Sermon Third Sunday After Easter
Sermon:
Text:
Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ who loves us and promises us rest.
A friend of
mine on Facebook posted a quote by one of her confirmands putting the 3rd
commandment, Remember the Sabbath Day, into her own words, “Don’t be hurrying
all the time. Take some time to relax once in awhile.” It’s rather good advice
I think, we spend a lot of time just running around, not recharging as we
should. In our work lives we become workaholics always thinking we need to do
that little more to be important and to be noticed. And in our spiritual lives
we go around scared that we aren’t doing the right things. So, we become
spiritual workaholics thinking that if we don’t do this and that somehow
Easter’s resurrection promise isn’t for us.
Peter, especially in John’s gospel,
fits those criteria. Peter is that kind of person who never seems to be able to
entirely figure out what is going on. He seems to be always jumping all over
the place, never settling down at all, or just being content with what is.
During the time
we have spent with him in the Gospels after leaving his fishing to travel with
Jesus he seems to always be in a frantic state of mind, in his own misguided way
attempting to do the right thing. And the whole time, Jesus seems to be working
to get him to slow down a bit, and Peter just can’t do that.
In the upper
room Jesus moves to wash the disciples feet and it’s Peter who declares Never!
And Jesus tells him to sit down, and let me wash your feet. Jesus tells them
that where he is going they cannot go, and it’s Peter who responds, I’d follow
you wherever you go! I’d die for you! And Jesus tells him no, you can’t. In the
Garden, Peter follows his instinct on what to do. When soldiers come up, he
takes his sword and attacks, slicing off the right ear of one man. And Jesus
tells him to put his sword back in his sheath. When Mary Magdalene comes
running into that same upper room after Jesus’ resurrection telling the
disciples the grand news, Peter gets up and runs off. But, the other disciple
beats him there.
It’s as if
Peter has worn himself out, he is tired.
So, today’s
reading is a refreshing change of pace for Peter. The disciples have returned
to their home area, the Sea of Tiberius, another name for the Sea of Galilee,
and they decide to spend some time fishing. Some people wonder if this return
to fishing is a sign that they have given up, but I wonder if what Jesus said
to Peter has finally started to stick. They have, I’m sure, been on a whirlwind
in the last few weeks. It’s still only a few weeks after the resurrection, and
I’m sure they are all tired. And finally getting home, Peter takes a little bit
of responsibility and says, You know what, I’m going to go fishing. I’m going
to take some time, and just be. I’m going to spend it in a place that feels
more like home than any other place I’ve ever been, in a boat on the sea. And
the other disciples decide that sounds like a perfect plan. “We’ll join you.”
They head out,
and they don’t catch anything. I’m not sure they really care about that though.
Maybe they didn’t try all that hard to catch anything, they may have just been
talking and spending time with each other. Trying to further decipher what has
happened. So the night goes by with no fish.
Morning comes
and Jesus appears on the beach. “Children, you have no fish, have you?”
Children, a term of comfort and ease, not reprimanding them for not having
fish, but just inquiring. “Put out your nets on the other side.” Maybe, you
didn’t actually want to catch fish, but here you go anyways. They put the nets
down, and suddenly fish. So many that they can’t pull the nets into the boat.
The disciple that
Jesus loves declares, “It’s the Lord!” and with those words Peter reverts back
to his old self. He needs to do something. Something huge, grand, he can’t just
relax on a boat, he needs to do the right thing for Jesus! Peter throws his
cloths back on and dives into the water and swims in, the others bring the boat
in. Once on shore, Jesus asks for some fish, so Peter drags the whole net in.
Jesus wants some fish, Peter brings 153. All the disciples couldn’t haul the
fish in, and suddenly Peter can on his own.
Jesus shows up
and Peter is back to his frantic, misguided self again.
We come to
church and we start to think, oh, I haven’t acted like I should, I haven’t done
that like I should have, I really should do that instead of this. We build up
this false idea that we are worthless.
Jesus sees this
in us and in Peter and addresses it. Three times Jesus asks him. Simon, son of
John, do you love me? Three times Peter answers, Yes, Lord, you know that I
love you. Three times Jesus tells him what to do. Feed my lambs, Tend my Sheep,
Feed my Sheep.
Follow me.
Peter still is
frantic, all over the place. And Jesus addresses it directly. He sits him down
and forgives him. Three times to make up for the three denials. Tells him the how
simple it is, feed, tend, follow.
We are frantic.
We spend our time trying to figure out we need to do. So we throw ourselves at
this and that, we keep working thinking that we need to match up to what Jesus
does. We keep thinking that we need to do something to show Jesus that we love
him.
Jesus asks
Peter in that frantic moment,
Do you love me? “You know that I love
you.”
Jesus knows
that we love him. We don’t need to prove that.
And we need to know that Jesus loves
us.
Peter is
frantic because he thinks he needs to do it all. He needs to show his love, and
earn Christ’s love. We are the same.
The early church
referred to itself as the Way or Followers of the Way. The way is the way of
love. Not the way to find love, but the way of love.
We walk this
way knowing that we are loved, and knowing that Christ knows our love.
Basking in the
resurrection promise we can relax, we can sit still, breathe, and know that we
are loved.
That is the
way, when life makes us frantic, not knowing what to do like Peter, Jesus sits
us down and shows us peace and tells us how simple it is. Feed, Tend, Follow.
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