Last week Andy considered how St Paul was converted to faith in Jesus by means of a dramatic experience on the Damascus road. The story of Paul focuses on how an unbending and highly orthodox Jew underwent a conversion which turned him into perhaps the greatest advocate for Christian theology which the faith has ever known.
This week we are going to look at another towering figure of the apostolic church, but this is someone of a very different nature to the learned scholar Paul who had an explanation for everything. We are going to look at the long and eventful life of a fisherman called Simon who was renamed Peter by his teacher and friend.
And the reason I want to look at Peter is because he offers us something quite rare in our biblical sources - a long life in which many of his deeds are recorded. In the case of many of those early followers of Jesus, we encounter them perhaps once or twice; they come into focus during a particular event or theme; they might crop up again later in a list of people gathered together for an occasion; but we cannot easily build up a profile of many of the apostles and disciples.
But
Peter is one of those characters who appears and reappears throughout the
earthly ministry of Jesus and continues as a leader of his followers into
the early stages of the formation of the Christian church. This gives us a
unique insight into what discipleship means because we can see how faith in
Jesus changed Peter, and how he grew in understanding, in confidence, and
in authority as his ministry blossomed over those years from first being called
by Jesus at the lakeside in Galilee, right up to his own crucifixion by the
Roman authorities around 64 AD.
For those of us who will not experience a life-shattering conversion, or hear
a voice calling our name to be among the chosen ones, or receive a blinding
flash of inner certainty about our faith, we can find our model of discipleship
in Peter.
Perhaps we can relate to Peter's simple and honest lifestyle, working long hours at a traditional local industry - in which he was probably quite successful as he ran a fishing business on Lake Galilee in partnership with Zebedee and his sons James and John. Peter had been born in the fishing village of Bethsaida, but was living in Capernaum with his wife and her family in a prosperous part of the town when Jesus began his ministry in the Galilee area. Peter will have had enough education to enable him to become a successful trader - he probably could speak enough colloquial Greek to do business with people; but to the highly educated rabbinical classes he will have appeared rough and uneducated. You can't help but respect Peter as a hard-working family man, making his living from an honourable trade, taking on the forces of nature to provide food for his community, and with a mind open enough to recognise the value of Jesus's message when he began to experience it.
Or perhaps we can relate to his impetuous enthusiasm in his dealings with Jesus. When they are gathered together at Caesarea Philippi and Jesus asks his disciples who they believe he is, Peter unhesitatingly declares 'You are the Christ', and we get the impression that this is more than any of the other disciples can bring themselves to say. When at the last supper Jesus prepares to wash his disciples' feet, Peter initially misses the point by saying he is not worthy to receive such an honour; then, when Jesus insists, Peter goes one step further and asks to be washed all over. There is an appealing child-like quality here: Peter's nature is to become so enthusiastic about things that he is inclined to go over the top and give 110%. In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night of Jesus's arrest, it is Peter who becomes so defensive of Jesus that he draws a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the guards. One can imagine the other disciples thinking to themselves, 'Peter strikes again! Get ready for the consequences.'
Perhaps one of the most human aspects of Peter's character is seen when, after Jesus has been captured, Peter is challenged three times by various people about being a follower of Jesus, and three times he denies knowing him. Our instinct is to feel disappointed in Peter about these denials, particularly when the gospel story goes on to tell us that after the third denial Peter wept bitterly. The story sounds like a case of fear, cowardice, and disloyalty. However, there is possibly another slant to this. Peter would have known that, if he were reported to the authorities as one of Jesus's supporters, he would have been called as a witness at the trial. And what could he do at the trial except make things worse for Jesus? Somehow, whatever he said would have added to the case being mounted against Jesus; it would have provided new ammunition to use against him. This was too much of a risk. As distasteful as it was for Peter to deny his involvement with Jesus - when only hours previously he was drawing his sword in defence of his friend - Peter may reasonably have thought that the disciples would be giving Jesus the best chance to survive his trial if they - and the evidence which they represented - disappeared from view until the dust settled. Who would carry on the work they had started if they were all in prison? And we know from the gospels that Jesus's trial before the Jewish authorities struggled through a lack of witnesses. So, perhaps Peter wept tears of frustration at his powerlessness rather than tears of shame at his desertion.
