Easter Season 2007 Cycle C

This Marvel is the Lord’s Doing!

Easter 3, April 22, 2007

Title: Do you love me?

Speaker: Linda

Music: Reed

Worship Leader: Kathy R.

Texts: Acts 9:1-6, Psalm 30, Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

Acts 9:1 Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 9:2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 9:3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 9:4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" 9:5 He asked, "Who are you, Lord?" The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 9:6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do."

Psalm 30:1 I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me. 30:2 O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me. 30:3 O LORD, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit. 30:4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his faithful ones, and give thanks to his holy name. 30:5 For his anger is but for a moment; his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning. 30:6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, "I shall never be moved." 30:7 By your favor, O LORD, you had established me as a strong mountain; you hid your face; I was dismayed. 30:8 To you, O LORD, I cried, and to the LORD I made supplication: 30:9 "What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the Pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness? 30:10 Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper!" 30:11 You have turned my mourning into dancing; you have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, 30:12 so that my soul may praise you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever.

Revelation 5:11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 5:12 singing with full voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!" 5:13 Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, "To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" 5:14 And the four living creatures said, "Amen!" And the elders fell down and worshiped.

John 21:1 After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 21:2 Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 21:3 Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 21:4 Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 21:5 Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." 21:6 He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 21:7 That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 21:8 But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off. 21:9 When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 21:10 Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." 21:11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 21:12 Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. 21:13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 21:14 This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. 21:15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love [agapas] me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love [philo] you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." 21:16 A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love [agapas] me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love [philo] you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." 21:17 He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love [phileis] me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love [phileis] me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love [philo] you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 21:18 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." 21:19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me."

Contemporary quote:

To give my life for Christ appears glorious. To pour myself out for others… to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom – I’ll do it. I’m ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory. We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1000 bill and laying it on the table – ‘Here’s my life, Lord, I’m giving it all.’ But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1000 bill for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to our neighbor’s troubles instead of saying, “Sorry, I don’t have the time.” Go to a community meeting. Give a cup of water to one of the residents in the nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.

-- Fred Craddock, pastor and theologian

Introduction:

This story from the Gospel of John is one of those texts that calls my name in the night over and over again….

There is so much about being human

wrapped up in these ancient words.

We tend to not do change easily….

When the tectonic plates of our lives shift

we scramble to get back to what is familiar;

to recreate structure, routine, habits…

Even after the celebration of Easter, which was wonderful,

it’s now time to start snipping off fading flowers,

tossing the bloomed-out pots,

get back to our more austere style of worship…

We’re in good company;

we’re doing just what Peter and Thomas and Nathaniel

and some of the other disciples did.

After the first excitement of the resurrection faded,

and Jesus, while alive again,

obviously wasn’t going to just pick up and start where he had left off

in the daily wanderings of the band of disciples.

So when several more days had passed without a sighting,

the disciples got a little restless.

Also, the political climate was still a bit hot around Jerusalem,

so part of the group headed back home, north to Galilee.

They hung around home for awhile,

but you know, things had changed.

Maybe they had changed.

So after another day of unexpected holiday, Peter says, “I’m going fishing.”

And the rest of them said, “Hey, we’re coming, too.”

Change, change back:

A friend, a family member, or a close coworker dies

and the world changes.

Or, as we’ve been bitterly aware of this week,

an alienated, angry young man

boils his future down to one convulsive throb of violence

that forever changes

the landscape for the people around him…

sending out a tsunami that washes away

the earthen dams of our sense of safety in the world…

Sometimes these life-altering events are huge in scope affecting many people, like the end of a war,

or when thousands are displaced by fighting or natural disaster,

or when apartheid as official policy died in South Africa.

But monumental or personal,

good event or horrific,

in all of these sudden dislocations,

time flows differently

and for a few hours or days or weeks

one is taken to new and unfamiliar terrain.

But after awhile, after the weeping diminishes,

or the political landscape changes,

the wreckage on the beach picked up or swept back out to sea,

after a while,

it is good to get back into the security and comfort of routine.

And then it’s especially good to have work to do,

good work that uses your body

and stretches and relaxes your muscles,

especially that overtaxed one between your ears…..

So,

the disciples went fishing.

Good work; hard work, familiar work.

And now for the third time since the resurrection

Jesus comes to them.

In the early morning grey after a hard night’s work

but no fish,

he shows up in the shadows on the shore and calls to them,

calls out some unsolicited advice:

“Cast your net to the right side of the boat and you will find some.”

