This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 45; Isaiah 9:1–7; 1 Peter 1:12–21; Luke 22:54–69 

This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 13 (“A Song of Praise,” BCP, p. 90); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93)

Luke. Peter remembered … And he went out and wept bitterly — Luke 22:61,62. We all have searing memories, memories that we wish we didn’t have, memories that make us cringe at their recall. Here, no doubt, in the story about his denial of Jesus, is Peter’s most painful memory. 

Who can’t love Peter? I think of him as the Tigger of the disciples, full of bounce, always ready to go. He’s the only disciple who has enough faith to get out of the boat and walk on water with his Master—until he sees how strong the wind is (Matthew 14:22–33). He’s the one who takes sword in hand to defend his Master, if wrongheadedly, from the arresting mob in the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:10–11). When Jesus is arrested, everybody except Peter and the beloved disciple (probably John), flee. Peter and the beloved follow, into the courtyard of the hostile high priest. 

Here at a campfire in the courtyard, Peter is given three opportunities to stand up for his Master. The bravery melts, and, just as Jesus had predicted, Peter denies him. Their eyes meet across the courtyard as a rooster crows a third time, and Peter is cut to the heart. He is reduced to a sobbing mess. The balloon of bravado has burst. 

Happily, Peter’s story doesn’t end there. Jesus had prepared Peter to discover the worst about himself. More importantly, Jesus had told him he had prayed for him: “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31–32). 

Today’s epistle shows the fruit of Jesus’s prayers for Peter. And it should encourage any of us who look back on moments of abject failure. They are not the end of our story, and we have the same advocate that Peter had. 

There is no resource in heaven or on earth stronger than this High Priest’s prayers. The writer to the Hebrews says that that is precisely what the Ascended Jesus is doing for you and for me: “He ever lives to intercede” (Hebrews 7:25). 

2 Peter. I intend to keep on reminding you of these things … so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things — 2 Peter 1:12a,14b). The result of Jesus’s prayers for Peter are on display in his subsequent life. Not only does Peter strengthen the immediate band of the twelve, but he preaches the first Pentecost sermon (Acts 2). At a crucial moment, facing down the Jerusalem church, Peter defends Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles (Acts 15). And here in two magnificent epistles, with his own martyrdom in Rome looming, Peter strengthens the faith of believers hundreds of miles away, scattered throughout Asia Minor (see 1 Peter 1:1–2). 

In today’s passage from 2 Peter, the apostle strengthens these disciples in the first place, by reminding them of his experience seeing Jesus’s glory on the Mount of Transfiguration (see Luke 9:28–36). What was given Peter that day was an advance look at the destiny of all of us who are called and elect: a vision of the final end of all of us who are “participants in the divine nature,” when the Lord returns and we are finally and definitively delivered “from the corruption that is in the world because of lust” (2 Peter 1:4). To me, what is so encouraging about Peter’s recollection of Jesus’s ministry is that he does not recall his own failure, but Jesus’s gift of the vision of future glory.

Peter strengthens these disciples in the second place, by putting into words these precious truths (in this letter and in 1 Peter), so that they can share them with one another even after his “departure.” Along these same lines later in this letter, he will commend the writings of “our beloved brother Paul” as well, even elevating them to the same status as Old Testament writings, likening them to “the other Scriptures” (2 Peter 3:15–16 ESV). Written words from the apostolic generation will be more and more important to the church that follows them. Twenty centuries later they are our lifeline to who Jesus is and what he has done for us! 

Peter strengthens these disciples in the third place, by pointing them to the writings of the Hebrew Scriptures, what we have come to call the Old Testament. These writings are a “message more fully confirmed” (2 Peter 1:19). While Peter was writing, the apostolic testimony was still in flux: there were no written gospels, and the epistles had not yet been gathered into a fixed body. Peter wanted to make sure the disciples knew that the Scriptures they already had—from Genesis to Malachi—offered trustworthy guidance and powerful hope: “For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:21 ESV). Every word of those Scriptures, Peter says, comes from God himself. 

Isaiah. That’s why every day’s readings in the Daily Office include a portion of the Psalter and an Old Testament passage: 

For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
    and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace
    there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
    to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
    from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9:6–7)

Some days, like today, the Old Testament passage shouts its message of hope—as Peter says, like “a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts….” (2 Peter 1:19). May the morning star of Advent prepare your heart for the rising of God’s full light in the birth of the Prince of Peace. 

Be blessed this Advent day,

Reggie Kidd!