I have a favourite apostle. There, I've admitted it and it feels like such a weight off of my chest. I don’t even know if I'm allowed to have a favourite. I've never heard anyone else ever speaking about having a favourite apostle. It's kind of a guilty pleasure, not unlike the fact that I liked listening to Abba back when I was a metalhead. Certainly not something you talk about in polite company.

My favorite apostle is Peter, or to use his full name Simon Peter. The first reason why he's my favourite should be fairly obvious if you know me. I am also called Simon Peter. Those of us with cool names have to stick together. A shared name is not the worst similarity to draw two people together, but there is another, more important reason: he inspires me.

Peter is an interesting fellow. I'm not going to go into a detailed character study here, but I do have a few observations. A casual examination of Peter's life and his time spent with Jesus shows us that he's a goofball ... certainly a lovable one, but still a goofball. That initial examination can leave you wondering why Jesus wasted his time on him. Nothing about the Peter we see in the gospels said cool headed leadership. He had some goofy ideas, said some goofy things, denied Jesus three times and had to be corrected hard on a couple of occasions. Knowing this about Peter, I find him comforting. He was absolutely not perfect, but the Lord continued to love him and work with him to guide him through his imperfections and out the other side as a powerful apostle with, yes, actual leadership skills. As an also not perfect kinda guy, I appreciate the continuing and guiding love of Jesus as I work my way through my life and called ministries.

Let’s not stop there though. If we zoom in a little more on the life and character of Peter, getting past the shallow tropes, we find a powerful individual who the Lord recognised as being close to what he required for leading his church through its founding and early days. We know that Peter was imperfect, but his mistakes were generally caused by an over-abundance of love and enthusiasm for the Lord and his plans. Even the corrections that Jesus delivered were more about pointing him at the objective, not punishing him. Jesus, being God, had an advantage over us and he could see the outcome that Peter would have if he guided him and ensured that he stayed on the correct path. I believe that's why Jesus felt comfortable giving Peter the keys to the kingdom, he knew that with a little guidance and some more maturity, he was going to have his first church leader. Founding leaders need a certain amount of gusto and to be all in on the mission ahead of them. During his character arc in the gospels, we see Peter approaching this condition steadily. In the first chapter of the book of Acts, Peter is already taking a leadership role among the disciples and other believers. Then we get to the second chapter and he receives the Holy Spirit. From that point onward, we see Peter as the apostle that Jesus always knew he could be.

Peter as an apostle is an impressive fellow. He's there in the upper room when the Holy Spirit is poured out on that day of Pentecost we celebrate as the birthday of the church. He stands up and delivers the first apostolic sermon a little later that same day. He's there at the first miracle of the church. He delivers a stern lecture to the Jewish leadership. He’s there when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the Samaritans. He's specifically sent by the Lord to be present when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon the gentiles. And then, while the Apostle Paul gets the majority of the words for the rest of the book of Acts, he is appointed as the apostle to the Jews.

Personally, as a (hopefully) lovable goofball, I would feel useful to the Kingdom of God if I could achieve a fraction of the things that Peter did in his life and ministry. This is the main reason why Peter is my favorite apostle. I have no interest in arguing about who is the greatest apostle, they all rock in their own ways and served the Lord powerfully, but Peter threw himself wholeheartedly into everything that the Lord asked him to do and was willing to take guidance and correction. May we all do the same!