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In today’s gospel, Jesus knows that the disciples are heading into an awful time which will threaten to destroy their bond with him. 

So Jesus tells the disciples that he will  give them two gifts that will help them survive the challenges ahead.  

Jesus gives us these gifts as well, because Jesus knows that we, too, at some point or another will find ourselves in some uncomfortable, unsettled place in our lives trying to deal with events that leave us troubled, anxious, and overwhelmed.  Our faith in God’s goodness may even be shaken.    

So we can relate to the disciples in today’s gospel, who are starting to feel worried, because they are becoming more and more aware that Jesus is in great danger, and the likelihood of his death is growing by the day.   

Jesus knows that his hour is about to come, that he will be crucified, resurrected, and then he will return to his beloved Father, the One who had sent Jesus to be with us.

So Jesus has an intimate loving conversation with his friends.  Although he knows that they cannot be spared what is ahead, he will give them what they need to make it through what will be a shocking and traumatic time for them all, a time that will result in Jesus being gone from them in body forever. 

Jesus reminds the disciples that as his followers who keep his word, they already abide in his Father, the one who sent him, and that God abides in them.   They already know the deep love of God for them because they know how Jesus loves them. 

But then Jesus  goes on to add something new to what he has already taught them about abiding in God. 

Jesus tells them about the two gifts that Jesus plans to give them that will help them to survive the challenges ahead.   

First of all, Jesus tells the disciples that his Father will help them by sending the Holy Spirit to be with them.  And the Holy Spirit will help them to remember what Jesus has already taught them, as well as to teach them even more about God with them. 

Most of us probably have glue sticks or some sort of glue in our houses.  Glue is a binder, holding things together.  That’s one of the functions of the Holy Spirit, to bind things together, to help the teachings of Jesus to stick, so that we will remember what Jesus has told us to do as his followers, especially when the challenges come, bringing anxiety and fear.   

The Holy Spirit also binds us to God, and also to one another in love. 

Our granddaughter Autumn just went to her end of the year preschool picnic last week.  The teachers and one of the church pastors gave the children various gifts to use through the summer, to help them to prepare for next year.

So I just have this vision of Jesus in this closing conversation with his disciples.  Jesus tells them that they are each going to get a glue stick in the form of the Holy Spirit—to help hold them together, binding them to God, him and to his teachings, and to each other.

Jesus also tells the disciples that he plans to give them his peace, his second gift to them.    Now this is not just any peace, like the peace we feel when life is running along smoothly and for a time we aren’t worrying over something. 

My oldest daughter gave me this mug years ago.   It has taken some abuse, like falling off the top of my car, and getting this chip in it, but even with this damage, it’s still functional and gets a lot of use in our house.    The thing I like most about this mug is that it has the word “peace” on it, followed by a helpful definition that gives us a hint of what God’s peace is like. 

Peace.  “It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work.  It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.” 

And we can be calm in our hearts if we remember that the Holy Spirit has bound us to God in love and that God is abiding in us and we are abiding in God.

When life brings us the inevitable anxieties and fear that we all must face, knowing that we really do abide in God helps us to remember that God will give us the strength to deal with what’s ahead. 

Jesus says to the disciples that he is telling them all this before he returns to his Father, so that they may believe.  Right now, what he is saying to them is academic.  They have yet to experience the horrible anxiety and fear that is ahead. 

And when the challenges of those last days come, the disciples do forget what Jesus has told them. 

The disciples are so anxious when Jesus is arrested that Peter even betrays Jesus out of fear for his own life.    After Jesus dies, the disciples are so full of fear that that they lock  themselves away because they figured that they’ll be the ones that the authorities will come after next.  

Their anxieties and fears take away any memory of what Jesus has told them.  So when our anxieties and fear cause us to forget what Jesus has told us and what Jesus promises to give us—the presence of the Holy Spirit and the peace that only Jesus can give, we are in good company, right along with the disciples themselves. 

After his resurrection, when the disciples were locked away out of fear, and full of anxiety, Jesus showed up in the locked room with them, in his resurrection body. 

Jesus didn’t scold Peter for betraying him.  He didn’t scold the rest of the disciples for forgetting his promises to them.  He didn’t scold them for locking themselves up out of fear. 

Instead, he came to bring them the gifts that he had already promised them, the gifts that they so desperately needed.  

