January 18, 2026 (no audio recording)
Epiphany 2A
Fr. Alan Heatherington
Epiphany 2A
Fr. Alan Heatherington
May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable on Your sight, O Lord my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen. (Psalm 19:14).
Today is a day set aside in the Church as the first of a pair of Holy Days commemorating the Confession of St. Peter on January 18 and the Conversion of St. Paul one week later on January 25. These days will not occur on Sunday again until 2037, eleven years from now. You may have had no idea that such days of commemoration are on the Church calendar, in part due to the fact that whenever they occur on Sundays, their observance is transferred to Mondays, one of the odd quirks in the administration of the calendar. And so, apart from my intentionally leaving Peter’s Confession on January 18 and choosing to have its account in Matthew as our Gospel reading, you might never know about these important days devoted to Peter’s confession and Paul’s conversion.
Among the most important questions addressed in the entire New Testament are these: “Who is Jesus,” and “Who do you say that He is?” They are also among the most important questions asked today. They are ones that Jesus Himself asked His disciples.
Chronologically speaking, the question, “Who is Jesus,” already begins to be answered in the Old Testament prophecies, especially in the prophecy of Isaiah. The first answer in the New Testament comes from the angel Gabriel, appearing to Mary in the Annunciation and telling her that her Son will be named Jesus, “the Lord saves,” and He will be called, “The Son of the Most High God” (Luke 1:31-35). Soon after that, an unnamed angel announces to Joseph that Mary’s Child will be called Jesus because “He will save His people from their sins,” and that He also will be called “Immanuel, God with us,” as prophesied by Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:21-23).
John the Baptist’s first recorded words were about a mighty One Who was coming after him to baptize with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). And when Jesus did come, John said, “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). One of John’s disciples, Andrew, left him to follow Jesus, but quickly went to find his brother, Simon, telling him that he had found the Messiah (John 1:41). When Jesus then went to Galilee, He found Philip who, in turn, found Nathaniel, who said to Jesus, “You are the Son of God, the King of Israel” (John 1:49). When Jesus began to perform exorcisms, the demons called Him “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34), “the Son of God” (Matthew 8:29, Luke 4:41), and “the Son of the Most High God” (Luke 8:28). Then we come to the scene in our Gospel reading where Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” And it is St. Peter who answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:13ff.).
This Confession of Peter takes its place as a threshold moment in the time that Jesus had with His disciples. It elicits from Jesus a blessing of Peter and a statement that his confession came not through flesh and blood, not of human origin, but that it came directly by revelation from God the Father Who is in the heavens. And it also leads to the statement that Peter, “the rock,” the name Jesus had given to Simon the first time that He had “looked at him” (John 1:42), would become the rock on which Jesus would build His Church and the one to whom He would give “the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” For more on that, come on Wednesday evening (see the Collect at the end and Matthew 18:18).
But for now, I want us to look at some other things that St. Peter had to say about Jesus, because they are among the most treasurable things anyone has ever said. In John 6, after Jesus had given His explicit and challenging teaching about our having to eat His flesh and drink His Blood in order to have eternal life, we read that “many of His disciples withdrew and were no longer walking with Him” (John 6:66). And so Jesus asks the ones who stayed, “Do you also wish to go away?” (6:67). Again it is Peter who speaks up, saying, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (6:68,69).
When we turn to the Book of Acts, that vitally important historical record of the early Church that tells us how and why we should do both private and corporate worship, Peter emerges as the first spokesperson for the Church. On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on believers from all over the Roman world, Peter says this about Jesus in his great and riveting sermon:
Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, this Jesus, delivered up according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, having been nailed to the Cross, you killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up, ending the agony of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. (Acts 2:22-24)
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself. (Acts 2:33,38,39).
Among other things, we see here that the very foundation of our Biblical theology was laid out for us in the teaching of St. Peter:
God the Father attested to Jesus and acted through Him in His incarnation.
Jesus was “delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” “God raised Him up” from death.
Jesus is exalted to God’s right hand.
Jesus receives from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (which is part of why we say in our Nicene Creed that the Spirit
proceeds from both the Father and the Son).
Jesus is the Name in which we are baptized, along with the names of the Father and the Holy Spirit, as
commanded by Jesus in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19).
It is through baptism in the Name of Jesus that we receive forgiveness of our sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit,
as John the Baptist had foretold.
