St Peter’s, Wellington NZ, 29 June 2025
Bishop Richard Randerson
You may well wonder why the two greatest saints, St Peter and St Paul, share the same feast day while the apostle Bartholomew, about whom little is known, has a whole day to himself. So today at the Cathedral of St Paul they will be celebrating Paul while here at St Peter’s we celebrate Peter.
We are told that Peter was crucified on Vatican Hill c64 by Nero who accused Christians of starting the great fire of Rome. Peter requested to be crucified upside down, feeling unworthy to die in the same way as Jesus.
He is buried under the high altar of St Peter’s church in Rome – several layers down where excavators discovered the bones of a 1C Palestinian. Richard Rohr (Catholic priest and writer) said “An uneducated fisherman has the largest tomb in the world”.
Much can be said about Peter:
He was called with his brother Andrew and James and John at Lake Gennesaret, also known as the Sea of Galilee where Jesus said: “I will make you fishers of people”
Then at the time of Jesus’ arrest and trial Peter denied three times being a follower of Jesus – and then was totally devastated and wept bitter tears when he heard the cock crow, as Jesus had predicted.
Then (John 21.15-19 Peter’s calling is renewed when the risen Jesus asks him three times “Do you love me?” Peter said “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you?” And Jesus said “Feed my sheep”.
In Acts 12.1-11 we read of Peter’s miraculous escape from prison. At this distance it is hard to verify the exact historical details of how chains fell off and a prison gates opened of its own accord, but clearly for the Church there was a message that their God was a God who sets people free from the greatest bondage and stands with them against all the powers of evil that might assail them.
The two epistles, 1 Peter and 2 Peter, are not thought to be written by St Peter because of a later date and differences in language and style. Lesser known authors sometimes attributed their work to a famous person to draw attention to their message. The same can be said of the three letters attributed to John and the letters attributed to James and Jude. Together they date from the 2C and are known as the Catholic (for all) epistles.
But the heart of today’s message lies in the Gospel (Matthew 16.13-19) when Jesus asks his disciples: “Whom do people say the Son of Man is?” Theologian Raymond Pelly says “Son of Man “ is a title often used and it means a representative human being. Jesus is both human as we are and yet is also the Messiah, the chosen one, the anointed one, who through the Cross opens the way for all of us to become sons and daughters of God.
Richard Rohr said that faith is not about doctrines but lies in putting our trust in God who is perfect love and infinite light.
In John 6.66-69 Peter said to Jesus:“ Lord, to whom else shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.” So faith is a very personal thing – perceiving the truth in Jesus and committing ourselves to discipleship.
And Jesus said to Peter “This is the rock (Peter=petros=rock), the foundation stone on which the Church will be built. The rock is not St Peter but the faith which he has just confessed in Jesus as the Holy one of God.
So, on St Peter’s Day we remember:
- A great saint who was called by Jesus, three times denied him but was restored to serve
- The Church, likewise called, often fails, but is renewed in every generation to proclaim God’s grace
- Ourselves – each one of us is called. We too know failure, yet God reaches out to us to bring us back as his disciples.
Like Peter we say:
Lord to whom else can we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have come to know and believe that you are the Holy One of God.
This has been the tradition of this parish for 177 years, and we are the ones who today stand in that tradition and are called to carry on.
From our offertory hymn:
Work shall be prayer, if all be wrought
As thou wouldst have it done
And prayer, by thee inspired and taught,
Itself with work be one. AMR 13. Words: J Ellerton
