Follow Me

Scripture Lessons: Psalm 30, John 21: 1-19 Sermon Title: Follow Me Preached on May 5, 2019 The book of Exodus tells about manna in the wilderness. “A fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground” that the Israelites lived on as they traveled through the wilderness, from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land. An interesting thing about this manna is that it had an expiration date. Some of the people tried to keep some of their manna from one day into the next, but it “bred worms and became foul.” That sounds gross, but a lot of things are that way. Mostly, they are obvious: milk, fish, house guests. However, other things go foul too. Many things, not immediately obvious, will collect worms and become foul if they aren’t used responsibly and in a timely manner. Money for one and time for another. Officially, the Presbyterian Church has called today “Wills Emphasis Sunday.” It seems odd to add “Wills Emphasis Sunday” to a church calendar that includes Easter and Christmas, but wills are important. Considering what greed does to human hearts and how either want or abundance can hurt families, wills are worth thinking about. You’ve seen how siblings will become more like circling vultures in times of death when an inheritance is contested, so making a will must be emphasized because money will collect worms and become foul when selfishness invades our hearts. Time is that way too. Last Friday I was at the Zoo chaperoning a field trip, and right next to the nice, open gorilla habitat that’s there now is a statue of Willie B. As a child I remember going to visit Willie B the gorilla in his one room in the ape house. I remember how sad he looked in there, and how someone got him a TV. I remember staring at him, confined to his four walls, all alone and with nothing to do but watch TV. It was sad, because watching TV all the time when you were born to live in the jungle will do something to you, and fishing will do something to you if you were born to change the world. After everything they’d seen and heard they went fishing. Now, if there is plenty of time to be a disciple, then there’s no harm in spending an evening going fishing. It had been a stressful chain of events for the disciples, after all. They saw their Lord arrested and crucified. They were terrified of being arrested and killed themselves, so these men acted out of fear and ran or denied him. Then there was the funeral, which is physically and emotionally exhausting in and of itself, but after the funeral his body disappeared from the tomb. That wasn’t expected. The empty tomb demanded that they stretch their minds according to what they never imagined possible. Then he appeared to them, risen from the dead, inviting them to touch and see the wounds left by a cruel society, but healed by God. Can you imagine a more eventful few days? Had I been in their position, after all that I would have wanted to take a long nap, eat a big dinner, and spend the next few days at home. Maybe you would have hiked the mountain or hit the golf course. These disciples decided to go fishing. In one sense, if they were just doing that to relax, then you can understand why. Maybe they needed a break, but there’s a difference between taking a break and putting your life on hold. That’s a real temptation. There’s a thing now called a “Gap Year” that’s meant to be a break. After High School, some students wisely take a year to consider what they want to do with their lives. This year of thinking and exploring can lead to students going to college or a career more mature and directed than they would be otherwise, which is good. If you go to college, it’s good to go knowing what you want to do with your life and motivated to get the training to go and do it. However, some take a gap year, travel and relax, and decide that’s what they’d like to do with their lives. I remember being a Senior in College, thinking I’d like to make a life out of being in college. It was great. My friends were there. There were parties to go to. My parents paid for everything. That won’t work, because education is meant to prepare us for life, and if we put off living, we’ll collect worms and become foul. Do you know anyone like that? The disciples went fishing, but this was symbolic more than it was relaxing. After everything they’d been through, the Gospel of John is telling us here that they ended up where Jesus had found them in the beginning. To Jesus it must have seemed as though all his work and all his teaching had done nothing. As though the end of year Milestone Results come in, and his students had the same score they had at the beginning of the school year. They went back to fishing, and this is bad, because time has an expiration date, and if we don’t use the time we have to the Glory of God we will collect worms and become foul. I didn’t take a gap year in between high school and college, but after graduating college and before starting seminary I fell back on the only work experience I had, lawn maintenance. After all that tuition my parents paid, I went back to doing the thing that I had done before college over at