both Peter and Paul ended their lives and their ministries in Rome, still witnessing to the Christ who called them, and being martyred for their convictions.

There is good reason for celebrating these two pillars of the faith together as they witness so powerfully to Jesus as Lord, to Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ of God.

Peter’s confession constitutes today’s gospel reading. In the Holy Land today you can visit a site called Peter’s Confession, at Tabgah, and one of the highlights of any pilgrimage to the Holy Land is to be gathered together to celebrate the eucharist with the waters of the Sea of Galilee lapping on the shore of the lake.

Jesus asks two questions when they are in the area of Caesarea Philippi. This is Peter’s home territory. The first question put by Jesus is about the Son of Man. It is an unusual title, ‘Son of Man’, but one used in various ways in the Old Testament scriptures. A tight definition of what it means often eludes the scholars, but it was a title used of some significant individuals, such as Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the prophets, and even of John the Baptist, that other great saint that we celebrated last Sunday. The way in which the disciples respond might indicate that people of the day were divided into little fan groups – some on the side of Elijah, some Jeremiah etc – each group favouring one or the other as the REAL Son of Man.

Having received their replies Jesus puts to them a second question. Logically, if I am right about different groups favouring  different people as Son of Man, the reply might be, ‘well, we think you are the Son of Man.’ That would be logical.

Jesus is fishing around to test the understanding of his close followers, and it is the Fisherman, who takes up the challenge, and declares that Jesus is not Son of Man, contesting along with all the others, but Christ, and Son of the living God.

This moment is to Peter as Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus is to him, or St. Thomas when he says of the risen Jesus, ‘My Lord and my God’. This moment is to Peter as the moment is for each one of us, when we have admitted ‘I turn to Christ’ and in turning to Christ we open up our hearts and minds to his love, compassion, and glory.

I wonder what the other disciples thought when Peter said this. Were they prepared for it? We know the response of Jesus. ‘Simon son of Jonah (that is Peter) God has revealed this to you – not my words and actions, but an epiphany.

Then Jesus goes on to say the words that have been controversial within the life of the universal church – You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. These words have been used by the Roman Catholic Church to support the Magisterium of the Roman Church and the infallible power of the Roman Pontiff. Others of a more radical protestant biblical critical viewpoint have gone so far as to suggest that this whole passage of Matthew’s gospel is not original to the lips of Jesus, but added to the text some time in the life of the ancient church.

Because this passage is a clever play on the word for rock in the Greek – Petros and Petra – I prefer to take the reading, ‘You are Peter, and on Peter I will build my church.’ This focuses the words on Peter himself,  the one who has confessed Jesus as Christ, rather than the granting of power on any particular understanding of how the church emerged and developed.

Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ. In one of his letters, Paul says that Jesus is Lord. Both of them together, this Peter and Paul are twin apostles of Christ’s Church, sent out – apostolic – to live, teach and model the Christ-likeness that is the vocation each one of us has been given by God.

Let’s pray today in thanksgiving for these two apostles and pray in humility that Christ can build something of his church on you and me.