[dusting off an old sermon FYE {for your edification}]
"If He Has Called Them, He Indeed Calls Us"
Eve of the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles
St. Mark 8:27-35
June 28, 2006
IN NOMINE JESU
We have come upon a most interesting day on the liturgical
calendar. Normally, when we celebrate a minor festival, we remember one of the
Apostles, Evangelists, or other saints. But this evening we commemorate two
apostles, Saint Peter and Saint Paul. We remember two men who took different
roads to become apostles of the Lord. Peter was fishing with his brother,
Andrew, when Jesus came and called them. "Follow Me, and I will make you
fishers of men." They immediately left their boats and followed Him, leaving
their nets behind. Paul, on the other hand, was not called as one of the
original Twelve. Rather, he became an apostle as one "untimely born," as if an
unborn child was taken from his dead mother's womb. He was a zealous Jew,
defending Judaism feverishly and seeking to obliterate anything that might pose
a threat to this legalistic, and now false, religion. His zeal knew no bounds.
He even went as far as to persecute followers of "the Way," the
term the earliest Christians used to describe themselves out of fear of
persecution. Paul had overseen the persecution and execution of many
Christians, most notably St. Stephen, as we read in Acts 7. Later, as Paul was
headed to Damascus to persecute Christians there, the Lord struck him blind and
came to him in a vision. The Lord called him through this event to become the
greatest missionary the Church has ever known.
The work of Peter and Paul fills up most of the book of Acts.
Sometimes the Acts of the Apostles is called "The Acts of Peter and Paul." This
is due largely to the fact that the first half of Acts mostly tells of the words
and actions of Peter, while the second half is largely centered on Paul's
ministry. But what St. Luke sought to do in this book is announce how the
Church began her existence, setting the pattern for how she is to live and grow
today.
Another thing different about this evening's observances is that
normally the feast date is set to celebrate the anniversary of that saint's
death. However, we are not sure exactly when Peter and Paul were martyred. One
legend states that Peter and Paul were put to death on account of their faith on
the same day—namely, this day. But the legend regarding the date is almost too
convenient to believe. We do have documentation to suggest how they died. They
were martyred under the Roman persecution, for Christianity was illegal, deemed
a threat to the Roman idolatry of worshiping Caesar. Anyone caught practicing
Christianity was guilty of death. It is believed that Peter was crucified
upside down because he said he did not deserve to die in the same way that his
Lord did. It is also believed that Paul was beheaded. Tradition states that
they were both martyred in Rome, and on this date in the year 258, under yet
another persecution, and that some of the
faithful moved the bodies of Peter and Paul in Rome to the catacombs, lest
these bodies fall into the hands of the persecutors. June 29, therefore, has
been since the third century set aside as the date commemorating these two
apostles, the day their remains were moved to be protected from the persecutors.
A fourth-century theologian, St. Ambrose, noted that the Church had already been
observing this day with a vigil.
The Church continues this practice today. We continue a wholesome
practice and tradition begun by our fathers in the faith. However, since the
days of the Reformation, many have complained about this practice, thinking this
is something that only Roman Catholics do. But the Lutheran Confessions teach
us that this practice is truly catholic in the universal sense, that Christians
anywhere may give honor to the saints. We hear from the Apology of the Augsburg
Confession:
Our confession approves giving honor to the saints. This honor is threefold.
The first is thanksgiving: we ought to give thanks to God because He has given
examples of His mercy, because He has shown that He wants to save humankind, and
because He has given teachers and other gifts to the Church. Since these are
the greatest gifts, they ought to be extolled very highly, and we ought to
praise the saints themselves for faithfully using these gifts just as Christ
praises faithful managers [Matt. 25:21, 23]. The second kind of veneration is
the strengthening of our faith. When we see Peter forgiven after his denial,
we, too, are encouraged to believe that grace truly superabounds much more over
sin [Rom. 5:20]. The third honor is the imitation: first of their faith, then
of their other virtues, which people should imitate according to their callings.
[Ap XXI 4-6]
So today we thank our Lord for showing mercy to Paul the persecutor, then
known by his Jewish name, Saul, calling Him to preach the Gospel. We recall
that this same Christ forgave Peter for having denied Him thrice, restoring the
fallen rock to his apostleship, and showing that God's grace indeed abounds over
Peter's sin (and ours). On this day, the Eve of the Feast of St. Peter and St.
