In today’s readings we hear about Peter and from Paul, two of the giants of early Christianity. Contemporaries, they became followers of Jesus very differently, though they reportedly met the same end, martyred by Nero in Rome.
At the time Jesus began his ministry Peter was a fisherman who apparently fished with his brother Andrew and their partners James and John. Based on the fact he was sometimes called Simon, or Simon Peter, he was likely not simply an Aramaic-speaking Jew but rather one who knew at least some Greek as well as Aramaic and perhaps Hebrew. Peter is believed to have lived in Capernaum on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee where he and his brother and their friends fished.
As today’s gospel makes clear, Peter and his fellow fishermen were the first people called by Jesus to follow him. Awestruck by the haul of fish they brought in when Jesus ordered him and Andrew to lower their nets after a night of catching nothing, Peter immediately fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to leave, saying he was unworthy to even be in Jesus’ presence. Well no. Jesus not only didn’t leave but instead called all four of this team of fishermen to follow him. Leaving everything, they did exactly that. It seems that however unworthy Peter may have felt initially, it didn’t stop him from going with Jesus when Jesus called him to do so. Over time he became the leader of the twelve disciples, a leadership role that continued after the resurrection as the Christian community grew. It appears Jesus really relied on Peter. Peter, James, and John were the three disciples Jesus took up the mountain with him the day of the transfiguration. He took the same three with him to the part of Gethsemane where he prayed the night he was arrested. Yet as much as Jesus counted on Peter, we know Peter made Jesus really angry from time to time, most famously when he tried to persuade Jesus not to go to Jerusalem. Soon after that we hear about the infamous scene in the courtyard where Peter denied even knowing Jesus not once but three times. All this tells us that even though Peter became one of the most important leaders of the early church, he had the same human failings we all do. Like human beings of every age, fear sometimes got the best of him. Why wouldn’t he have tried to convince Jesus not to go to Jerusalem? Jesus was his friend, and he knew the Jewish authorities were determined to silence him. He didn’t want Jesus to put himself in harm’s way. But Jesus knew what he had to do, so Peter’s cautionary advice was not helpful, as Jesus made very clear with his response to Peter’s comments. As for what Peter probably regarded as his worst failing ever, his threefold denial that he even knew Jesus as he waited in the courtyard for news of what was happening in Jesus’ trial before the high priest, it was again fear that got the best of him. Yet in spite of his momentary lapses, we know that Peter was invaluable to the early church. Peter is often described as a sort of bumbling everyman who was forever getting things wrong, but that’s really not fair. Peter was a courageous, down to earth fisherman who ultimately came to love Jesus more than life itself.
It appears it would have been after the resurrection and the first Pentecost that Peter met Paul. Paul, or Saul of Tarsus as he was originally known, was born to Jewish parents who were Roman citizens, which means that he was a Roman citizen as well. It’s believed that his family moved from Tarsus, in modern-day Turkey, to Jerusalem in 10 CE, when he was still a child. A few years later he began his studies of Hebrew Scripture and then the law. Having grown up to be a pharisee by the time the Christian community began to grow, Saul was vehemently opposed to faithful Jews becoming followers of Jesus. He worked to arrest and imprison both male and female members of this growing branch of Judaism. We know he was present at the stoning of Stephen, the first Christian martyr, because scripture tells us the others laid their cloaks at his feet. It was while he was on the way to Damascus to arrest and extradite more Christians back to Jerusalem that Saul had what one might consider to be the most famous ah-ha moment of all time. Unable to see the light of Christ when Jesus was still walking the earth, Saul was temporarily blinded by a flash of light on the road as he heard a voice he understood to be that of Jesus asking him why he had been persecuting him. Saul collapsed, and when he got up, his spiritual blindness now having become physical, his friends had to lead him into Damascus. After three days, Ananias, a Christian leader who did not want to go anywhere near Saul, having heard what he had been doing to Christians in Jerusalem, went to him because he had been told in a vision to do so, and restored Saul’s vision. Upon regaining his sight, Saul’s spiritual blinders fell off as well, he was immediately baptized and well, you know the rest of his story. He took the name of Paul, and switched from being one of the most zealous persecutors of Christians to the early church’s most famous missionary.
