John 21:1-19
“The F Words”
May 5, 2019
We’ve all been in gift shops with lots of fragile items and tchotchkes where you walk gingerly and hesitate to pick things up for fear of breaking them. As you make your way through the store’s seemingly really narrow aisles, you carefully keep your purse or shopping bag close to your body so that you don’t accidentally brush up against something that you will end up taking home if they have a “you break it, you buy it” policy. You’ve also probably noticed that some of these shops are clear that little children are not very welcome and rather than come out and say “Don’t bring your kid in here” which might scare off some potential sales, they instead use the slightly more subtle and creative approach with signs that say something like, “Warning: Children left unattended will be sold to the circus” or “Please note unattended children will be given espresso and a free puppy” or my personal favorite, complete with skull and crossbones, “Unattended children will be given a tattoo and be taught how to curse.”
When I chose the title to this week’s sermon, “The F Words,” I knew I was skating on the edge. But considering that this story at the end of John’s Gospel comes after an emotional overload of a week that included a jubilant entry into Jerusalem, a confounding Passover meal, the Garden of Gethsemane and then unexpected betrayal followed by arrest, denials, mock trial, jeering crowds, a bloody execution and to top it all off – an empty tomb signaling a resurrection – maybe a bit of over the top innuendos are warranted.
And still after that week of terrific highs and terrible lows, how does Simon Peter cope? He goes back to the familiar – he returns to what he knows best which is fishing. And this we get. Consider a time when you’ve gone through a great cause for joy or a devastating loss. The way we make sense of the world is to return to our everyday routine or at least try. Of course a profound shock or deep grief can make even the things that we know so well and could do in our sleep more challenging as we are forever changed but there is tremendous comfort in getting back to what we know how to do, even if it is just going through the motions, letting the memory muscles take over when our own powers of
concentration are just not there. And so they get in the boat and cast out their nets, doing what comes as second nature to them and yet that isn’t working. But then Jesus introduces a new way into the routine – throw the nets on the right-hand side of the boat and sure enough, the ordinary becomes extraordinary and they haul in 153 fish and have breakfast waiting for them, courtesy of Jesus himself. Jesus’ appearance is not his first after the resurrection either. In the previous chapter he appears, seemingly out of thin air, in the upper room.
Jesus has turned the tables on sadness and grief and he does it, as so often happens with so many of life’s important moments, over a meal. Having shared what would have seemed, and which we often refer to as the Last Supper, he continues the tradition upheld ominously there, that table fellowship is a vital way that we get to be church together.
Then in the midst of Peter’s mounting concern with Jesus’ repeated questioning of his love we finally get to the F words that become Peter’s instructions for all that is to come and our instructions for living. The first F is feed which Jesus here, as he usually did, is role modeling. The asking by Jesus whether Peter loves him three times has extra significance as we remember that, as was predicted, Peter denied Jesus three times. This is where we are reassured of a grace and love that does not hold grudges. Rather, Jesus appoints Peter to take up the mantle and be the one who leads the work of making sure that he is not forgotten. Follow is the other F word that Jesus leaves us with. Feed and follow, to be a blessing with these F words rather than the curse that is encased in that other more colorful word beginning with F.
This added epilogue that is believed to have been written by a follower of John’s, highlights the timing of this appearance of Jesus – just after daybreak as a new day and new light is beginning. To have the end of John’s Gospel take place at dawn is an affirmation of Jesus’ life and ministry that started way back with the final words from scripture we hear on Christmas Eve and Maundy Thursday:
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:5)
Rachel Held Evans was the writer of a number of books, articles and a popular blog about her journey from being a conservative Evangelical Christian to a mainline Episcopalian. She was unafraid to tackle controversies within religion and stand with those who felt excluded in their own churches. Last year a number of us read her book, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again. At 37 years old, this mother of two children under the age of 4, died yesterday as a result of an infection that led to an induced coma and ultimately the swelling of her brain was more than her body could handle. Here in this place we call church but which can be any place where God’s children come together, even a beach with a cookout of bread and fish, we know that the two F words that Jesus emphasized to the end were feed and follow. In that spirit, as we come to the table to feed and follow, hear these words from the late Rachel Held Evans:
“This is what God’s kingdom is like: a bunch of outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table not because they are rich or worthy or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes…And there’s always room for one more.” (Searching for Sunday)
We always have room to feed more – be it at the Communion table, the coffee shared in the next room, the food that is piled up back in the Narthex for our neighbors or with the bags that will be packed for our children through the Summer Lunch Program. And plenty of feeding won’t involve food but love – deep, abiding, non-judgmental, accepting love. And how do we keep on doing the follow part? We invite others to join with us – today, that was Kiera in her baptism. And we get up every day to figure out what following Jesus will look like. And even though I emphasized F words plural, the secret to one is the other. We follow Jesus when we feed others, literally and figuratively. And we can’t help but feed if we are truly following. Jesus here taps into Peter’s feelings but doesn’t stop there. The call to action is inseparable from the love. May it be so for each of us with every new day. Amen.