Category: Preaching Notes
You want me to do what?
A sermon exploring John 21:1-19
We come to worship seeking to hear and experience the good news:
that the Lord’s mercies never cease;
that the Lord’s mercies are new every morning;
and the Lord’s faithfulness extends beyond our ability to see in a mirror dimly, or recognize the image of God in others as well as in our own face.
As you are willing and able, please join me in prayer:
Open our ears and our hearts, O God, that our meditations, words, and living are a reflection of our faith in You, who creates, who redeems, and who sustains creation and our lives. Amen.
Buckle up church, here we go.
Today, the Gospel of John asks, “do you love Jesus.”
John’s gospel is not for the newly initiated believer or novice follower of Jesus. It is more like a theological reader for experienced followers of the way rather than another story about the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth. The language invites theological conversation that requires you to have spent some time personally wrestling with God, or intimately struggling with Jesus in relationship with others; and risk.
Risk disagreeing with someone you’ve known your whole life. That someone may be, a family member, co-worker, neighbor, or the face you see everyday in the mirror. Risk disagreeing with Christian tradition’s presentation of Jesus or its presentation of God.
So, there are times in John’s gospel when it sounds like Jesus responds to our questions, even rhetorical questions with, “I set for you an example. The rest you are going to have to figure that out for yourself.”
Oh, and one more thing. That phrase, “and one more thing,” is missing in the greek text, but it seems to fit story today. The Gospel According to John has this in common with the Gospel According to Mark. They both have an ending. Then a longer ending, an epilogue, a PS, and “and one more thing.”
Like last week with Thomas, this story about Simon Peter returns during Eastertide as the disciples then, and now, wrestle with grief and the mystery of what “resurrection” means. Is it bodily, spiritual, or something else? Is is metaphorical? And, just like Indiana Jones in his last crusade, at some point in life we all look across a chasm that takes a leap of faith.
The Christ you meet this Easter season has entrusted Jesus’ story and Jesus’ way with you, just like Mary Magdalene was entrusted with it, and the disciples that followed, and Simon Peter. We tell the story’s lessons and wisdom through our living. That helps shape our “identity.” I think this is what today’s fish story is all about.
Long before James Fowler developed his Stages of Faith, John’s gospel shows us different journey’s in faith. Particularly, in Jesus’ last week and in his resurrection appearances we get a glimpse of four journeys.
Mary Magdalene did the things that needed to be done behind the scenes or in public for all to see. That is what women named and unnamed do in the biblical text and throughout all history. Some stories, Nations, religions or movements wouldn’t exist today without women like Mary Magdalene who was the first to proclaim that she had seen her risen Lord.
Thomas is a believer, but also a precocious skeptic. He is willing to ask questions no one else is asking and consider possibilities no one is considering. He’s the kid who asks during pastor’s class, “What was the first thing Jesus said when he came out of the tomb?” As the minister talks about tradition and history they get to the words, “we don’t really know.” That same kid says, “I know what he said, ‘Tada!’”
The disciple whom Jesus loved. That person is not named, but is a constant, consistent presence. A person who listens more than they speak. Maybe they are ascetic or contemplative. It’s that person in today’s story that recognizes Jesus and says to Simon Peter, “It is the Lord.” We presume they must have told everyone else the same thing after Simon jumps into the sea and they stay with the disciples to finish pulling in the overloaded nets.
Simon Peter is quick to act on new information or insight. Sometimes he acts before he thinks. He’s what companies call “an early adopter.” When new gadgets or apps hit the market, even unproven ones, there is a group that grabs them up. They are the public beta testers, who help companies and communities shake the bugs out of a something when it first comes out. It applies to all kinds of products and politics, theories and theologies, ideas and religion. It’s on “this rock” Jesus will build a church?
Even though Jesus has appeared to the disciples at least two time since his crucifixion, Simon, son of John, returns to the life he knew before meeting Jesus of Nazareth. It’s what you do in grief, at least what some of us do, try to find something that feels normal, routine, or busy. It might keep one or help one from fixating on feelings or allowing our feelings to control us or our actions. And, maybe in the busy, routine, or normal one eventually makes peace, finds peace, or manages to not be controlled by strong emotion any longer.
I don’t know which it is for Simon, son of John, but fishing sounds like the right thing to do and a few of the disciples go along. I’ve always wondered where the boat came from. Did they rent the boat, steal it, find it abandoned? Did they lease their boat to someone and reclaim it? And what about the nets? Maybe they borrowed a boat and nets from someone who had finished up early promising some of their catch as collateral. We don’t know.
