Saint Peter and Saint Paul: Joining a Community of Misfits

Unedited transcript follows:

In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy It's not a surprise to you all that that I'm a big NBA fan. Uh, and a while ago, I was watching. An interview with, uh, with some absolute superstars, they were sharing Their first memory.

Of being dunked on in the NBA. So they were sharing the first time they got dunked on. And I remember most of all Shaq, telling his story about the first time, he got dunked on And the shock that he felt when he first realized that he was being dunked on, you know.

It was telling in a lot of ways you guys know about Jack. He was an absolute Giant and he really honestly couldn't remember ever getting dunked on in high school or in college. So no one had ever dunked on him which might not be surprising. If you know what an enormous man, he was that he he never was dunked on until he got to the NBA.

Much bigger and stronger than everyone, he ever played with. And it just never happened. And in some ways it was relatable. All of us can relate with a moment, even a split second, where we realize that we're weak in some way and that it's being exposed and it doesn't feel very good at all, right?

In another sense, it isn't relatable at all. The MBA isn't real life. Shaq was born with a set of traits that meant that moments that he would feel weak or exposed on the basketball court were few and far between It took being in an associate in an association with the top.

0.01 percent. Of basketball players to ever have the experience. And even in that context Shaq was the dunker, much more often than he was the donkey. Okay, so he was giving the dunks more than receiving the dunks, right? And I I get a kick. I I get a kick about the looking back.

When I think about the speech, I, I ate these speeches up as a kid, but like these NBA superstars would say things like, hey kids, if you just work hard and practice every day, like great things can happen to you, right? Uh, I ate it up, I like slept with my basketball.

I I like, you know, I like practiced all the time. And it it didn't work out for me. You know, the truth is, if Shaq who grew to seven foot one, uh, worked really hard. He could be anything he wanted to be in basketball but maybe not me. If I practiced every day and worked really hard, And probably this is even outside, but the absolute Peak of where I could have made it to would be like the 12th man on a varsity.

Basketball team that comes in. When the game's already decided like when we're up or down by 20 points with 2 minutes left, like that would have been like the absolute peak of where I would have landed, right? But again, it isn't real life, it's a game. These guys were well built for it and they worked hard at it and that ought to be celebrated and recognized that they really were well built and worked hard to, to hone their craft.

They maximized what they were given. In real life though, they're just like everybody else. They have a mixture of success and failure and they're good at some things and they're terrible at other things. And Christianity is a faith, that deals with the Stark reality that in the real game, the only game that matters the game where we learn to love God, with all our heart mind, soul, and strength, and love our neighbors as ourselves.

Everyone finds themselves getting dunked on. And getting dunked on a lot. There are always people better than us. There, there are always. We always have the experience of failures and setbacks, there are always grease and hardships. There is always self-doubt because there's not a single person other than the one man who was also God.

Who has ever had what it took. To live the way that they're called to live. And I think all that leads us to a proper place to, to Proclaim with the singers and dancers. In Psalm 87, all my fresh Springs are in you, Every nourishing sip of fresh water comes from God.

This is true of every nation and every civilization in history, All of it, all of it. That's worth celebrating comes from God. And on Saint Peter and Saint Paul day. We're looking at a couple absolute superstars of the faith. They're worth emulating because they're the absolute peak of Christian leadership and what it means to live the Christian Life.

Today we're going to take a few moments to look at and celebrate. These Superstars of the faith in the context of a baptism. Where we'll incorporate baby James. Into the church that these men started. We're going to see that these Superstars got dunked on all the time. And hopefully see that their story is in some ways all of our stories.

And we'll reaffirm our commitment to join this community of Misfits standing on the words of our collect, the one Foundation. Which is Jesus Christ. So it's important, is that Peter and Paul, they were absolute rock stars. They were they were superstars of the Fate. So if we talk about Peter Peter was the only one willing to get out of the boat in that stormy water and walk with Jesus, right?

He was the only one. He made a good confession of faith and he did it first. When there was a lot of people, a lot of vacillating opinions about who Jesus was, he was the one who said you are the Christ, the son of the Living God, right? And, and at the point where he makes this good, Good confession.

He's renamed. Peter, The Rock Petros. The The Rock who the church will be built on. God. Jesus chooses to build his church. On this confession of Saint Peter, right? Saint Peter preached, a sermon and saw thousands of people convert in a single day.

Saint, Peter gave up his misunderstandings and his racism that were those those things that were attached to the Purity codes? And he was, Uh, and he was the first champion of bringing the faith to the Gentiles often Paul is called the, the Apostle to the Gentiles and Peter, the Apostle to the Jews, but the first Gentile convert Peter.