This promise is for Jewish believers and for Gentiles (the “far off” ones), for all those “whom the Lord our God
calls to Himself:” God takes the initiative, from start to finish.
All this is laid out in Peter’s first recorded sermon! His subsequent sermons in Acts touch on and reinforce these same points.
In Acts 4, he says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other Name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)
In Acts 5, he says, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus and exalted Him at His right hand as Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, Whom God has given to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:30-32).
In Acts 10, he says, “God raised Him on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name” (Acts 10:40-43).
Decades later, when writing his letters that are preserved in our New Testament, Peter found even loftier ways to express these same ineffable truths. He wrote,
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect… according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling with His Blood: know that you were not redeemed with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious Blood of Christ, like that of a Lamb without blemish or spot (I Peter 1:1,2,18,19).
There, in succinct fashion, Peter gives the main points of his entire theology:
election
foreknowledge
sanctification
obedience
atonement: sealing God’s covenant by the sprinkled Blood of Christ, and
redemption: paying our debt by the precious Blood of the spotless Lamb of God.
“Redemption” means “buying back by the paying of a ransom,” the price of which was the Blood of Jesus, always said in our Eucharist to be the “Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.” We say those words not because they are in our Prayer Book, but because they are taken directly from the mouth of Jesus when He first administered the Eucharist to His disciples in the Upper Room. We call them His “words of institution:” “This is My Blood shed for you.”
But what about the practical, the “so what” factor, the “how to live” precepts? Where are they in St. Peter’s words? Truth be told, they are abundant and are in fact among our most direct teachings about the Christian life. If we had only the recorded sermons and letters of Peter, we would have nearly all we need for worship, faith and practice.
Peter even has some incredibly special words he uses in ways not found in any other NT writings. One of them that strikes me in powerful ways is his use of the word “precious.” The underlying Greek word is timios, a word typically saved for something that is of inestimable value: gold, silver, jewels, marriage partners, revered teachers, something or someone so dearly loved that, as we often say of such things, “there are no words.”
Peter uses “precious” only two times. We heard one of those just a moment ago: we are redeemed “with the precious Blood of Christ, the spotless Lamb of God.” This is the only place in Scripture where the Blood of Christ is called “precious.” But we all pray it twice in every Eucharist. When we offer our “Prayer of Humble Access,” we ask that “our souls may be washed through His most precious Blood;” and we conclude our worship in the “Post-Communion Prayer” by thanking God for feeding us with “the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.” His Blood is of inestimable value to us. We repeat Peter’s word: precious! And so this morning we sang:
Lord, I believe Thy precious Blood, which at the mercy seat of God forever dost for sinners plead, for me, e'en for my soul, was shed. Thou hast for all a ransom paid, for all a full atonement made.
Sometimes, in awe and wonder, we sing these words of Charles Wesley that our choir will be singing today: “And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior’s Blood!”
The only other time St. Peter used the word “precious” was in his second letter when he wrote that by “His divine power” and “His own glory and excellence” God has “called us, and “has granted to us His precious and exceedingly great promises so that through them we may participate in the divine nature” (II Peter 1:3,4).
That is what we say when we add a small amount of water to the wine in the chalice:
By this mystery of the water and the wine may we come to participate in the divine nature of Him Who humbled Himself to participate in our humanity, Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
And, as St. Paul wrote (I Corinthians 10:16),
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?
Precious Blood and precious promises: these are among the pillars of our faith and practice. And, because they are so precious, we come to Christ our Messiah again and again, sometimes by praying the Jesus Prayer that gives full expression to much of what we have shared this morning:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.
That prayer directly addresses our two most important questions with which we began: “Who is Jesus,” and “Who do you say that He is?”
He is the Lord God, with Whom He is One (John 10:30).
He is our Lord. He is Jesus, the Lord Who saves us.
He is the Christ, our Messiah.
He is the Son of the Father, sent by the Father for us and for our salvation.
He, like the Father, is abounding in mercy and lovingkindness towards us.
And He loves you, the sinner.
When you repent, He forgives you.
Therefore you may say with confidence, “Jesus loves me, this I know.”
