A
sermon based upon John 21: 15-22
Preached by Dr. Charles J. Tomlin,
Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership
14th Sunday After Pentecost, September
10th, 2017, (Series: Questions Jesus Asked #12)
After JFK was assassinated, Jackie Kennedy did an interview with
Life magazine. During that interview she
revealed that her and her late husband’s favorite musical was “Camelot”. Since his death she had been saying one line
from that musical score over and over in her mind: “Don’t let it be forgot, that once there was a spot for one shining
moment known as Camelot.”
In the British legend, Camelot was the name of the Medieval Castle
and Kingdom of the mythical King Arthur and his Knights of the Round
Table. Although some claim there a
actually was some sort of ruler who defended England against invaders from the Saxons,
this has never been proven. Richard
Burton once played King Arthur and sang about that mystical, mythical kingdom
of what might have been, but is gone forever: Camelot.
At least to some of the disciples, the Kingdom of their Messiah must
have seemed like “Camelot”. The life of
Jesus, at least on earth, was over. The
preaching of the nearness of the kingdom had gone silent. The immediate hopes of the establishment the
Kingdom in Jerusalem was gone: “There was
a spot, for one shining moment called Camelot” could have been their song
too. This is exactly how the gospel of
Luke concludes, with two disciples talking about what might on the road to
Emmaus. And even though Jesus has shown
himself to be alive and present among his immediate disciples, as their
resurrected Lord, many, many questions still remain.
So what did Simon Peter do with all this upheaval? He went fishing. Perhaps he’s still trying to figure it all
out. Then, for a third time, and now as
a stranger on the beach, Jesus appears to help Peter and the disciples make a
very large catch of fish. After they
share breakfast together, Jesus asks Simon Peter a most intimate question: “Simon…, do you Love me more than these?”
DO YOU LOVE ME…?
As we come to this final question of Jesus, we consider a question
that wasn’t just meant for Peter, but is also for us. This question of Christ still sounds in human
hearts, even after all these years. It
could be translated: “Do you (still)
love me?” After all that has
happened? After all that hasn’t
happened? With all that might or will
happen, do you, can you, will you, love Him more than these other things?
For Peter, ‘these things’ refer to his fishing business. Fishing is what Peter was doing when Jesus
found him, and fishing is what Peter is still doing to make his living. There is nothing wrong with fishing, either
as a pastime or as a career. Peter was a
fisherman; Matthew a Tax Collector, Luke was a Physician, and Paul a
Tentmaker. The apostles and disciples
had their jobs, careers, and duties to perform in life too, just as we all
do. But the question that continues to
come to us in the midst of all we do to ‘make a living’ is what do to ‘make a
life?’ It other words, what will we do that makes life worth living? What will bring us the joy, purpose, and the
fullness of life?
One thing we may already know is that it only is the answer to
love’s question that has the potential to transform everything we do. Perhaps the depression that Jackie Kennedy
experienced right after her husband “Jack’s” assassination came because this
‘love’ question was never settled between them.
She said she knew Jack loved her, but he had mistress after mistress
during their marriage. She said she knew
he would always come home to her. And
she said, as an excuse, that this was the way many men were in that day. Was it, really? I can’t help but think that it was the
unanswered question about love, about devotion, about faithfulness and even
about righteousness that still loomed over her like a dark shadow, long after
his death. Did he really love me, more
that he did the others?
What does ‘faithful’ love look like? How does faithfulness to Jesus Christ look
like? Can we, for ourselves, ask and answer this question without any form of
reservation: “Do we love him, more than all those other things?” This is not just a question for Simon Peter
and this is not just a question that happened on a day we gave our hearts to
Jesus the first time. This is a question
that must be answered by every generation and by every Christian, each and
every day, by comparing our love for Jesus with all those other things we also treasure. Do we, Do I, Do you, still love Jesus more
than these?
I find it to be a unique, remarkable, unmistakable and essential
part of the Christian faith that at the very center is a big question about
‘love’. I can’t recall anything this
personal in Islam about loving Mohammed or Allah. I also can’t recall anything about loving
Buddha in Buddhism or loving Krishna in Hinduism. But beginning with later Judaism, and beginning
with the book of Deuteronomy, we find Israel being commanded to ‘Love the Lord Your God with all you heart,
soul, and strength.’ (Deut 6:5). The
Jesus of the Gospels picked up on this Commandment to ‘love God’ as the greatest commandment of all. And even though Jesus clearly explained that “God so loved the World …”(John 3:16),
Jesus now reminds Peter, and us, that is not just God’s job to love us, but it
is also our job to love God ‘with all
our heart’, and ‘more than these.’ ‘Do
you love me?’ Jesus asks. Jesus is
not like Jackie Kennedy; he does not allow any other lovers. So, before the next chapter in Peter’s life,
and before last chapter too, Jesus wants to clear the air, once and for
all? And his question is not just for
Peter, but also for us: Do we really love Him more than anything else?