Peter preached, the gospel to the first Gentile convert Cornelius. Peter is tasked with feeding the Sheep in the Gospel. Reading that we read today. All that Saint Peter, absolute Superstar of the faith and then Saint Paul Saint. Paul was a Pharisee and he was pretty good at it. Like uh, as far as being good at doing the Pharisee thing, he was up there, like he was pretty good at being a Pharisee.

It was working for him and his conversion. Is an absolute. I don't know. If we can appreciate. How rare it is? For someone to be willing to change their mind as quickly, and as radically as Saint Paul did. Like like, It's so rare. You guys have been in just arguments with people about dumb things and you've probably realized how hard it is for you to change your mind.

Uh, like at that moment when you realize you're wrong, You know, and how hard it is to just be like Oh I I was wrong. You know it it should be easy but that's not easy for us, right? And he wasn't just like a little bit wrong like he was like Ultra wrong, like the wrongness of the wrong.

Like he was on his way to persecute the church. And breathing out murderous threats. That's how the book of Acts describes him. And at that moment, God meets him with a light shining from Heaven, the Lord. Jesus meets him with a light shining from heaven and he converts immediately.

Turns. So with all the brashness and all, all that he had, Had this humility to turn on a dime. And to change everything about his life and to bring all the passion that he brought to being pretty good at being a Pharisee. To preaching the Gospel of Jesus. St.

Paul was a tireless worker. He described himself in Galatians as compelled to preach the gospel. I'm compelled. Like you say, don't celebrate me. I'm under compulsion. I can't even help it. Like, I like, I like, I have to preach the gospel of Jesus. He planted virtually all the churches among the Gentiles.

He he he started all of it. He preached the gospel. He converted thousands. He raised up leaders to keep these churches going. He was able to accomplish in a city in months, but it takes other ministers decades to do. So, Absolute. Star Superstar of the f. And the scriptures don't record these two men's, martyrdoms.

But both these men gave their lives and witnessed to the Gospel of Jesus. And this Feast is that if you Able to tune in quickly. Um, to the collect. When we prayed this Feast is actually a feast celebrating their martyrdoms, you know, and they're, they're giving of their faith.

And yet these two absolute superstars of the faith, they got dunked on all the time. They got dunked on all the time. Peter. So so all four gospels make lengthy mention of Peter denying Christ. Uh, they they don't do it shortly, they have a prediction, they have it taking place, they have him realizing that the rooster Crow.

They I mean like they lay it out there and it's thick like you you have a lot of time to see Peter denying Jesus. Peter, cut a guy's ear off. Right before that. To try to stop the arrest of Jesus, he cut a guy's ear off and Jesus had to heal the guy's ear.

Right. Saint Paul dunks on Peter. In his letter to the Galatians. He makes it a point to say, I oppose Peter to his face because he was clearly in the wrong. Right. He dunks on him in the Bible, right? John. The evangelist made sure to mention three times, three times.

That Peter was slower than him in the race to the empty tomb. Yeah, like he mentions it three times. Uh, Peter lost the foot race. Uh, so not so he Not only was he uh, Quick to act uh, deny Jesus, but he was obviously, he can't run at least not faster than John, you know.

So, John's faster than him. They got dunked on all the time. Paul. He didn't get dunked on as often in the scriptures, but he was forceful cocky. Um, And Brash. Often at times, right? Saint, Peter dunks on him. Once in his letter only once pointing out that some of his letters are difficult to understand, he wanted to make sure that that was clear.

So he writes, some of those letters are difficult to understand that come from Paul but he even in the same breath says and so they're used by people that are unstable to uh to distort the truth, like the other scriptures. So he he calls Paul's word scripture. In the same breath that he says, but some of them are kind of hard to understand, like, He could have mixed in a finite verb or a period somewhere so that we could we could find uh the end of a sentence.

Uh, Paul was like the the king of like run-on sentences. He just like wrote and wrote. And he said, I'll finish the sentence when I get to it, you know. So, uh, so Peter said that makes it kind of hard to understand sometimes, right? Saint Paul was wrong about John Mark, he was wrong about him and he had like and it made perfect sense.

So John Mark deserted them in their first missionary journey and he divided with Barnabas about not taking John Mark with him because it's hard to trust a guy who just deserted you in the in the thick of it but he was wrong about it. John Mark wrote The Gospel of Mark and by the end of his life.

