St. Peter's News – Page 3 – St. Peter's Episcopal Church, Port Royal, VA

The unworthiness felt by Isaiah in the presence of the Lord; the unworthiness of St Paul even to be called an “apostle”; and the unworthiness of St Peter – who is so acutely aware of his own weakness, that he asks Jesus to go away: “Leave me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”

A sense of unworthiness is probably something most of us experience at some time or another. We may feel unworthy for a particular task, unworthy of another’s trust, unworthy of another’s love. And that’s not surprising. We know our failings and our weaknesses better than anyone. When someone puts their trust in us, even though we want to do our very best for them, we are afraid – afraid that we’re not up to the task. And sometimes, sadly, we’re not. Sometimes we do fail, sometimes we do let others down, sometimes we do betray their trust.

In calling Peter to become his disciple, Jesus places immense trust in him. Equally, some might say, Peter’s willingness to put out the nets one more time, showed his trust in Jesus. Peter, after all, was a professional fisherman; he’d grown up alongside the Sea of Galilee. Jesus, on the other hand, came from Nazareth; he knew nothing of the sea or of fishing. So it does seem incredible that Peter should have gone along with Jesus’ suggestion when all his better instincts must have told him it was pointless.

What makes it all the more surprising is that, as far as we know, Peter has no particular reason to trust Jesus. At this point he probably doesn’t know him very well. Jesus hasn’t yet proved himself with any great miracles. So maybe it’s not trust we see in Peter’s response to Jesus, maybe it’s something else entirely. Peter, we can imagine, isn’t feeling too good about himself. The night’s fishing has been a complete disaster. He’s failed at the one thing he’s supposed to be good at. He is no doubt extremely tired, completely fed up. He’s been out all night; he needs some sleep.

He’s just finished packing up his nets and is about to head off home to bed, when along comes Jesus. He climbs into the boat, and starts one of his talks; a talk which goes on forever. When at last he’s finished, and just as Peter thinks he can get off home for a kip, Jesus tells him to head out into deep water and put out his nets. I’m not at all sure Peter’s response does demonstrate his trust in Jesus. I think it shows his complete exasperation, his irritation even: “Master we worked hard all night long and caught nothing – the fact is, there are no fish. I know it, James knows it, even young John knows it. Still, you know best, you say there are fish, so I’ll pay out the nets.” And it’s then, when Peter is at his lowest ebb, when he’s tired, irritable, feeling completely useless – that the miraculous catch of fish occurs.

Often, it’s when we are at our lowest, when we have failed, when we are most acutely aware of our weakness, that Jesus comes to us and works his miracles. And it’s then we have to trust in him, to launch out into deep water, knowing that it’s not our strength or our talents that matter, but his.

Voices on the Gospel, Luke 5, vs.1-11

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025

1. From “Living with Jesus Project”

The call of the first disciples appears, naturally, early on in the ministry of Jesus. Up to this point, the main events have been Jesus’ baptism (3:21-22), his temptation in the wilderness (4:1-13), his inaugural sermon and rejection at Nazareth (4:16-30), and a series of healings (4:31-41). More immediately, there is a series of events that includes his going to a deserted place to be alone, his being sought out by crowds of people, and his teaching in synagogues (4:42-44).

Peter is the only named disciple who reacts in a dramatic fashion to the miraculous event …

In the third-person narrative in which the author directly speaks to his audience, Jesus (even the risen Jesus of John’s narrative) is referred to simply as “Jesus”; Peter and Peter alone addresses Jesus as “Lord” …

The other fishermen share in the action of catching the fish … but neither on sea nor on land do they (apart from the beloved disciple in John 21:15-17) say anything once the miracle begins.

At the end of each story, Jesus directly or indirectly issues a summons to Peter to follow him …

The abundant catch of fish symbolizes in each story the future misionary work and the resultant success of Peter and the other disciples. A further idea symbolized in each story is that the disciples, left to themselves in the night of this world, are doomed to failure. With Jesus’ help and direction, they are granted startling success.

