(Preached on Sunday, April 25, 2010)
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to his, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” - John 21:15
It’s the first Easter Sunday and the apostle John excitedly approaches the apostle Peter. He tells him he has good news and bad news. “Give me the good news first,” says Peter. “The good news is that Jesus has risen just as he promised,” says John. “That’s terrific,” Peter says. “But what’s the bad news?” “He’s still pretty steamed about last Friday,” John replies.
Such may have been Peter’s fear following the resurrection. Remember, it was Peter who had boldly proclaimed that “though all others may fall away, I shall never desert you,” only to turn around and three times deny Jesus when asked if he knew him. So it may have been with understandable apprehension that Peter sat there with Jesus following that breakfast on the beach. What would Jesus say? Would he tell Peter how disappointed he was in him, that he had expected better of Peter, the rock on which he had intended to build his church? Was it pink slip time?
But, instead of words of condemnation, Peter hears words which are forgiving and embracing. Instead of a harsh sentence, Peter is confronted with a question. It is question which on the surface seems so easy to answer, which appears to give Peter a second chance. “Simon, my good friend, my trusted companion, my right-hand man, do you love me?” “Oh yes I love you. I don’t even have to pause and think about it.” “Then, feed my lambs.” There he is, good old Jesus again, talking in that strange talk. What lambs? You don’t own any flocks, especially now, as a dead man. But, no matter, he has accepted me; I’ll worry about what it means later. But then, Jesus asks him again. So, Peter answers, again. Then, a third time he asks. Now Peter is hurt. Is Jesus playing games? Is he just teasing along until he is ready to drop the big one?
Three times Jesus asks Peter about the depth of his devotion to Jesus, just as Peter denied Jesus three times. Here was Peter about to return to his old way of life, back on the sea, back in the boat, fishing. So, here is Jesus again, coming to Peter, testing his commitment level this time, then reissuing his call. It is not quite as simple, though, as just being asked three times to make up for his three denials. There is something specific going on with the questions, which the Greek text makes clear. In Greek there are three words for love and the text here uses two of them: agape or self-giving love and phileo or brotherly love. Twice Jesus asks Peter, is your love for me as deep as God’s love for you, for the world? Is your love for me agape love: total, self-giving love? Is your love so deep it is willing to sacrifice all for me? Twice Peter responds with honesty, no, my love is not that deep, but it is as deep as that between two brothers, two dear friends, phileo. Finally Jesus asks, just to be sure, is your love really that deep, phileo, as between two brothers? And even though it hurts, that Jesus seems to question his loyalty, Peter must surely have understood that after Good Friday, after all of Peter’s boasting before, Jesus had to be sure. Yes, Lord, I may have spoken rashly before, but I know that my love is that deep, that strong and firm. I may not be able to go as deep as you in my capacity to love, but I do love you totally with the capacity I do have.
That is what it is all about. Jesus is getting down to brass tacks with Peter. That’s what God is all about: Love. Love is the question. God so loved the world. And God wants to know how we respond to that love. Jesus doesn’t come up to Peter and say: “Peter, why did you screw up? Are you going to try harder next time? Are you going to do better?” No, Jesus didn’t ask Peter about the past at all. He just asked Peter, where is your heart right now? How deep is your love for me? And the grace is, Jesus didn’t say, “That’s not deep enough.” Jesus did say, “Are you sure of the commitment level, where you feel it is? If you are sure, then I’ll take you at that level, and work with you there.”
That is what the whole gospel is all about. That is the missionary activity about which we spoke last week. When Jesus says to Peter, and us, “Follow me” he is calling us to share the love which we have received from God through Jesus, the love which accepts us where we are, as we are, with no preconditions or expectations, with all the people in our lives. What God through Jesus asks of us is that simple, and that difficult. Jesus doesn’t ask Peter to believe anything, to wrap his mind around any complicated doctrine or philosophy. No, all he asks of Peter is: Do you love me? What is the level of your love? And then he commands him to “Feed his sheep.” That is, to share that love with all the other people Peter will come in contact with who need to know that they, too, are loved and accepted by God.
