Sunday, June 29, 2025
St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles
Written by Gordon McPhee
John 21: 15-19
2 TIMOTHY 4:1-8 {MSG]
I can’t impress this on you too strongly. God is looking over your shoulder. Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead. He is about to break into the open with his rule, so proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don’t ever quit. Just keep it simple.
You’re going to find that there will be times when people will have no stomach for solid teaching, but will fill up on spiritual junk food—catchy opinions that tickle their fancy. They’ll turn their backs on truth and chase mirages. But you—keep your eye on what you’re doing; accept the hard times along with the good; keep the Message alive; do a thorough job as God’s servant.
You take over. I’m about to die, my life an offering on God’s altar. This is the only race worth running. I’ve run hard right to the finish, believed all the way. All that’s left now is the shouting—God’s applause! Depend on it, he’s an honest judge. He’ll do right not only by me, but by everyone eager for his coming.
WHAT’S THE JOB DESCRIPTION?
INTRODUCTION:
Welcome to “Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles” Sunday, which is also Pentecost 3. We don’t celebrate it often as it falls, as do most “Saint Days,” on a specific date, June 29th. It is a high-ranking solemnity observance, and so takes precedence over the liturgy for Pentecost 3. The day is set to acknowledge the impact these two Apostles and Saints had on the early Church and still do in our day through the teachings ascribed to them in the Holy Scriptures. Peter is known as the spiritual heart of the early Church in Judea, and Paul is known as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
Big jobs, with important job descriptions. Way outside our pay grade and education. What’s challenging to us about this is that it was outside of their qualifications as well. An uneducated fisherman and a Jew educated to revile Gentiles. Not exactly the people you advertise for to lead the Church and be missionaries to the Gentiles. But that is what God did. So today in our readings, we will ask what God is looking for in his saints, us. We’re going to ask, “What’s the Job Description?”
SERMON:
In our readings this morning, we have three distinct job descriptions. In the book of the prophet Ezekiel, God takes for Himself the job of shepherd to His people, which, because in John 10:11-18 Jesus characterizes Himself as the Good Shepherd, we may say is Jesus' job description. Our passage from John 21 commissions Peter, and indeed all the apostles, as the shepherds' servants who feed and care for the sheep, which, as I said, they continue to do today through the writings of the New Testament. Lastly, Paul employs Timothy into the work, which I would argue represents our job description, which is not to be confused with Paul’s ministry, which is, like the other apostles, feeding the sheep.
We’d all agree that getting your job description right is key to a successful work experience. If you’re hired as the security guard and you arrive at work the first day and begin cleaning the floors or distributing the office mail, you’re not going to be appreciated by your employers, or last very long in that position. Particularly if, as the new Office Manager, you sit in the President’s chair and begin giving orders to the Vice Presidents. So it’s vital for success to understand what your job is, both for yourself and in relationships with others who also have duties and responsibilities.
So let’s begin at the top, where we’ll find the context for all the other job descriptions. What is Jesus’, or God’s, job description? Well, according to Ezekiel, God, as the owner, appropriately has defined his own job: “God, the Master, says: From now on, I myself am the shepherd.” In both Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 23, God states that he is fed up, disappointed, and angry with the prophets, priests, kings and leaders he has given responsibility to guide and care for His people, the children of Israel, according to the law of Moses. He declares in Jeremiah 23:1-4:
Doom to the shepherd-leaders who butcher and scatter my sheep!” God’s Decree. “So here is what I, God, Israel’s God, say to the shepherd-leaders who misled my people: ‘You’ve scattered my sheep. You’ve driven them off. You haven’t kept your eye on them. Well, let me tell you, I’m keeping my eye on you, keeping track of your criminal behaviour. I’ll take over and gather what’s left of my sheep, gather them in from all the lands where I’ve driven them. I’ll bring them back where they belong, and they’ll recover and flourish. I’ll set shepherd-leaders over them who will take good care of them.
It sounds exactly like Ezekiel 34:2 just before the portion we read this morning, “God, the Master, says: Doom to you shepherds of Israel, feeding your own mouths! Aren’t shepherds supposed to feed sheep?”
So Jesus is in the driver’s seat. He is going to do what a good shepherd should do which, as itemized in our reading this morning, is: go after my sheep, rescue them, bring them back home, gather them, feed them and water them, secure them among their own, give them rest, doctor the injured, and protect them. Which leaves us asking the question, “What’s left to do?” And a valid question that is.
We are quite ready to throw out the Old Covenant of laws and rules, the Torah, in preference for the New Covenant; the New Commandment to love one another. However, we often forget that God made the new covenant because, as He tells the leaders of Israel in Ezekiel and Jeremiah, it doesn’t work. Under the law, they are the shepherds and were, as we would be, utter failures at that job. It’s not our job description. God has taken that on Himself. You’re fired! And so, what’s left to be done?
Well, if you subscribe to the “Great Commission Includes Everyone” theory, then your job description is in our passage from John. Jesus is making that incredible healing gesture of love for Peter. Peter publicly denied knowing Jesus three times, as He had predicted he would, and now Jesus gives him three opportunities to confess his devotion and love for Christ, his master, publicly.
