Peter, Community, Forgiveness and Mission

This is an older sermon of mine that focuses primarily in John 21, though it does have a brief reference to Acts 9 and its story of Saul’s conversion.

Both of today’s readings mention one of the apostles by name.
Acts focuses primarily upon Paul and the powerful story of his conversion,
which readily illustrates the power of God to change peoples’ lives,
to turn people around and give them a new sense of being.
And in a way, the passage from John does the same thing,
albeit in a quieter and more reflective manner.
John focuses primarily upon Peter,
especially Peter’s conversation with the resurrected Jesus.

Perhaps some background is needed to understand the significance of this brief conversation.
You remember that Jesus told his disciples on the night he was betrayed that he would be raised from death,
and that he would go before them to Galilee.
Now at the time the disciples were in no way ready to comprehend what Jesus was saying to them.
They were, you might say, in a complete state of denial.
not able to face the fact that their friend, companion and teacher would within hours be dead and buried.
And as if this were not enough to deal with,
Jesus went on to say that all of them would desert him before the night was over.
Well this was too much for the disciples,
and as for Peter,
he boldly told Jesus that he would follow him anywhere,
and that even death would not stand in his way.

Now of course, we know what happened over the next two days.
Jesus was right.
All of the disciples did desert him,
and Peter did not live up to his brash and bold words.
And I can just imagine how Peter must have felt.
The burden of guilt must have weighed so heavily that it threatened to crush him.
All had deserted, yes,
but Peter had gone even further.
Peter had denied even knowing Jesus,
and in a sense, Peter was right.
He really didn’t know Jesus at all.
But then again, who among us really knows Jesus,
and who among us can point the accusing finger at Peter.

The other disciples couldn’t, that’s for sure,
and perhaps they tried to reassure Peter, to comfort him.
No doubt they reminded him of their desertions.
Maybe they tried the patented “we’re all in this together” routine.
We all failed, Peter.
You’re no different from us.

And in the end maybe that is what kept Peter alive.
Peter stayed within the fellowship,
whereas Judas had separated himself,
denied himself the company of his friends,
and in so doing he had allowed his shame and grief to overcome him and he took his own life.
Peter might have done the same,
were it not for the support of the others.

And there is a word here for us today.
It is within the fellowship of other believers that we can find comfort and support.
In times of sorrow and grief,
at those times when we have failed,
even, or especially, when we have reached the end of our ropes.
It is to the community of faith,
it is to the church and fellow Christians that we turn to for help.
None of us can make it alone in this world.
There has never been an “independent” or solitary Christian.
We need each other,
and we need to be able to look to each other for help.

This means two things.
First, we must make the effort to be a part of the community.
We must reach out and ask for help when it is necessary.
Christians, though they be close to God, are not mind readers.
They need to know where the needs are before they can meet them,
and so it is the individual’s responsibility to seek, to knock, or to ask.
If the knock never comes,
no one is going to open the door.

Second, the church must be the kind of community where people feel they can ask for help.
The church must be supportive and accepting.
It must be tolerant and non-judgmental.
It must be the kind of place where people feel they can share their sorrows and griefs, their wrongdoing and pain,
without expecting that what they share will become the latest gossip among fellow believers.

The church, if it is to be the church,
must open it’s arms of fellowship to all who would enter it’s doors.
It must be safe haven,
a place of trust and open communication,
and it cannot allow its ministry of reconciliation and peace to fall victim to a few people more interested in their own agendas and their own thrills than they are in being authentic disciples of Jesus Christ.

And if it sounds as though I am being harsh,
please rest assured that I intend to be.

If our church cannot be the kind of place where people seeking God feel loved and accepted,
no matter who they are,
no matter what they have done,
regardless of their age, their social status,
or their beauty in the eyes of the world.
If our church cannot be the kind of place where people feel that they are children of God,
and that Jesus Christ himself is present,
welcoming them and bidding them to join the fellowship.
If our church does not have a climate of trust,
where people feel they can share with one another their concerns as well as their joys,
then we had better make the changes necessary for us to be more like Christ and less like the world,
and if that is too much to ask,
then it would be better for us to close and lock these doors than to be the kind of church that is more a blot upon Jesus and his name than it is a light set upon a hill.

I do not want to pastor a church that cannot be the church,
the body of Christ for the world, for this community,
or for those of us gathered here.
And neither should you want to be a member of an institution if it does not exhibit the love and forgiveness of God in Christ.

And that brings me back to the gospel and to Peter.
You see, I have no doubt, that though the other disciples might have tried to console him,
Peter was pretty much inconsolable.
His guilt ate at him like a cancer, and by Easter morning,
he had reached the height, or the depth, of his depression.
And it was then,
when Peter, and the other disciples, had reached the bottom,
that the women came running back from the tomb with the news and the message.

The news, of course, that Jesus was no longer dead,
that he was risen and alive.
The message that Jesus would meet them all again in Galilee.
The message that called Peter by name,
that made a special point of mentioning this denying disciple.
“Go tell the disciples and Peter,”
was how the angel had phrased it,
and perhaps we can just begin to imagine how Peter must have felt when he heard his own named spoken.

The risen Lord sent a message to Peter,
to the one who had boasted “I am ready to die with you,”
and then had denied Jesus three times.
Jesus is risen even for Peter.

