MEANINGFUL ENCOUNTERS

April 18, 2010
Easter 3
Acts 9:1-6
John 21:15-17


(prayer)
A few weeks ago, I took a van load of 12 year olds to go see the Canadian pop band, Hedley, in concert. (yeah) Actually, I had a great time: the music was quite good, the show was fun and I had several opportunities to enjoy it on a sarcastic level: like when Jacob Hoggard started playing “Perfect” at the piano and every cell phone camera in the room came out – I was able to go (fast, excited clapping).
The first hit off the new album is call Cha-Ching – a funny, somewhat irreverent take on the reality TV phenomenon: It’s the all-American dream is getting fifteen for free. I wonder how many of the pre-teeny boppers get the Andy Warhol reference that “everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes”.
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So have you had your fifteen yet?
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Or how about this, have you had a memorable brush with greatness – ever meet anyone famous? [I mean someone who’s had at least 16 minutes!]
Does it stand out in your memory? Why do you think that is?
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Fame aside, think about the real meaningful encounters of your life – who have they been with? Mentors, teachers, chance meetings that lead to long friendships, even love?
What makes those times meaningful for you and what kind of impact did they have in your life?
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The Season of Easter in the church year is seven weeks long (leading from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday). Today is the Third Sunday of Easter and the last time the lectionary has us reading about appearances of the Risen Christ.
After today, we move into the era of the church, living and ministering in the shadow the resurrection. The two key figures of the story of those first decades of the Christian Church are Simon Peter and Saul (or Paul) of Tarsus. Today, we heard stories of meaningful encounters each of them had with the resurrected Jesus.
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First: Peter. Simon, by all accounts, was one of Jesus very first disciples. A fisherman by trade, he quickly became such a steady and reliable follower that Jesus knew that Simon was someone he could really count on. Jesus nicknamed Simon, Cephas (Aramaic for “rock”). In the Greek language of the New Testament, the nickname is written as Petros, which is the root of the English name: Peter.
Simon Peter was often mentioned as being among Jesus close inner circle, along with James and John. Several Gospel stories have Jesus being off alone with just these three.
Sadly, Peter is also remembered as the one who denied Jesus three times. Mark, Matthew and Luke all tell the story of Peter declaring his loyalty to Jesus at the Last Supper: “even though they all fall away, I will never fall away” (Mt, Mk); “I am ready to go to prison and death” (Lk). Jesus replies, “Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times!”
All three Synoptic Gospels tell the second part of the story a little later: You were with Jesus of Nazareth. No. You are one of them. No. But your accent is Galilean, you must know him. No (cock-a-doodle-doo).
And Peter remembered and wept.
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For those who have been in church the last couple of weeks, we have been reading through the last chapters of the gospel of John: Easter morning Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb and met the risen Jesus, whom she had first assumed was a gardener. She was the first Christian evangelist as she ran back to the others telling them “I have seen the Lord!”
Last week, we heard about the two visits to the disciples behind locked doors a week apart, culminating with Jesus telling Thomas, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
This morning, I only read a few verses of the next section. What I skipped was a story that other gospels include earlier in their narratives: a miraculous catch of fish.
A bit of time must have passed since Jesus visited the disciples behind the locked doors and showed Thomas his crucifixion wounds. The setting has changed. The disciples are back in Galilee, by the central lake of the region. John tells us that it was Peter who suggested going fishing. Sometimes this is read as Peter basically closing the book on his discipleship. Jesus is gone. Risen, but still gone. Peter was going back to his old job: it was time for him to try and catch fish again instead of catching people.
I guess he had sort of lost his touch because the night came and went and no fish. It must have been a hot night; Peter was lying naked, resting after a lot of hard work for nothing. Then they heard a stranger on the shore shouting that they should cast the nets again. They do and the nets were filled beyond capacity. Peter realized that it was Jesus on the shore (“It is the Lord!”), he put on some clothes and swam the 150 yards to the sand.
And they all shared a nice breakfast of fresh fish cooked over a morning fire.
After breakfast (and here’s where we picked up the story today), Jesus asks Peter: Simon, son of John do you love me? Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Feed my lambs. Again: Simon, son of John do you love me? Again: Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Jesus answer slightly different: Tend my sheep. A third question: Simon, son of John do you love me? John tells us that Peter was upset by this third question. Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you. Feed my sheep.
There is a lot in those three verses.
First, most biblical scholars make the point that the three questions about love are an intentional parallel to Peter’s three denials. It was as if this was Jesus’ way of allowing Peter to even things out.
But there is much more here than the same question asked three times. Because that’s not really what happens. We don’t see in the English translation, but there are Two Greek words for love are used in this passage – each having a level of commitment that is unique:
