The Upload
Posted on Apr 08, 2016 by
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
I pray you have had a blessed week.
Holy Week and Easter are always hectic times around the church. Between preparing for all the extra services, actually leading the services, and then adding to that all the additional, unforeseen things that inevitably come up, when I get to Easter and finish that last service, I am ready for things to get back to normal.
As we read our Gospel text for this Sunday, John 21:1-19, my guess is that is exactly where Peter is. With everything that happened that last week of Jesus’ life, the tension, stress, Jesus' dying and the coming back to life, I think he felt he had had enough, it was time to get back to normal, and so he headed to his home and decided to go fishing. After all, he was a professional fishermen; it was his life and his livelihood. The other disciples decided it was time to get back to doing what they knew best and a normal life, as well, and time to get away from this crazy Jesus stuff.
As they soon discovered, though, now that the Resurrection had occurred, now that that first Easter was over, there was no getting back to normal. Life would never be the same again, no matter how hard they tried to go back to the way things were. Oh, they tried to go back to normal. They went fishing, as they always had before, and as was often the case, they caught nothing. But there was someone on shore waiting for them, which in and of itself would also have been fairly normal, except this person waiting had been dead recently and now he was alive! Jesus’ presence said, “Guess what, Folks, from here on out, there is no possibility of returning to business as usual, no going back to normal.”
And to show just how different life would be, Jesus decided to have a conversation with Peter after breakfast where he said to Peter, “Peter, do you love me?” Not once, but three times. Remember Peter denied Jesus three times? Now Peter had three opportunities to affirm his love for Jesus, which he did. But every time Peter affirmed his love for Jesus, Jesus called upon him to take care of his “sheep.” In this conversation, Jesus called Peter, and by extension, all the disciples, including you and me, to take care of and love one another.
Now, if we are honest with ourselves, feeding and tending sheep isn’t all that exciting or spectacular. It is much more often ordinary and mundane. Living the Christian life is a matter of living together and doing simple acts of love, care and concern.
Do you love Jesus? Support our youth ministries so they can go serve and be in mission.
Do you love Jesus? Go visit someone who lost a loved one and still grieves.
Do you love Jesus? Help feed the hungry at Children’s Memorial.
Do you love Jesus? Help prepare and hand out Pantry Packs.
Do you love Jesus? Do something simple, ordinary and kind today, knowing God is present in all that you do.
Have a blessed week!
Shalom,
Pr. Dave