Almighty Father, Who inspired Simon Peter, first among the apostles, to confess Jesus as Messiah and Son of the living God: Keep your Church steadfast on the rock of this faith, that in unity and peace we may proclaim the one truth and follow the one Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ; Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Today is a day set aside in the Church as the first of a pair of Holy Days commemorating the Confession of St. Peter on January 18 and the Conversion of St. Paul one week later on January 25. These days will not occur on Sunday again until 2037, eleven years from now. You may have had no idea that such days of commemoration are on the Church calendar, in part due to the fact that whenever they occur on Sundays, their observance is transferred to Mondays, one of the odd quirks in the administration of the calendar. And so, apart from my intentionally leaving Peter’s Confession on January 18 and choosing to have its account in Matthew as our Gospel reading, you might never know about these important days devoted to Peter’s confession and Paul’s conversion.
Among the most important questions addressed in the entire New Testament are these: “Who is Jesus,” and “Who do you say that He is?” They are also among the most important questions asked today. They are ones that Jesus Himself asked His disciples.
Chronologically speaking, the question, “Who is Jesus,” already begins to be answered in the Old Testament prophecies, especially in the prophecy of Isaiah. The first answer in the New Testament comes from the angel Gabriel, appearing to Mary in the Annunciation and telling her that her Son will be named Jesus, “the Lord saves,” and He will be called, “The Son of the Most High God” (Luke 1:31-35). Soon after that, an unnamed angel announces to Joseph that Mary’s Child will be called Jesus because “He will save His people from their sins,” and that He also will be called “Immanuel, God with us,” as prophesied by Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:21-23).
John the Baptist’s first recorded words were about a mighty One Who was coming after him to baptize with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8). And when Jesus did come, John said, “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). One of John’s disciples, Andrew, left him to follow Jesus, but quickly went to find his brother, Simon, telling him that he had found the Messiah (John 1:41). When Jesus then went to Galilee, He found Philip who, in turn, found Nathaniel, who said to Jesus, “You are the Son of God, the King of Israel” (John 1:49). When Jesus began to perform exorcisms, the demons called Him “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24, Luke 4:34), “the Son of God” (Matthew 8:29, Luke 4:41), and “the Son of the Most High God” (Luke 8:28). Then we come to the scene in our Gospel reading where Jesus asks His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” And it is St. Peter who answers, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:13ff.).
This Confession of Peter takes its place as a threshold moment in the time that Jesus had with His disciples. It elicits from Jesus a blessing of Peter and a statement that his confession came not through flesh and blood, not of human origin, but that it came directly by revelation from God the Father Who is in the heavens. And it also leads to the statement that Peter, “the rock,” the name Jesus had given to Simon the first time that He had “looked at him” (John 1:42), would become the rock on which Jesus would build His Church and the one to whom He would give “the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.” For more on that, come on Wednesday evening (see the Collect at the end and Matthew 18:18).
But for now, I want us to look at some other things that St. Peter had to say about Jesus, because they are among the most treasurable things anyone has ever said. In John 6, after Jesus had given His explicit and challenging teaching about our having to eat His flesh and drink His Blood in order to have eternal life, we read that “many of His disciples withdrew and were no longer walking with Him” (John 6:66). And so Jesus asks the ones who stayed, “Do you also wish to go away?” (6:67). Again it is Peter who speaks up, saying, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God” (6:68,69).
When we turn to the Book of Acts, that vitally important historical record of the early Church that tells us how and why we should do both private and corporate worship, Peter emerges as the first spokesperson for the Church. On the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on believers from all over the Roman world, Peter says this about Jesus in his great and riveting sermon:
Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, this Jesus, delivered up according to the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, having been nailed to the Cross, you killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised Him up, ending the agony of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. (Acts 2:22-24)
Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself. (Acts 2:33,38,39).
Among other things, we see here that the very foundation of our Biblical theology was laid out for us in the teaching of St. Peter:
God the Father attested to Jesus and acted through Him in His incarnation.
Jesus was “delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.” “God raised Him up” from death.
Jesus is exalted to God’s right hand.
Jesus receives from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus poured out the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (which is part of why we say in our Nicene Creed that the Spirit
proceeds from both the Father and the Son).
Jesus is the Name in which we are baptized, along with the names of the Father and the Holy Spirit, as
commanded by Jesus in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19).
It is through baptism in the Name of Jesus that we receive forgiveness of our sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit,
as John the Baptist had foretold.
This promise is for Jewish believers and for Gentiles (the “far off” ones), for all those “whom the Lord our God
calls to Himself:” God takes the initiative, from start to finish.