Jesus said,  “Peace be with you.”  And as the disciples realized that Jesus was truly with them, they felt his calm enter their hearts, and joy replaced their fear. 

And like any good teacher, Jesus repeated his first words so that his peace would settle even more deeply into the hearts and minds of the disciples. 

“Peace be with you.” 

And then he sends them out just as God sent him to them in the first place—and the events in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles tell us about the magnificent results of spirit filled disciples going out into the world, carrying the peace that only God can give,  and proclaiming the good news for all.   

Then Jesus breathes on the disciples and gives them his greatest gift—the Holy Spirit, the Advocate who will always be with them to remind them of all that Jesus has said to them.  Now the words of Jesus will stick with them forever, and they can go out with the strength to deal with all the unknowns ahead. 

Jesus promises to give us, his present day disciples, the same two gifts that he gave his friends when their world was falling apart around them and they didn’t know how they’d go on—Jesus promises us his peace and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives as well. 

On Thursday, the church celebrates the Ascension of Jesus to his Father, and then spends the ten days until Pentecost in prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit.  Ben has come up with a prayer leaflet that you can use to guide your prayer for those ten days.  The Thy Kingdom Come website has many prayer resources for those ten days. 

So let’s pray for the open hearts we need for the Holy Spirit to come yet again into our lives,

for the Holy Spirit will help us to remember the words of Jesus, the Holy Spirit will bind us more closely to God, and the Holy Spirit will help us to live with one another in the peace that Jesus left with us, the peace that can calm our every fear and take away our anxiety and give us the strength we need to carry on. 

Three years ago, on Good Shepherd Sunday, I prepared a quiz to test your knowledge about sheep. I’m going to share this quiz with you again to see how much you remember, and then we’ll go on to the rest of the sermon in which sheep like behavior turns out to be a good thing.    

Sheep are dumb animals without a grain of sense.  (F)

Sheep can see behind themselves without turning their heads. (T, they have horizontal, slit shaped pupils)

Sheep can navigate complex mazes.  (T)

Rams attack one another and try to kill off the competition (F, Actually, rams form long term relationships with other rams, intervene for the weaker rams, and support each other in fights.)

The instinct of sheep to flock together is an indication of their lack of intelligence (F, actually, they flock together as a survival mechanism.  They know about safety in numbers).  

Sheep can experience a whole range of emotions, including boredom, despair, anger and happiness.  (T)

Sheep recognize the voice of their shepherd. (T)

Sheep are so smart that they don’t need a shepherd (F)

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.” (T)

And to follow Jesus is to come to know God more perfectly and completely in this life. 

At the beginning of John’s gospel, the writer says that “no one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

In today’s gospel, when the Jewish authorities ask Jesus directly if he is the Messiah, Jesus says that he has told them, and they don’t believe.

Jesus and God do the same lifegiving work, and they are united in the work that they do in the world. 

But even though the authorities  have seen the works of Jesus, they are blind to the fact that what Jesus does points straight to God and God’s life giving love to the world. Jesus is making God known in the world in a whole new way.   But these authorities can’t hear what Jesus is telling them because they don’t belong to his sheep.  They don’t recognize his voice and so they fail to hear God’s voice.

Jesus tells his questioners, “The Father and I are one.” 

And a little further on in this chapter, he tells the authorities, standing there with stones in their hands getting ready to stone him, “If you do not believe me, believe the works I do, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” 

This Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is known as Good Shepherd Sunday.  In today’s gospel, the ones who believe, unlike the authorities who are questioning Jesus, are the sheep who hear the voice of Jesus.  Jesus knows them and they follow him. 

As Psalm 95 says, “For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.  O that today you would hearken to his voice.”  

For us Christians, Jesus is our good shepherd, the one we listen to and follow.   

In today’s collect, we prayed, “O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people:  Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads.” 

Which brings us back to Peter, who was with Jesus by the Sea of Galilee last week, having that heart to heart talk about love and what that love means for the sheep who belong to Jesus.   At the end of the conversation, Jesus says to Peter, “Follow me.” 

So let’s see what has happened with Peter since his conversation with Jesus. 

In today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles, the Day of Pentecost has already taken place, the disciples, who have been waiting in Jerusalem, have been filled with the power of the Holy Spirit, and now the word about Jesus is spreading far and wide. 

