Sermon preached by the Revd Stephen Fielding at St Mary’s Welwyn and at St Peter’s Tewin on 29 June 2008

‘Who do you say I am?’ (Matt.16:13-16)

Today we celebrate the feast of St. Peter. I would like to say three things about him.

• He was the greatest of all the apostles of Jesus.

• He made the great discovery about who Jesus was

• He became the leader of the church.

Peter the leader of the apostles

As you know, Peter is always shown in the gospels as being first on the list of Christ’s apostles. He is placed first on the list. And he is placed first on the list because he was always regarded as the chief among them. Peter the impetuous, quick-tempered, impulsive, emotional, adventurous Galilean – a typical Galilean we are told. He was part of the inner circle along with James and John. There at the Transfiguration, there in the Garden of Gethsemane. And within the inner circle, always pre-eminent. He had pride of place. Among the apostles, he is the spokesman. He asks the difficult questions – like, how much must I forgive? What is the reward of those who follow Jesus? What is the meaning of the approaching end? It is Peter who asks questions of the risen Christ. And he is utterly human, flawed like you and me, the one who will deny his Lord in a moment of crisis.

Yet he is the leader, the greatest of them all.
 

Peter makes the great discovery

After the feeding of the 5000, there was a strong movement to make Jesus King - King of Israel. After all, wasn’t that the expectation, that one would come to kick out the Romans and restore the kingdom of Israel? But Jesus says no – I am not a King in that sense. And this refusal to be an earthly king caused many to turn away from him in disappointment. So Jesus asks his disciples – are you going to abandon me too? Peter says no because we believe you are ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God’. It is more vividly expressed in the gospel passage I read from Matthew’s gospel. Jesus has been asking his disciples whether anyone has the first clue who he is. What are they saying about me? And the disciples reply, well some people think you’re John the Baptist, or Elijah, or Jeremiah. To which Jesus poses the penetrating and acute question: ‘and you, who do you say that I am?’ It is Peter who answers: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ If we knew nothing else about St Peter, this acknowledgment of who Jesus is would be sufficient to place him in the front rank of Christian apostles. He has made the great discovery of who Jesus is – the Son of the living God. And he has acknowledged it.

Peter the leader of the church

It is not hard, therefore, to see why Jesus should have put his faith in him as the leader of the Church. Simon ‘son of Jona’ – that is the son of the Dove – has become Peter the rock. The one who has fluttered hither and thither, like a bird, the utterly human and flawed disciple, becomes the one on whom Jesus will most rely. Peter becomes the leader of the church – the Jewish church first and foremost, of course. But we owe him one other great debt. He is the one who admits the Gentile Cornelius into the fellowship of the Christian church. It was Peter who recognised the universal scope and reach of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He it was who opened the doors of the church to the Gentiles. It was through him that God granted to the Gentiles repentance into life.

Peter then is the greatest of the apostles, the one who makes the great discovery about Jesus, the one who goes on to be the foundation stone of the Christian church. And he does it as a flawed, vulnerable, impulsive human being. Tradition relates that after being Bishop of Antioch for 7 years Peter ended up in Rome and was crucified for his dedication to Jesus Christ. He stuck to Jesus to the very end. How wonderful then to have him as our patron saint in two out of our five churches within the Welwyn team.

May the prayers of that great saint ever be poured out on high for us, as we too seek to acknowledge Jesus as the Son of the Living God.

AMEN