Our God is an awesome God
who reigns from heaven above.
With wisdom, power and love,
our God is an awesome God!

 

It’s a good thing I’m not God.
I never would have chosen people like Peter and Paul
to be apostles, preachers or teachers.
I never would have asked either of them
to speak on my behalf.
I’d have to say, I would have chosen better.

 

Jesus somehow chose the disciple who proclaimed,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,”

The same disciple who only a few minute later would tell him
to stop talking about his passion, death and resurrection.

“God forbid, Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you”

Proving how little he truly understood
what it meant for Jesus to be the Christ,
the Son of the living God.”

 

Jesus somehow chose someone who had been persecuting
his early followers,
even putting them to death for proclaiming that Jesus was the Christ.

Jesus chose someone who was completely opposed to his teachings
to become his greatest advocate and preacher to the Gentiles.

 

I would certainly not have chosen either of them,
one who would deny him three times
when he needed him the most
and the other who would persecute his followers
wherever they happened to be.

 

Luckily for us,
I am not God,
and God wouldn’t have asked for my advice.

 

Our God is an awesome God
who reigns from heaven above.

Today, as we begin our pilgrimage,
we begin in the city where both Peter and Paul
were put to death for who they followed,
who they proclaimed as “the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Their lives had been changed by the call they received.

 

Peter would not only say, “Lord, you know that I love you,” three times,
but he would demonstrate that love by way he preached and lived
once he had received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

 

Paul would travel throughout the eastern Mediterranean,
from Damascus to Antioch, to Jerusalem
and many other places before reaching Rome
to share the Good News he had heard
when he was knocked to ground on his way
to persecute Christians in Damascus.

 

Both would end up in Rome,
where they would face execution for what they proclaimed,
one on a cross and the other by beheading
because they refused to deny, betray or persecute him again.

 

With wisdom, power and love,
our God is an awesome God!

 

Not only because he chose Peter and Paul,
but because he has called countless others over the years
to follow their examples,
among them, Gaspar del Bufalo,
who some two hundred years ago

preached about the mercy and the saving power of God

to people whose faith had grown weak
and had been persecuted by the armies of Napoleon.

After his death, he was initially buried
in this very church,
where we remember how he had followed in the footsteps
of both Peter and Paul.

 

Our God is an awesome God
who reigns from heaven above.

Not only because he chose Peter and Paul,
and Gaspar and his followers,
but also because he also chose each one of us
to follow in their footsteps,
to be men and women of faith,
who believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God,
and who live that faith in their own lives.

We are blessed to be here,
in places where God worked wonders long ago,
and where we hope he will work wonders in our lives,
as well.

 

Our God is an awesome God
who reigns from heaven above.
With wisdom, power and love,
our God is an awesome God!