“THE ROCK PETER POINTS TO THE ROCK OF AGES”
Saint Luke 5: 1-11
5th Sunday After Trinity: 4 July Anno Domini 2021
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
Isn’t it interesting that it wasn’t the deep Theologian, The Apostle of love, Saint John, nor the greatest Missionary Bishop in history, Saint Paul, that Christ first gave the Keys of Kingdom to? The Lord rather said to Simon, surnamed Peter (rock): “thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” [Mt. 16.18]. And although followers of He Who is The Rock: “and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” [1 Cor. 10.4]; although followers of Jesus’ words have disagreed over the “it” upon which The Church is built—is it Peter or is it Peter’s confession “Thou art The Christ, the Son of The Living God,” The answer is yes! There is no confession without a confessor. There is no office without a man. There is no Disciple or Apostle without a…well, Disciple or Apostle.
And oh, Saint Peter is the example, the avatar, the representative, the “target,” may we say the “vicar” of Our Saving God. I was a vicar once back in 1993-4, so Saint Peter can be vicar too, any way Jesus wants him to be.
Peter, prince of the Apostles, leader/spokesman of The “12,” as the Evangelists call them, can’t be so without the rest. The only solitary, solo, unitary Apostle is Christ Himself; the “sent One” from The Father, from The Trinity: “…holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider The Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus” [Heb. 3.1]. So, The Lord’s special ambassadors and Bishop of our souls are Saint Peter and the Apostles.
The Lord didn’t choose The High Priest Caiaphas or the great Pharisee scholar Gamaliel. The Son did not have His Advent earlier in history so that He might choose Joseph, Vice-Roy of Pharoah or Daniel, Darius’ arch astrologer and magi to be His man. No, Jesus chose Peter (do I have to keep also saying, and the other 11, no.) All Christians love this rough and tumble, calloused, broad shouldered working man—a fisherman and a small proprietor of a business that fed and sustained people on the northern region of the Sea of Tiberias. Peter was not only a man’s man, but a faithful Hebrew, like Bartholomew (Nathanel), he was waiting for the consolation of Israel. Peter, well versed enough in the Scriptures to be waiting for The Christ.
You will remember it was his brother, Saint Andrew, who having first met Christ (along with Saint James bar Zebedee) who came and told Peter about This Nazarene Rabbi.
Peter was with the others that fateful day at The Jordan when The Baptist washed his kinsman and The Trinity manifested Christ’s Godhood in a theophany of Voice and Dove. So, when was Peter saved, when did he become a “Christian,” a follower of, and believer in, Jesus? Maybe from that Jordan scene, maybe even when He believed Andrew’s Gospel. But we know He was chosen by Jesus before that. Like all of you, like all followers of our Master, and like Petros: “according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” [Eph. 1.4].
Therefore, this morning’s Gospel is not about Peter being called to be a believer…given some miracle stuff, shown some evidentiary material, and then being put to the decision: yea or nay.
Why did Jesus just step into Peter’s fishing boat? He knew Peter, of course, but Peter also knew Him…and I submit, already believed in Him. Now would come further catechesis so that Peter would worship Him as Lord AND GOD. Peter obeyed Christ’s request to “thrust out a little from the land.” And Peter also acquiesced in The Lord’s strange (non-fisherman’s logic) to “launch out into the deep.”
Be like Peter. Do not rely on your own expertise, knowledge, and especially your eyes…your senses, or even your intelligence and reason. Listen! Hear The Word of God and believe. Hear God and, yes, do; obey. “…We have toiled…and have taken nothing: nevertheless, at Thy Word I will let down the net.”
The very first Pope, or, at least, the very first Bishop of Rome then, a “distinction without a difference,” in the face of Jesus’ Person, Presence, and Power “fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘depart from me; for I am a sinful man O Lord.’”
But Christ would not depart from Peter. Christ will not depart from you. He didn’t leave Peter when the fisherman tried to dissuade Him from going to Jerusalem, to the cross. Yes, Jesus called Him Satan but did not throw him into the lake of fire. Jesus did not leave Peter when Peter left Jesus on “the night in which He was betrayed.” In fact Jesus prayed for Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” [Lk. 22.31].
Not the wood, overlaid with gold; not beautiful cedar wood of Solomon’s temple; not the wood of the creche in which The Virgin laid God; not the wood of the workaday boat of Peter; but the wood of the cross would be Jesus’ gracious gift to this fisherman and to all of you.
James, John, Andrew, and Peter; they were not saved that day at the lake, on the water (water bespeaking The Sacrament of Holy Baptism which continues to produce a great catch with the Gospel nets of Holy Mother Church) but they were given their vocation, their temporary orders to leave fishing for fish and to follow The Way, The Truth, and The Life as disciples, students, and servants.
“Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” There were many more times when Peter did fear, did fail, and did fall. But in the end, His Savior Friend, His Lord Christ Jesus did not fail him. Peter left, “forsook all,” and followed Jesus…all the way to his own death by crucifixion (upside down) in the very city of his bishopric.
But there, the good and gracious Lord picked up His bruised and battered and bloody fisherman brother and tenderly placed Him once again into the ship of the Church Victorious…and brought him to land…the promised land…where you too will be brought by Christ, His Cross, and His Church.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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