What Is Our Actual Call To Follow God/Jesus?

 

I am still one John 21 this morning.  It is about the other message that Jesus came to bring to his followers when he met them for breakfast.

Yesterday was about Peter and Jesus’ conversation after breakfast.  When he told Peter what his next Call would look like:    

“feed my lambs, Tend my sheep, Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-17)

Today I invite you to hear what Jesus asked of all of his disciples:

When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.’

Now, just incase you missed it, there were already fish on the fire that Jesus had made for their breakfast.  But, he still asked them to share out of the abundant   catch of fish.

What we have here is Jesus not-so-subtle instruction on how his follower are to behave in a world where some people will alway have less.

As followers of Jesus’ way, to servanthood, was to be their/our way as well. 

“feed my lambs, Tend my sheep, Feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-17)

12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.(Jn 13)

³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’) (Jn. 13)

In his last, opportunities to be with his disciples, Jesus was being extremely clear that they all understood their purpose as his followers in the world.

Love as he loves.

                         

Serve and live as he modeled.  

You know, we who live thousands of year after these passages were written, have been influenced by so many other opinions and traditions we have lost the real teachings of Jesus.

We have gotten our shorts in the preverbal knot about issues that have drawn us away from the main thing.

³⁶‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’³⁷He said to him, ‘ “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” ³⁸This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” ⁴⁰On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.’(Mt,22)

Case in point, in seminary we were given a sheet detailing all of the religious  denominations and their differences.  If you could read that list, you would soon see that the tiniest theological point divided God/Jesus’ message.

Being a “Christian”, a disciple of Jesus, is not about “church membership,” or doing the “proper rituals,” or doing it “how it has always been done” -- that God/Jesus get lost in the maze of human thinking.

If you think about it that is exactly why God came in Jesus skin. He came to adjust the Jewish, human rule, teachings and traditions.

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Forgiveness Just because

I am thinking about the concept of forgiveness.  

How difficult it is to forgive other or ourselves.

How extremely difficult, to believe that the forgiveness offered, by another, is true.

Yet it is so very important for us to realize how easily God forgive.  And yet we just can’t believe it is true.

So I want you to think about what Jesus said as he hung dying on the cross:   

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Before anyone even thought about being forgiven; Jesus makes a blanket offer of forgiveness.

                 No request.

                    No repentance.

                        Not even regret.

                                                

Just: 

         "Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

In the 21st chapter of John Jesus shows this unconditional way of forgiving.  The word is never mentioned nor asked for.  Instead Jesus simply asked Peter: “Peter do you love me?”

Jesus ask Peter the same question three time.  After the third time Peter gets a bit testy:

⁷He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ 

Now I want you to think back a week-or-so to the night Jesus was arrested.  Peter was in the courtyard of the high priest.  Do you remember that scene?  

25 Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, ‘You are not also one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said, ‘I am not.’ ²⁶One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ ²⁷Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.(Jn. 19)

Three times Peter denied Jesus!

Three times Jesus asks: ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’

 

Peter never asked Jesus to forgive him.

Jesus just did. 

Tomorrow we I will talk about what Jesus told Peter. 

15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ ¹⁶A second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend my sheep.’ ¹⁷He said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.’ ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow me.  20 Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; he was the one who had reclined next to Jesus at the supper and had said, ‘Lord, who is it that is going to betray you?’ ²¹When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, what about him?’ ²²Jesus said to him, ‘If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? Follow me!’ (John 21)

What Is The Solution

 Today i am going to write about one of my favorite passage used each Maundy Thursday, John 13.  I call it "The Greatest Love Story Ever." 

³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’  (Jn. 13)  

Now we have to wonder: Is love the solution to the worlds problems?

Wars have certainly proven not to work.  At least in the long run.

Rules, regulations and laws have also not worked so well either.

Conflict resolution attempts leave a lot of room for improvement.

So you have to wonder if Jesus command to love has substance -- possibility -- for solving the world’s mess up ways of dealing.

And at the same time, does the very real presence of evil in our world listen to love?

Can love break through the destructive  behavior of evil and evil intentions?

“The ambiguity of the word “love” is corroborated by the well-known fact that it translates several different Greek words…..Love is a theological virtue: an excellence of character that God has by nature and in which we  participate by grace.” (David S. Cunningham)

You just can’t tell people to love Jesus way without some clear explanation — defining.

Jesus just telling his disciples to love one another Is like trying to tell the Pharisees and Scribes, the powers that be in the religious world of his day, “  I am the Son of God. The one you have been waiting for.  You have to listen tom me."

Or telling a child that candy and cupcakes are bad for them. They just don’t believe you.

And the disciples didn’t, for a moment, believe Jesus words either.  

Words often fall short. 

Even Jesus’ explanation that love would be given “as” Jesus had shown them.  Didn’t work.

Even showing by example didn’t work.

Telling someone to love others has very little affect.

However, that does not mean that it isn’t the perfect solution.  

Actually it is, in fact, the most completely precise solution.

It is just that we, mentally advantaged species, have a very opposite way of doing “together.”  Our natural  inclination is to be: right, the best, the prettiest, smartest, top of the class, leader of the team.

                              

We want to have the last word.

      We want everyone to agree with our opinion.

            We want to have the final vote that decides.

                                   

Well, that not going to happen — not ever.  