When they do so and promptly catch a huge net full of fish,

John catches on who the figure in the gloom must be

and he says “It’s the Lord!”

Peter pulls on some clothes and with some of his old abandon,

jumps into the lake

while the rest of the group bring the boat in.

Seems to me that in this--as in so many other things—

Pete has that backwards…

Questions by charcoal fires:

And there, in the grey daybreak,

the text tells us very specifically that there on the beach

they saw a charcoal fire, with fish on it and bread.

The only other time in the Gospels where we hear about a charcoal fire is—where? Do any of you remember?

During Jesus’ trial in the courtyard of the High Priest, John 18:18 tells us that the slaves and the temple police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold.

Here is one of those little details of structure and form

that carry a significant bit of meaning;

if you miss it you miss part of John’s message.

Standing by that first charcoal fire, warming himself,

Peter is asked three questions.

Do you remember what they were? (You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you? You are not also one of his disciples, are you? Did I not see you in the garden with him? John 18:17, 25, 26)

And now here in the epilogue to the Gospel of John, Peter is again by a charcoal fire—and is again asked three questions. Let’s look closely at them.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “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.”

Last week I talked about some of the inherent difficulties in the translation of any text; here we run into another example. There is a significant deficit in all the English translations I checked; they obscure the very point around which this whole conversation pivots.

Greek has at least three words for love, each with a very clear aspect. English has only one. In Greek you can talk about romantic love without needing to use adjectives: eros (eros), or our English derivative, erotic love, has a very specifically defined meaning all wrapped up in that one small word where we need to use a handful of adjectives—physical love, sexual love, romantic love—to translate it adequately.

Another is filew (phileo), often translated familial love or more directly from the Greek form, filial love; the tender affection between family members. We are familiar with this in the city name Philadelphia. Founded by Quakers, it means “City of Filial Love.” Phileo can also mean having an affinity for; I could accurately say, “I have a phileo for dark chocolate, good tea, and contra dancing.”

And of course, there is the word that has become very significant in Christian theology: agape (agape) love, best illustrated as God’s love for humanity. The most careful definition I have found for agape love is: spontaneous self-giving love expressed freely without calculation of cost or gain to the giver or merit on the part of the receiver; the love of God for us as expressed in Christ. In simpler words, it is open-hearted, unconditional love; it isn’t affected by self-interest or whether or not it is even deserved by the object of the love.

So, with these definitions of love in mind,

let’s go back to the text

and the three questions that Jesus asks Peter

by this second charcoal fire.

Do you love me?

And these are the words that call to me year after year as I slowly grow in my commitment to Jesus the Christ…

“Do you love me?” Jesus asks. He is using the verb form of agape here; “Do you love me, Peter, with the unconditional self-giving of one who is beyond all calculation of personal gain or loss?”

But Peter doesn’t respond with the same currency: he uses phileo love in his reply, in effect saying, “Yes, Lord, you know that I have tender affection for you; I have an affinity for you.”

Jesus says, “Well then, Peter, feed my lambs.”

But then the same question comes again: “Simon, son of John, do you agape/love me?”

And Peter again uses a different currency. Jesus is trading in euros, Peter in pesos. “Yes, Lord; you know that I have tender affection for you.”

And the sequence continues as before: “Tend my sheep.”

Then the whole interchange begins again for the third time: but this time there is a significant shift. Jesus starts out with the same words but ends differently: “Simon, son of John, do you have tender affection for me?” He is making change for Peter in the same currency now; he picks up Peter’s word, phileo, filial love instead of agape love.

But Peter seems hurt by this repetition; he repeats firmly, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I have tender affection for you.”

And Jesus says, “Feed my sheep.”

Now what do you think is going on here? Is this word shift significant?

I think it is crucial.

Clearly, in John’s scheme of things,

Peter is being given a second chance.

Where he had earlier denied Jesus three times by a charcoal fire,

now he is given three opportunities

to restate and reaffirm his loyalties by a charcoal fire.

But does Pete get it? Does he come through this time? Well, not totally. Jesus seems to be fishing for something here; notice in the first question he adds “Do you love me more than these?” Jesus is asking Peter to make a ranking; what takes priority? Me, or these?

Peter evades this completely in his answer.

Some of you may have watched news clips

of Alberto Gonzales’ grilling in the Senate on Thursday.