There’s an extremely important message for us here, especially in these contentious times. Paul’s conversion tells us that we need to be very careful about writing people off as “one of them,” as someone who’s simply too different from us in whatever way we want to name, for us to relate to them, work with them, find common ground with them. Paul’s story tells us that people can change. Not everyone will of course, but anyone can, so we need to be open to that possibility.
The reason we pay attention to these stories, the reason we bother to read the Bible at all is that, as much as the world has changed in 2000 years, the human condition has not. Now, as then, the vast majority of people are governed by a powerful few, some of whom are basically good, some of whom are utterly corrupt, most a mixture of the two. But surrounding those powerful few are people like Peter the fisherman, Paul the pharisee, people like you and like me, in whom God sees great potential. Some, like Peter, say yes immediately to God’s call, others like Paul require a figurative two by four to the head, but in the end, using the hands and hearts of all those who ultimately say yes, God can do great things.
A story: Once upon a time about 19 years ago, I was a member of the Standing Committee when Bernie Lindley came before us. Bernie is from Brookings, the son of a crab fisherman who earned a degree at Willamette University before returning to Brookings and the family business. With time Bernie realized he felt called to be a priest. A family man with two children by then he wasn’t able to just pick up and go to seminary for three years, so he enrolled in the School for the Diaconate, led in those days by our very own Deacon Penny Berktold, in order to get as much training as he could that way. After Bernie left the Standing Committee interview that day, I remember thinking to myself after interacting with this down to earth, deeply spiritual fisherman, I just met Peter. While I know those of us on the Committee would have liked to ordain Bernie on the spot, Bishop Itty required him to do one year of residential seminary training before being ordained. Upon his return to Oregon from his year at Virginia Seminary, Bernie was ordained deacon and then priest, and became the rector of his home town parish. Since then St. Timothy under Bernie’s leadership has become a true force on the south coast. Years ago they provided access to medical care to those who had no other way to get it by convincing medical professionals to come to the church and volunteer their time. When the Oregon Health Plan went into effect they helped people fill out the required paper work in order to enroll. They have a clothes exchange whereby unhoused individuals can come by, use their shower and then trade the clothes they’ve been wearing for clean ones. Members of the congregation take loads of dirty clothes to the laundromat as needed. And of course they have a feeding program. While that was twice a week prior to Covid, during Covid other churches closed down their feeding programs so St. Timothy expanded theirs to four days a week. Some of their neighbors complained so the city passed an ordinance saying an organization could only serve two meals a week. Bernie said no, that would be impinging on the first amendment right of his parishioners to live out their faith. The city council was unmoved, so the church sued the city. With the support of Bishop Diana and contributions from many of us around the diocese the case wound its way through the courts until a federal judge finally ruled in favor of St. Timothy. The city ended up paying all of St. Timothy’s legal fees. The feeding program has continued. Now Bernie would tell you he’s just a crab fisherman who became a priest. I doubt the members of his congregation regard themselves as saints either, yet collectively they have had an extraordinary impact on the lives of those in need in Curry County.
All of us have ministries that matter. Whether you make quilts for newborns, or sandwiches for the hungry, or music that gladdens the hearts of everyone who hears it, your ministry matters. If your life’s work is healing the sick, teaching the next generation, helping those most vulnerable to the misuse of power to be safe, that is your ministry and it matters. On a given day if your only interaction with another person is to speak a few kind words to the checker at the grocery store, smile at a child who looks lost and alone, or call a friend who has lost a loved one to say Hey, I’m here if you need me, that matters. Collectively all our ministries, every act of kindness is a thread in the tapestry that portrays the goodness of God for all the world to see. As Mother Teresa reminded people throughout her life, some may be called to do great things, but we are all called to do small things with great love. Amen.
