Rev. Doug Floyd

The Feast of Peter and Paul
Rev. Doug Floyd
2 Timothy 4:1–8, John 21:15–19

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. ^[1] – St Peter

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ^[2] – St. Paul

Today we observe the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. Two men whose lives are marked by love. They became lovers by the grace of God in the midst of struggle and pain. Eventually, they poured out their very lives in martyrdom, which comes down through the ages as an expression of Christ’s love embodied in their deaths.

“We are celebrating a feast day,” declares St. Augustine, “consecrated for us by the blood of the apostles. Let us love their faith, their lives, their labors, their sufferings, their confession of faith, their preaching.”^[3]

Peter was the bold apostle not afraid to step forward. When Jesus asked, “Who do you say that  am,” Simon Peter replies, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”^[4] Jesus replies, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”^[5]

Augustine reminds us that Peter becomes a representative of the whole church. He explains that Peter “stood for the Church’s universality and unity, when he was told, To you I am entrusting, what has in fact been entrusted to all.” [6]

Peter believes he is ready to follow the Lord wherever he leads. And yet, Peter falls short. His actions cannot follow his words. At the last supper, Peter tells Jesus, “If I must die with you, I will not deny you.”^[7] And yet he does deny the Lord. As do the other disciples.

We are weaker than we know. I love singing that worship song, “I could sing of Your love forever.” My heart is moved. And yet, I can’t sing of God’s love forever. I get tired. I want to go eat. I need a nap. My emotions cannot keep up the intensity. I want to watch TV.

Peter reveals all of us. Our devotion grows weary. We argue with our spouses. We pout. We get aggravated at other people. Our bodies cannot keep up with our words. Only when we fail, do we begin to realize our weakness and our desperate dependence on the Lord.

Peter grieves for denying Jesus. He cries. He has failed. Jesus will restore him and asks him, “Do you love me?” “I do.” “I do.” I do.” Peter must answer again and again. Jesus replies, “Feed my sheep.” Peter will feed the sheep with his very life.

Paul is consumed with zeal for the Lord. Like the disciple in Psalm 1, he “delights in the law of the Lord, and meditates on the law, day and night.”^[8] His passion for the truth drives him to oppose all those who would lead people astray. In his blind fury, he attacks the church, those whose lives are devoted to the truth. On the road to Damascus, Jesus will blind him in order to open his eyes. Paul must be broken. He must fall on the stone that the builders rejected. That stone, Jesus Christ becomes the cornerstone of his life and the church.

God sends Ananias to pray for Paul, and tells him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” ^[9]

Both Peter and Paul will be brought to the end of themselves. Even as they both follow Christ, they will suffer, they will be broken. Along the wat, they will also will be reshaped by God’s love.

As Augustine declares, “So let our way be directed toward the Lord. It was a narrow way, a thorny way, a rough way; but with the passage of so many, and such wonderful feet it has become smooth. The Lord himself went along it first, the apostles went along it fearlessly; after them the martyrs, boys, women, girls. But who was in them? The one who said, Without me you can do nothing (Jn 15:5). ^[10]

Jesus will lead them in the way of Golgotha. Jesus will lead them in the way of His love. He will sustain them. He will transform them. They will become expressions of His love in their own distinct ways. Peter and Paul will not always see eye to eye. And yet, they will come to respect and love one another.

The icon and Peter and Paul hugging communicates the reconciling love of Christ between them. Peter comes to prominence as the leader of the church community. He becomes a point of unity for the whole church. Paul is remembered as the teacher of the church whose writing lays a foundation for our faith in Christ. Both men are considered foundations of the church.

In one sense, we participate in the gifts or charisms of both men. We gather to worship as part of the great communion of saints. They are always pointing us to Christ, our foundation. At the same time, we come to see in their lives that God will lead us even as He led them.

Like Psalm 23 reveals, we sometimes rest in green pastures and still waters. God imparts life to us in the community of faith; He strengthens us through the Word and through the Sacraments. But there will be times when we walk that narrow way, that thorny path, that valley of the shadow of death.

Jane Kenyon says, “Searching for God is the first thing and the last, but in between such trouble, and such pain.”

The Psalmist walks through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He does not specifically say that the Lord leads him through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. He says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” ^[11]

Even though.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. You are with me. Paul says this in a different way, “For I am sure 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.”^[12]

We are secure in His love. Trouble and pain will come. They have already come. But we are not forsaken. God’s love is present, and actually, there is glory all around.

I take our trash to the street on Tuesday nights. When I walk to the street, it is already dark. In the darkness, I almost always stop and look up. The sky. The moon. The stars. All filled with glory.

The psalmist says,

⁴ Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
⁵ You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows. ^[13]

We are not abandoned in our dark times. We are not forsaken as we struggle and suffer. He sets a table right there in the middle of the dark, in the middle of our enemies. Enemies like fear, anxiety, sickness, grief, loss, pain, trouble. He is present. He meets us, sustain us, and trains our eyes to behold His glory.

Remember Job? The Lord directs Job to the hawk that soars, the eagle that mounts up, the ox that runs wild. The Lord points to all the wonders that surround Job. Job is overwhelmed.

Don’t grow weary in well doing even though you may face difficult situations. God has not forsaken you. He is transforming you in the midst of the pain. Like Peter and Paul, he will use you for His glory. Don’t let bitterness overtake you, but discover His joy and love in the midst of difficulty.

I end with a beloved poem from Jane Kenyon, “Let Evening Come”

Let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving 
up the bales as the sun moves down.

Let the cricket take up chafing  
as a woman takes up her needles  
and her yarn. Let evening come.

Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned  
in long grass. Let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

Let the fox go back to its sandy den.  
Let the wind die down. Let the shed  
go black inside. Let evening come.

To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop  
in the oats, to air in the lung  
let evening come.

Let it come, as it will, and don’t  
be afraid. God does not leave us  
comfortless, so let evening come.

^[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Pe 4:8.

^[2] Anglican Church in North America, Anglican Church in North America Sunday and Red-Letter Day Lectionary (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2016).

^[3] Saint Augustine, Sermons 273–305A on the Saints, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Edmund Hill, vol. 8, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1994), 201.

^[4] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 16:16.

^[5] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 16:17–19.

[6] Saint Augustine, Sermons 273–305A on the Saints, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Edmund Hill, vol. 8, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1994), 197.

^[7] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mk 14:31.

^[8] Ps 1:2 (paraphrase).

^[9] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ac 9:15–16.

^[10] Saint Augustine, Sermons 273–305A on the Saints, ed. John E. Rotelle, trans. Edmund Hill, vol. 8, The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 1994), 201.

^[11] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 23:4.

^[12] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ro 8:38–39.

^[13] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Ps 23:4–5.