Sunday "Being Fed and Feeding" John 21:1-17 |
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The story from John’s Gospel of Jesus’ third resurrection appearance is a wonderful mission statement for the Church. Our mission, expressed in Jesus’ words to Peter, is to feed and tend one another, as Christ feeds and tends each of us, so that we may feed and tend the lambs and sheep of our world. All that is said and happens at Christ Congregational Church and in the world in the name of CCC and the United Church of Christ needs to embody this mission.
Look at the story. The disciples are at work again fishing the Sea of Galilee. No luck that morning. “Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know him.” Why not? He had already appeared to them twice. They knew he had been raised and had no reason to doubt now. Yet they couldn’t see him. John is saying that the ability to see the risen Christ is a capacity that must be continually renewed. The risen Christ must be rediscovered again and again for each of us, as our attention continually narrows itself in life. Perhaps they saw him as some bystander throwing out cheap advice on how to fish. With nothing to lose, they took his advice, cast their nets on the right side of the boat, and were overwhelmed with the catch. Then, and only then, did they recognize Jesus. Here, Jesus didn’t say, “Come to me, I am the bread of life.” Instead he said, “If it isn’t working, try doing it this way.” The Word of God can come through simple good advice, as well as dramatic and mystical experiences.
Jesus then says, “Join me for breakfast?” Simple good advice followed by a hearty meal on the beach. Then he took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish. Just as the five thousand were fed through Jesus’ word and presence, what the disciples needed to sustain them flowed in abundance. And what was the miracle here? Was this a supernatural intervention, or was it a shift in consciousness that opened the disciples’ eyes to what was already there? Of, course, by now they know who this man on the beach really is. As always we see Christ when our eyes are opened.
The heart of this story is Jesus’ words to Peter, repeated three times. “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” Jesus asks him do you love me more than anything? Do you love me with all your heart, soul, body, and mind? In a remarkable way, of course, he is giving Peter a chance to reverse his three-fold denial of Jesus at the time of his trial when the cock crowed three times to signal Peter’s failed faith. But Jesus is also equipping Peter to become the rock upon which the church is to be founded.
The Great Commandment that Jesus quoted during his life on earth was for us to Love God with our entire being, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. The love of neighbor is the mission Jesus here articulates. Jesus’ words now equip us. We are to feed and tend one another, as Christ feeds and tends each of us, so that we may feed and tend the lambs and sheep of our world. It is to that mission that we are asking you to pledge this morning. And we are asking you to see that mission embodied here. We are asking you to meet the risen Christ in just the same way those disciples did that morning. At first they didn’t recognize him, even though they knew. They didn’t know anything more than you and I know right now. In their hungering and thirsting they were stuck in ways that weren’t working. In his presence and good advice, they saw their world differently, and abundance was awash over them. They met Jesus again. Every time we meet Jesus, it is as the first time.
Look around this congregation this morning and reflect in your heart on the job description Jesus says we have. We are called to feed the little lambs in our midst. We are to do our best to care for Will Foster and his beautiful sisters. We are to tend and care for Ted and Natalie as they try to be the best parents they can. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that every single thing we do as a church must somehow address the question: how will this secure the survival of the next generation of Christians? At the other end of the spectrum of life, yesterday we honored Margaret Aldrich, a member along with Tom, since 1950. Wife, mother, great-grandmother, teacher and nurturer, neighbor and citizen, the embodiment of simple and generous hospitality. Bonhoeffer’s words don’t just apply to our infants and children. How will the depth and range of our programs and ministry with our older adults secure the survival and dignity of the next generation of older adults at CCC?
And, of course, all this applies to our world around us. The unspeakable suffering at Virginia Tech last week has put us in touch yet again with the mystery of evil. We’ve been there before. We know that in the twinkling of an eye, the world can be turned upside down. 9/11, the Washington area snipers, Columbine, the tsunami in the Far East, the daily carnage in Iraq. Even on a massive scale, each terrible tragedy is always really the tragedy of one person, one family, repeated over and over. No one can explain why this happened. I certainly can’t. Of course, we should do all we can to uncover causes that can be remedied. But, in truth, there is no such thing as total security. No lasting comfort zones. So it seems to me that when we ask God for an explanation, when we ask why, Jesus responds with his own question. And that question is: Do you love me more than anything else? Then feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. Jesus’ answer to the problem of evil is – here’s your mission. Pay attention to that. Care for the suffering, the children, the widow. That is all you can do. But you must do it. And now, of course, we are coming to see the whole world – the environment of Planet Earth itself, as something that must be fed and tended and loved with the same passion.
The boundaries of our congregation and denomination must always be porous. We are not called to be an in group with a special corner on the truth. The only thing that can possibly attract others to our life in Christ is the same as the early witnesses to the church saw when they said, “See how they love one another.” And we do it in the way Jesus’ showed us and told us. When we rediscover the risen Christ in our midst, yet again open our eyes to a presence that we have already known, then we are fed. We are tended. We receive life and in abundance. And that feeding and tending equips us to feed and tend others in exactly the same way as Christ did for us. We do it among ourselves here. We do it as we venture forth each day in the world. And, importantly, we never succumb to an arrogance suggesting that we are ever beyond the need to be fed or tended. Feed my lambs and feed my sheep, said Jesus. We never know Christ once and for all. We are always meeting Christ again for the first time. And we meet Christ in the stranger, the unknown, the foreigner, the outsider. The person, the newcomer who has the gall to suggest that there may be a better way of doing things. The man on the beach tossing out unbidden advice.
We are called to open our eyes to the hidden Christ. Open our eyes to the abundance that is always at hand, even when we feel most hungry and bereft. And that hidden Christ asks us the same question, over and over. “Do you love me most of all? Do you love me most of all? Do you love me most of all?” And if you answer “Yes”, then he has a mission for you. AMEN.
