Honoring St. Peter
The church commemorates the martyrdom of St. Peter (and also St. Paul) on June 29th, a feast especially important to the church of Rome, which cherished its apostolic roots, and the tombs of the apostles, housed in magnificent basilicas built by the Christian emperors of late antiquity. The basilica built over the tomb of Peter on the Vatican hill was rebuilt in the Renaissance, and is one of the most famous buildings in the world; the basilica of St. Paul “outside the walls”, to the south of the city, is not so well known. The present immense basilica erected over the tomb of Paul in the southern suburbs of Rome is a 19th century reconstruction of the ancient building, destroyed in a fire in 1823. The observation of this feast day throughout the western church expressed its deep and ancient ties to the apostolic see. English Christians in particular remembered the missionaries sent by the Bishop of Rome, Gregory the Great, for the conversion of their pagan ancestors.
The pre-eminence of the church of Rome was reflected, of course, in the pre-eminence of its bishop; and from late antiquity onwards these claims made for this office expanded and were made explicit as a claim of the pope’s full, supreme, and universal jurisdiction over the entire church, by divine institution. In this context, Peter’s confession of Christ and Jesus’ declaration concerning Peter (St. Matthew 16:13-19, the gospel lesson for St. Peter’s Day) was read as a scriptural confirmation of papal supremacy. For after Simon confessed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus told him, “thou art Peter” – a nickname meaning ‘a rock’ – “and upon this rock I will build my church”. Moreover, Jesus then told him “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”.
There is no question that Jesus is declaring Peter’s pre-eminent role in the foundation of the early church, as recorded in Acts 2-5 and 10-11. Peter played a unique and critical role in proclaiming the gospel in Jerusalem, confirming the believers in Samaria, and accepting the Gentile believers into fellowship with Jewish Christians. But there is no indication in this text (or any other) of successors to Peter, or of a permanent Petrine office with universal jurisdiction, much less of the other claims made for the bishop of Rome. Moreover, the New Testament shows us that Peter’s leading role was very far from any kind of supremacy: it is James, the Lord’s brother, not Simon Peter, who presides at the council in Jerusalem and sums up its decisions in favor of the Gentiles (Acts 15); and it is Paul who reproves Simon Peter for his failure to stand by this principle (Gal 2:11). The power to bind and loose is not confined to Peter – it is extended to all the apostles in Matthew 18:18, and also in John 20:23 (words echoed in the ordination of a priest): “whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained”. Peter may be ‘a rock’, but he is not the only one: in John’s vision of the heavenly Jerusalem (the church), “the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb” (Rev. 21:14). Moreover, when Paul revisits this image, he relates the authority of the apostles to that of Christ, saying that the church is “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2).
The authority of the keys, of binding and loosing, bestowed on those called to the ministry of word and sacrament, has its center in the proclamation of the gospel. “Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he may turn from his wickedness and live, hath given power, and commandment, to his Ministers, to declare and pronounce to his people, being penitent, the Absolution and Remission of their sins. He pardoneth and absolveth all those who truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel”. In hearing and receiving the gospel in faith, are we loosed from the bands of sin: “Though we be tied and bound with the chains of our sins, yet let the pitifulness of thy great mercy loose us” (Prayer Book, p. 63).
Whatever we may think of the papacy, its claims to a divinely instituted authority over the whole church are unsupported in scripture. Perhaps in the providence of God, there is a place for such an institution for the well-being of the church – but it is not essential, and the claim that it is essential, is itself theologically problematic. It is not submission to a Petrine office, but the confession of Peter’s faith, that defines the Church of Jesus Christ. “Thou art the Christ”, he says to Jesus, the mediator of God’s kingdom, “the son of the living God”, standing in unique personal relation to God, as Son to the Father. And as those who share in Peter’s faith, can we claim Christ’s promise to his church, that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”.