And it was Simon Peter who answered. Peter said:
"You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

Then Jesus answered him, "I tell you, you are Peter,
and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it."

True words ­ but Peter could not know the depth of their reality.
For the fiery hinges of hell had not yet slammed their gates trapping Peter halfway in and halfway out, twisting in shame and agony. In not too many more weeks, Peter would be leaving Pilate's courtyard singed and humbled by his three denials of Jesus. Peter would be smashed down so low by the weight of his sense of betrayal that his whole being would long for an end.

We don't even know where Peter was while Jesus was dragging his own cross through the streets to the place of crucifixion. The Good Friday Gospel reading recounts the presence of three women at foot of the cross, and one male disciple. But it was not Peter.

Peter was off, somewhere, drowning in the deep darkness of his own personal midnight.

But dawn comes with the rising of the son. At first light a small band of women walk through the chill air, their passage marked by the lingering scent wafting from the burial spices they hold in their hands. Perhaps no thought has been given to how they will actually get into the tomb.

The shocking immediacy of death makes it hard to think through details. But whether the women have considered it, or not, a very large stone will greet their small band when they reach the tomb at the end of the trail.

Even as their bodies move forward, their minds are reaching back. Some of them had heard Jesus say, "it is finished," as he died on the cross. But it will not even start to be finished for them until they have properly buried their dead.

The trail stops. They cease walking, only to discover there will be no ending.

The stone is gone. The body is gone. Death itself has departed.
Dazzling messengers greet them inside the empty tomb and ask:
"Why do you look for the living among the dead?"

There is more light now, more warmth, even inside these stones. Morning has broken.
The women are terrified, confused.
They sink down, their flushed faces near the cold still ground.

The messengers begin to speak again "Remember how he told you..." they begin,
and the messengers remind them Jesus said he would rise again.

The lives of these women had been hidden with Christ. Their hopes and their joy had been buried with him. Now Christ is about to be revealed, so the women run to the eleven and all the rest of Jesus' followers. The women run towards glory.

The women run on changed earth, through new air, as transformed people. They carry resurrection on their faces as they rush, with empty hands, to find their friends. The discarded burial spices have been left scattered on the stones of the tomb. Those who see the faces of these women, and hear their story will begin their shift from the land of the dead to the world of new life.

Jesus had died. Jesus had risen. Soon Jesus would be standing among them,
present and alive in a new and undeniable way.
How could anything be an obstacle, now that death itself was conquered?

Jesus' words had become more than words. The resurrection changes everything.

Even Peter. Especially Peter. The story of the resurrected Christ's appearance to two disciples who were on the way to Emmaus says that Christ also had appeared, elsewhere, to Peter. An annotation in the Oxford study bible notes that "Peter's experience, doubtless of tremendous effect for the beginnings of Christianity, is not described." But we can see its effect.

Jesus had died. Jesus had risen. Then Jesus stood in front of Peter,
present and alive in a new and undeniable way.

The death of Jesus had brought Peter to his knees, a broken man. The Resurrection brought Peter back onto his feet, and to the work of God. How could anything be an obstacle now that death and sin had been conquered? Jesus had embraced Peter with love and forgiveness. It was not only Jesus who had received the gift of a new life.

Our first reading was from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. Remember that this book recounts the activities of the apostles after they have encountered the risen Christ.

All the words the disciples had heard from Jesus in the years before his death on the cross were now confirmed. Things the disciples had understood only dimly, now blazed with clarity. The disciples' sense of reality was completely converted by the truth of the Resurrection.

In today's reading from Acts, Peter is talking to Cornelius, a Roman Centurion. Remember, it was Roman soldiers who had nailed Jesus to the cross, and now Peter is standing inside Cornelius' home. There may be upwards of a hundred Roman soldiers within shouting distance, but divine guidance has delivered Peter to this moment and to this place. We sense no fear in Peter.

It's Peter ­the same man who could not stand in the High Priest's house and admit that he even knew Jesus. Now Peter is ready to stand toe to toe with a Roman Centurion and recount a story of salvation that begins and ends with Jesus.

Peter turns to face the might of the Roman Empire in the person of Cornelius.
Then Peter says: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality"
Peter does know. He knows deeply in his own life experience the truth of the words he is speaking.

Peter knows that Cornelius is not the enemy. These Gentiles, and their offered meal, are not unclean in God's eyes. And Cornelius knows that Peter isn't a no-account outlaw whom Cornelius should kill, but rather a man sent by God to save him. The world has been turned upside-down. What has done this ­ the power of the Resurrection.

Both Peter and Cornelius had received a vision from God. It brought them face to face. Our view into this story in the Book of Acts ends with Peter baptizing everyone in Cornelius' household, and then eating dinner with them. The story begins full of differences.
In the end there is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of All.

All of the fears, the doubts and the opportunities for betrayal and a fall from grace tumble out of these Gospel stories and into our lives. Who among us has not done wrong? Who among us has avoided doing damage in the midst of ignorance? The author of psalm 130 put it well when he wrote:" If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, O Lord who could stand?"

Our sins and shortcomings drive us to our knees.
But the power of the resurrection pulls us to our feet, again.

You build your church on ones such as Peter -
full of bravado one moment, weak and afraid the next.
You forgave even him, who betrayed you, and strengthened him to do your work.
We remember him as a saint.

When you removed the power of sin and death over us,
You bid us step away from the tombs that draw us.
There is no midnight so dark that it cannot be dispersed by the dawn of a new life.
It does not matter what came before. Everything now is after.
The power of the resurrection is not a possession for some precious few.
This gift is for all God's beloved. May we take hold of it in remembrance of Him.