FEED MY SHEEP
And if we say we do love
him, how do we know? “The demons believe and tremble” James
says. “Many say ‘Lord, Lord,’ but do not do what I say (Mat. 7:22; Luk
6:46), Jesus said. We say we love him,
but how does our love for Jesus show to be more than mere words? Jesus doesn’t seem to trust words. Once he told the religious of his day: “You
study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have
eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse
to come to me to have life (Jn. 5:39-40 NIV). You can read, do, and say all kinds of religious things, you can do all
kinds of good things, but you may still leave the question of daily devotion
and love unanswered. Three times Jesus
asked Peter, “Do you love me?” And three times Peter answered, “Lord, you know I love you!” Was
that kind of exchange really necessary?
Did the resurrected Christ need to be pressing this point this
hard? Peter had denied Jesus not once,
but three times, but Jesus is not trying to rub it in, but to ask the question
as a way of forgiveness and redemption: “Peter, do you love me! Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love me? How can I know? How will your love be proven so that it is
more than words, more than past feelings, and more than something that never
really was true?
It is often said that if you have to ‘prove’ your love to someone,
love is already lost. Of course, that
can be true. If married people, couples,
or families are always demanding for prove of love to each other, there really
could be something terribly wrong. And
what might be wrong is that love is not being proven in the day to day
activities, relationships, work and the stuff of life.
In Philip Roth’s acclaimed Novel, American Pastoral, Roth tells the tragic story of a Jewish man (the
Swede he was called), whom everyone in High School thought would have a
beautiful life. The Swede was a star
athlete, went into this father’s successful business, married an Irish beauty
queen, and then had a beautiful daughter.
But as the story unfolds, his beautiful daughter develops a terrible stutter;
ends up rebelling against her parents. The
daughter, who is his ‘daddy’s girl’, gets drawn in to an activist group of the
turbulent 60’s. She makes bombs that actually kill people. She runs away from home and goes into
hiding. She never comes home. Her parents are devastated. The beauty queen mother loses her mind. As she heals, she cheats on the Swede. The Swede finally locates his daughter, but
she still doesn’t come home. There is
really no home left to come home to.
As the novel (or movie) ends, a few friends are gathered around the
Swede’s casket. He has apparently died
somewhat prematurely, at 62 years of age.
His friend, who became a writer, narrates and summarizes this sad moment:
“Everyone thought his life would be the
most likely to be showered with blessings, but we were wrong.” The scene closes with the fugitive daughter in
disguised, approaching the grave from the distant. You are left wondering whether she realizes that
her Father’s love, that was never ending, has been proven to her beyond all her
adolescent doubts. (http://www.npr.org/2016/10/15/497864544/new-american-pastoral-movie-is-a-60s-tale-still-relevant-today).
Somehow, someway, and someday, love has to prove itself. The
world Peter dreamed of, hoped for, and expected had fallen apart. Even Jesus Christ the Messiah and his undying
love was not the way Peter had imagined.
But now Peter stands, not beside the tomb, but before the Risen Lord and
there is only one question that matters.
This question is not: Why did you deny me? Look, how you failed, or even
the victorious, “It’s finished”, over, and completed.” None of this matters now. Even our failures, hang-ups, letdowns, or
defeats don’t matter, as long as we can pick up the pieces and truthfully,
hopefully, and personally answer love’s question: “Do you love me?”
A very personal Christian faith requires a very personal
answer. Faith gets personal, because
faith is personal, and the answer of faith must be personal too. And if you do still personally and
specifically love Jesus, does your life, your work, your goals, your dreams,
and what you do each day, from here on out, does it prove your love for him? Jesus died of a broken heart to prove God’s
love for us. We don’t have to die of a
broken heart, like Jesus or like the Swede, but we do have to a change of our
heart, allow our heart to be challenged, and be willing to answer the call to
follow God’s heart, if we want to prove that we really do love God because of
his love for us.
What Jesus tells Peter he must do, to prove his love, from here on
out, is to “Feed” and “Tend” Jesus’ sheep. Only Peter’s actual, active answer to God’s
calling upon his life, can prove his ‘love’ is more than a feeling and not just
words. “If you
love me,” Jesus says, then you must renew yourself to doing in your life
what you say with will do with your lips.