But they are out there, a hundred yards or so, in the darkness and it’s bad fishing. You can imagine the conversation is laced with tones of anger “what’s next?” or depression, “what’s next?” A stranger, a neighbor, comes walking along the shore and suggests a different fishing spot. From one side of the boat to the other. From bad to overflowing. I know this fish story. And now, this third time Simon Peter, “the rock” needs someone else to recognize Jesus for him.
With little thought of the others in the boat, Simon belly flops into the sea and swims to shore. He’s got to have answers for his dark night of the soul experience and this neighbor, that the disciple whom Jesus loved recognized as “the Lord,” might have them. The rest of the disciples do the hard work of pulling up the overflowing nets and rowing the boat ashore. When we get ashore there is something familiar about this fireside breakfast on the beach. We wonder, “who is this?” Is this Jesus? The disciple whom Jesus loved has gone silent and so has Simon Peter. There is bread broken, fish, and enough to share.
Does this seem familiar?
Three times this neighbor, who we all think is Jesus, asks Simon Peter,
“do you love me.”
Three times Simon answers, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.”
Traditional interpretation suggests that this is Jesus’ way of forgiving, reconciling, or restoring Simon, son of John, in the eyes of the disciples and in Simon’s own understanding of himself. But, the text doesn’t mention forgiveness. Simon doesn’t ask for it. Jesus never offers it.
In John’s gospel, when Jesus is arrested Simon Peter does’t deny knowing Jesus, he denies being a disciple of Jesus. “You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?” “I am not.” (John 18:17)
Have you ever had one of those moments when words are exiting your mouth that you wish you could grab out of the air, shove them back in so they couldn’t be heard, and you could choose different words? Do you suppose Simon Peter, the rock, wished he could take his denial back?
If Jesus isn’t forgiving Simon, then what is he doing?
Rev. Dr. Karoline Lewis, a professor and chair of Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary writes:
Jesus does not blame or shame Peter. Jesus does not ask for Peter’s repentance. Jesus does not ask three times, “Peter, do you love me?” to remind Peter of his three-fold denial, to test him or to trip him. If any of that is true, that’s not the Jesus I know, I love, or in whom I believe. Instead, Jesus reaffirms who Peter needs to be; the disciple Jesus needs him to be. And the disciple Jesus needs Peter to be is the shepherd now. No wonder Peter responded with, “I am not.”
Rev. Dr. Karoline Lewis, “Do You Love Me?” April 28, 2019.
https://www.workingpreacher.org/dear-working-preacher/do-you-love-m
In the musical and movie, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” Mary Magdalene and Simon Peter sing a duet after Jesus is arrested and Peter has denied knowing Jesus. They sing, “Could We Start Again Please?” Simon Peter’s part is:
I think you’ve made your point now
You’ve even gone a bit too far to get the message home
Before it gets to frightening
We ought to call a halt
So, could we start again, please?
Tim Rice, Andrew Loyd Webber, Jesus Christ Superstar, “Could We Start Again Please?” 1971. Click here to watch the duet.
Do you love me?
“Yes, Lord. You know I do.”
Jesus responds: Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Follow me.
In this part of the Johns gospel it is not believe me or believe in me. Follow me.
We don’t hear from Simon Peter again until you begin reading Acts, but if it were me, had I been there with the disciples I would have said to Jesus, “You want me to do what?” I wish that was in the text so I could feel better about the times I’ve denied being a follower of Jesus with my actions or with my words.
Sell all you have and give it to the poor.
You want me to do what?
Forgive seventy times seven.
You want me to do what?
Take up your cross and follow me.
You want me to do what?
Love my neighbor as myself.
You want me to do what?
Could we start again, please?
We are a culture awash in identities. They are personal and they are corporate.
Some help. Some hurt. Some harm.
Some divide and conquer.
Some identities are ideals: “Out of Many One.”
The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ): “A movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.”
Some are promises not yet fulfilled.
Some make us feel superior.
Some identities are only about power, wealth, status and the status quo.
Some identities are used against us, or against our neighbors, or against all of us.
Some identities say, “you are either with us or against us.”
Some identities are transformational, “They’ll Know We Are Christians By Our Love.”
Who gets to see the real you? Who gets to see your consistent moral compass? Jesus doesn’t say to Simon Peter, “If you love me, then . . .” It would be so much easier if Jesus gave a simple checklist.
