Today I’m dressed in red and we celebrate the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul and I find the Feast of Peter and Paul very, very reassuring.  I’ve thought this through and I can think of at least five good reasons why it is such a reassuring Feast and I am going to share them with you.
         
The first reason is its very reassuring because Peter and Paul are both dead.  (Laughter)  They are dead and buried like most great missionaries and all the popes with one exception and the Church is still alive and well.  You know, there are significant personalities and heroes in our life and in the life of the Church and that’s all well and good, but that’s not what the Jesus movement is about.  It’s not the power behind the organized Church.  Rather it is the person of Jesus Christ who makes God present and points to God, it is the spirit and the power of God who gives life to the Church.  That is what really matters and that’s reassuring.  Especially reassuring because you know we end up getting attached to different people, maybe Saints, maybe heroes, people like Mother Theresa, maybe a local priest like Father Aidan.  Father Aidan is leaving and now what do we do?  Well, the Church does go on and we appreciate his gifts and we will never forget them and we will try to stay in touch with him, but our faith doesn’t rise and fall on that.  Now it’s the other side that’s the more important one.  I won’t ask for a show of hands but I bet every one of you can think of some people, maybe a lot of people, who have stopped going to Church and have left the Church because of some priest and what some priest did and/or didn’t do for them or to them.  I want to tell you I’ve got a much longer enemies list of priests than you do.  (Laugh)  In fact, I’ve got a long list of Bishops that I had to deal with.  (More laughter)   But that’s not what it’s about.  The Church is not about Peter and Paul, its not about your list or my list, it’s about our relationship with God and God’s relationship with us, and that’s what matters.  And that is why it is reassuring to celebrate the Feast of heroes of the Church who are long dead and buried.
         
The second reason the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul is so reassuring is because it reminds us that we all have a role and a place to play.  We all have something significant to share in the life of the Church.  I was reading about Peter and Paul and one writer describes them as co-founders.  They cemented the foundation of the Church and bet their lives on its future.  They did but they didn’t do it alone.  They didn’t do it alone.  Remember the story of Paul.  He first of all is attacking Christians, he goes through a conversion experience and he is called to go to the city and look out for a Christian and get himself baptized.  And everyone is scared to death of him.  But Ananias reaches out his hand to him and says “Brother, you are welcome.”  I heard this described recently on the radio.  It would be like Donald Rumsfeld reach out his hand and baptizing Osama bin Laden.  There is such a difference between them.  Or Paul for example, after he is baptized he comes to the Jerusalem community and they are scared to death of him.  And Barnabus reaches out his hand and welcomes him as brothers.  Everyone has their role to play in the life of the Church in the Jesus movement.  Peter after the death of Jesus he has had it.  He has denied Jesus, he failed and he figures Jesus has failed.  But the women go to the tomb and the women and Mary are told go to the Apostles and to Peter and tell them I’ll meet them in Galilee and Mary goes and does that.  That’s why I think this Feast really should be called Peter, Paul and Mary – not just Peter and Paul.  (Laughter)  Everybody has a role to play, everyone has a gift to share and that’s reassuring.
         
My third reason is you look at Peter and Paul and they are different.  Same church, same mission, same Gospel, these guys are different.  Peter is a blue collar fisherman; Paul is an intellectual, a scholar.  Peter is inconsistent and keeps changing his mind and his fidelity.  Paul is driven and consistent and besides that they disagree.  They have public fights with each other and they write about them later, how they disagreed.  Isn’t it great that we are in a Church that has so many different people and that we belong and have so many disagreements and we are still one family?  That’s reassuring.
         
The fourth reason that this Feast is reassuring for me is I look at Peter and Paul and they have made mistakes just like us.  They made errors, they got it wrong, they were not perfect – just like us – and that’s reassuring.  Peter for example, Jesus says to him in today’s gospel, “Blessed are you Peter, Simon son of John, blessed are you.”  A few lines later he says, “Peter, you get behind me, you are a Satan.”  At one moment he says, “I’ll never deny you Lord”, and in the next moment he denies Jesus three times.  And that’s not just during the earthly life of Jesus.  After the resurrection, after Pentecost, Peter still keeps getting it wrong.  About the Gentiles whether they should be allowed or not, he can’t make up his mind.  And Paul fights with his co-workers.  Barnabus is the one who said, “Brother, come in.”  They fight with each other and they separate from each other, they can’t work together.  These guys are not perfect and neither are we and here we have a Feast day for it.  Isn’t that reassuring?
         
And the last, fifth, most important reason this piece is reassuring is that Peter and Paul were companions of Jesus.  Now we know that Peter knew Jesus, he went fishing with Jesus, he went swimming with Jesus, he didn’t like it but he went swimming with Jesus, and he followed Jesus.  But after the resurrection, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, he was in the same boat as Paul.  Paul never met Jesus, never, but both of them in community, in the word and in the Eucharist became close companions of Jesus and Jesus their companion.  That happened in the 40’s, in the 50’s, up to their death in the early 60’s.  And it happens in 2008.  We can be companions of Jesus through community, through the word, and through the Eucharist.  And that is reassuring, that’s very reassuring.  Let us give thanks to the Lord who is so good.  Amen.

rjs