All this is laid out in Peter’s first recorded sermon! His subsequent sermons in Acts touch on and reinforce these same points.
In Acts 4, he says, “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other Name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)
In Acts 5, he says, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus and exalted Him at His right hand as Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, Whom God has given to those who obey Him” (Acts 5:30-32).
In Acts 10, he says, “God raised Him on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name” (Acts 10:40-43).
Decades later, when writing his letters that are preserved in our New Testament, Peter found even loftier ways to express these same ineffable truths. He wrote,
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect… according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for the sprinkling with His Blood: know that you were not redeemed with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious Blood of Christ, like that of a Lamb without blemish or spot (I Peter 1:1,2,18,19).
There, in succinct fashion, Peter gives the main points of his entire theology:
election
foreknowledge
sanctification
obedience
atonement: sealing God’s covenant by the sprinkled Blood of Christ, and
redemption: paying our debt by the precious Blood of the spotless Lamb of God.
“Redemption” means “buying back by the paying of a ransom,” the price of which was the Blood of Jesus, always said in our Eucharist to be the “Blood of the New Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.” We say those words not because they are in our Prayer Book, but because they are taken directly from the mouth of Jesus when He first administered the Eucharist to His disciples in the Upper Room. We call them His “words of institution:” “This is My Blood shed for you.”
But what about the practical, the “so what” factor, the “how to live” precepts? Where are they in St. Peter’s words? Truth be told, they are abundant and are in fact among our most direct teachings about the Christian life. If we had only the recorded sermons and letters of Peter, we would have nearly all we need for worship, faith and practice.
Peter even has some incredibly special words he uses in ways not found in any other NT writings. One of them that strikes me in powerful ways is his use of the word “precious.” The underlying Greek word is timios, a word typically saved for something that is of inestimable value: gold, silver, jewels, marriage partners, revered teachers, something or someone so dearly loved that, as we often say of such things, “there are no words.”
Peter uses “precious” only two times. We heard one of those just a moment ago: we are redeemed “with the precious Blood of Christ, the spotless Lamb of God.” This is the only place in Scripture where the Blood of Christ is called “precious.” But we all pray it twice in every Eucharist. When we offer our “Prayer of Humble Access,” we ask that “our souls may be washed through His most precious Blood;” and we conclude our worship in the “Post-Communion Prayer” by thanking God for feeding us with “the spiritual food of the most precious Body and Blood of Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.” His Blood is of inestimable value to us. We repeat Peter’s word: precious! And so this morning we sang:
Lord, I believe Thy precious Blood, which at the mercy seat of God forever dost for sinners plead, for me, e'en for my soul, was shed. Thou hast for all a ransom paid, for all a full atonement made.
Sometimes, in awe and wonder, we sing these words of Charles Wesley that our choir will be singing today: “And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Savior’s Blood!”
The only other time St. Peter used the word “precious” was in his second letter when he wrote that by “His divine power” and “His own glory and excellence” God has “called us, and “has granted to us His precious and exceedingly great promises so that through them we may participate in the divine nature” (II Peter 1:3,4).
That is what we say when we add a small amount of water to the wine in the chalice:
By this mystery of the water and the wine may we come to participate in the divine nature of Him Who humbled Himself to participate in our humanity, Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ.
And, as St. Paul wrote (I Corinthians 10:16),
The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the Blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the Body of Christ?
Precious Blood and precious promises: these are among the pillars of our faith and practice. And, because they are so precious, we come to Christ our Messiah again and again, sometimes by praying the Jesus Prayer that gives full expression to much of what we have shared this morning:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.
That prayer directly addresses our two most important questions with which we began: “Who is Jesus,” and “Who do you say that He is?”
He is the Lord God, with Whom He is One (John 10:30).
He is our Lord. He is Jesus, the Lord Who saves us.
He is the Christ, our Messiah.
He is the Son of the Father, sent by the Father for us and for our salvation.
He, like the Father, is abounding in mercy and lovingkindness towards us.
And He loves you, the sinner.
When you repent, He forgives you.
Therefore you may say with confidence, “Jesus loves me, this I know.”
Almighty Father, Who inspired Simon Peter, first among the apostles, to confess Jesus as Messiah and Son of the living God: Keep your Church steadfast on the rock of this faith, that in unity and peace we may proclaim the one truth and follow the one Lord, our Savior Jesus Christ; Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
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