A number of years ago I had a great colleague
who became my most effective writing partner.
After authoring a few articles together,
we produced a book that, 26 years later, is still going strong
both in English and Korean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0Part of the surprise of this success is that Herbert and I
are such very different people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0He is a married Lutheran Pastor
and I am a celibate Roman Catholic priest;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
he has children and grandchildren
and I have an 18-month-old yellow lab;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
his specialty is pastoral care
and mine is worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am obsessively neat, and compulsively orderly
and let\u2019s just say that Herbert is the opposite:
we were in so many ways an academic odd couple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, as we have admitted in print, these differences
were part of the formula for the book\u2019s success
and for our own friendship now stretching over 4 decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The so-called \u201codd couple formula\u201d was popularized
by Neil Simon\u2019s 1965 play of that name, and its many adaptations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But well before 1965 was the TV series the \u201cHoneymooners\u201d
with Ralph Kramden always wanting to send Alice to the moon.
Then there was what some considered
the greatest comedy duo of all time: Abbot and Costello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Variations of the formula are repeated in innumerable shows, \u00a0You probably recognize variations of the odd couple in your life: Not to be outdone, the church today invites us to what might be dubbed \u00a0First there was Peter, the rough-edged fisherman from Galilee, The British journalist William Norman Ewer once wrote, Similarly, we might say of Jesus, Revered as the first pope, Then, there was Saul transmuted into Paul, fierce in zeal and sharp in judgment, an ardent son of Israel riding high on certainty, he was His relentless journeys carried the Jesus movement So, we have these two alpha males, Peter is apparently the more important of the two: On the other hand, multiple scholars contend To push the comparison a little further, Twenty years or so after the death of Jesus, This came to a head at the so-called Council of Jerusalem. So we might wonder who is the real rock?<\/p>\n\n\n\n When my family needs a happy diversion One memorable line from that movie, So is Peter the head and Paul the neck? Or maybe we need to reimagine Over the years, I have often had the chance to fly Interestingly enough, Largely because of today\u2019s gospel reading, However, rather than imagining a lone apostle A couple of years ago, I had the privilege Right before the baptism, the proud maternal grandmother Sometimes we forget, in this age of singularity, On this their feast, we accept again their commission If we do so, then, like Peter, the Lord can say to us,
pairing unlikely characters
like Hot Lips and Frank Burns on MASH<\/em>,
or Frasier and Lilith in Cheers<\/em>,
and then there\u2019s the entire cast of Big Bang Theory<\/em>,
except for maybe Raj and his dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the extroverted relative with the introverted partner,
a generous friend dating a selfish narcissist,
or the religiously pious in love with a happy agnostic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOdd Couple\u201d Sunday\u201d:
an unusual interruption of the Sunday cycle of ordinary time
with these two extraordinary
and extraordinarily different disciples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
whose faith was not unlike the sea where he labored:
sometimes calm and generous, sometimes stormy and unforgiving,
who shouted his confession like wind gust,
then faltered in the night when confronted with his discipleship,
subsequently battered by wave after wave of guilt,
and ultimately transformed into a bold yet humbled
fisher of men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201chow odd of God to choose the Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201chow rare to dare, choosing Peter as Leader.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the so-called Prince of the Apostles is the only person
in the New testament that Jesus actually calls \u201cSatan<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
not a fisherman but a seafaring visionary
whose restless mind was as tumultuous as the waters he crossed;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a voice first vehemently raised against the church,
then zealously raised in its defense;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
then knocked off his high horse by the crucified.