Peter is following where Jesus is leading him.  Peter has left Jerusalem and is in Lydda, where he has healed Aeneas, a man who had been bedridden for eight long years. When the people who live in Lydda see the man up and about, they turn to the Lord. 

Meanwhile, over in Joppa, a disciple named Tabitha (Dorcas in Greek) has died.  Hearing that Peter is nearby, the disciples send for Peter to come to Joppa without delay. 

So Peter heads to Joppa. 

When he is taken to the room where the body of Tabitha lies, Peter listens to the voices of the friends of Dorcas, mourning over their friend.  Then he asks all of them to leave.  Having heard from the friends, Peter now wants to listen to Jesus.   

So Peter kneels down and prays. 

In that time on his knees, before he turns toward that body on the bed,  maybe Peter simply remembers that morning on the beach, the last time he had been with Jesus, when Jesus had asked Peter three times, “Peter do you love me more than these?”  And Peter’s answer had been yes, and so Jesus had said to Peter, “Take care of my sheep.”   

Now, Peter must have been on his knees listening for the beloved voice of Jesus once more, and he hears again,   “Peter, do you love me?” 

“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” 

Now, as he prays, Peter becomes the channel through which the life giving power of the Good Shepherd, Jesus, flows through Peter out into Tabitha, returning her to life. 

In this miraculous moment, Peter is one with Jesus, united with Jesus in Jesus’ lifegiving, healing mission to the world.  And in this oneness with Jesus, through which new life flows into Tabitha, people see for themselves the evidence of God’s love, and many believe in the Lord.

In Bible study on Wednesday, Helmut pointed out that we suddenly seem to have so many friends who need our prayers.  Our prayer list continues to grow. 

We can pray for them the way Peter prayed that day in Joppa, by removing the other voices that nag at us even in prayer, and then be intentional about listening for the voice of Jesus, reflecting on Jesus’ love for each of us, Jesus’ love for the person for whom we’re praying, and then to open ourselves as a channel for Jesus’ healing, life giving resurrection love to flow where it will, out into the world, and into the person for whom we are praying. We are united with Jesus in Jesus’ lifegiving, healing mission to the world.   

Jesus says that he gives his sheep eternal life, and they will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of his hand.  So when we pray, we really can simply listen for the voice of Jesus and reflect on his life giving love in prayer, resting in the assurance that all is well, and that all will be well, even when life is falling apart around us, and even if we are full of fear for ourselves, for those we love, or more broadly, for the state of the world itself.

After all, we are praying for what is not now, but for what will be.  We are praying in the now for the not yet of God’s reign, here and completed on this earth, when the words of Jesus have finally been realized. 

As Jesus says earlier in Chapter 10 as he is talking about being the good shepherd, “There will be one flock, one shepherd.”

That shepherd is the Lamb at the center of the throne  in the book of Revelation who guides us to the springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from our eyes. 

This is the same God who in this life pursues us with goodness and mercy all the days of our lives and wants us to dwell in the house of the Lord forever, the one who wants us to have life, and to have it abundantly.  

“The miraculous catch of fish” – Jan Toorop (1912)

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In today’s gospel, Jesus returns to the disciples again, after having appeared to Mary Magdalene outside the tomb on the morning of the resurrection, and twice to the disciples when they were locked in the house where they were meeting in Jerusalem because they understandably feared for their lives.

And in John’s version of events after the resurrection, the disciples then  seem uncertain about what to do next.

So they return home.  They go back to Galilee, to Capernaum, Peter’s hometown, beside the Sea of Galilee. 

Peter decides to go fishing, and some of the other disciples join him. 

And the story goes on from there. 

This year as I’ve revisited these stories that tell us that Jesus is indeed alive, having been resurrected by God, I’ve been wondering about why Jesus kept appearing to the disciples—of course the most obvious reason is so that they would come to believe that he had indeed been resurrected, and that God’s love can overcome even death. 

But I think there’s another reason that Jesus kept showing up. 

My theory is that Jesus himself was reluctant to leave behind his life on this earth, reluctant to leave the beauties of this earth, and most of all, reluctant to leave his friends behind.  After all, as Jesus had told them before his death, where he would be going they could not go, except through him.  He longed for them, and he still wanted them with him, and so he kept coming back to them to make sure that they would follow him, even though he would no longer be with them and he knew that they would feel uncertain in his absence.  

