Peter and Paul: The Wake-Up Calls

This sermon is based on the commissioning/call stories of Peter and Paul, found in the Revised Common Lectionary for April 14.

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.

Jesus Calls the Disciples

The sermon this week is based on the story of the calling of the disciples in Luke as paraphrased by the Spark Bible.

 

The Dominion of God

 

The Dominion of God. What does that look like? Visions of lambs and lions getting along… Seeing old relatives, friends… being perfectly happy…

 

Maybe that’s what we think of when we think of heaven. How about now? Who makes up that dominion? People? Christians? Us? Those called by God? Those called by Jesus? What does all that look like?

 

Well, today we get a glimpse. Jesus calls Simon/Peter, Andrew, James, and John. These are the rock stars of the gospel. These are the guys who were at the last supper—good grief, Peter and John MADE the Last Supper! James and John and Peter witnessed the transfiguration—we’ll see that in January, when Moses and Elijah show up as well. They voice the questions we ourselves might often ask. They ask Jesus these things and we get to hear the recorded answers.

 

Can you imagine being able to talk with them for just five minutes?!

 

What’s Jesus like? What food did he eat? They know the untold story—the little things you only get from actually being there. Did he stop when he got a pebble in his sandal? How did you all handle days that were too warm to travel? Were there any favorite stories on those walks from town to town.

 

You know, I’d even be interested in talking to people who worked with them. How did Simon, Andrew, James and John run off like that? What was it about them that was different? Was there anything? Were they just normal fishermen, like you?

 

That’s it, too. They were normal, everyday fishermen. They hadn’t even been good fishermen that day—they hadn’t caught a thing until Jesus showed up. Fishermen—not as a hobby, but as a career. These are not lawyers, doctors, teachers who fish in their spare time. These are fishers who live on their boats all day—pulling in nets, fixing them, following the harvest wherever it goes. Covered in scales, surrounded by seawater and sun, with that fish smell ground into their skin—deeper than any soap can reach.

 

These are the people Jesus calls. These are the people that I—and I imagine some of you—would me most interested in talking with. That we would hope would give us just a few minutes of their time. 

 

Then there’s Matthew—a person who, just by the nature of his job, would be stereotyped as a crook. Tax collectors were reputed to skim a bit of the taxes off the top for their own pockets. Now, we don’t know if Matthew was one of those people—like any stereotype, it doesn’t apply to everyone. Jesus sees past the job and even the stereotype here. He calls Matthew, and this tax collector becomes one of his closest pupils. Again, the last supper, the miracles, the first-hand witness to Jesus’ teachings and answers to questions. What would we give for five minutes with someone like him?

 

Then there are the women! Where will this end? Women were worse than tax collectors in terms of social status. They were second-class citizens. That’s not too difficult for me to imagine. I’ve certainly encountered enough gender assumptions to last me a lifetime--

 

And that's in the 21st Century in the United States of America. 

This story takes place in 1st Century Israel.

 

Again, Jesus works with these individuals—these people—sees them for who they are. Not women and tax collectors and fishers, but as Simon/Peter, as Andrew, as James, as John, as Matthew, as Mary Magdalene, as Joanna, as Susanna, as Philip, as Bartholomew, as Thomas, as James, as Thaddeus, as Simon, as Judas.

 

We acknowledge that we’re called, too. We’re called from wherever we are—by name, as the disciples were. Baptized by that name. Joined to God’s family, and sent—sent to serve God’s world. Sent to learn from and work with one another, as the disciples were.

 

And what or who are we sent to work with? How about fishers? How about tax collectors? How about people like Joanna and James and Matthew—who are more than the stereotypes would let us believe. AND these are not people we would reach out to, to help or pity, but people we would seek out, hoping they’ll talk to us, hoping they’ll teach us, hoping they will give us just a few minutes of insight. This is what God’s family looks like—this is what the group of Jesus’ followers looks like--from the beginning.

 

We’re sent out into the world—and there’s no way we can do this alone. Did you notice? Even Peter and Andrew had to ask James and John for help with the nets of fish. There is quite literally a boatload of work to do. Too much for us to get caught up in labeling people by the group they belong to. We have to get beyond that.

 

We are called by name—each of us. Each of us called to follow Jesus. Each of us privileged to be able to respond and to walk the path of discipleship, with Jesus, with each other, with God’s people everywhere. Amen.