Ordinary People - Extraordinary Ministries
Ordinary People - Extraordinary Ministries Sharon Rodgers In today’s readings we hear about Peter and from Paul, two of the giants of early Christianity. Contemporaries, they became followers of Jesus very differently, though they reportedly met the same end, martyred by Nero in Rome. At the time Jesus began his ministry Peter was a fisherman who apparently fished with his brother Andrew and their partners James and John. Based on the fact he was sometimes called Simon, or Simon Peter, he was likely not simply an Aramaic-speaking Jew but rather one who knew at least some Greek as well as Aramaic and perhaps Hebrew. Peter is believed to have lived in Capernaum on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee where he and his brother and their friends fished. As today’s gospel makes clear, Peter and his fellow fishermen were the first people called by Jesus to follow him. Awestruck by the haul of fish they brought in when Jesus ordered him and Andrew to lower their nets after a night of catching nothing, Peter immediately fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him to leave, saying he was unworthy to even be in Jesus’ presence. Well no. Jesus not only didn’t leave but instead called all four of this team of fishermen to follow him. Leaving everything, they did exactly that. It seems that however unworthy Peter may have felt initially, it didn’t stop him from going with Jesus when Jesus called him to do so. Over time he became the leader of the twelve disciples, a leadership role that continued after the resurrection as the Christian community grew. It appears Jesus really relied on Peter. Peter, James, and John were the three disciples Jesus took up the mountain with him the day of the transfiguration. He took the same three with him to the part of Gethsemane where he prayed the night he was arrested. Yet as much as Jesus counted on Peter, we know Peter made Jesus really angry from time to time, most famously when he tried to persuade Jesus not to go to Jerusalem. Soon after that we hear about the infamous scene in the courtyard where Peter denied even knowing Jesus not once but three times. All this tells us that even though Peter became one of the most important leaders of the early church, he had the same human failings we all do. Like human beings of every age, fear sometimes got the best of him. Why wouldn’t he have tried to convince Jesus not to go to Jerusalem? Jesus was his friend, and he knew the Jewish authorities were determined to silence him. He didn’t want Jesus to put himself in harm’s way. But Jesus knew what he had to do, so Peter’s cautionary advice was not helpful, as Jesus made very clear with his response to Peter’s comments. As for what Peter probably regarded as his worst failing ever, his threefold denial that he even knew Jesus as he waited in the courtyard for news of what was happening in Jesus’ trial before the high priest, it was again fear that got the best of him. Yet in spite of his momentary lapses, we know that Peter was invaluable to the early church. Peter is often described as a sort of bumbling everyman who was forever getting things wrong, but that’s really not fair. Peter was a courageous, down to earth fisherman who ultimately came to love Jesus more than life itself. It appears it would have been after the resurrection and the first Pentecost that Peter met Paul. Paul, or Saul of Tarsus as he was originally known, was born to Jewish parents who were Roman citizens, which means that he was a Roman citizen as well. It’s believed that his family moved from Tarsus, in modern-day Turkey, to Jerusalem in 10 CE, when he was still a child. A few years later he began his studies of Hebrew Scripture and then the law. Having grown up to be a pharisee by the time the Christian community began to grow, Saul was vehemently opposed to faithful Jews becoming followers of Jesus. He worked to arrest and imprison both male and female members of this growing branch of Judaism. We know he was present at the stoning of St