It’s true that in John’s gospel Jesus gave the disciples the Holy Spirit to be with them, and the Holy Spirit would sustain them in Jesus’ absence. 

But still, he must have desired to be with them again.  They were the ones who had believed in him and had followed him and had gone with him through both the joys and the sorrows of his life. 

So he sought them out on last time in Galilee, where he had first met his disciples beside the Sea of Galilee.    For three years, Jesus had preached throughout Galilee, often using examples from nature to help people understand God’s love.  He had healed and fed the crowds, bringing God’s grace and abundance to life.    I imagine that those three years were the most fulfilling years and the happiest years that Jesus spent on this earth, there in Galilee.

So on the morning that was to be the last resurrection appearance that he would make, Jesus went out to the shore early in the morning before the sun was up to fix breakfast for the friends that he loved so deeply, so that they could share one last meal together. 

There on the shore, in the cool damp predawn air, Jesus  pulled the marshy breath of the sea into his lungs as he built  a charcoal fire.  He listened as the raspy sounds of the two stones he rubbed together mingled with the songs of the waking birds. He watched as the spark from the stones became the tiny flame that grew into a lively fire which pushed away the morning chill.  As he tended the fire,  Jesus listened to the water lapping against the sand, calling him to step into the cold water, feeling the exhilarating chill rush up his legs and through his body.

As the light dawned, Jesus caught glimpses of Peter’s boat shrouded in the early morning mist.  He could tell, from the way the boat sat high in the water, that his friends had caught nothing all night.  How disappointed they must be.  And so Jesus, so full of grace and abundance, called out to them.   His voice echoed across the water,  as he told them to cast their nets on the right side, and their nets filled with fish.   

The nets were so full of fish that the disciples knew that this abundance could only be God’s grace upon grace, and the person on the shore could only be Jesus. 

When they got to shore, Jesus invited them to have breakfast.   He took the bread and then the fish, gave it to them, and they all ate.

We know that Jesus loved celebrations, parties and food, for his very first miracle in John’s gospel took place in Cana, at a wedding, and Jesus changed water into wine.     

So what a joyous reunion this breakfast around the charcoal fire must have been, early in the morning, the day stretching ahead, like the sea  that stretched in front of them,  rich with possibilities.  The disciples and Jesus must have reveled in beginning this day together in this familiar and beloved place, feasting together and celebrating. 

But after breakfast had ended, Jesus and Peter had a private and quite serious conversation.  We’ve all heard how Peter had denied Jesus three times after Jesus was arrested, and now, Jesus asks Peter three times if Peter loves him—giving Peter the opportunity to redeem his earlier betrayal of Jesus. 

But I also think that Jesus needed to know for himself that Peter really did love Jesus more than anything or anyone else. 

And so Jesus put Peter on the spot three times. 

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” 

Jesus doesn’t say, “Peter, do you love me more than these?”

Instead, Jesus addresses Peter by Peter’s original name, Simon, son of John.  Jesus calls Peter by the same name that Jesus had used the very first time he met Peter back at the beginning of John’s gospel.

Remember that day?  Andrew, Simon’s brother, brought Simon to Jesus, and Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John.  You are to be called Cephas (which is translated as Peter). 

Jesus wants to know—after all that has happened, do you, Simon, really love me more than all the goodness of your old life as a fisherman on this sea?  Do you love me more than these familiar friends who have been such good company and have been part of your life for so long?  Do you love me more than safety?  Do you love me above and beyond your fears? 

Jesus wanted to know.  Jesus needed to hear that Peter was at last ready to set aside everything else and step into what would be the ongoing uncertainty of following his Lord and Savior.  After all, Peter  would not see Jesus again in person on this earth.  This was the last time they would be together.

Jesus needed to know.  “Simon, son of John, are you truly willing to be Peter, my disciple?”

And Peter, chastened by these three questions, professes his love for his Lord and Savior.  Jesus is brutally honest with Peter.

All through your life, Peter, you have made your own decisions and gone where you wanted to go.  But, Jesus says,  if you love me and follow me, you are going to end up going where you do not want to go.  Others will take you there. 

And then Jesus issues the invitation that he issued to Simon, son of John, the first day he ever met Peter. 

“Follow me.” 

