What Strikes You About This Story?

 

Feed My Sheep

This week we rejoin Jesus and his disciples on the beach. If you recall from three weeks ago, the risen Jesus had appeared to the disciples after a night of fishing. They had caught nothing on their own, but Jesus helped them catch a net full of fish, and then he cooked them breakfast.  The story continues:

John 21. 15-17

 

After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”

“Yes, Master, you know I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

He then asked a second time,“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

“Yes, Master, you know I love you.”

Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”

Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 

What strikes you about this week's story?  What do you wonder about?

Do Jesus’ question and his invitation remind you of any other passages?

What does this passage say about transformation? 

I wonder whether Peter was as puzzled as I am…such a quick transition, without further explanation, between Jesus’ question (Do you love me?) and his immediate invitation to him (Feed/shepherd my lambs/sheep).  

I am reminded of two other passages about love. The first passage is the passage about the two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:36-40).  Jesus says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

In the second passage I remember, John says, we love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19).  The word “because”, clearly states a cause and effect relationship. And this, for me, is where transformation comes in. 

I'm learning that the more I meditate on God's great love for me, the more I want to love others.  This transformation is purely by grace, and like a rechargeable battery, I have to keep plugging into God to recharge…no wonder it takes time!  

May God bless you with his powerful and transformative love,

We rejoice to be God’s chosen

not through virtue, work or skill,

but because God’s love is generous,

unconformed to human will;

and because God’s love is restless,

like the surging of the sea,

we are pulled by heaven’s dynamic

to become, not just to be.  

John Bell & Graham Maule

Can We Find Stillness in the Busy-ness of our Lives?

Many of us lead busy lives, or love to tick things off our to-do lists.  Are busyness and task lists the “way of Jesus”?...the man who said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”?  Jesus was busy, but he frequently withdrew to isolated places to pray.  Is “busy” different from the stressed feeling we get when we are hurried?

While I confess I am driven by my task list, I am very attracted to the voice that calls me:  “Be still and know that I am God.”  What if stillness is essential for transformation? 

On Sunday, Rev. Paul Beckingham will continue with his reflection on Psalm 46:

Psalm 46:5-11 (ESV) 

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

    the holy habitation of the Most High.

God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;

    God will help her when morning dawns.

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;

    he utters his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come, behold the works of the Lord,

    how he has brought desolations on the earth.

He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;

    he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;

    he burns the chariots with fire.

“Be still, and know that I am God.

    I will be exalted among the nations,

    I will be exalted in the earth!”

The Lord of hosts is with us;

    the God of Jacob is our fortress.

These two additional passages speak of our triune God transforming us:

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (ESV) 

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Philippians 3:20-21 (ESV)

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

I wonder if following God's advice to be still, and know that He is God, would be helpful if I want freedom, rest, and heaven?

“Busy-ness is inevitable in modern culture…By itself, busy-ness is not lethal…Being hurried is an inner condition of the soul. It means to be so preoccupied with myself and my life that I'm unable to be fully present with God, with myself, and with other people…Busy-ness migrates to hurry when we let it squeeze God out of our lives. 

I cannot live in the kingdom of God with a hurried soul. I cannot rest in God with a hurried soul.” - John Ortberg 

Where is Your Focus?

 

When trials, temptations and tribulations descend on you, where is your focus?  Problem solving?  Racing thoughts? The subject of your temptation?  Anger?  My brain naturally offers me lots of options, and most of them don’t seem very good.  Flight!  Fight!  (Maybe your brain is different from mine - I hope so!)

When Jesus was in the wilderness tempted by the Devil, each of his three responses mentioned God, so I know where his focus was.  

In one of our scripture passages for this week, Romans 12:2, Paul directs us to be transformed by the renewal of our minds, testing to discern what is the will of God.  I wasn’t sure how to begin that, so I read the MSG translation, and read fix your attention on God.  You’ll be changed from the inside out.  Ah, If I can focus on God, God will change me. 

Romans 12:1-3(ESV) 

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 

3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Romans 12:1-3 MSG

[1-2] So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. [3] I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

What else does focussing on God do when we are in the middle of these trials, temptations and tribulations?  The answer is found in our second passage:  he is a safe place, he gives us strength, and helps us when we’re in trouble.

Psalm 46:1-3 (ESV) 

 1 God is our refuge and strength,
    a very present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
    though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam,
    though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah

On Sunday we welcome back Rev. Paul Beckingham.  I wonder what he does when trials, temptations, and tribulations descend?

How Will We Know When We Get There?

Why do children on a road trip ask "Are we there yet?”  I touched on one of the reasons here last week - the journey and waiting is just too long!  

But another reason may be that children don't know what the destination looks like, so they are never really sure whether or not they have arrived.  Do we know what our Christian destination looks like? 

Is that one of the things going on with the disciples in our scripture reading this week?

John 21. 1-14  MSG

After this, Jesus appeared again to the disciples, this time at the Tiberias Sea (the Sea of Galilee).  This is how he did it: 

Simon Peter, Thomas (nicknamed “Twin”), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the brothers Zebedee, and two other disciples were together.  Simon Peter announced,   “I’m going fishing.”

The rest of them replied, “We’re going with you.”  They went out and got in the boat. They caught nothing that night. When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach, but they didn’t recognize him. Jesus spoke to them: “Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?” They answered, “No.” He said, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.”  They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren’t strong enough to pull it in.

Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Master!” When Simon Peter realized that it was the Master, he threw on some clothes, for he was stripped for work, and dove into the sea. The other disciples came in by boat for they weren’t far from land, a hundred yards or so, pulling along the net full of fish. When they got out of the boat, they saw a fire laid, with fish and bread cooking on it. 

Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” Simon Peter joined them and pulled the net to shore—153 big fish! And even with all those fish, the net didn’t rip. 

Jesus said, “Breakfast is ready.” Not one of the disciples dared ask, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Master. Jesus then took the bread and gave it to them.  He did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus had shown himself alive to the disciples since being raised from the dead.

When I read this story, I noticed that it is only when the disciples catch 153 fish, a result so bountiful that they can’t haul the net in, that one of them recognizes Jesus. 

Would we recognize Jesus if we saw him?  How would we recognize the Kingdom of Heaven?  

Will Jesus have breakfast ready for us?  On Sunday we will be Gathering at the Lord's Table, just like the disciples did in our Gospel reading.  Thanks be to God!

Open our eyes Lord

Help us to see your face

Open our eyes Lord

Help us to see

- Jesse Manibusan