St. Peter & St. Paul, Apostles

Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Bob Korth on June 29, 2008

Today we celebrate the life and witness of two very different apostles. One knew Jesus personally and is an integral part of the Gospel story. The other never met Jesus in the flesh but is perhaps the most important person in Christianity after Jesus himself. One was among the first of the followers of Jesus and was called first among the apostles. The other began his career by persecuting Jesus' followers and ended it by becoming the greatest of all Christian missionaries. Peter, first among the apostles, the rock upon which Jesus said he would build his church. Paul, pastor, theologian, the one whom later generations would refer to simply as The Apostle.

These two men actually met three times that we know of. Paul tells us in Galatians that after Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus he didn't see or talk with any of the other apostles for three years. Then he went to Jerusalem and spent two weeks with Peter. I expect they had a lot to talk about. Fourteen years later Paul was again in Jerusalem for a council meeting there. The Gospel Paul was preaching to the Gentiles was being challenged and the Jerusalem Council met to decide the issue. (Isn't it interesting that the more things change the more they stay the same!) Peter was there too. Acts has a different version of what happened than Galatians does, but both agree that the Gospel Paul was preaching was considered completely orthodox by the other apostles and leaders in the church. In spite of this, when Peter and Paul met for the last time, they argued over that very issue. Paul, apparently, lost the argument. Peter, apparently, was acting inconsistently which isn't at all unlike like the way he acts in the Gospels.

Peter is so touchingly human in the Gospels. He keeps rushing forward so sure of himself and then falls flat on his face. But he gets up and tries again. I like that in an apostle. He walks out to Jesus on the water but then realizes what he is doing and begins to sink. "Save me, Lord!" he cries. I know that place. Peter is the first to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but then he tries to talk him out of it! He boldly says that he will die with Jesus, but then denies him three times. Then in the scene we head this morning, he is hurt when Jesus says to him three times, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter gives me hope. If he can do it, so can I! It doesn't surprise me at all that he battled with Paul over food laws and circumcision after the Jerusalem Council said it was acceptable to be a Christian without bothering about such things, or that he changed his habit of eating with Gentiles when members of the circumcision party showed up in Antioch. That's the kind of guy Peter was. He was not an intellectual giant. He inspired others because, despite his weaknesses, he was loyal and loving.

Paul, on the other hand, was probably a torn in everybody's side. The same zeal that made him hate Christ and anybody who looked like him when he was Saul of Tarsus, made him relentless in the defense of what he believed to be the truth when he was Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul is the only apostle whose words we actually have, and we have lots of them. His is the only first person account of a resurrection appearance. Paul's letters are the earliest written Christian documents, all written before any of the Gospels. He has written some sublime passages of scripture.

• I Corinthians 13. "If I speak in the tongues of morals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."

• I Corinthians 15. "Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet."

• 2 Corinthians 3. "And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit."

• 2 Corinthians 4. "So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all means, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal."

• Galatians 2. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me."

• Romans 1. "For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, "The one who is righteous will live by faith."

• Romans 8. "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

• Romans 12. "I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good and acceptable and perfect."

It was Paul's zeal as a member of the Pharisees that characterized his pre-Christian life and placed him in a unique position to receive the revelation that salvation is by grace alone. Salvation means to be put in a larger place. This insight is Paul's greatest gift to the church and all that he is and says and does arises from it. The Pharisees generally were concerned to keep the law with scrupulous accuracy and exactness. Paul was even more zealous than most. He says. "I advanced in Judaism beyond many among my people of the same age, for I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors," (Galatians 1.14). As one who has been plagued by zeal and scrupulosity for much of my life – basically obsessive-compulsive behavior – I know what a burden this can be. So did Martin Luther, the founder of the Protestant Reformation in Europe who was reading about justification by grace through faith in Romans when he had his High Tower experience; an experience that changed his life and his understanding of Christianity.

The writer of Ephesians (2.8-10) puts Paul's position well:

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God – not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

We have been created by God for good works and we think we should be doing those good works that God wants us to do. We strive to see things the right way, have the right intentions, speak the right way, do the right thing, live the right life, make the right efforts, understanding things the right way, and focus on the right things. We strive to be patient, kind, not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. We strive to not insist on our own way, be irritable or resentful, rejoice in wrongdoing, and we strive to bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things. We strive to be joyful, loving, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, and have self-control. In short, we try to be like Jesus. "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus," Paul says in Philippians.

Being like Jesus is not something we can accomplish. Being like Jesus is not just something that we cannot accomplish on our own without God's help, it is something we cannot accomplish at all. The message of salvation by grace alone is – stop trying to be like Jesus. Stop trying to be holy. Stop trying to be someone God will be proud of. Striving to be holy and good and pure led to anger and aggression. Anything that sullies us becomes our enemy and must be destroyed. We find ourselves pushed into deep duality – good vs. evil, just vs. unjust, committed vs. uncommitted, right vs. wrong, real Christians vs. apostates. No one cares as much as we do, no one is as spiritual as we are, no one really understands. This is not having that mind in us that was in Christ Jesus!

The exhortations in scripture are not best seen as prescriptive; they are not best seen as telling us what we should strive to be and to do. (I think we need two more commandments – the eleventh is - Thou shalt not should on thyself, and the twelfth is – Thou shalt not should on anyone else either!) The exhortations in scripture are best understood as descriptive. Descriptions of how the person who has been put into a larger place by God actually feels and behaves. We have taken the results as the method. Zeal and scrupulosity are not found anywhere in the lists of Christian virtues. We have already been put in a larger place. God has already done this for us as a gift. We are already Good Enough – and so is God's world. God is already proud of us; we are God's daughters and sons now; truly God's Beloved in Christ Jesus. Rejoice. Be Glad. Enjoy this wonderful world God has created for us. But for God's sake don't turn being happy into a program! Peter and Paul were very different folks and God loved them both deeply and profoundly. Just as she loves each one of us.

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