To love and accept people is so simple, and yet so difficult. It is like being asked to kiss a frog. In fact, one Anglican cleric, when asked to state the purpose of the church, replied: “It is the business of the church to kiss frogs.” You know that story of the princess meeting a frog, with its plaintive tale that he is really a prince in a frog’s body. [Disney recently released an updated version of the story in an animated film set in New Orleans!] The authoritative version has a happy ending. When the princess, overcoming her initial repulsion, kisses the frog, he turns into a handsome prince and the two get married and live happily ever after.
But there are other versions of the tale. In some the frog remains a frog despite the kiss; or the princess is too repulsed to kiss a slimy amphibian; or even a version where the frog turns into a prince, but in the process the princess is turned into a frog! All of these “unauthorized versions” hint at the risk involved. Here is an action which can lead to a transformation – or be a failure. There is a risk for the one who undertakes the act of transformation and a risk for the one who undergoes the prospect of change. The princess would appear to take the greater risk, especially since the frog seems to have nothing to lose and everything to gain. And yet, if the transformation works, the frog is taking a risk to enter a new reality, a new life, different from the secure life of his lily pad and pond.
It is always very risky to be this open and loving. The risk is always great that someone will take advantage of your kindness. Our society has grown increasingly fragmented, primarily due to our fear of that risk. Fear and prejudice and hatred have been growing, fostered by politicians and religious fanatics and television personalities and talk-radio zealots. Increasingly we are retreating into our clans and cliques, pointing fingers at others as being the problem, and looking for scapegoats to hate and blame instead of finding our common humanity and working together for common solutions.
Such a world clearly needs people who are striving to follow Jesus by feeding Jesus’ sheep and tending his lambs. The world clearly needs people willing to welcome people into a community as they are, not just if they become like us. The world clearly needs people willing to reach out to all sorts of people, especially the people who are totally unlike us, with love and compassion and a willingness to see things from their point of view. The world clearly needs people willing to risk all and kiss a few frogs.
That is our calling. In the words of Henri Nouwen: “If you dare to believe that you are beloved before you are born, you may suddenly realize that your life is very, very special. You become conscious that you were sent here just for a short time, for twenty, forty, or eighty years, to discover and believe that you are a beloved child of God. The length of time doesn’t matter. You are sent into this world to believe in yourself as God’s chosen one and then to help your brothers and sisters know that they are also beloved sons and daughters of God who belong together. You’re sent into this world to be a people of reconciliation. You are sent to heal, to break down the walls between you and your neighbors, locally, nationally, and globally. Before all the distinctions, the separations, and the walls built on foundations of fear, there was unity in the mind and heart of God. Out of that unity, you are sent into this world for a little while to claim that you and every other human being belongs to that same God of Love who lives from eternity to eternity.”
I believe that is the missionary opportunity before us in this day and this place. The call from Jesus is to do all we can to share that message of love with each and every person we come in contact with every day: some through words and some through our actions and attitudes of acceptance, understanding, patience, peace and kindness. I believe we need to find ways to spread our message of God’s love far and wide and the internet is one powerful tool we need to use more to do that. We are moving clearly and diligently to improve our website and an important part of that needs to be content on that site that spreads that message, in a variety of ways to help people hear and receive it. Toward that end I began this week an eDevotion which I hope to publish weekly. This is my attempt to feed Jesus’ sheep. You are encouraged as any particular devotion touches you to forward it to whomever on your email lists might also benefit from it. Together we can work, through both our actions and our words to nurture faith in people. This is what it means to love Jesus.
There is a poem, Abou Ben Adhem, by Leigh Hunt, which tells of a man awakening and seeing an angel writing in a golden book. He asks what is being written and is told, “The names of those who love the Lord.” The poem continues:
“And is mine one?” said Abou, “Nay, not so,” replied the angel.
– Abou spoke more low, but cheerily still; and said, “I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loved his fellow men.”
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night,
It came again, with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed:
And, Lo! Ben Adem’s name led all the rest.
Jesus says to us: “Do you love me?” If so, then love those whom I love: all the people of the world. Show your love for me by showing my love to them.