The hunter was turned into hunted,
whose letters burned with fire and mercy alike,
fashioned out of hardship, shipwreck, and prison;
both scholar and tentmaker,
he embodied the paradox of strength and vulnerability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
beyond its local beginnings
into worlds both welcoming and hostile,
and his boldness in words and travels,
letters and living,
ultimately cost him his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
each critical for shaping the origins of Christianity,
sitting somewhat uncomfortably side by side
on the same feast day \u2026 in the same liturgy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
after all, his name comes first,
he was the sidekick of the historical Jesus,
the divinely designated rock,
the progenitor of the Roman Catholic Papacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that it was Paul \u2026 not Peter \u2026 not even Jesus
who founded Christianity[i]<\/a> and Christian Theology.[ii]<\/a>
Remember, Paul was writing his letters
decades before Mark invented the genre we call gospel,
or any other New Testament author
got into the act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
their competing roles, personalities, and influences
actually clashed in real time \u2013 though there is no evidence
that they came to blows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
with the growing number of Gentile converts
largely because of the efforts of Paul,
the question arose as to whether these non-Jewish believers
should be required to be circumcised
and follow other key directives of Mosaic Law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initially, Peter agreed with James and other traditionalists
that Gentiles should follow the Torah,
but Paul vehemently disagreed.
And, even though Peter was the rock,
his position crumbled and Paul\u2019s argument prevailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
because of some new trauma on the horizon,
and there are many,
we often turn to trusted and true movies
that inevitably make us laugh and remind us that life goes on,
even if in strange and unexpected ways.
One of these perennial favorites is My Big Fat Greek Wedding<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
when Tula wants to go to school but her father is against it,
is when her mother reminds her
that the man is the head, but the woman is the neck,
and she can turn the head
any way she wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Peter the Rock and Paul the hydraulic hammer?
Peter the winner and Paul the contentious runner up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
any apostolic competition here,
any founder\u2019s tournament,
and reassess this apostolic brotherhood
not only for the sake of history,
but also for the sake of the church today:
in a world in which competition can devolve
into a dangerous virus,
where losers are shunned and degraded,
and martyrs are mocked as failures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
over amazing mountain ranges:
The Alps, the Andes, and our own Rocky Mountains.
Inevitably, each is populated with impressive rock formations
huge boulders and massive stones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
none of these geological outcroppings are alone:
some may soar skyward, dwarfing their surroundings,
but each such giant is embedded in communities of stone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
we tend to see Peter as a singular rock
as an isolated corner stone,
like the only leg on a three-legged stool \u2026
and you know how that is going to turn out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
as a solitary corner stone,
what happens if we reconsidered that rock
not as a lonely placard holding up one name,
but as an admittedly notable peak in a rugged mountain range-
a crest created by many stones pushed together-
the result of tectonic plates colliding
like Jesus, Peter, and Paul,
a religious Everest that reshapes the world
with its love ethic and call to radical inclusivity.\u00a0
The church was never meant to rest on the shoulders of one person.
From the very start it emerged from a community:
a brace of like-minded friends,
a mountain range of believers
composed of a myriad of diverse outcroppings,
pressed together in the tectonic upheaval we call faith,
and that, here, we call Old St. Pat\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of presiding at a baptism
of the first male son
born to either side of the family for two generations
\u2026 of course he was destined to become a little prince.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
who had lost her husband some years before
said to her daughter, \u201cHe is so beautiful,
I think he looks like your father.\u201d
The daughter, who never knew her birth father gently said,
\u201cMom \u2026 that can\u2019t be \u2026 remember I am adopted.\u201d
The Mother, at first a little taken back, shook her head and said,
\u201cI\u2019m sorry, I always forget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that we were adopted into a community grounded in granite,
and that this church of Peter and Paul
still needs rocks and jackhammers-
still needs committed odd couples-
still needs bold, impulsive, even problematic disciples-
to move the tectonic plates of justice in a world
that resists the gifts of Christianity\u2019s preternatural odd couple,
Peter and Paul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that, as bombs are turning cities into rubble,
to be an unshakeable foundation for peace;
that, as human dignity in all of its diversity is under assault,
to be a mountain range of justice;
and as our society and the world
are prone to placing boulders of exclusion
to block the progress of those the elite deem unworthy,
to become jackhammers of liberation,
removing every obstacle that hinders the way of the Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
upon you, this fresh outcropping of faith,
this 21st<\/sup> century rock, I will build my church
and the powers of hell will not prevail against it.
Through Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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