Matthew Broyles Third Sunday of Easter Wilshire Baptist Church April 10, 2016 8:30 service Dallas, Texas Tending the Flock John 21:1-19 One of my and many other peoples favorite character to imitate is Forrest Gump from the movie Forrest Gump. Such a classic movie with many great scenes and memorable moments. One particular moment in the movie is both hilarious and illustrative of Peter in this Scripture passage. After the military, Forrest goes off to try being a shrimp boat captain and Lieutenant Dan, with as much doubt as you can imagine, tells Forrest that if he ever becomes a shrimp boat captain he would come and be his first mate. Sure enough Forrest becomes a shrimp boat captain and one day on his way back to the dock after having been out shrimping we see Forrest bent over, looking off into the distance trying to make out this figure on the dock. It takes him a moment but realizes it s Lieutenant Dan. Forrest stands up and waves real big. Then without even turning off the boat, he jumps overboard and swims as fast as he can to the dock to greet Lieutenant Dan. As they are greeting one another we see the boat go floating by crashing into the dock. As calmly as he could, he looks at Lieutenant Dan and says, That s my boat. Peter was SO excited to see Jesus that he jumped out of the boat and swam as fast as he could to the shore to be with Jesus. Jesus was there to greet him and the other disciples with a meal, fish being cooked over an open flame on the beach. So many of Jesus intimate and sacred moments happen over a meal and here comes another one with Peter. After they had finished eating breakfast, they had one of the most memorable conversations in scripture. Jesus and Peter go for a long walk on the beach. Jesus doesn t even warm up to it but gets right to the point, Simon, son of John, do you love me? UGH. A punch to the gut for Peter. You re questioning my love? Yes. You know I love you. This happens not once but three times which corresponds to Peter s three denials. Each time, Jesus doesn t shout hurray but gives Peter a job to do. Jesus is 1
commissioning Peter and letting him know it s time to step up and learn how to be a shepherd. Jesus is sharing his work and ministry with Peter. Even further, Jesus s asking about Peter s love for him is also a since of reminder and confirmation for Peter about the love he has for Jesus as he begins this journey of shepherding. It also instills the notion that as followers of Christ, love is behind every bit of work and ministry that we do. N.T. Wright says, Here is the secret of all Christian ministry, yours and mine, lay and ordained...it s the secret of everything from being a quiet back-row member of a prayer group to being a platform speaker at huge rallies and conferences. If you are going to do any single solitary thing as a follower and servant of Jesus, this is what it s built on. Somewhere, deep down inside, there is a love for Jesus, and though you ve let him down enough times, he wants to find that love, to give you a chance to express it, to heal the hurts and failures of the past, and give you new work to do. Jesus has seen Peter s all-or-nothing attitude since he first called him so he knew he would get Peter s all. Peter didn t always say the best things or even do the right thing but whatever he did, he did with everything he had. This included diving out of a boat in order to be with Jesus, so he wasn t worried about Peter working hard. He wanted to ensure that Peter knew that all that he did wasn t going to be coming out of selfish ambition or motive but coming out of his love for Jesus. Acknowledging our love for God isn t the end of our faith journey but only the beginning. In order for love to mean something, an expression of that love is needed. As we begin our faith journey one of the greatest expressions of love we can demonstrate is the same as Peter s. Jesus said, Feed my sheep. If we love Jesus, our lives must reflect the love we have. Our lives aren t lived to earn or even prove that we love God. As we know, we could never do enough. We are going to fail. We are going to fall short. We are going to be wrong. This is the radical part of the Gospel and the way God chose to bring God s kingdom to the world. Jesus has come and chosen a bunch of folks who are broken and who fail to change the world. So many people look at their lives and think they aren t good enough to follow Christ or that they 2
