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Saint Peter and Saint Paul
Almighty God, whose blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified thee by their martyrdom: Grant that thy Church, instructed by their teaching and example, and knit together in unity by thy Spirit, may ever stand firm upon the one foundation, which is Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Saint Peter and Saint Paul
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reading found matching title 'John 21:15-19' with ID: 73450
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Scripture citation(s): John 21:15-19; II Timothy 4:1-8
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
John 21:15-19; II Timothy 4:1-8
✛
The Apostolic Faith
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In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Saints Peter and Paul each have a feast day in January. The Confession of Saint Peter is January 18, which also begins the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. That Week of Prayer ends on January 25, the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. Both of these great apostles come together in today’s feast. The collect for today mentions that both Peter and Paul glorified God in their martyrdom in the city of Rome; and it goes on to pray that the Church may forever be instructed by their teaching and example – standing on the one foundation which is Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let us consider the apostolic teaching, as it comes from that greatest of teachers Saint Paul, and then let us consider the apostolic example, as it is shown in that most representative of disciples Saint Peter. Both men, after they encountered our Lord, underwent name changes. Saul of Tarsus, the zealous Pharisee and persecutor of the Church, became Paul the Apostle whose message of Christ sets the heart free. Simon Bar-Jonas the fisherman became Peter, or Rock, Jesus’ own name for him as the Rock on whose confession of faith he would build his Church.
1) First, the apostolic teaching. In today’s second epistle to Timothy, Paul exhorts his young follower and bishop Timothy to preach the word of Christ in season and out of season. He tells him to preach and teach by convincing, rebuking and exhorting; by being unfailing in his patience and perseverance as a teacher of the Church. The pews reflect what comes from the altar and the pulpit, so what is at stake is nothing less that the formation of the Body of Christ. Paul warns his understudy that the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine; but rather (in his wonderful phrase) “having itching ears” will accumulate for themselves teachers and teaching to suit their own likings and will drift away from the truth of Christ and wander off into myths and fables. To keep the faith means keeping to the doctrine of Jesus Christ our Lord, truly and entirely Human, like us in every way except sin; and truly and entirely Divine, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Best of all, Jesus Christ, coming out of God’s love from all eternity, revealed authentic human life in harmony with God our Father, taught about the Kingdom of God, and then opened up that Kingdom for sinners by suffering for our salvation, dying on the cross, and rising on the third day from the dead. God has appointed this same Lord Jesus, the true Son of God and Son of man, to be the Judge of the human race at the end of our life and at the end of all time. This is the core doctrine of the faith. Settle for nothing less than this, says the apostle.
When we confess in the creed that we believe one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, we mean the one Church under the one Head Jesus Christ, the Body of Christ which is holy because the Holy Spirit animates it and unites it to Christ. We mean catholic because this Body believes and teaches the whole, universal faith for all people everywhere in all ages. Finally we mean apostolic because the Church receives its teaching from the apostles, those Christ sent (apostle means one who is “sent”) who were his witnesses, especially of his Resurrection. Saint Paul, perhaps more than any other apostle, understood the import of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Paul taught that the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” is our righteousness, our virtue, our integrity. This grace is an infinite supply for faith, hope and love in this life, till death, and into the next world. By receiving this grace, we already enter God’s Kingdom here and now.
2) Now let us look at the apostolic example of Peter, whose life seems to touch so many readers of the Gospels. Peter loved the Lord. He was Jesus’ chief apostle. He made a bold confession of faith: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He was quick to promise loyalty to Jesus. But he denied knowing Jesus, three times, during Jesus’ trial. We might have anticipated this, not only from Christ’s prediction of it, but by Peter’s rebuke of Jesus when (at the very time of Peter’s great confession) Jesus spoke of his condemnation and death. Peter, like all of us, wanted to go straight to the glory of the Kingdom without the price of suffering.
Saint Luke tells us that when Peter denied Jesus the third time, the cock crowed (as predicted), Jesus looked at Peter from across the hall, and Peter went out into the night and wept bitterly. Judas Iscariot had turned away from his own apostleship to go out into the night to hand over Jesus. Now here was Peter out in the dark night of his own soul, weeping.
Today’s Gospel from Saint John, which tells how the risen Lord healed Peter and prepared him really to be the Rock of the Church, combines exquisite pain and incomparable sweetness. Jesus reaches deep into Peter’s heart and heals his triple denial with a thrice-repeated question: Do you love me? It grieved Peter to be asked this the third time. But the wound was healed. In Peter’s example we see the true business of the Gospel in action, the business of redemption. He was healed and prepared to follow Jesus, and he did so gloriously. Peter’s life shows what it means to be a sinner forgiven and set free in Christ. He embodied the Good News wherever he went. Both Peter and Paul wound up together, in Rome, teaching and living the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ, giving up their lives in the persecution by the Roman Emperor Nero.
Take the apostolic teaching and example of Peter and Paul deep into your own heart. Hold it fast. Don’t settle for anything else or less. Hold it when you are healthy and prospering, with joy and thanksgiving. Hold it in adversity and sickness, as a tonic and medicine for the soul. If you receive the gift of this Gospel, you are very rich. You have wealth you can take with you everywhere, even into weakness and poverty, the sickbed and the grave. It is God’s Kingdom. It is eternal life. It is the living Lord Jesus Christ, present here in his word and in his sacrament and in our hearts, the same today, yesterday, and forever.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