It is after the resurrection of Jesus that we start to see the biggest changes taking place in Peter. He had been named by Jesus as the leader of his followers, and in those frantic days immediately after Jesus's death, the grieving and frightened followers look to Peter for leadership. Peter has no choice but to grow into the role. It is Peter who suggests the choice of a replacement for Judas. And by the day of Pentecost Peter has found his true leader's voice and speaks for the apostles with great inspiration and to great effect. He was the first of the apostles to perform a miracle in the name of Jesus when he healed the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple, and he continued to perform many miracles in Jesus's name. When Peter and John were arrested by the Jewish authorities, Peter conducted their defence.
When the growing Christian community was faced with disagreement about the admission of non-Jews into full membership, Peter received a dramatic vision while he was in Joppa. He saw a cloth being lowered before him which contained all kinds of animals. Then he heard a voice saying 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.' But Peter refused saying that some of the animals were unclean. Then the voice said to him 'What God has made clean, you must not call unclean.' This happens three times. Then Peter is called upon to visit a group of gentiles, and realising that the meaning of the vision was that all people are included in God's love, Peter spends time with them, the Holy Spirit showers them with gifts, and Peter baptizes them in the name of Jesus.
Peter is challenged about this at a Council of the church in Jerusalem, but Peter convinces his opponents that the gifts of God are intended for gentiles as well as Jews; and suddenly the whole shape of the church of Jesus Christ has changed for ever. It has become a universal church preaching good news to all people.
In those few snapshots of incidents in Peter's life we have covered the best part of 30 years. We have seen Peter grow in his faith and understanding. We have seen him take on the role and responsibility of the leader of the newborn Christian community. We have seen him become a visionary teacher who found a voice to proclaim the living gospel he had received personally from his Master and friend decades previously. The Peter who went to the Council in Jerusalem and proved to them that the gospel was reaching beyond traditional Judaism was a vastly different Peter to the one who many years previously had fallen asleep on the night of Jesus's arrest and then nearly caused a bloodbath by striking out with a sword.
So perhaps Peter can be a model of discipleship for those of us who might also take 30 or more years to become the disciple whom Jesus calls us to be. Peter was nothing if not human, and full of human failings. He got things wrong; he went in feet first sometimes, but he also sometimes captured a truth that others did not see. The key to Peter's growth and transformation seems to be that throughout his discipleship he allowed Jesus to take control of his gifts and to make a visionary leader out of an honest, hard-working fisherman.
Who knows what Jesus can make of each one of us if we can show him the loyalty and enthusiasm which Peter showed. We will probably face challenges, as Peter did; we will get things wrong and may be pulled up short and turned around to look at things from another direction; there may be times when we will weep bitterly for our failures; or we might be called to come alongside someone and speak a truth which no-one else will speak. We may be summoned to leadership when we least expect and feel we are not worthy of the role - but we do all these things in the confidence that we walk where Peter has already been.
Jesus knew what he was doing when he called ordinary people to be his followers. He saw what Peter would become and he guided and empowered Peter's ministry throughout Peter's long and rewarding life. Here perhaps is our model for the long-term disciple - the ordinary Christian who will devote a lifetime to transforming their lives; who will nourish a continually growing faith in the One who has called them to follow him and to proclaim the good news of God's love for all of God's creation.
I give thanks for those Christians who experience the conversion experience, the overwhelming power of God in their lives, the blinding flash of certainty that they are called to follow Jesus. But for some of us, there is another model, one which can take a lifetime to come to maturity, one which involves wrestling with the truth, following dead-ends, taking unnecessary diversions, and struggling with our spiritual instincts. And to see that second model in action, take a long look at Peter.
Amen.
(Philip Jones)
This
sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester.
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