FOLLOWING MEANS GOING SOMEWHERE

John 21:15-19

Sunday, April 22, 2007

What did we do before there was Mapquest?

I’ll tell you what I did—and still do, because you don’t always have access to the Internet. We were driving around in the town in which I was born—Olean, New York. We decided to look for the church in which my brother and I were baptized. (When you’re driving, you get to make all sorts of decisions.) I didn’t really know the address or where it was.

I figured that it was an older church, so it would be closer to downtown. So, we drove down the main street. It wasn’t there. I thought that it couldn’t be too far off the main street so, we started driving around Olean. I followed my usual plan, if the street I was on stopped for another, I would turn on it. We actually found the church!

Usually, the people in the car with me mutiny and make me stop so they can ask directions. In this familiar story from John’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t wait for His disciples to ask directions. He simply says, “Follow Me.” As we hear Jesus’ exchange with Peter, not only is Peter restored as His disciple, but Jesus teaches Peter that following Him means going somewhere.

Where are you going? Are you headed forward or backwards?

Jesus’ resurrection moves us forward—we have a future more than we have a past. Peter is painfully aware of his past—his recent past. The drama builds in the narrative, as Jesus poses His question to Peter three times. Don’t you imagine that each, “Do you love M e?” reminded Peter of each of his denials that Maundy Thursday night as he waited for the results of Jesus’ trial before the high priest out in the courtyard? Jesus doesn’t leave Peter in his guilt and grief. Easter has changed everything. Even Peter has a future.

Jesus restores Peter. He restores him with forgiveness—the same way He restores you and me. Jesus went to the cross so that our betrayals and guilt for sin can’t keep us away from Jesus either. His resurrection assures us that all of that is paid for and that we have a future and a hope.

But there’s more going on here. Remember the story of Jesus’ call to Peter?

Whether it’s Mark telling us about the miraculous catch of fish and Peter’s amazement at Who Jesus is or John’s account of Jesus’ call to Peter to follow Him—who then left his nets and fishing gear, Jesus is obviously wanting Peter to recall. Then, Jesus called Peter to follow and He would make him a “fisher of men.” Now as Jesus meets Peter the situation is a bit different.

It would appear that Peter has chosen his nets and gear as more important—have Peter’s denials led him to rethink Jesus’ call? Perhaps, Jesus’ first inquiry refers to Peter’s choice—“Do you love Me more than these (trappings of your life as a fisherman, your stuff)?” Jesus’ forgiveness—His resurrection that gives Peter a future—gives Peter the ability to answer. His answer is that he sees a future—Peter loves Jesus more than his stuff. Love, though, gives direction to our lives.

You and I already know that love changes our directions. Romantic love leads people to change their directions and marry so that two different directions become one. Parental love leads people to decide to change their directions to lead children into maturity. Friendship love leads people to change their directions to help their friends or meet needs greater than themselves. If our human love changes our directions, how much more does Jesus’ love?

Our stories are not that much different from Peter’s. You and I have betrayed Jesus, loving our stuff or our choices and desires or something more than Him at one time or another. He could face you and me with the same trio of questions with which He faces Peter. Do you love Jesus more than anything? We’d like to answer YES! but without His forgiveness and the future He gives, we can’t. We’re stuck in the backward-looking view in the mirror of who we’ve been. He forgives—just as He forgave Peter. Let go of that past, He invites, here’s a future!

Like Peter, too, we are restored as His disciples. Jesus re-writes our stories through Easter’s victory the way He rewrites Peter’s. He takes us back to when He called us—each worship service revisits our baptisms, each hearing of the forgiveness of sins announced recalls how who we are—our talents, our abilities, our vocation—is loved by God and claimed for His service. Peter had his skills retrained from fisherman to fisher of men—even more, to shepherd. How will Jesus use you? What does He have in mind for you and your future?

Remember, He loves you. Love means we go somewhere.

Where? Peter’s three-fold call reminds us of our three-fold mission statement as a congregation. Remember? We are called by God to REACH OUT, CARE FOR and BUILD one another into maturity in Christ. You and I have talked about our “triangle-shaped” lives in Christ. There is an “outreach” direction, an “in-reach ”direction and a direction that reaches up in faith.

Reach. Care. Build.

Peter is called to feed, tend and feed Jesus’ lambs and sheep. While we could talk about the pastoral office and say much about pastors as shepherds under Christ, such a conversation would leave you out. Jesus doesn’t intend to do that. He gives not just pastors a future—He gives you one, too. He calls you into action, not just pastors. The verbs in Peter’s call have to do with caring and nurturing—serving Christ’s flock.

Peter is asked if he loves His Lord more than his stuff. By the grace of forgiveness, Peter answers with his life. You and I have that same grace to let go of those things—stuff, choices, attitudes—that keep us from loving our Lord. Love leads somewhere. Peter went there. Love changes our direction—hear Jesus’ invitation, “Follow Me.”