Paul, we hear of God's work through these sinful men, called to preach the
Gospel, and we should imitate the zeal they had, that we too may boldly confess
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
We as the Church have the divine charge to tell the Good News
about Jesus wherever we go and whatever we do. It seems simple enough for us to
do, but we do not always, or even often, confess Christ outside the creeds of
the Church. We find it difficult to do. One of our biggest obstacles is we
ourselves. Rather than listening to our Lord and what He tells us, we tend to
speak for ourselves. Peter had this problem, speaking for himself, speaking for
the sake of speaking, and he often put his foot, if not a whole shoe store, in
his mouth. Peter had moments when he boldly spoke the truth, such as when he
confessed Jesus to be the Christ and when he preached on Pentecost. But Peter
also showed that he did not fully understand who the Lord was or what Peter was
to do: to listen to and learn from the Lord. Peter, in this text, showed his
ignorance when he rebuked the Lord for speaking of what would happen to the Son
of Man on Good Friday. Peter relied on
his own understanding of the Christ, and he was strongly rebuked for it, being
called Satan. We also rely on ourselves when we seek to speak about the Lord.
We let our egos do the talking, though, and we seek to draw attention to
ourselves rather than to Christ. With open mouths our minds are closed to the
Scriptures, as was Peter's mind. Peter could not comprehend the Scriptures
until, as Scripture notes, the Lord opened Peter's mind, and all the disciples'
minds, to understand. While the Holy Spirit seeks to open our minds to receive
what the Lord teaches us, we keep our minds closed to the Lord's teachings
because we do not want to learn what He would have us believe and because we
refuse to admit that we have been holding to false notions, beliefs rejected by
Scripture. We are afraid we may actually learn something.
While we share in Peter's hard-headedness, we also share in Paul's
misdirected zeal. Paul was a very zealous, religious man. But Paul's zeal was
initially in the persecution of Christians. As a flaming Jew, he approved the
stoning of St. Stephen, the first martyr. Paul, then a non-believer in Christ,
martyred Stephen and persecuted countless other Christians just because they
preached the Gospel and believed in Jesus Christ. Paul had sought to silence
those who confessed Christ. We as a society have demonized Christians. We
accuse confessing Christians of imposing their so-called morality upon others.
We ignore the fact that the Lord has commanded the Church to make disciples of
all nations. We accuse those who are truly Christians of being unloving and
uncaring when it is the most loving and caring thing to do in spreading the
Gospel among people who do not yet believe in Christ. We have no business
running down those who are called to proclaim the
Gospel, demonizing and vilifying those who preach the Gospel in all its truth,
love, and purity. Rather, we should support them, pray for them, and ask what
we can do to assist them in their God-given callings to preach the Word and
administer the Sacraments. Even though the Lord Himself blinded Paul for his
hostility to the Gospel, we have blinded ourselves, rendering ourselves
spiritually blind, dead, enemies of God, and enemies of the Gospel.
As sinful enemies of the Gospel, we are filled with weaknesses,
thorns in the flesh, just as Paul attested to concerning himself. This thorn
was in place to keep him humble. Paul begged the Lord three times to remove
this unspecified thorn. Paul writes, "But He said to me, 'My grace is
sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will
boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest
upon me" (2 Cor. 12:9). Paul, following his conversion, boasted of his own
weaknesses so that the Lord would be glorified through them. Yet we use our
weaknesses as excuses to not carry out our Lord's work. We don't like speaking.
We don't know what to say. We can't do this. We can't do that. If we spent as
much time and energy spreading the Gospel as we do in coming up with exccuses,
many more people might confess and live Christ! Yes, we have weaknesses, but
these are not excuses to not witness to others.
We have these weaknesses because we are wretched, sinful people. Even Paul
admitted about himself: "Wretched man that I am!" We are all wretched,
despicable creatures because of our fallen, sinful nature, one that lacks the
proper First Commandment relationship with God, one that does not fear, love,
and trust in God above all things, but we place ourselves above Him and the work
He has given us. We are full of the sinful pride that sank Peter and blinded
Paul.
