"From the Old We Travel to the New" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday May 18 – 5^th Sunday of Easter
Scripture:  John 13:31-35


Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend Convocation at the Atlantic School of Theology and celebrate with the graduates.  The graduation ceremony is held in a church each year, as there isn’t a space on campus big enough to accommodate it; and because it is a theological school, it always feels like a cross between graduation and a worship service.  Last Saturday, 13 students graduated with their Master of Divinity degree, 6 students graduated with their Master of Arts in Theology and Religion, and 27 students graduated with various diplomas and certificates.  It was a grand celebration, with singing and prayers and moving speeches and a reception in the church hall afterwards.

And for all of the students who graduated, it marked a turning point in their lives.  Most of those who graduated with their Master of Divinity will be ordained in the coming weeks in different Regions and Dioceses across the country which makes graduation almost like stage one of the turning point, but for all of the students, no matter which program they were graduating from, the celebration marked a change.  They are no longer students, no longer writing essays, no longer listening to lectures or participating in seminars.  At the end of the ceremony, a commissioning and benediction were offered, just like we end all of our worship services – a sending out into the world with God’s blessing, to do God’s work.  The graduates have been sent from the university into the world, to take all that they have learned and use it to serve God’s mission.

So how does all of this connect with our gathering today?  The passage that _____ read for us from John’s gospel comes from the last day of Jesus’s life.  You might remember how this story goes – “on the night before he died, Jesus and his friends gathered around a table…”  In John’s version of events, there is no bread broken or wine poured out – or, quite likely there was bread broken and wine poured because they were sharing a meal, but John doesn’t attach any significance to the act.  Instead, John shows us Jesus, washing the feet of his disciples, and then telling them that they should serve others by washing their feet.

And John also shows us Jesus teaching his disciples.  Through the second half of chapter 13, then all of chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17, Jesus teaches his disciples – in the section that _____ read for us, Jesus is just getting warmed up!  These chapters include some of the best-known statements of Jesus – things like, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not be afraid”; or “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”; or “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  Scholars like to call this part of the story Jesus’s Farewell Discourse – he is saying goodbye to his beloved friends, his beloved students, and giving them their final instructions.

And so in some ways, this part of the story is almost like the disciple’s graduation ceremony.  They have been in the presence of Jesus, watching what he did, listening to his teaching, learning from him.  But now this period of time is coming to an end.  After tonight, their teacher isn’t going to be with them anymore, at least not in the same way.  The time has come for them to take what they have learned from the Jesus-school and carry it into the world, and start living the way that they have learned.

And the commissioning that Jesus gives to them?  Love.  Love one another as Jesus has loved you.  Throughout the 4 ½ chapters, Jesus comes back to this theme again and again.  Love one another and love the world.  Serve one another and serve the world.  It’s almost as though Jesus knows that this is his last chance to teach his students, and he wants to send them out into the world with love ringing in their ears.

The disciples aren’t going to be left alone.  Their learning isn’t over, even as they are graduating from the Jesus-school, just as last weekend’s graduates will all be life-long learners.  They are going to encounter the risen Christ on the other side of Good Friday; and even in the farewell discourse, Jesus promises them that the Holy Spirit will be with them.  But this final meal together marks a turning point.

And we too, we are descendants of those first disciples.  We are living in the post-graduation world that they are stepping in to.  We aren’t going to have a chance to watch Jesus healing people, or be part of the crowd that receives the miraculous loaves and fish.  We don’t have the chance to put our hands in Jesus’s wounds the way Thomas did, or to feel Jesus’s arms literally wrapped around us.  We don’t have a chance to ask our questions and hear Jesus’s voice answering them… at least not yet.

But, like those first disciples, we have the stories that Jesus told, the teachings that he gave, the miracles he performed – even though we didn’t get to see them first-hand, we have the witness of God’s people that we can turn to any time.

And like those first disciples, we also have the Holy Spirit with us, guiding us, nudging us onward, and transforming us more and more into the image and likeness of Christ.

And like those first disciples in a post-Easter world, in a post-graduation world, we have Jesus’s words of commissioning ringing in our ears:  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

I invite you to take a moment to imagine yourself standing on a graduation stage.  If you can remember your own high school or university graduation, you can imagine yourself on to that same stage, or maybe you want to imagine something different.

You are standing there with all of your classmates, all of the other followers of Jesus. Imagine Jesus standing up there and saying to you and to everyone else:  “I love you.  Now go into the world and love everyone you meet in the same way that I love you.”  You all know that the work hasn’t ended – it is only beginning.  Know that the learning hasn’t ended – it is only beginning.

Now imagine that it is your turn to cross the stage to receive your diploma.  Imagine crossing the stage, walking towards Jesus, and he hands you a rolled-up diploma.  Look into his eyes.  What words does he offer to you directly in this moment?  Does he offer you words of encouragement?  Does he give you a specific mission or commissioning?  Does he simply smile his love into your soul?

And as you and your classmates turn to walk off the stage, Jesus’s parting words to you are the same as the words he began with:  Love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you must love one another.

 

 

Listening to inspiring words from this year’s Valedictorian
AST Convocation – May 10, 2025

"Call and Re-Call" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday May 4, 2025 – 3^rd Sunday of Easter
Scripture:  John 21:1-19


Let’s talk a bit about Peter.  If we only remember what he did when Jesus was crucified, he doesn’t come off in the best light.  After all, three times he denied knowing Jesus.  Even though, at the start of Holy Week, Peter had promised to stay with Jesus to the end, to go wherever he would go, when push came to shove and Jesus was arrested and put on trial, there in the courtyard in front of the palace three times Peter denied that he had anything to do with Jesus and his followers.