the Winnwood Retirement Home. The only thing different was that after college I got a job cutting grass in Buckhead instead of Marietta. In case my parents concern with this career choice hadn’t made the point clearly enough, I’ve told you before how I remember a woman pointing me out as I worked in her yard and whispering too loudly to her children, “That’s why you go to college kids, so you don’t have to do that.” And it’s not that there’s anything wrong with a career in lawn maintenance, but Jesus is making the same point to Peter. That while we can serve the Lord anywhere, there’s a big difference between using our time and our treasure in service to God and killing time and wasting our money. There’s a difference between relaxing and avoiding. There’s a difference between sleeping in and hiding from the world. There’s a difference between looking at your phone to check the time and looking at your phone to check out from our life. So, some people fish to make a living, other people fish to take a break from what they’ve been doing, while these disciples were fishing to put off doing what they’ve been called by God to do. So, Jesus had to show up once again. Described in our Second Scripture Lesson is the third time the Resurrected Jesus revealed himself to his disciples. He has to keep showing up to tell them what they should have known and get them to do what they should have been doing. That’s the way it is with people though. We have to be encouraged, then encouraged again, and sometimes something still holds us back from doing what we know we should. I’ll run into people at the grocery store who will say, “Pastor, I’ve been meaning to get back to church.” “That’s great,” I’ll say. “A lot has changed. How long has it been?” “10 years or so,” they’ll say, and might add, “In fact, it’s been so long that now I’m afraid everyone will wonder where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing.” One of the worst things about procrastination is that if you put something off for long enough you feel too ashamed to just go and do it. So, it was with Peter. Jesus called to him. He was so excited, but did you notice this detail: “When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea.” What does it mean that he put on clothes to go swimming? Most people don’t do that, but I know a woman who was taking a shower when a tornado swept through town, and her last, most desperate prayer, was, “Please Lord, don’t let me die and my body be found naked.” That’s how it is. When we’re innocent babies, completely comfortable in our own skin, we just wander around regardless of who sees what. Then something changes. Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit, then they made clothes to cover their nakedness. A child wonders if he’s too thin or too big and is afraid to take his shirt off. We cover up ourselves with make-up or whatever, hiding ourselves even before the God who stitched us together in our mother’s womb. Here the Gospel writer is telling us that Peter was excited to see Jesus but in seeing him he felt such shame that he had to get dressed before jumping in the water. He couldn’t stand before him like a newborn, innocent, baby. No. He had denied the Savior three times, then didn’t know what to do with himself, so he went back to fishing. You can imagine. What happens next on the shore is significant. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” When they had finished breakfast Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” but maybe you know why the question, like his denial, came in threes. And maybe now you know why Jesus had to show up to Peter again. All the time we put off what must be done for shame holds us in the past while the future passes us by. So, Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” I didn’t understand this part of the story for a long time, but now I do. As a new Associate Pastor, I was honored to be asked by a mother to baptize her child. However, the Senior Pastor wanted to do it. Well, that might have been OK, had I told the mother before we made it to the baptismal font. When the Senior Pastor took the child from her, as the water was marking her infants head, this mother was holding back tears and rage. The look on her face made me want to go fishing. I told my friend George all about it the next morning over breakfast. He looked me in the eye and said, “Well Joe, you really messed up.” That’s not exactly what he said. What he really said can’t be repeated in church. Then he said, “But it’s OK, because you’re going to do it different next time.” We only have so much time before we run out of it. Because the clock is ticking, this church has to be the kind of place where people are set free from shame to live their lives because that’s what Jesus does. He doesn’t give Peter a guilt trip for dragging his feet. He fed him, forgave him, and sent him out to feed God’s sheep. The question he asked Peter is the same one he asks us: Will you feed his sheep? We don’t have enough time to fish any longer. Live today for all it’s worth, and pass on the grace and forgiveness that you have received while you still can. Amen.