I have to admit to feeling compassion for someone

who so conspicuously was unable or unwilling

to answer blunt direct questions

with equal candor and directness….

and pity was mirrored along with consternation

on the faces of many of the Republican senators as well.

Perhaps Peter, too,

felt out of his depth with Jesus’ questions….

Perhaps he, too, felt that he was walking a knife-edge

between charges of incompetence

and charges of guilty duplicity….

What a truly terrible place to be.

Or, perhaps he senses his own weakness.

Perhaps his hedging and weak response means simply

that he is not willing to put his foot in his mouth again

as he did in the High Priest’s courtyard

beside that other charcoal fire.

Perhaps his mediocre, hedging answers grow out of a brand-new humility.

Jesus changes currency:

So finally, Jesus settles for what Peter can offer: phileo-love.

And where does he direct it,

this tender affection that is all

that Peter can commit to giving his risen Lord??

In the Johannine books of the New Testament,

the Gospel of John and the three Epistles of John,

the answer to this question is always

“Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)

And so it is here: “Do you love me?

Then feed and tend my lambs and my sheep.”

Love of God in John is always also expressed to the community:

“Those who say ‘I love God’

and hate…their 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 4:20-21; pointed out by Mike Johnson, DOC pastor, in Midrash)

So Peter’s charge is to feed and tend Christ’s flock—

which, remember,

John says earlier in his gospel includes sheep from “other sheepfolds…”;

not merely the Jews,

not merely the folds we may be familiar with,

comfortable with. (John 10:16)

This is mundane, hard work,

little bits of everyday responsibility

in the daily chores of nurturing the human flock,

lambs and all.

Peter flunked out badly in his first quiz of three questions

with its large agenda;

here he is being given another try,

this time with scaled-down questions.

In fact, Jesus even changes the exam question for him,

only asking for what he truly can know,

truly can give.

It’s not enough in the end—

but it is enough with which to begin now.

And isn't this what is also most asked of us?

to be faithful in the mundane small things, the little chores

which make up so much of life?

As John makes clear in his writings,

we love God as we extend love to others;

the two loves are inseparable.

And as Jesus finally fished out of Peter,

if we love Jesus, even if all we can muster is “tender affection”,

we must focus that affection

on tending and feeding the human flock—

from any sheepfold,

every sheepfold.

In fact, we can push that out even further: remember that in the Revelation passage,

it is not merely the human flock that offers praise to Christ:

The writer says, I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, singing, "To the one seated on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!"

Two things stick out here: that every creature sings praise—

and Jesus Christ himself has taken on the label of the smallest of the flock…the Lamb.

“An old rabbi was once asked why so few people were finding God. He…replied that people are not willing to look that low.” --Harvey and Lois Seifert, Liberation of Life, quoted in A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and other Servants, p. 181

Conclusion:

We don’t have to have the best-ranked currency right now.

We don’t even need to get all the exam questions right the first try.

We need instead to spend the currency we do have—

serving in whatever ways we can,

answering the exam questions

with all the integrity and humility we can muster in this moment.

Jesus asks us, often, I think,

in the faces that come our way, Do you love me?

Some faces are appealing, attractive,

easy to respond to with affection and care.

Others are painfully difficult.

But the question remains the same: Do you love me?

And the answer continues to be through all the centuries,

Then feed and tend my lambs, my sheep.

I’ll close with a quote from Krista Tippett, the host of Speaking of Faith, the Public Radio program. In response to the tragedy in Virginia this week and her interview with Ingrid Mattson, first female president of the Islamic Society of North America, Krista said,

Goodness prevails in the world not in the absence of reasons to despair but in spite of them. People who bring light into the world wrench it out of darkness and contend openly with darkness all of their days…. People like Ingrid Mattson — and people who are going to do the slow, patient work of healing in Blacksburg, Virginia — don't let despair have the last word. Nor do they close their eyes to its pictures, or deny the enormity of its facts. They say "Yes, and…" And they get up the next day, and the day after that, and live accordingly.

(Ingrid Mattson first became a Muslim leader — the first woman vice president — of the Islamic Society of North America ten days before 9/11. This striking event went virtually unreported. And when she ascended to the presidency of that organization last fall, news of her election was obscured by headlines of European crises involving Islam, focused on controversies around women and Islamic dress. About Speaking of Faith: Hosted by Krista Tippett, the public radio program is heard weekly on radio stations around the country, bringing a wide range of intelligent religious ideas and voices into American life.