Feast of St Peter 2023

(Mthr Dorothy Lee)

Our Gospel reading this evening is a rather surprising one. Of course, it’s not surprising to have this reading on St Peter’s day — it’s the obvious choice — but what’s really surprising is what Matthew has done with the much simpler and more basic story from Mark’s Gospel.

In Mark’s account, which was the first of the Gospels to be written, Jesus seems unhappy with Peter’s confession. He rebukes Peter: he’s quite stern in telling the disciples to keep quiet about it. The problem in Mark is that not that Peter’s confession in itself is wrong but that he doesn’t understand the implications of what he’s saying. He’s looking for a triumphant and not a suffering Messiah, and that’s why Jesus shuts him down.

But when we turn to Matthew, we discover considerable difference. For a start Peter‘s confession is a longer one: ‘you are the Christ/the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus responds in Matthew, not by rebuking Peter (as in Mark) but by telling him he’s received this insight into Jesus’ identity, not from his own intelligence, but directly from God. He’s been given divine revelation. And so a beatitude is pronounced on Peter: ‘Blessed are you, Simon, son of John, for flesh & blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.’

Beatitudes in the Gospels are only given to very special people, such as the poor, the suffering, the merciful, the peace-makers. But Peter now joins the company of the blessed because of this extraordinary insight. In Matthew’s Gospel, in other words, unlike Mark, Peter gets it absolutely right.

Not only does Peter get it right. In making his confession of faith, Jesus tells him that he has become the rock of the church. This is a pun on his nickname, ‘Peter’, which means literally ‘rock’ (his real name, of course, is Simon). Peter’s faith and insight, his confession of faith, his discipleship, is the rock on which the church is built.

For Matthew, in other words, this event now becomes the story of the founding of the church. Whereas in Mark’s Gospel, the focus is on Jesus’ identity and the disciples’ misunderstanding of its significance, in Matthew the church’s now identity becomes the centre of the story.

Of course, the church’s identity is still grounded in Christ himself in Matthew’s Gospel. The First Epistle of Peter tells us that Christ is the foundation stone. But Peter is the rock, the first stone in the building of the church, which is built on the foundation of Jesus, the Son of the living God.

And Peter, as the rock of the church, is also given the keys of the kingdom of heaven – the bunch of keys held by the steward in a large household — which gives him the capacity to open doors that have been closed, to give people full access to God’s grace. And along with that he’s given the authority of binding and loosing, the capacity to forgive sins and to pronounce judgement on what is evil and oppressive.

A little later in Matthew’s Gospel, that same authority of binding and loosing is given to the whole community. So it’s not exclusive to Peter. But it reflects Matthew’s sense of the central role of the church in the coming kingdom of heaven; the church has the power to offer God’s grace, to forgive sins and to proclaim God’s No against all forms of sin and injustice.

Yet that’s not the whole story. In the passage that follows Peter tries to prevent Jesus from taking the sorrowful way journey to the cross. Here he gets in the way of the kingdom. You might remember that, earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, Peter tries to walk to Jesus on the water but suddenly gets frightened & starts to sink; only Jesus’ outstretched hands saves him. That’s Peter for you: the rock which is strong and stable and courageous, but is also fallible, losing heart, getting scared.

And that expresses something of the nature of the church. The church has a high calling and destiny: where two or three are gathered there is church, Matthew will tells us later, and there Jesus is present.  The church as the communion of saints is the sacramental presence of Christ in the world. Yet at the same time, Matthew is well aware how the church as an institution can sometimes stumble, can fail, can get in the way of the kingdom of heaven.

Forgiveness is central in all this. The church is to be a community of forgiveness. Matthew emphasises that theme all through his Gospel. Peter is not condemned for his lack of understanding, just as he’s not condemned for his later denial of Jesus. He is forgiven. Forgiveness is part of the calling and nature of the church. In that sense, Peter stands for the typical disciple: always in need of forgiveness.

But Peter is also the leader of the church for Matthew. His leadership will continue beyond his betrayal of Jesus into the gathering together of the resurrection and his ultimate martyrdom. The Great Commission on the mountain at the end of Matthew’s Gospel is given to Peter and to the other apostles who are summoned to share Christ’s own mission. But always with the promise of Christ’s presence: ‘Behold, I am with you always until the end of the age.’ Because of Christ’s living presence, Peter shows the way: the way of discipleship, despite mistakes, the way of leadership, despite denial, through courageous and self-giving love.

All of this presents both an important challenge and a promise to us today, as the parish of Saint Peter. The challenge is that we are called to be the presence of Christ: in our worship and sacramental life, in our works of charity and justice. We’re to be a place whose doors are open, a place that offers welcome and hospitality and forgiveness, never withholding the sacraments, including the sacrament of reconciliation, from those who need it, including ourselves.

That’s a lofty challenge. But it goes also with a promise: the promise that Christ is with us, with the church. Christ is with us, assureingus of his forgiveness when we fail, leading us deeper and deeper into worship, directing us in our mission. We’re not doing this alone; we’re doing it in the strength of Christ, who is visible in every aspect of our community, empowering and nurturing us in our life together, in our serving of the world.

This evening, we celebrate the greatness of St Peter, even in his failings, and in doing so we celebrate the strength and beauty of the church, even in its failings. But above all we celebrate Christ’s loving and redeeming presence with us which never fails us but surrounds us at every point in our life together with love and grace.