He just said, “follow me.”
Followers of Jesus do Jesus like things.
They feed people, in real embodied community building ways and metaphorically,
when they are young.
The tend people, in real embodied community building ways and metaphorically,
as they age.
They feed people, in real embodied community building ways and metaphorically as they mature and pass from this life to the next.
In doing that, God is seen. God is glorified.
And people don’t have to ask if you are a disciple of Jesus.
Followers of Jesus do Jesus like things.
When congregations like this one comfort, challenge, and nurture believers of all ages, and people wounded by other denominations, and people seeking God, and people of no faith at all because you practice the messy work of koinonia at a table where you don’t need a reservation, you just pull up a chair.
In doing that, God is seen. God is glorified.
And people don’t have to ask if you are a disciple of Jesus.
It’s not easy. But the one we call Christ never said it would be.
Jesus believed his followers could do Jesus like things even when we don’t believe in ourselves.
Remember, the Christ you meet this Easter season has entrusted Jesus’ story and Jesus’ way with you, just like Mary Magdalene was entrusted with it, and the disciples that followed, and Simon Peter. We tell the story’s lessons and wisdom through our living. We trust, we pray, that God is seen and that God is glorified.
Fish Stories
Yesterday, I was gifted the trust of the pulpit at First Christian Church in Pond Creek, Oklahoma. Here are the words I shared. I’m grateful to the elders for their leadership. The delicious pot-luck and conversation was wonderful.
As we approach the good news of God today, it’s important to remember that this is the season of Epiphany. The time in the liturgical calendar between Christmas and Lent when the Church is focused on “a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, usually initiated by some simple, homely, or commonplace occurrence or experience.” That’s the definition of “epiphany.”(1)
When you think about it, epiphanies happen throughout the year. The really important ones, the eye opening, life changing, epiphanies are subtle, humbling, or confessional.
Whether you are in this sanctuary, in a digital sanctuary, or the sanctuary that exists only in your mind, we all seek to experience the good news of God:
That, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
the Lord’s mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;
and the LORD’s faithfulness never ends.
As you hear the good news of God in the scripture today, listen for your character in the story.
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, (Sea of Galilee) and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Luke 5:1-11 (NRSV)
If your spirit is willing, please join me in prayer. Open our ears and our hearts, O God, that our words, meditations, and living will reflect our faith in You, who creates, redeems, and sustains all creation; and our lives. Amen.
Buckle up church. Here we go.
“Grandpa, could we go fishing?”
“Sure, go out to the shed and get the little cooler so we can take some drinks and sandwiches.”
Fishing poles, worms, and cooler in hand a ten year old and his grandpa walk to the pond not far away for an afternoon of fishing. The little pond is in the woods surrounded by overhanging trees, but there is a cleared place where they’ve fished before. The eager ten year old struggles to pinch a worm in half to bait his hook. Grandpa watches the frustration a bit before helping. “Here, do like I showed you before.” With both lines in the water Grandpa offers a final word, “Remember, all you have to do is watch that cork. It’s going to bounce, bob up and down a bit, and when it goes under pull up to hook the fish.”
Not long after Grandpa caught a sunfish. He baited his hook and was fishing again. The ten year old’s cork did just like Grandpa said and finally went under. The boy yanked on the pole with a force that could have pulled out Moby Dick and flung his line, cork, and hook into the brush and small trees behind them. While the boy untangled his line, Grandpa caught another fish, and another, and paused to help the boy untangle the line. “Here,” handing the boy an already pinched worm, “Put this on the hook and try again. Be careful because I won’t help you untangle the line again.” The boy put the worm on the hook just like he was shown and not long after he put out his line the cork bounced and bobbed. Almost under. Not yet. Wait. Wait. This time, less force, he pulled on the line, but no fish. Grandpa’s only words, “Looks like it stole your worm. That’s fishing. Try again.”
On the third try, success! Standing proud with his catch flopping at the end of the line he says, “Grandpa, dad showed me how to get it off the hook, but I forgot. Show me how.” “Watch what I do. Now, you hold the fish and then throw it back. It’s too small to keep.” After a moment of pride, the boy tosses the fish into the pond. Grandpa says, “Go to the cooler and get us a couple of sodas. I’ll bait your line and set it out.”