The one who talked about forgiving seven times seventy,
meant what he said,
and he forgives . . . Peter.
This is not some general “you are forgiven.”
This is specific. This is personal.
Peter had heard that God forgives everybody,
but this was his failure, this was his shame, his despair.
And still the word of forgiveness came to him,
and it came to him by name, “Go tell Peter.”

There is a word for us here as well.
God in Christ calls us all by our own names,
and he does so to let us know that the very worst in us is forgiven.
He speaks my name, and he speaks your name as well.
Will, come on home, all is forgiven.
And if you listen, you will hear your own name spoken.
Can’t you hear it.
Come home, all is forgiven.
I am alive and I am with you wherever you go,
and nothing that has or will ever happen to you,
nothing that you have done,
and nothing that you could ever do,
will keep my love and my forgiveness from you,
if only you will hear my voice, answer my call, and come to me.

And this brings me to say that forgiveness,
if it is for any of us, must be for all of us.
The fact is simply this:
All of us are sinners,
and all of us have been forgiven,
and forgiven time and again.
Since this is an indisputable fact,
can we presume to keep God’s forgiveness and love from anyone else?
We dare not try to play God.
This is not part of the Church’s job description.
It is the Church’s task to offer God’s love and forgiveness to all takers for as long as is humanly,
or should I say divinely, possible.

And so you see, I hope, how this fits in with my first point concerning the nature and mission of the Church.
As Christ’s body on earth, and specifically here in Pottstown,
we are to be God’s own agents of reconciliation,
of forgiveness and of peace.
If we do anything less then this,
then we have failed in our essential task,
and we have disgraced the very name of the one we claim to follow.

And this, my friends, brings me to my final point.
Peter and the other disciples return to Galilee as they had been instructed.
They went back to their old homeplace.
Back to the place where they first met Jesus -
to the old familiar places where Jesus had talked to them about God,
and God’s desires for the world.
Back to the place where Jesus had first nurtured them,
told them parables about God’s kingdom,
and first spoke about the cross.

The disciples had not wanted to hear about the cross back then.
They wanted glory - Jesus spoke of service.
They wanted power - Jesus spoke of humility.
They loved the crowds and the attention - Jesus loved the people.
They hadn’t understood a word back then,
but now it was all becoming a just a little bit clearer.

And it might not be too far off the mark to imagine the disciples went fishing one night hoping that the night air,
the breeze over the lake,
and the physical labor itself
might help them sort things out even more.

But the night proved to be frustrating.
They didn’t caught a fish, not even a minnow.
And as dawn broke in the east,
I am sure that the last thing the fishermen wanted was advice from someone standing on the shore.
But a man did speak.
He told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat.
They were a good distance from the shore,
but they might have realized right then who it was that was speaking,
but they didn’t.

Instead they threw out their nets,
probably just to show the guy he didn’t know what he was talking about.
But of course, he did,
and what a catch it was - over 150 fish.
It was then that John knew who it was standing on the shore.
And it was then that Peter, good old brash Peter,
jumped out of the boat and ran to greet his friend and savior.

Jesus had a fire burning,
and so they cooked some of the fish,
and then Jesus served them.
No doubt reminding them again of the night he was with them before his arrest,
when he had taken bread and wine in his hands.

After breakfast Jesus took Peter aside.
I can imagine him looking at Peter and saying,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
And I can just imagine Peter’s response.
I am sure the question bothered him a great deal.
For one thing the name Jesus had given him was Peter.
You remember the time.
It was when Jesus had asked them who people said he was,
and then, true to form once again,
Peter had spoken out and said,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
And Jesus had said, “From now on you will be called Peter.”
A name which means “the rock.”

And now here is Jesus saying in effect,
“Simon, son of John,
you who have proved not to be a rock,
but a handful of sand,
do you love me?”

It must have been tough for Peter to take.
And he asked it not once or twice but three times.
Three times he asked it,
and then, no doubt, Peter finally began to understand that three denials need three questions and three answers.
Yes, Jesus has forgiven him,
but now he wants to know what Peter is going to do about it.
And so three times Peter gave Jesus the only answer his heart could ever give,
“Yes, Lord, You know that I love you.”

And three time Jesus told Peter what he wanted him to do about God’s infinitely forgiving love for the world.
“Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.”
And do you know what?
That is exactly what Peter did for the rest of his days.

My final point brings us back again to our mission as a church and as disciples of Christ.
We have been forgiven, there is no doubt about this.
The question is: “Now what are we going to do about it?”
What will our response to God’s love and forgiveness be?

You are here, at least in part, because God has called you here.
God has spoken your name,
and to one degree or another you have answered the call.
You know that forgiveness and healing and mercy and love can be found here in this place,
and many of you have no doubt experienced these things time and again.

Today, Jesus looks at each of us,
and he asks of us the same question he asked Peter.

Do you love me?
Do you really love me?

If you do, then hear Jesus reply for your life:
Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.

In other words,
get busy doing the ministry of the church.
Get busy being my body to this world.
Make your eyes my eyes.
your ears my ears,
your hands my hands,
your feet my feet,
your mouth my mouth.
If you love me,
then follow my example of loving and humble service.
For God’s sake, for my sake,
please be the church you can and should and must be.

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