Sermon Text

April 18, 2010

DO YOU LOVE ME?
John 21:1-19

It may well be one of the great anti-climaxes of all time. After all of the breath-taking events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus, after the gift of the Spirit and the commissioning of the disciples, we find a small group of the disciples back in Galilee. Peter says, "I'm going fishing." The others respond, "We'll go with you."

Easter has come and gone, and they return to Galilee and to life as they knew it before Jesus, just as if nothing has happened!

Then again, it isn't so hard to understand. I think we can identify with a post-Easter letdown, with a time when the vision grows dim and the sense of mission is clouded. Day follows day in dull monotony. There are no mountaintop experiences, no great evidence that all has changed, no great evidence, even that we have changed. We have tried to recapture the joy of the resurrection, but we return to the routine and reality of life where death and tragedy still stalk, and where the long stretch of days ahead brings an apathy and an uncertainty about what we are supposed to be doing.

So, the disciples go fishing. They return to the comfortably familiar. But even that doesn't work out for them. They fish all night, the lantern hanging out over the water, the nets being laid out and hauled back in -- all for nothing.

Then, a figure stands on the shore, a hundred yards away in the gray darkness of dawn, and tells the disciples that they have been fishing in the wrong place. With nothing to lose and everything to gain, they cast the net again, and it is filled so full they can't haul it in! An unnamed disciple turns to Peter, and in an awe-filled whisper, says, "It is the Lord!"

When Peter hears this, he grabs his clothes and leaps into the water. Whether he is swimming toward Jesus or trying to get away from the one he had denied three times, we aren't told, but I think it's safe to say that Peter's feelings about seeing Jesus again must have been mixed!

They come to the shore to find awaiting them a meal with Jesus himself as the host. Once again, they are reminded of how Jesus had taken everyday things and transformed them into something sacred -- like the sharing of a common meal. He calls them to eat and to fortify themselves for the work he has for them to do, and to take unto themselves his own sustaining presence. In the Word heard and preached, the Sacraments administered, and the songs and fellowship of the community of believers, the risen Lord is present to strengthen his people for their mission in the world.

Today, we are dedicating this magnificent, beautiful, and amazingly functional organ to the glory of God and for the worship of this congregation. Today, it is brand new. We have been hearing it grow and come to life over the past couple of months, and it’s an amazing thing. We still haven’t heard all there is to it!

But, experience tells us that its novelty will fade, and we will begin to take its beauty and grandeur for granted. There may even be days when we wonder if we did the right thing in investing so much time, energy, and money in this organ. It’s when we begin thinking that way, when we begin to take such a big part of our worship life together for granted, when we feel the “let-down,” that we need to remind ourselves of what we are about to do today. We are about to dedicate this organ “to the glory of God.” Its beauty, its majestic sound, its incredible variety, are all there to enhance our worship of God together. It’s just that basic, and just that important. It’s just that basic, and just that important.

In our Scripture for today, we are returned to poor, guilt-ridden Peter. Just as he had denied his relationship to Jesus three times, so Jesus presents him with the question of discipleship, the most basic and the most important consideration, the only question that really makes any difference, the question that holds within itself all the love and grace and forgiveness in the universe: "Do you love me?"

That's what it all comes down to in this thing called discipleship. "Do you love me?" In and through all our deep theological discussions, in our struggling with the tough issues of our day, in our half-hearted or even whole-hearted attempts at relationship with each other -- all our life of discipleship, worship, learning, and service comes down to this question and our response to it: "Do you love me?"

It is important, too, for Jesus to ask us more than once, taking us deeper and deeper into the ramifications of our commitment to him. It is only as we discover and rediscover our own answer to this probing, grace-filled question that we discover who we are in relation to this one who claims us as his own, and who goes with us into all the rest of our lives.

Jesus knows how we have tried to keep in our hearts and minds the joy and power of his resurrection, and he knows how and how often we have failed. He knows the ways we deny him, day in and day out. But still he comes, and he offers us forgiveness and commitment by asking the question of discipleship: "Do you love me?" And we continue to respond, in words both spoken and sung, and in the music that lifts us together toward the nearer presence of God.