They left the cooler under a big tree back up the trail from the bank to keep it out of the afternoon sun. When the boy returned with sodas his line was out, just a little farther than before. “Just leave it out there in deeper water. Remember, watch the cork. Be patient.” Thirty minutes pass and Grandpa keeps catching fish, but the boy doesn’t get a bite, nor barely a nibble. Each time he wanted to move his line Grandpa said, “You’ve got to be patient. I know it is hard, but it is an important lesson.”
Finally after forty-five minutes watching Grandpa catch fish after fish the boy pulls his line and moves it a bit closer to the shore. Then, after an hour he pulls in his line to discover he has no bait. “I never saw my cork move, but something must have stole my bait.” he says. He confidently puts a half worm on the hook, and sets his line out, but not too far. Not long after he catches another fish.
Walking back to the house Grandpa asks if he enjoyed the afternoon. “Yes sir. It was great, but you caught a lot more fish than I did.” Grandpa grinned, “Well, I’m a little more patient than you are, but I’ve been fishing a lot longer. You’ll learn some patience and be better some day.”
Grandpa and I would revisit that fishing spot many times. When I was in high school I learned that when I was fetching drinks or snacks at the cooler Grandpa never baited my hook.
There are all kinds of fish stories.
Captain Ahab and his whale.
Some fish and two loaves.
The one that got away.
Jonah’s big fish story.
I wonder if Jimmy Houston or Bill Dance had any idea they were the first “reality” TV that would spawn shows like the Bass Masters, Deadliest Catch, Wicked Tuna or more relationship driven competitions about human nature that we see in Survivor, Life Below Zero, or the Amazing Race?
Those first “outdoors” shows, like all “reality” TV, are greatly aided by the editing bay that cut out the mistakes, bloopers, and all the time they didn’t catch anything or were helped by a local guide who may or may not appear in the show or the credits at the end. The same is true for the writer of Luke who had the letters of Paul and the gospel of Mark to draw upon to write Luke and Acts.
Today, when we catch up with Jesus he has been traveling, teaching. and healing after being run out of his hometown. Why? Well, he dug up a past that everyone wanted to forget. He challenged a narrative that everyone thought was long settled. One in which everyone knew the right thing to do, but didn’t do it. Everyone was culpable for what happened and no one was responsible or accountable and there was no reconciliation. They just let it happen and looked the other way. Jesus was unwilling to provide his hometown the same blessing, the same benefit of the doubt that he provided “others” along the way. They got angry and pushed him toward a cliff. The text says, “He passed through the midst of them and went on his way.” (Luke 4:30)
Did you ever notice that Jesus does a lot of his best work along the shoreline or in a boat?
This story of Jesus calling the first disciples here in Luke resembles a post resurrection appearance in the gospel of John, chapter 21. After Jesus is crucified, many of the disciples have returned to the lives they knew before meeting him. It is night or very early morning. The fishing wasn’t good. Jesus appears with some advice about a better spot, and the catch almost breaks the nets, sinks the boats, and everyone gathered recognizes Jesus.
Jesus does something to ignite the spark that becomes a flame within their hearts. In John’s gospel it is a reminder. A remembrance of who Jesus was and is. Here in Luke, it’s a beginning that’s a culmination of listening to Jesus’ teaching, observing the way he lives, and a few seeing him do miraculous things. Simon and his partners know the fishing trade. Net fishing isn’t always easy nor a guarantee of a catch. Remember, this is the near East. You fish at night or early, early, hours of the morning because fish are not going to keep all day. They had a bad night of fishing, but I’m not sure that means they were bad at their job. It did mean that there would be little food for their families or money from selling the catch of the day to pay their obligations.
Mark, Matthew, and Luke all tell of Jesus calling disciples who were fishing. Here in Luke, Jesus has been to Simon’s house and healed his mother-in-law. So, it is not unusual for Simon to agree when Jesus asks to use his empty boat as a speaking platform. What is curious is that the crowds are pressing Jesus for teachings or miracles so early in the morning. You can imagine Simon or one of his partners wondering, “Are these people here to buy fish? We have nothing to sell. What’s this Jesus got to say that’s so interesting?”
Jesus finishes his teaching, and here is where the dialogue between Simon and Jesus is edited out, if it ever existed. Remember, they are in the boat just off the shore.
I can imagine Simon says to Jesus, “Great words rabbi. Look, I’ve heard the stories about you. I saw what you did for my mother-in-law. I don’t know what to think about all that, but do you have any idea where the fish are? What? Wait. Where? Deeper water. Rabbi, don’t you think I thought of that. We are exhausted. Deeper water is dangerous.”