Along with this renewing, Jesus gives Peter his job description: feed my lambs, shepherd my sheep, and feed my sheep. However, so there is no overlap or confusion, it is clear whose sheep Jesus is talking about; they are “my sheep,” He says. Jesus is not giving up or sharing his responsibilities as the Good Shepherd. The shepherd is the owner of the sheep, as Jesus' parable of the sheepfold in John 10 explains; they know His voice and come to Him only. However, shepherds employ servants, trusted individuals commissioned to specific work with the shepherd’s sheep.
In this case, the apostles first feed the lambs, the new and burgeoning church, then shepherd the sheep, which means gather and instruct the believers, and then feed the sheep, which we receive from them even today in the Gospels and Letters of the New Testament. Although many would suggest we should follow the work of the apostles in our lives, I don’t think penning the Spirit-inspired Word of God is a good job description for me. I believe Jesus has something else for us to do as we, the sheep, feed off the inspired Scriptures these apostles have already given us in obedience to Jesus' commission. I think Paul affords us our job description when he instructs Timothy, whom he calls his son.
“I can’t impress this on you too strongly,” is how Paul begins this part of his letter, so first, we know that what he is about to say to Timothy is of the utmost importance. What is it that is so vital for Paul to make crystal clear to Timothy, and to us? “God is looking over your shoulder. (2 Tim 4:1)” That has all sorts of negative micromanager connotations in our present day, and I dare say it’s an attitude we and, as Paul realized, Timothy, need to get over.
“Christ himself is the Judge, with the final say on everyone, living and dead.” He hasn’t abrogated any of his authority, power, or responsibility. Nowhere does Jesus allocate to you your own little flock to take care of, and he’ll check up on you once in a while to see how you’re doing. As we saw in Ezekiel, all the sheep are His, one flock that He takes care of. So you can be absolutely sure that Jesus is right there with you, micromanaging you every step of the way.
So what’s the job description? “Proclaim the Message with intensity; keep on your watch. Challenge, warn, and urge your people. Don’t ever quit. Just keep it simple.” That doesn’t sound too complicated, but you might tell me, “That’s the preacher’s job; what are we supposed to be doing?” Well, I would reply “No!”, not if we actually understand what Paul is asking Timothy, and us, to do.
Proclaiming the Message, the good news of what God has done and is doing in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, has a particular, high-profile component that lends itself to preaching. However, even more impactful is the witness each of us bears through our actions, decisions and lives. We are salt, light, and yeast. We may not be overtly visible, walking around with a clerical collar on our neck or a cross on our chest, but the presence and message of Jesus Christ will affect the world around us as we obey each action Jesus asks of us.
This is why we need to keep our watch over everything we say and do. Just as the preacher needs to be mindful of all he says in the pulpit and away from it, so we are witnesses always and everywhere to the truth of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Every decision we make should reflect our unwavering faith that Jesus has “the final say on everyone, living and dead.” God is looking over your shoulder. Your decisions are not your own, and you’re not left alone to succeed or fail. As you decide to follow and obey Jesus, he is sure to bring each action to its full conclusion and success. As God declares through the prophet Isaiah, “so is my word that goes out from my mouth — it will not return to me unfulfilled; but it will accomplish what I intend, and cause to succeed what I sent it to do” (Is 55:11).
And so we need to be a community together, to “challenge, warn, and urge” one another that we do not waiver in our faith, so that we “don’t ever quit.” The challenge is not to get caught up in “spiritual junk food [and] catchy opinions that tickle their fancy.” Keep the message of your life in Jesus Christ clear and simple.
Paul’s warning to Timothy is so current today, it is easy to see that little in the Church and the world has changed in two thousand years. He is speaking to us and our job description to “challenge, warn, and urge” one another in times when it seems our leaders are chasing after every new idea, every new mirage and fancy rather than holding forth the truth of scripture and the simple message of Jesus Christ.
“But you, keep your eye on what you’re doing.” Good advice when you remember your boss, the Good Shepherd who owns the sheep and is assigning you your work, is looking over your shoulder to ensure you succeed at everything. Not everything will be easy. I dare say it’s called ‘work’ for a reason. But never let the message that Jesus purchases and redeems your life for God’s glory diminish in anything you decide. Keep the message alive, which means that as the most vital living part of all your daily activity, it must reflect in every action and every decision that you are God’s servant.
He is the shepherd, and He is the one gathering, protecting, feeding, and caring for the sheep. That’s God’s job, and you best not try to take it from Him or do it for Him; you’re simply not equipped and will absolutely fail. We are His servants, looking to Him and waiting for His instructions moment by moment, always ready to do His will and in that bear witness to our faith in Him that He is accomplishing all He has determined to do. One of the toughest things we have to overcome is humbly accepting and doing with all our heart, mind, and soul, the simple job we’ve been given. Proclaim the Message, keep watch, challenge, warn, and urge each other, don’t ever quit, and for goodness' sake, keep it simple.
Amen
