Simon Peter – Linda Vogt Turner

The Magdalene and the Rock: Something to Contemplate

A blossoming almond branch rests across a weathered stone-grey human skull against a coal-black background.

Why did artists place a skull beside—or even in the hands of—Mary Magdalene? Was it only an emblem of mortality and Golgotha, or might she be clinging to the rejected Stone? This brief contemplation opens a doorway through which the Woman Jesus called the Magdalene and the Man Jesus called Simon—the Rock—may be seen.

Epiphany XVII: Cast the Stone, Catch the Fish

A Black man stands in the water holding a net, with a red-haired, blue-eyed woman caught within it, as waves move around them.

Jesus foretold Simon’s denial—“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you like wheat.”

In the miraculous catch, Jesus is revealed in the sifting of Simon—so come, have breakfast.

Epiphany VII: The Sapphire Wall

Simon Peter judges Ananias and Sapphira for concealing the full price of the field they sold.

Veiling Grace and Glory, judgment follows. Epiphany VII reveals how concealment, the price of leadership, and the sapphire mystery hide Truth and pave the way.

Epiphany VI: The Crux

A Black man and a red-haired bride kissing face to face in wedding attire.

The crippled one in Acts is over forty — a detail that amazes. Human life forms in 39–40 weeks. How much longer, then, for divine life: forty years, and more, before the newborn, crippled from birth, walks — and leaps as a gazelle, taking Peter’s hand.

Simon in the Prince’s Garden

Attending a little worship service yesterday at Bethany-Newton United Church in Surrey, I heard Luke’s rendition of John’s story—the one where Simon Peter casts his nets into the deep. Only this time, I heard it in a slower, more pondersome way. That word—pondersome—is rarely used today. But I’m using it on purpose. Because it isContinue reading “Simon in the Prince’s Garden”