Sunday within the Octave of St Peter
Ordinary Sunday 14: 4th July, 2004
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
The Sunday of the week of our Patronal Festival is a continuing opportunity to honour our patron saint and to celebrate our life together in this community of faith, under the dedication of St Peter, apostle and martyr. On Tuesday evening we heard a fine sermon from the Director of our Theological School at Trinity College. It was able, it was clear and it raised a number of challenging points – it sent us away thinking. What a complex and rich inheritance we have in our saint – both the impulsive accident-prone accessible fisherman and the prince of the apostles upon whom the Church would be built. And we were also reminded of the sharp confrontations within that early leadership of the Church, particularly between Peter and Paul. As Dr McGowan noted dryly: They were united in their martyrs' deaths by dying on the same day, as they never had been in life. So we have from time to time available in our Bookroom an icon of Peter and Paul embracing each other in friendship; in visible reconciliation there, if not in some of the accounts in the Acts of the Apostles.
So our lessons for today are for those set for the vigil mass for our double feast day – of Peter and Paul together –: the healing by Peter of the man lame from birth at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, the Galatians reading where Paul declares that 'God was pleased to reveal his Son to him so that he might proclaim him among the Gentiles' and where he notes that it was only after three years that he finally spent 15 days with Peter in Jerusalem, no doubt having some more of those vigorous discussions with each other about what the potential boundaries to God's grace might be. These are very central issues about what was then the future of the mission of the Church and today about the scope and extent of our ministry and the very composition of our communities.
It is interesting that St Paul who so often these days gets a very bad press in some quarters over that which he is critical or condemnatory about is also the one who is so clear about, as an old hymn put it, 'the wideness of God's mercy'. The letter to the Galatians has been described as the Magna Carta of Christian liberty. It is in the first instance about whether those coming to Christianity from a background other than Judaism need also to become Jews and to follow all the requirements of the Law as in Leviticus. Paul's answer is a clear no. We had a fine exposition of these striking new insights in Paul's teaching from Fr Craig last week. This is revolutionary stuff for a man who as he says was far more zealous than his peers in the observance of the traditions of his faith. But he was to fight with Peter on this one, and with whoever it was who was coming into the churches Paul had founded in Asia Minor like the one in Galatia and saying that any converts had to follow all the details of the Jewish law. Circumcision was only the most obvious.
The new principles about how a person becomes right with God through faith and God's grace rather than by the observance of the Law were clearly laid out in this short letter. These were the key to the fact that Christianity was to have to potential to spread through all cultures in its own right. Christians are not under the obligations of the Law as declared in the first 5 books of the Old Testament. Our Christian Law – love God, love your neighbour – is based on the freedom of the Christian person responding in faith and thanksgiving to the love of God as shown to us in Jesus Christ.
That brings us to our gospel. In the gospel the Lord is very clearly laying it on the line to Peter just how this love is to be lived out. And the gospel is also the last of the resurrection appearances in John. We were there only recently, just after Easter. It is familiar territory. Remember the scene on the beach by the Sea of Galilee when the risen Lord appeared to the disciples and offered them a nice breakfast of grilled fish? After that meal there were some questions.
Three times the Lord asked Peter: Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? The triple question reminds us at once of Peter's triple denial on the night of the trial, after the Lord had been taken prisoner in the Garden of Gethsemane. The triple answer came from Peter, increasingly distressed: 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.' 'Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.' 'Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you.' And then came the triple command and direction: 'Feed my lambs.' 'Tend my sheep.' 'Feed my sheep.' The one who is caring for and feeding his followers and friends is saying that that is what they must in turn do to others. Follow his example, do as he did; do as he was doing. And do this now in the context of the resurrection experience and the resurrection faith. The new community of faith will grow from this love and care and action.
And it becomes clear; there is more to be done by Peter. There are sheep to be fed; there is leadership to be offered. There is a risen Lord to be followed, to places and situations that will be unwelcome. There is a community, a Church, to be gathered, to be nurtured and inspired. And these communities will be places that do not only look to their own needs but outward to the needs of the vulnerable.
That is what our gospel today places clearly before us. There are obligations for a community that chooses to base itself on the love of God in Jesus Christ. And there are also many joys.
Our own community of faith in festival mode this week is a good starting point. What a pleasure it was to go over to the Hall from the Church after the wonderfully inspiring and celebratory mass with our Bishop by my side and to go into the sudden bright light of the Hall packed with people. There was a great buzz of conversation and the jazz band was already thumping out some standard. What a night! And what a mix of people. There were young children and there were parishioners well into their 80s. There were people there who rarely come except for such a festival and there were others who are here every week. There were people who share our tradition from Brunswick and South Yarra parishes. There was at least one young man off the street who was simply very hungry and was quite delighted to get a great feed. Now that was St Peter's gathered in impressive strength. 'It makes it all worthwhile', as one of us said who puts in a lot of time around here. It does indeed. Of course not all of us were there that night, but for those of us who were it was certainly one of those important times when connections between people are made and strengthened, and when we all get a deeper sense of our commitment to each other in this particular enterprise called St Peter's Eastern Hill. There is always much more to do to make it better. That is the enjoyable challenge that is before us, now and always.
But there is something happening here at The Hill that is most encouraging. The events of this week are just an illustration of that. So let us continue to build on all that is good here and willingly share the great gifts we have received.
Happy Festival.
The Lord be with you.
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