Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Risen Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen
“I am going
fishing.”
Faced with
uncertainty, we revert to the most familiar.
That’s our tendency, isn’t it?
For the
disciples, that meant fishing.
For three years
they had followed Jesus, witnessed his miracles, heard his teaching, enjoyed
his friendship, and were touched by his love.
But then the
tragedy of the Cross. They watched him
die.
For the
disciples, the events that unfolded after that seemed to raise more questions
than answers.
First the report
from Mary, the tomb was empty.
Then, she saw
Jesus in the Garden.
That night, Jesus
appeared to the disciples as they gathered behind locked doors in fear.
The next week
also, he appeared again.
“Now what?”
That was the
question the disciples were asking themselves, and the answer was to return to
the familiar.
Back to Galilee.
Back to their
boats.
Back to the life
of fishermen.
There must have
been some great comfort in that. It
likely felt like going home. Returning
to that ‘safe place’.
Their world had
been turned upside down, and now all they wanted was some normalcy. Having faced the dizzying unfolding of events
in Jerusalem, Jesus death, his resurrection, and not knowing what that meant—they
cast their nets, doing the one thing they truly knew how to do, and what to
expect.
Faced with the turmoil
of life, many of us would also like to go home, to return to the familiar.
President Trump’s
campaign slogan has been “Make America Great Again”.
The reason that resonates
with so many people is because of this ‘homing instinct’ that we have.
We’d like to
return to an earlier time, a time when we felt safe, and a time that we’ve now
idealized in our minds, that brief but shining moment in our memory.
For Americans, we
remember the golden years of our history, and usually that means the nation of
our youth.
We idealize the
post war period of the fifties and sixties, when America emerged on the world
scene as a superpower, when economic prosperity was transforming our country,
when people were in church, and our homes were filled with children. Jobs were abundant.
At that time we
could send men to the moon and seemingly accomplish anything we set our minds
to.
We turned on the
TV and saw depictions of the American way of life like “Father Knows Best”, and
“Mayberry, RFD”, and “Leave it to Beaver”.
On Sundays we watched “Bonanza” and “Disney”.
Make America
Great Again.
Implicit in that
sentiment is an idealized understanding of a time gone by that was indeed
great. And we want to return home to
that time.
What we tend to
forget, however, is the reality of what it was truly like.
Life was not all “Ward
and June Cleaver”.
There was a dark
side to the post war years of that “golden age” of the American experience.
McCarthyism and
the Cold War. Fear of communism led to
the attempt to purge America of its scourge, and that resulted in the wrongful
accusations against many innocent Americans.
There was the
racial strife that precipitated the Civil Rights Movement.
And of course,
Vietnam.
And while we
watched “Father Knows Best” a revolution was taking place.
From Haight Ashbury
in the West, to Woodstock in the East, the times they were a changing.
The point being,
that while we often remember the fifties and sixties as the Golden Age of the
American experience, it was actually a time of transformation and cultural
revolution.
Not only that,
but we cannot go back.
You cannot return
to your childhood.
As much as we’d
like to return to the familiar, we can’t.
“I am going
fishing.”
But they didn’t
catch any fish. Returning to the shore
after that long night of fishing, they see Jesus, and hear him calling out to
them.
“Children, you have no fish, have you?”
“Children.”
Being called a
child, likely was not a compliment. I
find it a bit humorous.
What followed was
another encounter with the Risen Christ.
And Jesus made clear, the times were a changing. There was no going back.
“Simon son of John, do you love me more than
these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to
him, “Feed my lambs.” 16A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do
you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said
to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John,
do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you
love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love
you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
Three times,
Simon had denied knowing Jesus.
Now three times,
Jesus asks him if he loves him.
And how is he to
show his love for Jesus?
Not by going back
to a life of fishing. There is no going
back.
Very truly, I tell you, when you were
younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But
when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will
fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.”
“Follow me.”
I wonder if
today, Jesus is asking us that same question.
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
Do you love me?
And if so, how
does that change things?
In John’s first
letter he writes:
We love because he first loved us. Those who say, "I love God," and
hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother
or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The
commandment we have from him is this: those
who love God must love their brothers and sisters also. (1 John 19-21)
We live at a time
when our ability to love one another is being challenged each and every day.
Polarization,
discord, and a battle for the soul of the nation seem to be much more the
status quo.
We cannot say “We
love God” and hate our brothers and sisters.
Actually, we can
SAY that, we do all the time.
What Jesus is
saying is that if we love God, we will care for his flock.
If we would love
Jesus, we must love one another, and if we don’t love one another, we cannot
love God.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, because
love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever
does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God's love was revealed among
us in this way:God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live
through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God
loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. (1 John 4:7-11)
Do you love me,
Simon?
Jesus doesn’t just
ask that question of Simon Peter, he asks it of each and every one of us.
And when he does,
we have a choice. To follow him into a
new way of relating to the world.
Or to revert to
our old ways.
And the hardest
thing of all, as a human being, is to avoid reverting to our old ways of
judging and condemning one another.
I am a pastor,
called to be a shepherd of the Flock.
And you know
what?
It’d be easier to
love all y’all if you’d just be more lovable.
If all y’all would repent, it’d be easier.
“But God proves his love for us in that
while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”
“Do you love me?” Jesus asks.
“Yes, Lord, you
know I love you.”
“Then love these
brothers and sisters of mine, even though they are still sinners, love them
anyway.”
“God’s purpose
for our congregation is to welcome, love and serve all in our local and global
community.”
We continue to
remind each other of this.
I think if I
could change it in any way it would be to add the word “sinners” to it.
“God’s purpose
for our congregation is to welcome, love and serve all sinners in our local and
global community.”
The reason for
that is that too often we are tempted to add a condition to that love, namely,
that people repent of their sins.
Well, repentance
has its place, but we are still called to love every one. Nowhere in all of scripture does it say that
if someone has not fully repented of all their sins, we don’t have to love
them.
Jesus loves us, “while
we were yet sinners.”
And because he
first loved us, we are to love one another, ‘while we were yet sinners’.
Do you love me,
Simon?
Feed my
lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.
And these sheep
of Jesus are all sinners.
Once we realize
that, there is no going back. We cannot
return to a time before the cross, before the resurrection, and before the
saving grace of Jesus Christ was made known.
We can only
follow him, loving as he loved. Amen
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