Peter, if you love me, you’ll be catching people, not just fish. Peter, love is something you do. And if you love me, love is something you must
do for me.
We should know that this is not just a question for Peter. It is recorded in the gospel so because it
remains a question for all those people of faith who come after Peter. If we love him, how will we and should we
prove it? This is the question that our
true love for Jesus will never let escape without an answer? As the romantic poem goes: “How much do I love thee, let me count the
ways!” (Elisabeth Browning). Well,
how can you count them? How can you
count them this past year, this past week, or in your plans for the week to
come? How can you ‘count the ways’ that
your love for Jesus gets translated into the ways you are now living your
life?
A recent religious cartoon in the Biblical Recorder had an
interview, with one person inviting another person to church. The person being invited answered, “Just
because I don’t come to church, don’t pray, and don’t read my Bible, doesn’t
mean that I don’t love Jesus. The
person doing the inviting responded, “Well, if you don’t go to church, you
don’t pray, and you don’t read the Bible, how can you know that you love
Jesus?” Now, I know and you know that
you can go through all the right motions, and love can still be dead. You can even remain faithful to someone in a
marriage, and love can be dead. Couples
often don’t take care of their love.
Christians can keep coming to church, read their Bibles, and pray; yet their
‘love’ has gone cold. Many people can
answer the love question, by saying, “Well, I have my faith?” or “I’ll do my Jesus thing on my own”, or “I
have my own religion, thank you?” “Lord, You know everything! “You
know I love you”, Peter says. But
Jesus says, “Do you? Really? Then, prove it! Feed
my Sheep!” And do you notice how
Jesus commands, “Peter, feed MY sheep,
not YOUR sheep!” The true answer to
love’s questions is not an answer that comes on our terms, but it is an answer
that is given only on Christ’s terms. This
is how true love always, on the terms of the one who is loved.
YOU MUST FOLLOW ME
In a world of individualized, self-centered religion, personalized
religion, this love question must be answered personally, but it must be more
than a personalized, self-centered, self-focused, or self-motivated answer. Why is this important? Why is it important that our answer to love,
be more than only ‘my’ or ‘your’ kind of answer?
Recall that one incredible scene in the award winning musical
about struggling, persecuted Russian Jews, Fiddler
on the Roof. After Tevye and Golde
have raised all their children; after they have done all they could do to be
good parents, good people, and faithful spouses in a dangerous, threatening,
changing world. One of the new struggles
they had to face, was that their daughters wanted to marry for love, rather
than have their marriages arranged. This
was difficult for the conservative, orthodox, traditional Jews. But after their final daughter was about to
wed, Tevye turns to his wife Golde, and asked her, with musical score; “Golde, It’s a new world. Love.
Do you love me?”
(Golde) Do I what?
(Tevye) Do you love me?
(Golde) Do I love you? With our daughters getting married And this
trouble in the town. You're upset,
you're worn out! Go inside, go lie down! Maybe it's indigestion
(Tevye) "Golde
I'm asking you a question..." Do
you love me?
(Golde) You're
a fool.
(Tevye) "I
know..." But do you love me?
(Golde) Do I
love you? For twenty-five years I've
washed your clothes
Cooked your meals, cleaned your house. Given you children, milked the cow
After
twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?
(Tevye) Golde, The first time I met you Was on our wedding day
I was scared…. And my mother said we'd learn to love each other
and now I'm asking, Golde, Do you love me?
(Golde) I'm
your wife.
(Tevye) "I
know..." But do you love me?...
(Both, in musical union) It
may not change a thing, but even so after twenty-five
years, It's nice to know.
Our own ‘personal’ answer to God’s love is even more than ‘nice to
know’. After Jesus has asked Peter the
‘love’ question and near the end of their very intimate conversation, Jesus
reminds Peter of what is still to come, for him, and probably for us too. “Very
truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you
wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else
will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go." (Jn. 21:18
NIV)
It sounds very much like a Charles Dickens, Ebenezer Scrooge
moment, when the Ghost of Christmas future reminded Scrooge that he’d change
his negative attitude, because one day, someday, and perhaps in the not too
distant future, he is going to get old and die.
With the negative attitude he has now, no one will want to care for him,
remember him, or even less, mourn for him, unless he changes. In a similar way, the Risen Jesus is
reminding Peter someday, he is going get old, have limitation, then die too. But death is not really mentioned, nor is it
the problem. The big crisis to come in
his life is that he is going to lose his freedom, his ability to choose or
control his life. What are you going do
then doesn’t matter, because your life will be more about what you are not able
to do, than what you are.