History has proven that acting on one person idea or opinion, is in fact, a very dangerous way to live.  Yet the Hitlers and Herods of this world keep trying.

No, actually, Jesus has the correct answer.

                                                                Think about it. 

It would make family life a lot more pleasant.

It would make playground and parks safe and more fun.

Not to mention improve the House/Senate chambers and the United Nations.

All they would all have to do is to wash one another's feet.

That is stoop low before the arch enemy and wash the crap off his/her feet.  Looking up into his/her arrogance face and smiling a true and loving smile.

Well, maybe the is a bit much.

However that is what Jesus did.  Even for Judas.

He did not just give the command to love.  He completely defined it by his actions. 

Period.

Such love is primarily interested in the welfare of others.

It does not attempt to possess nor dominate. 

Allowing a generous space of grace to each other.  

A disciplined habit of care and concerns that grows more natural over time.

So I ‘ll finish with the same question I began with:  Is love the solution to our world’s problems?  Is it not the solution to all issues that create conflict, distrust, mistrust and competition of any kind. 

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end….(He) ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ ⁷Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ⁸Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ ⁹Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ ¹⁰Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ ¹¹For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’  12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them…..

³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’  (Jn. 13)

What Is The Main Thing Jesus Wants Us To Know?

 My mind is thinking, this morning, about the Easter story and all that comes to us in that sort part of Jesus’ life.

First I was a remembering Jesus command to love, after he washed the disciple’s feet. A lowly task done by the lowest slave in the home.   On the night before he was taken prisoner Jesus was giving them a most important of life lessons.  The lesson of humility.

Then he gave them a “new commandment”  to love, and do to each other, as he had just demonstrated to them.  

Be “a servant” he told them. Care for each other.  Don’t be exclusive, or arrogant, or rude.

He was trying to tell them what they needed to understand the most before; he left them to their own decision making life journey.

Then my jumped to the last chapter in John where Jesus was making the disciple's breakfast, after a long night of unsuccessful fishing.  

First he gave them a miraculous catch.  

Then asked them to share some of their catch to put on the grill. A clever way to tell them that they are called to share what we have been blessed with.

Which prompted my mind to Peter and Jesus’ conversation after breakfast.  First he asks Peter if he loves him — three times.  And then tells him: “feed my lambs, “tend my sheep,” “feed my sheep.”

Not only is this small little paragraph about providing and caring for others.  It is also about forgiveness; a forgiveness that isn’t specifically mentioned in the story.

There is so much information, in John’s Gospel, for us to pay close attention to.  It is difficult to do the messages justice in one blog. 

So I will leave you with all of my thinking for now.  Hoping that it sparks some thoughts for you to ponder on. 

A Historical Question: Human or Divine?

 We who walk upon the earth today tend to think of Jesus as someone other, someone who is not truly connected to the human experience.  A being who is in many ways not like us.

However, Jesus lived in ordinary world, doing ordinary activities.  

An ordinary human man; with a-not-so-ordinary-embodiment — incarnation — with in his skin.  

But as extraordinarily divine as this ordinary human was, he lived a totally human life, full of very human ordinary experiences. 

He lived in a small, very small, town with his mom, dad and siblings. 

He grew up in an ordinary home doing ordinary human tasks.  

He learned, from his dad, to use his hands to make things out of wood.

On the first Easter morning that ordinary man gave us an extraordinary gift — the pure fullness of genuine life.

Who died, and yet is now living in another -- inconceivable -- unimaginable realm.

 

Still speaking to us through His Spirit. Still guiding us; adjusting our thinking and our actions, loving us, forgiving us, accepting us 

      and never ever forcing us. 

This very human Jesus was God in flesh. 

He was God’s Word — God’s creative voice — in the flesh of a human man's flesh and blood, with feelings, thoughts and hungers just like you and me.

Today God still comes into the ordinary lives of people to make himself known.  People with no particularly talent, no particular status, no hero qualities.

A life full of extraordinary possibilities, now living out loud within you and me.

Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen And Yet Believe

Have you ever given any thought to why, in John's Gospel, we read story after story of Jesus making so many resurrection appearances?

Jesus first appeared to Mary on Easter morning at the tomb. Mary had told them about seeing Jesus and speaking to him.

                                                           

They didn't believe her story

 

That evening he appeared to the frightened disciples who hid in fear of the Jews. Offering his peace to them.

Then a week later, while the disciples still hid in fear, Jesus came again to let Thomas have his needed proof that Jesus was alive.  Something the disciple had simply told him about. 

                            

Telling doesn't always cut it. 

And some time later when the, frightened and slow to believe, disciples had finally decided to go fishing; Jesus comes and makes them breakfast on the beach.  And gives them the catch of their lives.  

A catch, a fish story, that no one would probably ever believe.

Despite their lack of understanding about what Easter actually meant for their lives, and the life of the world, Jesus just kept coming. Coming over and over to help them comprehend the extraordinary truth.  A truth given to them by a man who actually came back to life.

He came to let them know that he would always be with them even when he gave his physical body back to God.

There is a one thing about this story that is a clear clue to us about why it was so important for Jesus to appear so many times. 

²⁹Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

That my friends means you and me.  

We who do not see, cannot touch his wounds, are given no tangible proof.  Only stories.

And yet believe.

And, like the disciples, we don’t have to hide behind our fears anymore.

19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.   24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’ 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ ²⁸Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ ²⁹Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’ (John 20)