Was commanding, John Mark, as one of the people that is is ministering to his needs, right? He he once killed a guy because his Storman was so long that he put him to sleep. And the guy fell out the window. And then he had to raise him from the dead.

Right. He once killed a guy because he just like talked too much. Right. And when the entire Christian Community in Acts is telling him not to go to Jerusalem, even in the spirit. Paul is hard-hearted and he's Brash and he's going And even though it looks like like when you read the book of Acts, it kind of looks like God was leading him to Rome the whole time.

Right.

So these are superstars. They really are however Easy to say, if you wanted to pick the most attractive people to get people to join your movement. You would hardly choose Peter and Paul. Why would anyone want to join a committee? A community. That's just full, or even. The superstars are just a bunch of Misfits.

They get dunked on all the time. Why? And this is what we do. We we join a community of Misfits. When we get baptized, And that's exactly how it should be. See, in the beginning of the homily, I compared Christianity to a game. Here's the thing about it though.

No one has what it takes? No one has what it takes. Christianity doesn't pull any punches about that. There are no Shacks in the game of Christianity. That people are just born with the right stuff, right? All of us are born with the wrong stuff. In fact, We're born with a tendency to rebel against God, to Center our lives on ourselves and to turn inward.

Why would we enjoy, why would we join a community of Misfits? Because we're all Misfits. The world is a big old community of Misfits Christianity. Is if they that only works for people that are ready to admit that, they don't have what it takes. You know, since Easter Sunday, we've been praying for an Archbishop and I assure you that from Archbishop.

Steve Wood, the newly elected Archbishop all the way down through every Bishop priest, Deacon and layperson. All of them are a community full of Misfits, and all of them would tell you that,

All of us completely bankrupt. But for the work of Christ. This is the first baptism we've had in a long time where we're only baptizing a baby. And having grown up an independent Evangelical tradition that I grew up in one of the most common questions I hear from people is why do you guys baptize babies?

They can't express Faith. Right. It's important to note that virtually all Christians throughout history as long as we can tell baptize their babies. Right. And the ones who delayed baptism were doing it for the wrong reasons. They were like, hey, let's let this person get their sinning out of the way and then we'll baptize them when they're done, you know?

But I'm so they're Wild Oats and then when that's over, we can baptize them and clean them up a little bit, right? Also nearly all um, Christians today, baptize their babies, the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, the lutherans, the anglicans, the Presbyterians, the methodists. All of them, baptize their babies.

Could everyone be wrong? Sure. Absolutely. Everyone's wrong all the time, right? But A lot of people are wrong about a lot of things, but the burden of proof is going to be on the five percent of Christians. Who are telling the entire church, they're doing it wrong, right? So, You can settle in, it's it's fine.

Like we're doing what everyone's always done, right? But today more than that, I'm more interested in pointing out what baptizing a baby actually does to communicate. And, and illuminate the gracious work of God in saving us. James, will contribute, nothing. To this process he may even cry when I pour water on him.

Like that, that very likely can happen. And yet God will save him. God will graft him into the family. James will be a member of this community of Misfits and he'll be invited to the table to receive the body and blood of the Lord. In this way, infant baptism.

As a picture of God, graciously saving people who can't contribute, anything to their relationship with God. May point in a unique way to that. This is a story of Salvation by Grace. None of us can contribute. See, here's the deal, he won't contribute anything. None of us can contribute anything.

To our Salvation. We can't take a single step toward God without him moving toward us. The only step we can take to our God. Is him. I guess what. I want to say is he takes all the steps. He comes down from heaven. He he comes down. He he takes on flesh, he reaches and then he Yanks us up into the heavenlies with him.

So I think maybe today the best way to honor, Saint Peter and Saint. Paul is to celebrate someone else. Joining the church. They founded recognizing that neither of them would be a worthy Foundation of the Today's Misfits were transformed by the Lord Jesus. So today we baptize James and reaffirm our baptismal.

Vows, we reaffirm the promises. We made to join the community of Misfits and call on God, to forgive us, transform us and heal us. Today, James joins us in the community of Misfits. We aren't a people who have the right stuff, who were born with the right stuff, who put together the equation in, just the right way because of our Keen intellect.

Or have the right mannerisms and temperaments to be fit for the kingdom of God. Instead, we The Misfits, recognize our desperate need, we join Saint, Peter Saint Paul, and all the saints in crying out to God, to save us and to knit us together in the one Foundation. Who is Christ Our Lord?

And today, more than any other day. As we reflect on the Waters of baptism, we join the singers and the dancers. In Psalm 87 saying, all all my fresh Springs are in you, Amen