The Calling of Peter, a Reluctant Disciple

February 8, 2025February 7, 2025

From the SALT Project for Feb. 9, 2025

1) How best to discern God’s call? “Taking this story as a model, we can draw out at least three primary themes. First, God works with and through questionable characters like us. No sooner has Simon confessed he’s a sinner than Jesus asks him to join his team! Our feelings of unworthiness or ineptitude or fear, while understandable, are precisely what God wants to dispel. God believes in us, and so we should, too! “

2) “Second, at first the call may seem impractical, if not downright impossible (We just were out there, working all night, and look, our nets are empty!). Boldness and perseverance will no doubt be required; it takes some audacity to venture out into “deep water” (Luke 5:4).”

3) “And third, God’s call is toward abundance amidst apparent scarcity — particularly abundance for the most vulnerable. Think of those two boatloads of fish on the shore, and the region’s families enjoying an unexpected feast. God’s call is always a call into Jubilee!”

4) Jesus recuiting is a model for the future. “The perfect reversal of expected punishment isn’t simply the absence of condemnation; it’s the presence of communion, friendship, trust, companionship along the way. It’s saying to someone who’s done you wrong, Come, let’s work together. I trust you. Follow me.”

5) Simon Peter doesn’t say “yes” immediately to becoming Jesus disciples. It takes place over a period of time. “Jesus and Simon know each other already: Jesus has stayed in Simon’s house and even healed his mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39), and Simon respects Jesus as a compelling teacher (thus he calls him, “Master”). “

6) Peter’s reaction to the call is a combination of emotions- amazement, possibly repelled by it and certainly afraid. He overcame it. “Simon Peter and the others “left everything and followed him” (Luke 5:11). “And part of what they leave behind, please note, is this extraordinary catch of fish on the shore (two boatloads worth!). “..”But even more, we can take it as yet another glimpse of Jubilee, the Sabbath of Sabbaths, when all crops were to be left alone “so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat” (Exodus 23:11). Rather than cash in on their miraculous haul, the new disciples leave it behind for those who need it most (think of all those others along the shore who worked all night and came back empty-handed). It’s a tangible sign of the abundant realm of God — now at hand!”

Black History Month, Feb. 2025

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025

From the Diocese of West Missouri

“Black History Month is an annual celebration of the heritage and Americans have played in our country throughout U.S. history.

“If you don’t already know about prominent figures such as Madam C.J. Walker, who was the first U.S. woman to become a self-made millionaire; George Washington Carver, who derived nearly 300 products from the peanut; Rosa Parks, who sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and galvanized the civil rights movement; and Shirley Chisholm, who was the first African American woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, this is a month long opportunity to learn more!

“Black History Month began as an initiative by Carter G. Woodson, a brilliant and highly accomplished son of slaves, to honor the heritage and achievements of African Americans with a week-long celebration in 1926. Then, in 1976, President Gerald Ford designated February as Black History Month, urging all Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”

“Reasons we should all, regardless of our own heritage, celebrate Black History Month! It celebrates diversity and honors all people. It unites us to be reminded that black history is our history. It takes us beyond the history books and helps us understand the importance of our stories. It helps us be better stewards of our privileges. To quote J. Tisby, “Racial and ethnic diversity is an expression of God’s manifold beauty. No single race or its culture can comprehensively display the infinite glory of God’s image, so we have been given our differences to help us appreciate God’s splendor from various perspectives.”

Now for a quiz! The Diocese of West Missouri provided a page of quotes that celebrate the month. You have to guess the author, however. But don’t despair, flip the page and you have the answer! Link to the quotes:

https://bit.ly/3NSY3nJ

Rosa Parks birthday, Feb 4 – Black History

January 27, 2025January 27, 2025

From the SALT project

“February 4 is the birthday of Rosa Parks, born in Tuskegee, Alabama, in 1913. In the 1940s and 50s, she served as secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP, working as a civil rights organizer and activist.