1. [slide] phillos - is family love, brotherly love à la Philadelphia; and
2. [slide] agape - unconditional love, the same word used in 1st Corinthians 13: these three remain, faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love.
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So listen again to the conversation as I make it clear which love is used. [slides-words]
(1) Simon, son of John do you love me unconditionally?
Yes, Lord, you know that I love you like a brother.
Feed my lambs.
(2) Simon, son of John do you love me unconditionally?
Yes, Lord, you know that I love you like a brother.
Tend my sheep.
(3) Simon, son of John do you love me like a brother?
(Peter upset) Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you like a brother.
Feed my sheep.
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Clearly, the word play here is significant. I’m not sure I know exactly what it means. Was Peter upset because Jesus kept asking for his loyalty. Or was it that Peter couldn’t seem to love to the degree that Jesus loves. Or was he upset because Jesus lowered his expectations of Peter.
Any or all of these?
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[slide-sheep]
The subtle differences in Jesus’ instructions are also likely significant. Feed my lambs – perhaps a reference to teaching the gospel to those who would come new into the faith. Tend my Sheep (I love the literal translation: Shepherd these sheep of me) – perhaps a reference to caring for all people who follow Jesus. And finally, Feed my [little] sheep, a different noun than the first instruction (feed my lambs) – perhaps a reference to the desire to continue to teach and grow in faith, no matter how long one has been part of the movement.
All in all, it seems to be a call to respond to a measure of love for Jesus with ... the care of others who loved by Jesus. Whether or not, we are able to love as unconditionally as Jesus hopes, we are still instructed to feed and to tend.
This would turn out to be a most meaningful encounter for Simon Peter; he would go on to be the major person of influence within Judea and Galilee as far as sharing the good news about Jesus to others. It would get him into trouble with the Jerusalem Council of Elders, but he did become the Rock, whom Jesus envisioned.
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As Peter and the others were sharing Jesus’ good news in the cities and towns of Galilee and Judea, some others were concerned that this was a perversion of the people’s faith. There were some like Saul, a Jewish Roman citizen born in what we would call modern Turkey, who was so convinced that these “sheep of Jesus” needed to be stopped, that Saul got official sanction from the Council to arrest any followers of “The Way” (as the Jesus-Movement was apparently called) and bring them bound to Jerusalem. Acts makes the point to say that both men and women were subject to arrest, which says something about the level of concern.
By the accounts in the book of Acts, Saul was very zealous about this task and was quite successful at it.
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And then, as we read earlier, one day on the road to Damascus, Saul had a meaningful, but strange, encounter with the Risen Christ.
[slide-light]
A blinding, bright light and a voice: Saul, I am Jesus, why do you persecute me?
Saul couldn’t see, so he had to be guided to the city, where he was so affected by the encounter that he could not eat or drink.
While this was going on, the Risen Christ visited a disciple of The Way named Ananias. Jesus asked him to tend to Saul. Now Ananias knew all about Saul and wondered why Jesus would want anyone to care for this persecutor of the church. Jesus insisted, so Ananias went and prayed with Saul.
Saul regained his sight,
He ate and regained his strength, and
became as zealous of a Proclaimer of Christ as he was a persecutor of Christ’s people.
Saul eventually focused his mission toward the Greek-speaking, non-Jewish world beyond Galilee and Jerusalem. As a symbol of that focus, he began to use the Greek version of his name, Paul, as he spread the good news all throughout the coastal regions of the Mediterranean.
The oldest written records of the early Christians are letters written by Paul to several groups of followers of Jesus’ Way throughout Asia Minor and Southern Europe.
And it all began with a meaningful encounter on the road to Damascus.
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Peter and Paul were not without their negative histories, and yet they became the two most significant leaders of the early Christian Church.
Their stories are ones of being loved beyond their shortcomings and being entrusted with the great truths of existence.
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A couple of weeks ago, I got to hear Hedley sing:
I’m not perfect, but I keep trying.
‘Cause that’s what I said I would so from the start.
I’m not alive, if I’m lonely, so please don’t leave.
Was it something I said or just my personality?
When our human relationships get strained and sometimes even end, we can hold on to the reasons behind the struggle. We carry the burden of the pain much longer than we are able to remember the good times and happy moments.
// end //
The meaning behind both Peter’s and Paul’s encounters with the Risen Christ is that, in Christ we are a new creation, everything old has passed away, everything has become new (cf 2nd Corinthians 5:17).
God does not hold on to our mistakes, our shortcomings, our problems. In God’s eyes we are the blank canvas.
I believe that God’s Spirit meets us where we are, who we are. And I think that God is fine with that.
As the hymn we’ll sing in a moment says, we are forgiven, loved and free ... we’ll go with joy, to give the world the love that makes us one.
Do we love?
Well, if so, in the meaningful encounters of our lives, we can feed and tend, and allow others to feed and tend us. Thanks be to God!

>> prayer >>

Let us pray,
Show us the way forward, Risen Christ. Journey with us as we are becoming faithful witnesses to your wise and transforming ways. Amen.

#477VU “I Come With Joy”