Easter III 2019

• Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)  • 
• Psalm 30  • 
• Revelation 5:11-14  • 
• John 21:1-19

St Peter

This week’s readings record two of the most important events in the history of the Christian church – Christ’s post-Resurrection commissions to the apostles Paul and Peter. Taken together, these two figures tower over all others in the Acts of the Apostles, and even now, two thousand years on, they remain the most compelling models of what it really means to be an ‘evangelist’, that is to say, a preacher of the news that humanity’s salvation is to be found in the life and death of Jesus.

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Benjamin West - Conversionof St Paul'

The striking contrast between Peter and Paul is instructive. Christ’s appearance on the road to Damascus is probably the most famous conversion experience in human history. Saul, renowned for his strength of will, and motivated by a profound hatred of Jesus, is first reduced to the helpless position of someone being led by the hand. He is then dramatically transformed -- into Paul, Christ’s most passionate and theologically articulate servant. Peter, by contrast, is a simpler and a softer character. In his case, the transformation brought about by the  risen Christ turns an almost dog-like faithfulness into inspirational leadership, a new and powerful spirit that quickly wins Peter the deepest respect of the earliest Christians.
           Peter and Paul were both good Jews, and as Christians they remained so. When they finally met it was their attitudes to Judaism that caused their disagreements. Paul heard in Christ a call to transcend traditional boundaries that Peter was reluctant to abandon. It was a dispute they found ways of negotiating, and like the other differences between them, it reveals something very important. Right from the outset, the Bible tells us, Christ chooses to entrust his ‘flock’ to shepherds with a wide variety of gifts -- and with sharply contrasting styles and opinions. Our perpetual task is to acknowledge that while we must continuously strive to understand the mystery of Christ, the answers we arrive at are never the last word, but always provisional. We now see, as Paul says, in a mirror darkly. Only in God's good time, will we come to see face to face.
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