Dionysus on a Bike

John 21:15-19 – 6/29/2026 – The Feast of Apostles Peter and Paul, Martyrs

Today the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul, celebrated by Lutherans along with much of the catholic church, lead to a departure from the Revised Common Lectionary in favor of passages related to the ministries and martyrdom of two of the Apostles most central to the faith. At the end of John’s Gospel, Jesus asks Peter three times if Peter loves him, giving him a chance to atone for Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus just before the crucifixion. After Peter repeatedly affirms his loving affection and commitment to Christ, Jesus tells Peter to feed his sheep and then gives him the words quoted above, “When you were younger… you used to go wherever you wished, but when you grow old… someone else will…take you where you do not wish to go.” In the text of John’s Gospel this is explicitly a prophecy of Peter’s death years later when he was crucified in Rome, but the way Jesus spoke to Peter has particular resonance with me in this time of my life.

“When you were younger you used to go wherever you wished.” This resonates with me. When I rejected the label Christian, I was freed from the constraints of a version of the faith that regulated every aspect of behavior and life choices, not out of concern for the other but out of fixation on regulated moral purity. Leaving that constricting environment was a breath of fresh air, and I lived many places, expanded my education, and traveled widely, exploring a world that was now open to me. I literally went wherever I wished with nothing holding me back.

“When you grow old someone else will take you where you do not wish to go.” This too resonates with me. Though I am not yet an old man, I am certainly much older than when left the church to go wherever I wished. It’s not so much that I am being led where I do not wish to go and more that I am being led somewhere I never expected to go. My live now moves in directions I never would have chosen to go if left to my own devices. Currently a candidate for ordained ministry and about to start a second semester in seminary, this is a path I never expected once I left the church and one that I would not have chosen for myself without circumstances far outside my control. I am moving to Iowa to serve in a congregation during my theological studies. Again, I never would have chosen Iowa or church work, but here I am on a path full of joy that I did not choose for myself.

Though Peter faced martyrdom when he was at a point in his life where he was no longer in control of where he went, and I face much more pleasant prospects, the truth still remains that there are seasons of life when one does what one wants, and there are seasons of life when one’s steps are directed by forces beyond one’s control or foresight. Both times of life are of God and can be used by God, and both have their joys and their sorrows. In either case, the question of Jesus and his response to the answer are important. “Disciple, do you love me? Yes? Then go feed my sheep.” Love and service to others, these are constant across each phase of life’s journey.

Reflections of a Dionysian Lutheran, comments on the daily readings of the Revised Common Lectionary by Justin Marquis