So today we get to talk about Peter and Paul. These two essentially start the very earliest Christian church—they’re the founders, so to speak. Peter was head of the apostles and worked within the Jewish community and Jerusalem, while Paul traveled to the Gentiles in the rest of the world, and people reading these stories would already know that. They’d know of Peter, and would have maybe even read one of Paul’s original letters. Coming across these stories, their reaction would be more like ours would be to the pope. We maybe know who he is now, but not really who he was before that.
“Oh yeah, Paul, I know him, how’d he get his start? Where did he come from?”
Here we go. Here are
their call stories—when they were called and commissioned by Jesus to minister
to the world. Their stories are actually quite similar, and they hold pretty
big implications for us as well.
Both Peter and Paul are
great Christian evangelists—they help start the Christian church and care for
Jesus’ first followers. But both of them start by failing. Peter denies that he
knows Jesus—not once or twice, but three times—while Jesus is hanging on the
cross. Paul, well, Paul is actually persecuting those who dared to believe in
Jesus.
Both Peter and Paul
fail. They exhibit their humanness—their sinful side. How often do we fail, do
we sin? More often than we can think of, I’d guess. We bring that with us each
week—our fallenness, our humanness. We confess and pray that in the Lord’s
prayer each week—forgive us our sin—or we say those words, anyway. Do we hear
the words we ourselves say, or is it just a line we recite? Are we aware of our
sinfulness?
We also are forgiven. Do
we hear those words and take them in when we realize the reality of our sinful
nature? Forgive us our sins. In the name
of Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven. What does it take for us to understand
the impact of these words?
Peter and Paul have a
major wake up call. They encounter the risen Christ, and see their sinfulness.
They repent. They are forgiven. This changes their lives forever. For Paul,
it’s conversion—he completely rejects the person that he was, and becomes the
opposite: a champion of the early church. For Peter, it’s permission to come
back from a mistake and try again.
How do we react to
forgiveness? To realizing how much we have failed—really failed—and there’s
nothing we can do to fix it, then hearing that we are given permission to
change, to move on, to try again? We are given the chance to keep living
without the burden of our pasts because Jesus knows them, has heard our
confessions, and has forgiven us.
Peter and Paul help
start the Christian church. We get to continue it. This community of followers
that Jesus inspired. What does it look like? Jesus tells Peter to “feed his
sheep,” he chooses Paul to spread the good news of the gospel to the world.
This is an active, moving, vibrant community that takes chances because of
their faith and the message they are entrusted with.
Peter and Paul are great
role models—but where do we see ourselves in this story?
Where are the Peters
and Pauls today?
The
church is not a country club, where people pay dues and expect certain status
or favor based on their payment—to enjoy certain select company (often people
like them) and have it for their personal use and/or agenda. We have actual country clubs for
that.
Church is different. Whether
there’s two hundred dollars in the plate or twenty, whether you’ve been through
a life-altering experience, or you’ve just been baptized, or have just walked
in the door for the first time, you belong here. Whether you have a past or are
looking to the mysteries of the future. You are called to give what you can and
are welcomed as you are.
Why?
Because Jesus died
for all, not just me or you, but all of us.
The church is a
community. It’s a place where we can come to support one another, share with
one another, and work together to continue ministering to one another and the
world. Because this is still the church, and there is still much to be done. We
are called to give of ourselves, to take chances, to serve one another in the
world God made.
The
Peters and Pauls of today are all around us—they are us.
Whenever we reach out
and extend ourselves to someone who needs some grace and good news, that's church. When we
give of ourselves—volunteering our time, sharing our interests and talents,
donating our money and resources--that's church. When we hear those words of forgiveness from
God and take them to heart and when we respond to those words by going out into
this messy and colorful world and sharing the love and grace we’ve been given, that's church.
We give what we can—if
it’s time, or talents, or resources. Because we’ve been forgiven, been saved,
by Jesus, we are free to live like it. To participate in the life of the
living. To share that life with the world around us.
