Beloved in the Lord,
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Tomorrow the Church quietly marks something profound. It is the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
Now, some might here that and think that it’s about exalting personalities and people. It’s not though. Really, what it is is remembering what God does through imperfect people by His perfect grace.
In many senses, the apostles Peter and Paul couldn’t have been more different, at least on the surface. One was a fisherman, the other a Pharisee. One walked with Christ from the beginning, the other was struck down and raised up by Him on the road to Damascus. One denied Jesus in fear. The other persecuted the Church with zeal. Really, it seems like the only thing they had in common was they were Jewish.
And yet, both were called, both were forgiven, both were sent.
Their lives remind us that grace isn’t neat and tidy. It’s not sanitized. In fact, grace meets us in our failures. It transforms our past and it redirects our zeal. It anchors us in a calling that’s not based on what we bring to God, what we offer to God but what God gives to us in Christ.
Paul writes in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Those words weren’t written someplace easy and comfortable where Paul felt at relaxed. They were penned from a prison cell, in the shadow of death. And yet, they’re full of hope.
Why?
Because Paul’s confidence wasn’t in what he had done, but in his Savior, the Savior who had called him, forgiven him, and upheld him to the end.
Peter’s life would end in pain, crucified upside down. But before it ended, it was lived shepherding the flock, standing firm in Christ, and bearing witness to the hope that had been placed in him. He had once fallen in fear, but Christ did not cast him aside. He restored him.
And Peter’s last recorded words to the Church remind us where our eyes must stay: “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity.” (2 Pet. 3:18)
Both men were deeply flawed. Both men had their challenges, their struggles and their adversity. But both men were also forgiven. Both men were faithful, not because they were strong, but because Christ was, and His strength was made perfect in their weakness.
That’s the legacy we honor this week. Not their fame or their accomplishments, not the fact that we remember their names two thousand years later. No. We honor the legacy of grace that came from Christ, a legacy of grace that shaped their lives and the truth they died to proclaim.
And that same grace is still at work.
God still calls. He still forgives. He still sends. And it’s not just apostles, or just pastors, but ordinary believers. He sends each of us from where we are at. Whether you feel more like Peter or more like Paul, whether you’ve stumbled or stood strong, if you belong to Christ, then you too are part of this great and ongoing story of grace.
So don’t wait to feel worthy and don’t wait to have all the answers. Don’t wait until you think you’re ready, for that moment when everything feels right. Just be faithful. Be faithful in your home, be faithful in your witness, be faithful in the Word, be faithful in repentance and be faithful in love. And trust that our Savior, the same Savior who called Peter and Paul, still knows how to use cracked vessels to carry living water.
Let’s give thanks for those who have gone before us and remember the mercy that held them and the strength that sustained them.
Let’s pray that the same grace would be at work in us, forming hearts that are bold in faith and steadfast in truth.
Because the story of the Church isn’t built on perfect people. It’s built on a perfect Christ, who uses forgiven sinners to proclaim an unshakable hope.
Lord, grant this unto us all.
Now may the peace of the Lord that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting.
In Him,
Pastor Wyatt
