Peter and Paul, Apostles June 29, 2008

Acts 12:1-11

Psalm 87:1-3, 5-7

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18

John 21:15-19

Even the one feast day that happens to fall on a Sunday in this two-month period reflects the central dialectic of these two months: Jew and Gentile, law and grace, works and faith. The texts for the feast, however, do not reflect this dichotomy (as in Gal 1:18-2:14 or Acts 15:1-29) but instead are about martyrdom. Of course, the deaths of Peter and Paul are not described in Scripture, but Jesus prophesies Peter's death in the Gospel, and Paul suspects that the time of his "departure" has arrived in the epistle.

The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul is one of the oldest in the Christian calendar, observed at least since the year 258. It has been of such importance ever since that it traditionally marked the end of the first quarter of the season of Pentecost. (11) The two men led lives that were entirely different, yet they are commemorated on the same day.

Peter was a fisherman and shepherd, an unsophisticated man from the rural places of Galilee. Paul was a city man, a Roman citizen who spoke Greek and was well acquainted with the cultural life of the empire.

Peter followed Jesus from nearly the beginning of his ministry and was not only a part of Jesus' inner circle but recognized even before Jesus died as the spokesman for the disciples. Paul never knew Christ until the day the resurrected Jesus knocked him off his horse with a blast of blinding light. Both of them, when they were called as apostles, had their names changed: Saul became Paul, and Simon became Peter. Both of them had visions that would lead them to change their minds completely about who were among the chosen people (Acts 9 and 10).

Peter was the traditionalist, preferring that those who would worship Christ as Israel's messiah first become Jews, a part of the chosen people. Paul was the innovator, who recognized that the Lord had called the Gentiles and given them the Holy Spirit without the Jewish law, and regarded Christianity as the fulfillment of God's promise that he would bless all people through the faith of Abraham. Accordingly, Peter is remembered as the great apostle to the Jews and Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles. Between the two of them they epitomized the whole of the Christian mission.

But their different visions of the church and mission strategies led to conflict between the two of them, a conflict that was resolved only when they submitted their cases to the apostles in Jerusalem, and it was agreed that only the provisions of the covenant binding on resident aliens in the land would be imposed on Gentiles (Acts 15:19-20; Lev 17:8-18:30). James was the one, however, who brokered the agreement.

Paul faced constant controversy and opposition from the congregations he founded. They questioned his credentials as an apostle, the authenticity of his gospel, his abilities as a preacher and pastor. Peter was universally respected within the church but had many opponents who came from outside the church, the Jewish and the Roman officials who imprisoned him and tried to get him to stop preaching about Christ.

Both men end up in Rome, the capital city of the empire. Paul had planned to visit Rome on his way to Spain, but he got arrested first and was sent there in chains. Peter had gone to Rome many years earlier in order to establish the church and was the leader of the city's Christians, their first bishop. According to tradition, when a large part of the city burned down, the emperor Nero blamed the fire on the Christians as scapegoats, and when the persecution began the people of Rome urged Peter to flee the city. There is a legend that relates that as Peter was leaving the city he met Christ on the road walking the other way, toward Rome, and Peter asked Jesus where he was going. "To be crucified again," Jesus said. And Peter, realizing that in fleeing persecution he was denying his Lord once again, returned to face his enemies. So the two great apostles Peter and Paul found themselves confined in the same prison.

Peter was nailed to a cross as a public spectacle at Nero's circus on Vatican hill, head downward at his own request because, having denied Christ three times, he did not feel himself worthy to die in the same way as his Lord. Paul's end came, according to an early and strong legend, on the Ostian way. As a Roman citizen, Paul would have been accorded the privilege, if you can call it that, of being beheaded outside the walls of the city--a quick and private execution, rather than the slow death and public humiliation Peter received. After being marched out of the city, he was placed in a small cell overnight, and at first light he was tied kneeling to a short post. The lictors probably would have beaten him with their rods before the executioner, with a sharp swing of the sword, removed his head. Tradition says that they were both martyred in Rome on the same day, June 29, in the year 67.

That Peter and Paul are commemorated on the same day makes this the great feast of unity in diversity, or the feast of the church's catholicity. Peter and Paul disagreed about many things. Some of their differences were resolved; on others they simply agreed to go their own way. But for the good of the church and her mission, they found ways to live together and bear witness ([mu][alpha][rho][tau][upsilon][epsilon][iota][nu]) to the one thing that mattered: their common Lord. TM