“Follow me” now Peter.
This is what Jesus challenges.
This is the only answer of love that makes sense. But it’s not just about doing what you need
to do now, because someday you won’t be able too. What
Jesus is saying is that Peter, if in love you will follow me know, even when it
is hard, because your faith and love is
true, when that day comes, true faith
and true love, will hold you, sustain you, and enable you, even when it seems you have little life left. Simon Peter, prove your love for me now, so
love will carry and sustain you, when you’ve got nothing else left, but love.
Most of don’t like to go into nursing homes, because of reminders
just like this: “someone else will dress
you and lead you where you don’t want to go.”
I’ve been going into nursing
homes and hospitals all my life, but never really face my own coming day of
weakness, until I had those five ‘foot’ surgeries between 2008 and 2010. Most of that time, I was unable to walk, confined
to getting around with walkers, scooters, crutches and a boot. I didn’t spend much time in a hospital, but I
did spend too much time confined to home.
After wearing an artificial fixator, an instrument that was like a
‘halo’ around my leg and foot for almost 6 months, I started having anxiety
attacks, especially when I got on elevators, had to ride with someone else
driving, or when I had to wait in waiting rooms, for felt myself being
restricted in many other ways. Seven
years later, I’m doing much better now, but I still get a bit nervous on
elevators, or become impatient in tight situations.
The lingering emotion, thought, or feeling of all this, is that it
is all a foretaste of the ‘test’ of faith, trust and fortitude that is still to
come. We are all being tested this way,
and as I discovered, the love in my life now, will be the ‘love’ that brings me
strength and hope then. This is why love
is the question, the only question. For
without love, bearing any kind of load in life can become unbearable. You’ve seen it haven’t you? Young or Adult people not doing their job,
not bear the load, not taking command of their lives. It’s someone that is almost impossible to
do, unless you have and can give love. When
we know we love, have loved, and will be loved, life can be hard, but we can
endure, we will withstand and bear the great burdens of life.
Back in 1987, Will Willimon lost his friend and pastor colleage, Grady
Hardin to cancer. He told a crowd of new
students and parents how he learned that his friend was in the final grasp of
the Enemy, called death. He told how Grady called him, saying, "Thanks for asking me to preach. That will be last sermon I will
preach."
"Oh, but there are ways", .... "There is
therapy. You are fortunate to be here at Duke. Chemicals, radiation, things to
be done."
For the next weeks, Grady did battle with the Enemy. The pain increased,
the cancer spread, wasting him, leaving him half of what was. But each time we
entered Grady's room with solemn faces, even in pain, Grady found something to
celebrate, something to elicit laughter even when we wanted to cry. “In those moments,” Willimon said, ‘You could almost hear the
Enemy, pacing the floor outside. Waiting for the people in white coats to be
done, waiting for the preachers and the former students and the friends and
family to be done with their stalling and get out of the way.
“His day came, despite everything, on a Friday in June. Grady's ordeal, which began on the First
Sunday of Lent was over on Pentecost. The Day when God' s Spirit descended
found Grady's spirit ebbing. The Enemy paced, paced back and forth, growing impatient now, ready to pounce.
Through his last breaths, Grady led in prayer.” Can you believe that? The dying man led in prayer? The prayer went: "Lord, support us all the day long Until the shadows lengthen, And the evening
comes, And the busy world is hushed, And the fever of life is over, Then, of
thy great mercy, Grant us a safe lodging, And a holy rest, And peace at the
last; Through Jesus Christ our
Lord." Willimon concludes:
“The door opened and there stood the Enemy -- with the most forlorn look you
ever saw. He reached into his quiver, to finally do the deed, and was
embarrassed to find there only rest and peace at last. And Grady roused
briefly, stared the befuddled Death in the eye and said, "Free, at last, thank God, free at last." Death's great victory, just ruined. Five
days later they gathered at Duke Chapel and sang Easter victory songs. (https://repository.duke.edu/download/duke:316626).
What can love for Jesus do for Jesus? Probably nothing; at least as far as we can tell. What can love for Jesus do for you, or me?” Probably everything. We may not see it now, but one day we will. As a song goes:
And all fire and flames took all we trust we're kicking up dust. Stations
fade just like they do. Oh, time will
tell, we always knew. Oh, time will
tell, we always knew.
Time will tell, so answer what you must, now! Do you love him? Then, follow him, show him, get closer to him,
and let Him know, so you will know, that your love is true. Do you love him? Of course you do, so live for him, follow
him, and when the time comes, you will also be ‘free at last’. Amen.
No comments :
Post a Comment