In their book, Moral Leadership for a Divided Age, David Gushee and Colin Holtz point out that studying moral leadership “trains us to a way of thinking… to learn something, and in so doing, to be formed and reformed—through the engagement of someone’s life.”
“The lives of great moral leaders do not remain in the past. They interrogate the present.”
In their introduction to the book, Gushee and Holtz explain how to explore and study the lives of moral leaders so that we can grow and learn from their examples. They suggest ten different points in studying the lives of leaders to help us form and reform our own lives.
I want to apply some of those points today in a quick study of the life of the Apostle Peter, a moral leader who has something to teach us about our own lives as Christians.
Peter’s life certainly does ask questions of our own time. His life also causes us to ask questions of ourselves as Christians.
First, let’s look at Peter’s vocation as a witness to Jesus Christ, Son of God, crucified and raised from the dead, the source of our salvation.
Before Jesus came along and called Peter as a disciple, Peter was a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus called Peter and Andrew, who were casting nets into the sea, and said, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”
So Peter set aside his fishing career, but he used the skills he had developed as a fisherman in his new calling as a disciple. What he had learned from one calling helped him in his new calling.
But even more importantly, Peter was open to a higher calling, one in which he would be subject to the teaching and direction of another person, Jesus, who would lead him beyond his current occupation as a fisherman.
In today’s reading from Acts, Peter and John stand before the powerful rulers and the leaders in the temple. These are the people who had determined the fate of Jesus, and who now hold the fate of Peter and John in their hands. And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, speaks to them. We don’t get to hear this verse because the lectionary doesn’t include it, but the people in power are amazed at Peter’s eloquence when he answers their questions, for they know that Peter is “an uneducated and ordinary man.” But Peter, a follower of Jesus who is full of the Holy Spirit, is capable now of so much more than he would have been had he not chosen to follow Jesus—now this uneducated and ordinary man is healing people and witnessing to the fact that Jesus is the Son of God with eloquent conviction.
So we can see in the trajectory of Peter’s work and life his calling into moral leadership, and his growth as a moral leader.
Peter’s life can remind us to ask ourselves how Jesus is calling us more deeply into a life in which Jesus is our highest yearning, our deepest source of inspiration, and our greatest power as we live as his followers.
How might God be calling each one of us now into lives of deeper commitment to God and to one another through the power of the Holy Spirit? What might God be calling us to do that is beyond our wildest imaginations?
Another way that Peter developed as a leader was to accept his failures and to learn from them. Peter’s greatest failure was to deny Jesus three times on the night before Jesus was crucified. This failure on the part of Peter did not ultimately deter him from continuing as a disciple. Peter learned from this failure and his denial of Jesus. This failure made him realize what was most important to him—his love for Jesus.
When Peter and Jesus, now risen, meet on the beach after that breakfast by the Sea of Galilee, Peter says to Jesus three times that he loves Jesus, and accepts once more Jesus’ call to discipleship. Jesus asks Peter to feed Jesus’ lambs, tend Jesus’ sheep, to feed Jesus’ sheep. Jesus is inviting Peter to become a good shepherd himself, as Jesus is.
Peter, knowing now how miserably he can fail, because he has failed, enters into this second call into discipleship with a great deal more humility and understanding of himself and his shortcomings. He becomes more determined within himself not to deny his Lord ever again, and this determination plays into his growing strength as a leader. Peter did not try to excuse himself for his mistakes. Instead, he accepted his failures, learned from them, and became a stronger leader as a result. Ultimately, Peter became a good shepherd himself.
Peter’s story gives us cause to reflect on the failures in our own lives, to take a good look at ourselves and to work to correct our own failings, and to accept and to grow from the mistakes that we have made so that we can be better followers of Jesus.
How can facing your failures help you to learn to live more fully and effectively as a disciple of Jesus and grow in your abilities as a witness to God’s love and as a leader who models God’s love for others?
When we study moral leaders, to reflect on their “social relationships” and “communal affiliations” is also useful. Gushee and Holtz point out that even great leaders rarely act alone. Jesus himself did not act alone, but called twelve disciples to follow him and to help him in his own ministry.
After Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples waited for the Holy Spirit together, were empowered by the Holy Spirit together, and then lived in Christian community together, a community so committed that everyone owned everything in common and no one had any needs, for they were all taking care of one another. Peter already knew how to work as a member of a team, since he had not fished alone, but alongside others, including his brother Andrew. Peter used the leadership skills he had developed as a fisherman to help to build up and to care for this new Christian community.
Even after the persecution of the Christians began in Jerusalem and the disciples were scattered to the ends of the earth, they all continued to gather communities of faith around them. These communities worked together to bear witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and to spread the Good News about Jesus. Two thousand years later, we are members of this communal affiliation of Christians around the world, descended from that first community of Christians that Peter led.
How do we go about developing relationships that can carry the mission of Jesus forward? Peter’s witness reminds us that we are all in this thing called “church” together, to help one another along, to empower one another, to support and to encourage one another in carrying God’s love out into the world. Is our example as a church in this community one of moral leadership and witness to God’s love for the world? When others look at our example, do they see God’s beloved community of welcome and witness to God’s love for all?
Gushee and Holtz point out that moral leaders “practice respectful engagement.” In today’s passage from Acts, when the people in power question Peter and John about their actions, Peter’s answer is respectful and straightforward. He explains that what they have done is what everyone there would agree with—to do a good deed to someone who was sick—that’s the common ground that everyone can agree on. Then Peter says that they have healed the man by the name of Jesus Christ, yes, the same Jesus Christ that those in power have crucified and whom God raised from the dead. Peter is respectful, and yet he gives these people in power an opportunity to reflect on the fact that God has more power than they do (after all, God raised Jesus from the dead), and that they have made a mistake to crucify Jesus.
How do we engage with those with whom we disagree? Moral leaders like Peter encourage us to ask ourselves how we tend to think of those with whom we disagree, or those who have called us on the carpet. Do we immediately put them in the demon category because we don’t agree with them? Peter reminds us—seek the common ground, explain your position, and leave space for the response of the other.
Ultimately, Peter based his own leadership in the new church on the leadership of Jesus himself. Other branches of the early church also followed the leadership of Jesus—in today’s reading from 1 John, the elder of that group of Christians reminds them to love in truth and action. He reminds the Christians in that community that their source of power is God, and in thanksgiving for God’s love our deepest desire is to obey God in all that we do so that we may please God.
When Jesus is our leader, then we will try our best to love one another, as Jesus has commanded us. And in loving one another, we abide in Jesus, and Jesus abides in us, and we know that Jesus abides in us for the Holy Spirit will act in our own lives.
The medieval saint Richard of Chichester wrote these prayerful words we find in our Hymnal 1982. In his prayer, Richard asks Jesus to shape his life into that of a faithful follower.
“Day by day, three things of thee, O Lord, I pray. To see thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, follow thee more nearly, day by day.”
So may we turn toward Jesus as Peter did.
Studying Peter’s life can help us in turn to follow Jesus more fully, to be shaped by him, and to become witnesses to God’s love for all through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, our good shepherd.
Now it’s our turn to lead the way to inspire others to be followers of our Lord and Savior, who cares tenderly for us all.
Resource
Gushee, David P. and Holtz, Colin. Moral leadership for a divided age: Fourteen people who dared to shape our world. Brazos Press: Grand Rapids, MI. 2018.