To be a disciple… Festival of Peter and Paul, Apostles, Third Sunday after Pentecost
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
June 29, 2025
Today we mark the
Festival of Peter and Paul, Apostles, which is celebrated every year on June
29. Our paraments are red, the color we
use on days that emphasize the Holy Spirit and days, like today, which
commemorate and remember noteworthy people in the Church’s history. Now, if you’ve never heard of this festival,
despite a lifetime in the Church, don’t feel guilty. Grace, like most churches, doesn’t hold a
special worship service each June 29 for this festival. It’s not a day on par with Christmas or
Easter. But when June 29 falls on a
Sunday, as it does about once every decade, there is benefit in
observing this festival day.
Let’s begin today by
considering two questions about this festival day. The first one is more of a curiosity than
anything else: why do we remember these two famous Biblical people on June 29
of all days? Well, sacred tradition has
long held that both Peter and Paul were martyred as Christians on the very same
day, June 29, in the year 67. Peter was
crucified upside down in Rome. Why
upside down? Peter didn’t consider
himself worthy to die the same way as Jesus. Paul was martyred just south of Rome by beheading, which was considered
a more humane form of execution that he was privileged to choose as a Roman
citizen. Scholars tell us that the
Christian Church has been celebrating this festival in honor of Peter and Paul
at least since the year 258. So what we
are doing today isn’t a modern innovation. In marking this festival today, we enter into 2,000 years of Christian
history and tradition.1
But there’s a weightier
theological question we need to address. Why are we devoting so much time talking about Peter and Paul? They were humans, just like us. Aren’t we here supposed to talk about Jesus
and focus on him alone? It’s a
fair question. Indeed, Jesus is our focus. We rely solely on him for our
salvation. He’s the source of our
forgiveness, our grace, and our life itself. But as I’ve said before, Jesus doesn’t compel our
allegiance. We are not mere robots
following orders. Jesus invites us to follow him, to take up the cross, to love him, and to love our
neighbors. Walking with Jesus is more
than just saying “yes” with our minds; it involves a “yes” with our bodies and
our lives as we put his love for us and our love for him into action
with everything we say and do. That can
be a daunting and overwhelming commitment. And so we look to notable saints in the history of the church, like
Peter and Paul, to serve as guides and models for us. They point us to Jesus and as we walk in their footsteps, we gain direction and courage for our own journey with Jesus.
So with that as
background, I want to share with you three lessons that the lives of Peter and
Paul teach us about following Jesus here in 2025. Here’s the first lesson: To be a disciple
of Jesus, focus on your future; don’t be imprisoned by your past. Peter and Paul are the perfect people to
exemplify this principle. Their faults,
failings, and foibles are meticulously documented and preserved throughout the
New Testament. Peter was the hothead who
famously tried to tell Jesus how a real Messiah was supposed to
act. And he was the one, teeming with overconfidence,
who in Jesus’s time of greatest need abandoned his master and even pretended
not to know him. After the resurrection,
after Jesus forgave Peter and reaffirmed his apostolic call, Peter would
continue to demonstrate a painfully small and inadequate vision of the breadth
and depth of the mercy and welcome of Christ and Christ’s Church.
It’s likewise shocking
that Paul played such a prominent role in the early church. After all, he was one of its fiercest and
most skilled opponents. He even stood by
approvingly as Stephen was stoned to death.2 But Jesus knew that the very gifts Paul had
used to persecute the Church could be the Church’s greatest assets, and so in a
miraculous vision he called Paul to serve, which Paul did with bravery and
dedication.3
I guarantee that there’s nothing in your past that Jesus cannot either use or overcome so
that you too can be a blessing to the Church and its people. And even when we make further mistakes, as we
all do, Jesus is there to pick us up, dust us off, and restore us. I don’t know why Jesus works through such
broken, imperfect people as Peter and Paul and all of us, but he does, and today
he is calling you to be a disciple. As he does so, focus on your future; don’t be imprisoned by your past.
Here’s a second lesson
drawn from the lives of Peter and Paul: To be a disciple of Jesus, seek his glory, not your own. Failure to
learn this lesson was the source of Peter’s every downfall. If he wasn’t trying to preserve his own skin,
he was trying to preserve his limited notion of what it meant to follow Jesus. Remember when Peter tried to walk on
water? Why did he sink? Because he couldn’t keep his eyes and heart
focused on Jesus.4 Every time
he put his own thoughts and needs foremost, he failed.
But when Peter was able
to set himself aside and surrender to Jesus, great things happened. We see this in our second lesson. Peter was imprisoned, bound by two chains and
stuck between two sleeping soldiers. The
Lord sent an angel to rescue Peter. The
angel’s words were brief and direct: “Get up quickly.” This time, Peter simply obeyed and got up,
even though he didn’t understand if it was real or a dream, and even though it
didn’t make any logical sense to him that he could escape his captivity. As Christians we aren’t called to understand
everything. Believe me, we never
will. But we can “get up quickly” and be
obedient. That’s the essence of striving
for Jesus’s glory rather than our own.
Paul had his issues
too. Read his letters and it’s clear he
had a temper, and as a highly trained intellectual he didn’t suffer fools with
much grace. But as we see in our first
lesson, by the end of his life the things that turned Paul inward, like his intellectual
pride, were worn away by a lifetime of serving and, at times, suffering. What was left was a true disciple, someone
who had persevered, who had run the race (a marathon, not a 20-yard sprint),
and who poured himself out in service of Jesus. In return, Jesus filled Paul up with his spirit and gave him strength to
endure, to thrive, to have a meaningful life, and to find joy even in hard
times. As Paul put aside his worldly
accomplishments and totally set his heart on Jesus, all of life and eternity
finally made sense. The same is true for
us friends. To be a disciple of
Jesus, seek his glory, not your own.
Here's today’s last
lesson from Peter and Paul: To be a disciple of Jesus, tend and feed his
flock. This one is drawn from our
Gospel, where three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me?” Peter was hurt by the recurring question, but
Jesus was offering Peter three opportunities to say “yes” to overcome the three
times Peter had denied Jesus. Notice though
how Jesus directed Peter to put that love into action. Jesus didn’t order Peter to adopt an
elaborate rule of prayer or worship, or counsel him to daily devote hours and
hours to scripture study. Jesus told
Peter, “Feed my lambs… Tend my sheep… Feed my sheep.” Now of course
that feeding and tending will always be more effective when it’s grounded in diligent
prayer, worship, and scripture. But we
must see those spiritual practices as tools, as means to an end. The foundation of our calling as Christians
is to love our neighbors. That’s why
Jesus calls his disciples to tend and feed his flock.
And so today we remember
and give thanks for Peter and Paul, who through both their successes and their
failures teach us how to be more faithful and effective followers of
Jesus. May their stories guide and inspire
us, and may their examples always lead us to Christ and his cross. Amen.
© 2025 Rev. Scott E. Schul, all rights reserved
Citations
1 Philip H. Pfatteicher, New Book of Festivals & Commemorations (2008 Fortress Press), p. 312.
2 Acts 7:54-8:1
3 Acts 9
4 Matt. 14:22-33
Lessons: 2 Tim. 4:6-8, 17-18; Acts 12:1-11; John 21:15-19
The Holy Gospel according to St. John, the 21st Chapter:
15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my
sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
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