“In August of 1955, black teenager Emmett Till, visiting relatives in Mississippi, was brutally murdered after allegedly flirting with a white woman. Parks attended a mass meeting at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery on November 27, 1955; the meeting’s speakers addressed the Emmett Till case at length, including the news that Till’s two murderers had just been acquitted. Parks was deeply disturbed and angered by the verdict, not least because Till’s case had received such widespread public attention, far more than other cases she and the Montgomery NAACP had worked on over the years. Just four days later, she took her famous stand on that fateful Montgomery bus ride. She later said that when the driver ordered her to move, “I thought of Emmett Till and I just couldn’t go back.”

“Rosa Parks” by Nikki Giovanni

February 3, 2025February 3, 2025

This is for the Pullman Porters who organized when people said
they couldn’t. And carried the Pittsburgh Courier and the Chicago
Defender to the Black Americans in the South so they would
know they were not alone. This is for the Pullman Porters who
helped Thurgood Marshall go south and come back north to fight
the fight that resulted in Brown v. Board of Education because
even though Kansas is west and even though Topeka is the birth-
place of Gwendolyn Brooks, who wrote the powerful “The
Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock,” it was the
Pullman Porters who whispered to the traveling men both
the Blues Men and the “Race” Men so that they both would
know what was going on. This is for the Pullman Porters who
smiled as if they were happy and laughed like they were tickled
when some folks were around and who silently rejoiced in 1954
when the Supreme Court announced its 9—0 decision that “sepa-
rate is inherently unequal.” This is for the Pullman Porters who
smiled and welcomed a fourteen-year-old boy onto their train in
1955. They noticed his slight limp that he tried to disguise with a
doo-wop walk; they noticed his stutter and probably understood
why his mother wanted him out of Chicago during the summer
when school was out. Fourteen-year-old Black boys with limps
and stutters are apt to try to prove themselves in dangerous ways
when mothers aren’t around to look after them. So this is for the
Pullman Porters who looked over that fourteen-year-old while
the train rolled the reverse of the Blues Highway from Chicago to
St. Louis to Memphis to Mississippi. This is for the men who kept
him safe; and if Emmett Till had been able to stay on a train all
summer he would have maybe grown a bit of a paunch, certainly
lost his hair, probably have worn bifocals and bounced his grand-
children on his knee telling them about his summer riding the
rails. But he had to get off the train. And ended up in Money,
Mississippi. And was horribly, brutally, inexcusably, and unac-
ceptably murdered. This is for the Pullman Porters who, when the
sheriff was trying to get the body secretly buried, got Emmett’s
body on the northbound train, got his body home to Chicago,
where his mother said: I want the world to see what they did
to my boy. And this is for all the mothers who cried. And this is
for all the people who said Never Again. And this is about Rosa
Parks whose feet were not so tired, it had been, after all, an ordi-
nary day, until the bus driver gave her the opportunity to make
history. This is about Mrs. Rosa Parks from Tuskegee, Alabama,
who was also the field secretary of the NAACP. This is about the
moment Rosa Parks shouldered her cross, put her worldly goods
aside, was willing to sacrifice her life, so that that young man in
Money, Mississippi, who had been so well protected by the
Pullman Porters, would not have died in vain. When Mrs. Parks
said “NO” a passionate movement was begun. No longer would
there be a reliance on the law; there was a higher law. When Mrs.
Parks brought that light of hers to expose the evil of the system,
the sun came and rested on her shoulders bringing the heat and
the light of truth. Others would follow Mrs. Parks. Four young
men in Greensboro, North Carolina, would also say No. Great
voices would be raised singing the praises of God and exhorting
us “to forgive those who trespass against us.” But it was the
Pullman Porters who safely got Emmett to his granduncle and it
was Mrs. Rosa Parks who could not stand that death. And in not
being able to stand it. She sat back down.