But this isn’t where Peter’s journey started.  His story didn’t begin with Jesus’s crucifixion and his own denial… and his story didn’t end there either.

Peter’s story began up north in Galilee.  The details of the story of how Peter first met Jesus are different depending on whether you are reading Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, but because today’s story came to us from the gospel of John, let’s stick with John’s version of events.

If we turn back to chapter 1 of John, we begin with John the Baptist doing his thing out in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord and baptizing people as a sign of repentance, as a sign of hearts and lives that had been changed by this message.

Jesus shows up one day, and John the Baptist points at him and proclaims, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!”  John, like all teachers, had a number of disciples or students, and two of them, after hearing their teacher point out Jesus as the Lamb of God, turned from John and started following Jesus.

When Jesus saw them, he gave them an invitation:  “Come and see.”  They came and they saw and they listened to what Jesus had to say.

Peter still isn’t on the scene yet, but Peter’s brother Andrew was one of the ones who had turned from John to “come and see” what Jesus was all about.  Andrew, obviously excited about what he was seeing and hearing, went and found his brother, Simon Peter, and told him, “We have found the Messiah, the anointed one!”

So Jesus invites Andrew, “come and see”; and Andrew goes and invites his brother, “come and see!”

In John’s version of the story of Jesus, some of the well-known stories about from the other gospels are left out.  We don’t get to hear Peter trying to persuade Jesus to turn away from the way that leads to crucifixion, and we don’t get to hear Jesus condemning Peter in return, “Get behind me Satan!”  In John, we don’t get the story of the Transfiguration, where Peter, James, and John follow Jesus up a mountain and witness him transformed and hear the voice of God; which means that we also don’t get to hear Peter stumbling over his words with excitement, “Lord, it is good to be here! Let’s build some tents to try and stay here!”

But in John, we get to see some of Peter’s faithfulness, even in the early times.  When Jesus’s teachings become controversial, and many of his followers drift away, Jesus asked his inner circle, “do you want to leave me too?” and it is Peter who answers on behalf of the twelve:  “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

Peter is the spokesman again on the night before Jesus died, when Jesus kneels down and washes his disciples’ feet, taking on the role of a servant.  Peter protests this act – “Lord, you should never wash my feet!”  Jesus then teaches Peter, and the rest of the disciples, that we need to do both – we need to be able to receive the loving acts of service that others offer, and we must also go into the world to serve others we encounter.

Later in the same meal, Peter proclaims his loyalty to Jesus:  “Lord, I will lay down my life for you.”  And at first, he keeps this promise.  When Jesus is arrested, Peter pulls out a sword and uses it to cut off the ear of the slave of the high priest.  How he smuggled that sword into the garden, we aren’t told; or even why he thought he might need a sword.  But as Jesus is arrested, Peter risks his own arrest standing up for his teacher.

And then John gives us story of Peter’s three-fold denial of Jesus.  Three times, while Jesus is on trial in the palace, people recognize Peter as one of his followers; and three times, to save his own skin, Peter denies knowing Jesus.

On Easter morning, in John’s gospel, Peter is one of the first disciples to arrive at the empty tomb, though he doesn’t get to see Jesus right away – it is Mary Magdalene who first encounters the risen Christ.  But then Peter is presumably with the disciples as they cower behind a locked door and the risen Christ appears, saying, “Peace be with you.”

How we get from that moment behind a closed door in Jerusalem to a fishing boat on the Sea of Galilee isn’t clear, but it seems as though Peter and some of the other disciples are at loose ends following the crucifixion and the resurrection.  Jesus is no longer with them.  They have lost their purpose of learning about God’s way of being in the world from the one who showed them that way.  And so they go back to what is familiar – their boats and their nets on the Sea of Galilee.

And all of a sudden, Jesus is there, and there is a miraculous catch of fish, followed by a breakfast meal shared on the beach.  And following the meal, for each time that Peter had denied Jesus, Jesus asks him, “Peter, do you love me?”  Each time, Peter replies, “Yes, I love you. You know that I love you!”  And then each time Jesus replies with a command:  “Feed my sheep.”

The first time Peter met Jesus, Jesus called him with an invitation, “Come and see.”  Peter has spent all of this time seeing, witnessing to God’s Way in the world; and now in his final encounter with Jesus, Jesus calls him slightly differently, not with an invitation but with a commission:  “Go, and tend my people.”  Peter has been changed by all that he has seen, all that he has witnessed, and so his calling changes to suit.

God calls all of us, but like Peter I don’t think that our calling is static.  I think that our calling changes over time depending on where we are at in our life and where we are at in our journey with Jesus.  There are times when we might be called to “come and see” – to listen and learn and observe.  There are times when we might be called to simply rest in God’s presence.  There are times when we might be called to feed God’s sheep – to go out into the world to serve the people we encounter there.  There are times when we might be called to proclaim God’s goodness and to teach God’s ways.  There are times when we might be called to be prophets – that challenging role of pointing out to the world how the world is straying away from God’s vision.

I invite you, this week, to ponder God’s calling in your life.  What is God calling you to in this moment?  Are you called to come and see?  Are you called to rest?  Are you called to go and serve?  Has your calling changed at any time?

God needs all of us listening to our calling; the world needs all of us listening to our calling, and following where we are sent.  And just like for Peter, Jesus will be there with each one of us, accompanying us along the way, and welcoming us home.  Thanks be to God!

 

 

“Breakfast on the Beach”

Peter Koenig

Used with Permission