Peter did not know that morning where his Lord and Savior would lead him.  But at last, he was willing to go wherever Jesus led, no matter how far, no matter how unfamiliar, no matter how frightening,  no matter the cost. 

We know that Peter did leave the familiar shores of the Sea of Galilee, and went all the way to Rome, to the center of the Roman Empire, where he was put to death for being a leader of the followers of Jesus.  But Peter’s story did not end with his death.

Here we are, on the shore of another body of water, the Rappahannock River, and we gather each Sunday as members of this little group of Jesus’ followers, here in a church named in honor of St Peter himself.  Peter, in all his humanity, lives on in each of us. 

After this conversation with Peter, Jesus was reassured that he had indeed chosen well when he had called Peter to follow him the first time.  Peter, despite his faults, would indeed be the rock on which Jesus built the community of followers of whom we are a part. 

As I’ve thought about the story’s meaning for all of us, the current followers of Jesus, two things come to mind. 

First, these resurrection appearances assure me that Jesus longs for each one of us, for you, and for me.   Jesus longs to dwell in our hearts. 

John, who wrote today’s gospel, tells us that Jesus was the Word who became flesh, who came to live and die as one of us, the one through whom we receive grace upon grace.  Jesus, the one who is close to the Father’s heart, longs to be close to our hearts as well. In John’s gospel, Jesus invites his disciples to abide in him. “Abide in me as I abide in you,” Jesus said to his disciples.    

This eternal desire on the part of Jesus to dwell in our hearts is the true miracle of Easter. 

The resurrection appearances remind us that Jesus wants to be with us and will be with us, especially in our fears and doubts.  Jesus longs for us so deeply that he will come and find us no matter where we are, and will appear to us in all sorts of ways.  If we are looking for him, we will keep finding him with us. 

Jesus will go with us, plus, bonus, he gives us the Holy Spirit as well. 

Second, Jesus calls us into uncertainty. To follow Jesus means to enter into uncertainty.  Jesus told Peter that Peter would be led by others where he did not want to go—into uncertainty.

All of us live with uncertainty, at some times more than others.  But I’ve become convinced that it is in the times of our deepest uncertainties that Jesus is most present with us.  Jesus is present with us in illness.  Jesus is present with us in the transitions in our lives, as we leave the familiar behind and face into the unknown.    Jesus is present with us in our anxieties and our fears. Jesus is present with us in our losses.   Jesus is present with us at our deaths and welcomes us into our own resurrections. 

So for all of us facing the uncertainties that life inevitably holds, I find this last resurrection appearance of Jesus to the disciples especially inspiring.  Jesus is clear that no matter where Peter goes, Jesus will go with him.    

“Jesus here, Jesus there, Jesus everywhere.  Jesus above, Jesus below, Jesus along the road you go.”  Tom Hughes sent me that little verse this week, and it sums up what Peter came to understand that morning beside the sea.  Jesus would never, ever, leave Peter because Jesus loved Peter so much. 

And Jesus himself was reassured that Peter would never, ever leave Jesus because Peter loved Jesus so much. 

Their love for one another was certain, so they could enter any uncertainty ahead without fear. 

In his meditation “The Graciousness of Uncertainty,” Oswald Chambers points out that “to be certain of God means that we are uncertain in all our ways, we do not know what a day may bring forth.  This is generally said with a sigh of sadness, it would rather be an expression of breathless expectation.  We are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God.  Immediately when we abandon to God, and do the duty that lies nearest, God packs our lives with surprises all the time….

when we are rightly related to God, life is full of spontaneous joyful uncertainty and expectancy….leave the whole thing to Jesus, it is gloriously uncertain how He will come in, but He will come.” 

That is the miracle of Easter, that Jesus will come to each of us because Jesus loves us too much to leave us alone. 

Remember, too, that Jesus will also want to be reassured of our love for him.

So he will ask each of us, just as he asked Peter, “Do you love me more than these?”    Jesus will ask us that question more than once! 

May each of us answer, along with Peter, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” 

And then we can follow him with breathless expectation into the uncertainties of our lives, leaving our fears behind.   

 

Resource:  Chambers, Oswald.  “April 29th  The Graciousness of Uncertainty”  in My Utmost for His Highest: Selections for the Year.  New York, New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1966

Guest preacher Susan Mitchell

Easter Sermon – Rev. Thomas Hughes