We don’t see Simon’s face and eyes thinking about this choice.
We can only imagine it and see it on our own face.
We can’t hear his internal dialogue about this choice.
We can only hear our own.
When the net is so full that Simon needs help, he calls for the other boats. Knee deep in flopping fish and water washing in over the sides of the boat Simon Peter falls on his knees, “Go away from me Lord, I am a sinful man.” What is the emotion that goes with that . . . humiliation, horror, realization, fear, awe?
It is Wayne and Garth style, “We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!”
Is it Morpheus, in the Matrix, proclaiming his search is over, “He is the one.”
Is it Mary Magdalene’s reassurance telling the hiding disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”
Simon doesn’t list his sins or explain his sinfulness.
Jesus says, to Simon and all of us, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people.” Men and women of all kinds. In his sermon last Sunday, Rev. Jesse Jackson, the minister at East Sixth Street Christian Church in Oklahoma City reminded his congregation that . . .
Jesus called us to be fishers of men and women. And we do not fish with cane poles, we fish with nets. When you fish with a net, sometimes you catch things that you really were not looking for. And this goes to the heart of what it really means to be the church. The mindset of the church cannot be that “we only want to catch ‘this’ kind of member. We are not a country club. At our best, we are a hospital. A hospital filled with sick folks trying to get well and find wholeness. Too many people confuse the hospital with hospice. Hospitals help us to heal, and hospice just keeps us as comfortable as possible when “healing” seems no longer possible. And too many are comfortable in their sickness and are treating the hospital like hospice and they are not getting any better.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, East Sixth Street Christian Church (Oklahoma City) January 30. 2022.
That’s a good reminder for all of us.
We often think that confession precedes grace, but with Jesus and Simon unsolicited grace precedes confession.(2) Do you suppose the writer of Luke telling his own story? And, though we like to ascribe divinity to Jesus there is no guarantee that Simon, nor any of the rest of us, will respond to grace. There is no guarantee that anyone will respond to grace the way we want them to, and there is always a risk that grace, graciousness, kindness, neighborliness, a hand out or a hand up will be taken advantage of, misused, misinterpreted, misrepresented, or hoarded for personal gain. It’s one of the dangers of deep water.(3)
As Dr. Seuss says,
So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act.
Dr. Seuss, Oh The Places You Will Go. Random House, 1990.
The village priest in the film Chocolat summarizes Jesus like this:
“I don’t want to talk about His divinity.
Pere Henri, Chocolat, Joanne Harris and Robert Nelson Jacobs. (Miramax – David Brown Production – Fat Free) 2000.
I’d rather talk about His humanity.
I mean, you know, how he lived his life here on Earth.
His kindness.
His tolerance.
Listen, here’s what I think.
I think we can’t go around…
measuring our goodness by what we don’t do.
By what we deny ourselves…
what we resist and who we exclude.
I think we’ve got to measure goodness…
by what we embrace…
what we create…
and who we include.
For me, the priest describes how Jesus shows us a way to be in the world, but not of the world. It is deep water. It is this realm of God which Jesus taught about and lived; and it is that good news of God that those who claim Christian faith are called to be and called to do as individuals and as a church.(4) The deepest water: love God and love neighbor as yourself. Like those first anglers, some days we are better at it than others.
We can heal up and do better.
I don’t know what you relate to most in the scripture today: the crowds, the partners, the net, the boat, or Simon. Maybe none of it. The shallows and the deeper water can both be dangerous if you are not paying attention. In a times like these the deep water is calling. The choice is ours.
Siblings in faith, thank you for being a voice of gospel in this community and through the covenant we claim as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Oklahoma and throughout the world.
There are all kinds of fish stories. Sometimes, they aren’t about fishing.
Notes
1) “epiphany.” Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 03 Jan. 2015. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/epiphany>
2) O. Wesley Allen, Jr. Commentary on Luke 5:1-11. workingpreacher.org, January 22, 2017. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/narrative-lectionary/great-catch-of-fish-2/commentary-on-luke-51-11
3) The Rt. Rev. Robert C. Wright, Why Some People Don’t Catch Fish. Day1.org, February 7, 2010. https://day1.org/weekly-broadcast/5d9b820ef71918cdf20028f8/why_some_people_dont_catch_fish
4) Read deeper about the “realm of God.” Ronald J. Allen, Commentary on Luke 5:1-11. workingpreacher.org, February 10, 2019. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-after-epiphany-3/commentary-on-luke-51-11-4