Are we true?

 4/5/25                                St Peter’s                             Easter 2

Acts 9:1-6                                                         John 2:12-19

The sermon this morning is the 2nd in the series on the bible - last week Sam’s theme was “Can we trust Scripture?

We can. And why? Because at the heart of our trust in scripture is our trust in Jesus - he who is the Word made flesh.

The theme for today’s sermon is ‘The bible as an alternative story’ and to illustrate that we’ll look at the lives of Saul/Paul and Peter and how their lives were give new direction by a meeting with Jesus. Our readings both happen after the resurrection and I think it’s important to remember that the resurrected Jesus is no less fully human in these appearances than he was before the crucifixion 

What first came to mind I began preparing for today was something by Mark Oakley the current Dean of Southwark. He wrote, ‘We spend a lot of time asking whether the Bible is true, and miss the fact that the biblical texts are often asking us, 'Are you true?' This is the real question that readers of the Bible should face…'

Which is very close to something Jeremiah said, ‘The heart is deceitful above all things  and beyond cure.
 Who can understand it?’

We will have our own views about the sort of people we are - but scripture suggests that the story we tell ourselves about our own lives is likely to be unreliable. Fortunately the bible is a corrective.

To begin with Paul. The first time we hear of him is earlier in the book of Acts at the martyrdom of St. Stephen. 

He’s there when Stephen is dragged out of the city to be stoned ‘Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.’. And Saul approved  of their killing him.(Acts 7:58 - 8:1) 

He gets worse - from today’s reading, ‘Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

What sort of a person was Saul? Aggressive, convinced he was right, think of the Spanish Inquisition 

How would we or he expect his story to continue? Probably more of the same till nothing remained of this awkward group of disciples and the memory of this Jesus they kept banging on about.

But then this Jesus meets him on the road to Damascus and Paul is turned inside out. ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Saul is set on attacking people Jesus knew and loves. The seed of the church - the community of worship and love that Jesus came to plant is beginning to grow and Saul wants to pull it out by the roots.   

Peter’s story was different - knowing who Jesus was wasn’t his problem - Jesus had been the centre of Peter’s life since they met . Peter’s problem was that he Peter turned out not to be the person he had always believed himself to be - it turned out he wasn’t as brave, outspoken, and impossible to intimidate as he’d thought. He had promised Jesus he would never deny him but a few hour later he’d done it not once, not twice but three times. Peter had wept bitterly, but he’d still abandoned his friend. If you’d asked him what his future held it wouldn’t have been promising - he’d go back to the fishing and let the shame eat away at him. Did the resurrection change anything for him? What would Jesus think of a person who had failed him so badly. 

But Jesus meets him at the breakfast and puts him back on track. ‘Simon Peter, son of John, do you love me? Jesus addresses Simon’s failure head on. 

In our readings we have two people walking towards a future which is unhappy, misguided and wasteful until Jesus gives them both a new story 

The failings of Peter and Paul could have been catastrophic and were worked out in an uncomfortably public arena. 

We are nor Peter or Paul - our missteps are likely to be less catastrophic, certainly less significant for the future of the church -  but they still matter - they affect us and they affect what we can offer the work of Christ in the church. And though we are not Peter or Paul the mistakes they made are not likely to be unfamiliar to us.

  

Paul was certain that there was a total overlap between his ideas and God’s. He was convinced he was in the right until Jesus met him. We may not be as strident as Paul but we can find ourselves thinking that God will always endorse our views because they are so utterly reasonable and so untouched by our personal preferences.

Peter was in a bleak place - he loves Jesus, he rejoices in the resurrection, but he knows he has failed him. They used to be so close, but how can it be like that again - he has failed Jesus and knows the corrosion of shame and guilt. We may know something of this too.   

Interestingly Jesus’s  approach to Peter and Paul was same - he asked them a question - how easy it would have been for Jesus, the fully human Son of God to feel bitter about these two - Paul who wants to destroy every thing that Jesus went to the cross to achieve, Peter who chickened out when Jesus most needed a friend. Jesus had every reason to want to punish Peter and Paul - but he isn’t interested in that. The questions he asks are not those of the counsel for the prosecution, they are not demeaning, humiliating, or condemnatory - he wanted them to see where they had gone wrong  so they could change.

What he gave them, what introduced them to their alternative story was mercy.

Paul the bloodthirsty zealot received mercy; Peter the close friend of who had denied him received mercy; so both of them were able to enter a new story. Paul will be the great teacher of the church revealing the truths he was on the road to Damascus to stamp out. Peter, who failed Jesus is made the shepherd of his sheep.  The mercy, the forgiveness they received opened them up to the new story Jesus had for them

In our day by day walk with Jesus we too get things wrong, but we too have access to his mercy. We don’t need to pretend that we are infallible.

How does Jesus ask us questions? If the bible asks us are we true - how does it do that

                        

Very helpfully our new interim bishop sent a letter out to the diocese this week - she was welcomed at the Cathedral yesterday afternoon - and in it she tells us how to open ourselves up to a questioning, merciful  God who is seeking to help us to the story that is best for us. 

How can we live out our faith? How can we get back on track when we misstep?

Over to the bishop.. 

As we begin our walk together in faith, I want to encourage us to start as we mean to go on.  I’ve found it really helpful to have a passage of Scripture to ‘dwell’ in each year and I would like to suggest that until the end of the year we take the following verses as words for us to reflect on, allowing God to speak to, and encourage us.

‘As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.’ Colossians 3:12-17 (NRSV)