Yet, even in the midst of all our weaknesses, our Lord calls us to
be His witnesses. He uses our weaknesses to His strength and His glory. Look
at the men Jesus called to be His disciples: men with short tempers, a political
zealot, a tax collector, one who refused to believe the Lord had risen, one who
did not think anything good came from Nazareth, a thief who betrayed the Lord,
and one who three times denied the Lord. The Lord forgave Peter for his denials
and restored him as an apostle. Peter went on to great things by the grace of
God. Peter preached to the first Christians at Pentecost and went elsewhere in
his proclamation of the Gospel, wrote Epistles, and, with St. Mark by his side,
put forth the Second Gospel. Even as God forgave Peter, so He also forgives us.
Our Lord forgives us because He wants us to be with Him eternally and because He
wants us to tell others of His grace, of His love. It does not matter what our
vocation is. Peter was a
fisherman; Paul was a tentmaker. Whatever role we are in at a particular time,
it is our God-given vocation, whether we are a parent, child, spouse,
grandparent, or farmer.
The Lord called a tentmaker, whose Jewish name was Saul, the great
persecutor, calling him to be the great missionary that he indeed became. The
Lord blinded him, and the Holy Spirit converted him. The Lord restored his
sight, and this same Lord restores our eyes of faith, for the Holy Spirit also
converts us, bringing us straying sheep back into the fold of the Good Shepherd.
This same Spirit moves us to echo Peter's confession of Christ, for it is only
be the Spirit that we confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. We cannot
come to Christ on our own, nor can we confess Him on our own, for faith is a
gift of God. Not only has God given us the gift of faith by His Holy Spirit, He
has given us the greatest gift of all: the gift of His Son, our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. As Paul writes: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent
forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under
the law, so that we might receive
adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son
into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave, but a
son, and if a son, then an heir through God" (Gal. 4:4-7). And Peter tells us
in his First Epistle:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His
great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's
power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in
the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, as was
necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested
genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is
tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the
revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though
you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is
inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the
salvation of your souls. [1 Peter 1:3-9]
Peter and Paul preached the Gospel. The Lord has given us the Gospel to read,
mark, learn, inwardly digest, and to proclaim to an unbelieving world. We have
the Gospel because Jesus died for our sins and rose for our justification. In
fact, that is the Gospel, the basis for our faith, our life, our entire being,
lived around the Word and Sacraments.
The Holy Spirit calls us by the Gospel, which we hear each Lord's
Day. He enlightens us with His gifts, equipping us to live godly lives through
the Means of Grace, just as Peter bid his hearers at Pentecost, that they would
repent and become baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of
sins. We have been brought to the font, washed with the water and the Word, and
received the promises attached to Holy Baptism. As Peter reminds us: "...you
will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for
your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls
to Himself" (Acts 2:38b-39). The Lord gives us strength for our task, our
living our vocations, by feeding us on the body and blood of Christ. What Paul
received from the Lord he passes on to us, the teaching on the Lord's Supper.
What the Lord said to the Twelve on Maundy Thursday, He taught Paul as one
untimely born His very words: Take, eat.
This is My body. This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this in
remembrance of Me. Paul adds, "For as often as you eat this bread and drink the
cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes" (1 Cor. 11:26). We proclaim
the Lord's death for He indeed died, and just as certainly the Lord rose again.
Had the Lord not risen, our faith would be in vain, and we would be pitied more
than all men. But thanks be to God that the Incarnate Word has risen from the
dead, opening the grave and thus opening our minds to the Scriptures, that we
may testify of Him.
Peter received his teachings from the Lord while Peter was one of
the Twelve. The Lord taught Paul through special revelation. They have taken
what they received from the Lord and handed these teachings over to the Church,
and the mother Church has handed these teachings to us through the preaching and
catechesis, as the one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church has done for two
millennia. And we, by the Holy Spirit, continue this apostolic tradition as we
introduce people—friends, relatives, and strangers alike—to the Lord and bring
them here that they too would hear the preaching, receive the catechesis, and
confess the faith, thereby receiving God's gifts in the Lord's Supper and
through regular hearing of the preaching and lifelong catechesis. God grant
this in Jesus' Name and for His sake.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
SOLI DEO GLORIA
--
The Rev. Pr. Mark A. Schlamann, Niagara Falls, NY
Sermons available at http://lcmssermons.com/Schlamann
fair-trade coffee: /fār trād kôf′ ē/ n.: the economic principle in
which a customer trades his money with the store owner in exchange for
his coffee…fair enough
