Nourishing Faith
Nourishing Faith – John 21:1-19
It is only in the Gospel of Luke that we sense the depth of anguish felt by the disciple Peter when the cock crowed twice and Peter came to realize that he had denied his Lord three times – just as Jesus had predicted.
It is significant that we remember this detail from Luke’s account because I believe that in this encounter of Peter and Jesus in John’s Gospel, Peter is still feeling that anguish and grief. In that moment before the crucifixion of Jesus, Peter came to realize how weak he truly was and how unprepared he was to really follow Jesus. And as the events of that last day played themselves out, Peter was no doubt racked by great swings of emotion as he would have chastised himself for his weakness and yet struggled to imagine how he would have responded differently.
True enough, he had remained with the others after the crucifixion and burial of Jesus. He had even run to the tomb to check out the story of the women who had told them that Jesus was raised from the dead. But there still seemed to be a nagging doubt within him as to his suitability to even consider carrying on the mission of Jesus. Even the gift of the Holy Spirit does not seem to impress upon him that he is still worthy of being one of God’s ambassadors for the coming kingdom and the return of God in Christ.
But when Jesus appears to the disciples while they are fishing, it is Peter who does not wait for the boat to reach land but jumps out and wades in to the shore.
After they have all shared a meal, Jesus asks Peter a question: “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” Peter cannot say whether his love for Jesus is any greater than the other disciples. His answer is simple: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
A second time Jesus asks the question but this time he drops the end of the question and just asks if Peter loves him. The answer is the same: “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” When Jesus asks the question again, Peter declares not only that the Lord knows that he loves him but that he knows this because he knows everything.
Through this trinity of questions, Jesus affirms the heart of Peter. Through this questioning as to whether Peter loves him, Jesus is encouraging Peter to acknowledge that despite everything that has happened, that his love for Jesus has never waned.
But Jesus goes a step further. While the questions Jesus asks encourages Peter to realize that he has never stopped loving Jesus even though he denied ever knowing him, Jesus is affirming to Peter that he still has a place in Jesus’ plans. He wants Peter to feed the lambs, tend the sheep; feed the sheep.
Peter is often spoken of as the one who is the Rock, the one upon whom Jesus founded the church; but while one branch of the church adopted Peter in the physical sense, there is far more to make of Peter as the Rock in a spiritual sense. Peter is the closest example that we have of a disciple of Jesus who revealed his full humanity. Peter is the one who deeply loves, who acts impetuously, who makes mistakes, who comes out with profound statements, who makes bold assertions. He encompasses all of our human emotions and many of our human reactions to the divine. He is anything but meek and mild and yet he can be that too.
Here Peter is being asked by Jesus not to found an organization with its own rules and procedures. Jesus is asking him to be a shepherd to those who will put their faith in God and who will seek to follow the will of God for their lives. As John described Jesus as the Good Shepherd, so Jesus calls on Peter to be a shepherd like him. He asks Peter to take the role of Protector, Nurturer, Sustainer of the sheep and lambs. Peter is to be a teacher and a guide. He is to love the lambs and sheep as much as he loves Jesus. Certainly there will be a need for discipline but the discipline is to be exercised in love.
It is clear from the Acts of the Apostles that Peter takes this responsibility seriously. We learn of his struggles when he is challenged to know how to accept people who were not born in the Jewish tradition of faith in God. He struggles to reconcile how God can reach out to people well beyond what he understood from history. The result is that he learns to grow in his understanding of God but also learns more of what it means to feed the lambs and tend the sheep.
For so many people today, the church has become an institution that is full of rules and rituals. It is shaped by its traditions and trappings. But it has also become compartmentalized. Our emphasis on our buildings and our structures and our procedures has led us in many cases to take the heart of the faith and make it the window dressing.
And that is precisely what Jesus was trying not to do when he spoke to Peter. He did not want Peter to focus on building an institution but building up people. He wanted Peter to focus his time and attention on giving to people what they needed to live their lives in such a way that we felt nourished and filled. This didn’t mean that Peter would always do or say what the people wanted to hear but it meant that he would be seeking to guide them in their lives so that their faith in God could be strengthened. He would encourage them to read the Word of God and learn the lessons Jesus taught that they might discover for themselves the true meaning of life. He would encourage them to seek for God in every moment of their lives. He would encourage them to be mindful of one another and conscious of their need to support one another. And when they were following a path that could potentially harm them, he was to intervene and guide them on the right path.
I have said before that more than 90% of our lives are lived outside of the place where we gather as a community of faith. It was rare that we heard of Jesus in the temple or synagogue teaching the people. Life lessons were shared where people were and when they needed to hear them because nourishing faith is not a once a week thing. It is a daily thing, even an hourly thing. We will never be known for what we say or do inside these walls as a community of faith. We will be known for what we say and do outside of these walls. But if our faith is to be an active part of our daily living, we need to think of nourishing our faith every day.
No one feeds a lamb one day a week; no one would think of seeing if the lamb is safe one day a week. Feeding and caring for sheep and lambs is a daily task. And so is our faith.
Peter was called by Jesus not to found an organization but to nurture an organism. He was called by Jesus not to be a rule maker but a nurturer and a guide. In this time it is critical for us as communities of faith to recognize that the most important role we can have with each other is not that of gatekeeper but of shepherd. I encourage each one of you to nourish your faith in God and to be an encouragement to one another as you live your life seeking the will of God wherever you go.
AMEN