don t have anything to offer. Their awareness of their brokenness paralyzes them rather than freeing them up. What a sad thing! Look at Peter s past. He was always quick to stick his foot in his mouth. He was rebuked by Jesus. He denied Jesus three times and abandoned him at the cross. And guess what? Jesus is now commissioning Peter to follow him. What a huge message of love and grace for Peter in that moment. He knows he s messed up in the past but Jesus is still putting trust in Peter to tend the flock. Jesus is doing the same thing with us. None of us are more important than the other. We all are called to tend the flock in some way, shape or form. This is the joy and the responsibility of adhering to the priesthood of all believers and soul competency. As followers of Christ, each of us is called to feed the lambs and tend the sheep. We are responsible for one another. This is what we call a church--aa pen full of sheep in need of shepherding and we all shepherd each other. This is why we have discussions and make churchwide decisions rather than receiving commands. We want to make sure that we are paying respect to and honoring the thoughts and beliefs of every sheep in the flock. We keep each other accountable, we challenge one another, we celebrate with one another and we comfort and grieve with one another. We need each other. Without each other we are alone and life isn t meant to be lived that way. We need God. We need the community in order to grow into the person God has created us to be. I heard a very defining statement about the church in a recent conversation I was having with a church member. We were talking about how we can often lose our focus in the church and it becomes about ourselves rather than about each other. This person said something that really struck me and I ll never forget it. They said, You may wake up on a Sunday morning and not feel like going to church because you may not need it that day. But what if someone else in the church has had a rough week and does need it. What if someone else needs you to be there for them that day? Isn t that what Jesus means by tending the sheep? Paul did say that when one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers and when one part of the body rejoices, the whole body rejoices. 3
This is why we worship together but it s even more so why we have Sunday School classes. It would be impossible for one person to care for every single person in this church. It s a large church! But we have these groups so we can have individual corrals of people within the greater church. We spend time together getting to know one another. We re there at the births of children. We re there at the deaths of friends and loved ones. We work together to find sheep outside of our particular flock to tend to because although we exist to feed and tend to one another, we are also called to tend to those who are outside our flock. Principalities and powers are ruling the world creating systems of poverty and injustice and we are to help tend to those affected by the system as well as help to transform the system. As individuals, we may not be able to change the whole system but we can help and be present in the lives of those who are hurting and crying out for help. This week I read a story about a missionary who was in an orphanage in Uganda. He had been in many orphanages before but this one was different. He walked into a nursery with over 100 cribs filled with babies. He listened in amazement and wonder as the only sound he could hear was silence. A sound that is beyond rare in ANY nursery, let alone a nursery where over 100 new babes lay. He turned to his host and asked her why the nursery was silent. She looked at him and said, "After about a week of them being here, and crying out for countless hours, they eventually stop when they realize no one is coming for them..." People all around us are crying out. It Maybe they are in pain. Maybe because of injustice and most definitely because they need someone to help. As followers of Christ, it is our responsibility and calling to feed and care for these sheep. We don t ever want to get to a point where people become silent and give up on the church or even worse, give up on God because the church doesn t respond to their cries. 4
One thing I love about the interaction between Jesus and Peter is that when Jesus says Feed my sheep, he doesn t say how. Jesus is calling Peter to follow him and devote his life to Jesus. Feed, tend, feed. Some might feel that Jesus left us hanging by not telling Peter or us how to feed the sheep or take care of the flock. Perhaps he was speaking literally. We are to feed people. There is definitely a need for this interpretation. There are people all over the world who are starving and many of them are children. Some people feel called to this literal interpretation of feeding the sheep and that s great because the world needs it. But tending the flock can be expressed in different ways according to the passions and gifts of the person. Some are called to be pastors, teachers, preachers, evangelists, doctors, lawyers, politicians (I think). The point being that no matter what we do, we should be doing it to tend the flock out of our love for Christ. Not just because it s the right thing to do. Not just to make the world a better place. Those are good things but they only come from a love for Christ. Because we love Jesus, we can t help but love the flock and work for what s best for the whole, not just to keep ourselves comfortable and out of danger or pain. When we love deeply, we will naturally do things that may put us at risk. But when we are tending the flock, one thing is certain--we live for the best of the whole, not just for ourselves. We do this no matter the difficulty because Christ loved us first. Do you love him? Follow him. Amen. 5