Resurrection of Peter

John 21:1-19 / Easter 3 / April 14, 2013

Have you ever failed after telling

everyone what you were going to do?

I was a first year pastor and one of the things my senior pastor wanted to do was start lots of small groups.

He actually wanted me to start 8 small groups in the first 6 months

I was there. If I had known what I was doing at the time,

I would have argued that that was not a realistic goal.

But instead I was like, I’ve got this, no problem.

I can do anything because I just graduated seminary.

Then I talked to the last person who tried to start a few small groups

and she said, “this church doesn’t take very well to small groups. I think you’re going to have a problem with it.”

And, had I known what I was doing,

I would have listened to her hard and had her help me.

but instead I was like, I’ve got this, no problem.

Then I announced it to the congregation that we were going to start Eight small groups in six months and everyone should join.

First thing the new pastor was doing.

And people looked like they were interested and

they put their names on a list and

I got books and leaders and we had a meeting and

some people showed up to their groups the first time.

Then the second time the groups met fewer people showed up.

And then the next time, four of the groups decided

not to meet again, and on and on.

So in 6 months, I had started 8 groups, but 8 groups had also died.

I was mortified.

For years whenever anyone asked me about small groups,

I would feel like I wanted to crawl into a hole.

Part of it was the failure, but part of it was that I had told everyone

and I was so sure of myself, naively confident.

Peter told Jesus and everyone very proudly

almost smugly, what he was going to do.

At the last supper, Peter told Jesus that he would

gladly give up his life for Jesus.

I’m sure he meant it when he said it.

His head and his heart were filled with

bravado and security in his own will.

I’m sure he felt the loyalty and dedication to Jesus

the gratitude for Jesus trusting him.

Jesus had picked Peter out

and called him out of the monotonous, soul-crushing

and debt ridden life of commercial fishing and

called him into a life of abundance, living on God’s grace,

spiritual depth, wonder, and service to others.

I’m sure that Peter was feeling gratitude about that

when he made that promise to Jesus.

I’m sure that he meant it when he said:

“I will follow you to death.”

Of course, Jesus knew better.

He told Peter he would deny even knowing Jesus.

Not once or twice, but three times.

And sure enough, that’s what happened.

After Jesus was arrested, when Peter was identified

as one of Jesus disciples,

Peter denied it three times before the cock crowed.

He wouldn’t even admit he knew Jesus to a harmless servant girl.

  

And this whole thing was probably

running through Peter’s head

when he saw Jesus risen from the dead in that upper room.

He was surely excited about seeing Jesus,

he was probably also thinking:

“Jesus knows how I failed him and everyone.

Jesus knows what a chicken I am.

Jesus knows how I don’t deserve the life he gave me.”

So Peter and the others decided to go back to fishing.

Back into the crushing, dead-end life that they came from.

It was what Peter knew how to do

It’s probably all he thought he deserved.

And they’re in the middle of returning to that life

Jesus calls out to them from the shore again.

Now according to the story,

Peter is fishing naked and, for some reason,

decides to put his clothes on to swim to the shore.

In the bible studies I was in this week, that got a lot of attention.

I might look into preaching about that next time,

But trust me though, don’t look up “fishing naked” on the internet

and expect that you’re going to find something about this story.

Regardless, Peter is excited to see Jesus.

And after they eat breakfast together Jesus talks to Peter.

Surely, the weight of Peter’s failure was hanging between them.

Notice that when they talk,

Jesus doesn’t call him “Peter”, the name Jesus gave

him when he became his disciple.

he calls him by his given name,

“Simon, son of John” his name in his old life,

the life that he’s decided to return to.

He asks Simon son of John a question,

“Do you love me more than these?”

Now what Jesus meant by “these” we’re not sure.

We can’t really tell from the English,

But we can tell the Greek word “these” that Jesus uses is neutral,

which means that it wasn’t referring to people, but to things.

So Jesus is asking Simon if he loves Jesus more than

he loves these things,

maybe Jesus means the fish and the

boats and the job of his old life.

Maybe it doesn’t matter.

And Simon son of John says,
“Of course, you know I love you.”

And Jesus gives him a simple reply,

a simple request, a simple call.

“Feed my lambs.”

Three times Peter denied Jesus.

Three times Peter chickened out,

Three times Jesus asks the question, “Do you love me?”

Three times Simon says he does…

And three times, Jesus calls Simon out from his old life again

“Feed my lambs”, “Tend my sheep”, “Feed my sheep”

Three times, Jesus calls Simon back into ministry with him -

the life of abundance and wonder, spiritual depth

to leadership and service.

Three times, Simon son of John is more than forgiven by Jesus,

He is called out again, to be Peter, the Rock.

Once Peter was dead, but Jesus raised him up.

Feed my sheep. Follow me.

We are all as fallible as Peter,

we have been scarred and broken and lost.

We’ve all gone smugly into something, just to fail

or get scared, or become disillusioned,

or bored, some of us have just made the wrong choices.

We might think that the best thing for God to do

would be to let us go, let us crawl into a hole

and find someone else who’s better

or more qualified.

But the truth is, we are God’s entire ministry plan

We are it. There is no back up.

There is no other option for God.

There are no alternatives.

No other less-fallible super-humans waiting in the wings.

God has put all his trust into people like Peter.

And God has bet everything on us.

As we think today about caring for creation,

it might feel like we’ve let God down in our call to do that.

Our waters are polluted some are poisonous,

the bees are disappearing, the air is harsh,

the ice caps are melting.

In some ways it seems like we have failed.

But we are God’s whole plan. All God has are

fallible, wasteful, sometimes selfish humans.

And we are called back into service again and again.

Called to care for this world and the things in it.

To feed the lambs and all of the other creation

God has given us.

 As broken and broken

and as faulty as we can be,

God will use us.

Maybe we feel like we’ve let God or others down.

God sees past all that, and just sees our potential.

All God needs is our love.

And everything else will come out of that.

As many times as we mess up

and don’t live up to our own expectations,

we are called to a life of abundance, depth and service to others

We are called over and over into a new life with God.

Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.

Jesus says, follow me.