So we have come to the epilogue of John’s gospel and we are back to that wonderful scene on the beach where Jesus makes breakfast for his disciples. Jesus is showing his disciples, and John is showing us, what the way forward will be for them after Jesus ascends to heaven. The first thing he shows them, is how the disciples are to answer their call to go out to the world with the message of the Gospel. The next thing he shows them and us is how the members of the Church should relate to one another. And he shows us this through his interaction with Peter.

Peter, as you will recall, denied Jesus three times after Jesus had been arrested and after he had proclaimed his willingness to die with Jesus. Jesus and Peter have already reconciled. This is not the first time they have spoken since Peter’s denial. We see in Luke and in first Corinthians that Jesus appeared to Peter alone after the resurrection and before he appeared to the other disciples. We don’t know exactly what was said, but I think we can assume that Peter confessed his faithlessness and Jesus forgave him.

Which means that their interaction on the beach is not about reconciliation, but about restoration. It is not about forgiveness, for Jesus has already forgiven Peter, but about Jesus’s call to Peter going forward.

Peter has tried in his own way to express his love for Jesus, and in every case his efforts have failed. And as we consider Peter’s repeated, and failed, attempts to define how he will express his love for Jesus, and how he will prove his love for Jesus on his own terms, we should ask: Where do we see the same pattern in ourselves? What are the things that we tend to come up with, that we find ourselves thinking, this is what I must do to be a good Christian, a faithful follower of Jesus. Sometimes we’re successful in our efforts and sometimes we miss the point or over-estimate our spiritual strength. That shouldn’t really surprise us, as Peter shows us that when we set our own spiritual goals and rely on ourselves to get there, we usually get a front row seat to our own deficiencies. 

But we also see in this interaction with Peter and Jesus that when we fail, when we get it wrong, Jesus offers us first forgiveness, and then, restoration, and restoration goes beyond forgiveness, because it restores us to our true self. Jesus has already forgiven Peter and now he offers him something more. Now he offers to restore him to his calling. And that too is a profound act of grace.

Peter had done much to lose Jesus’s trust. And we could imagine Jesus at this point forgiving Peter, but then saying something like “Maybe after all that’s happened you should just stay out of the way, try not to mess anything else up, and the rest of us will take care of the important work of the Church now.” But that is not what Jesus does. Jesus restores him not only to his relationship with God, but to his responsibilities in the Church. Peter is still an apostle. Peter still has work to do for Jesus. Peter still has a purpose in the kingdom. And so do all of Jesus’s followers. Christ has a purpose, a calling for each one of us at each stage of our lives and in all our circumstances.

Again and again we are told by John what Jesus says here to Peter: If we love Jesus, we are to show it by loving his sheep – by loving his people. And yet … that’s often the last thing we want to do … isn’t it? I mean, we’re fine doing some acts of service – the kind that are straightforward and concrete, and don’t obligate us to anything further. But Jesus has deliberately chosen an image that’s not like that. He’s chosen the image of a shepherd. And earlier in John’s gospel Jesus has already explained how a good shepherd was called not just to care for the sheep from time to time or only in ways that are convenient: a good shepherd was supposed to consistently and sacrificially love the sheep. And yet, so often, it’s exactly those kinds of close, long-term, long-suffering relationships with the people of God that we try to avoid. We don’t like the obligation, or the vulnerability, or the mess.  And yet that is what Jesus calls Peter to.  And it’s what he calls us to as well. 

Jesus calls on us to minister to people in relationships where we are mostly like the shepherd and they are mostly like the sheep. Whatever your situation, there is someone who could benefit from your knowledge of the Lord, or your experience with the Lord, or the wisdom or the maturity the Lord has given you. There is someone who could be fed and tended by it. Jesus has invested in you. Through his Spirit, through his Word, through his Church and through many other Christians, he has nurtured and equipped you. And what he has given you he wants you to use. And he wants you to show your love for him by using it to bless his people. Where is Jesus calling you to tend and feed others at this time?

And there’s another side to this that we need to consider: sometimes we are the shepherd and sometimes we are the sheep. Jesus reminds us that we are sheep, every one of us. And while he is our chief shepherd, he is using others to shepherd us, and we are called to receive the food and the direction they give us. And while we are not called to sacrifice our own reasoning or consciences by any means, we do need such human shepherds. Sometimes we need their greater wisdom, or experience, or knowledge. In our faith community, in our family relationships, in our friendships, in our reaching out to others; sometimes we are the shepherd and sometimes we are the ones being shepherded: A priest shepherds her people and in turn is shepherded by them; Parents guide and direct their children and at the same time learn and are shaped by them. Jesus taught us that the poor will be first in the Kingdom of God, and anyone who has interacted with someone in great need experiences the loving gaze of Jesus ministering back to them. All relationships have a component of reciprocity: shepherding and being shepherded is a two-way street as we build one another up and bear each others' burdens.  

The spiritual writer Henri Nouwen had a profound experience of this. After twenty years of great academic success, teaching at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard, Nouwen came to the conviction that his worldly success was interfering with his spiritual wellbeing. He was burning out, and he was doubting the value of the things he was spending most of his time on. And so Nouwen changed the course of his life. He went from teaching at Harvard to living in a L’Arche community – a community where he would both live with and work with mentally challenged people. Nouwen writes: “I moved from Harvard to L’Arche, from the best and the brightest, wanting to rule the world, to men and women who had few or no words and were considered, at best, marginal to the needs of our society. It was a very hard and painful move,” he said, “and I am still in the process of making it. After twenty years of being free to go where I wanted and to discuss what I chose, now I was living the small, hidden life with people whose broken minds and bodies demand a strict daily routine in which words are the least requirement.”

And so for us, the most important first question as we seek to shepherd others is not about our competence, but about our love: Jesus tells Peter that the path of shepherding is not one where control is more and more gained, but one where control is more and more surrendered. That means that the direction of ministry is very different than we tend to think it is. But it also means that the way ministry shapes us is much deeper than we tend to believe it is.

So there are a couple of things for us to consider: one is that we should be open to whomever the Lord may use to shepherd us. God delights in using those overlooked by the world to minister to his people. We must be careful not to overlook them but be open to receiving the Lord’s care through them. It also means that with all humility, we cannot put limits on the ways the Lord may use us to minister to others.

In his sermon at the opening of the General Synod this week, The Most Reverend Michael Curry noted that four of Jesus' disciples, Peter, Andrew, James and John, were fishermen, yet never caught any fish without Jesus’ help, and relied upon Jesus to feed the multitude. “They were not the A-Team of apostolic disciples,” he said. “And look what they did. There are followers of Jesus all over the world because of them: They changed the world.”

And so, if we love our Lord, let us love his sheep. Let us submit to the shepherds he sends us. Let us care for the sheep he has entrusted to us. And let us shepherd and love one another, confident that through us, Christ himself is caring for his people, and making us into disciples who can walk in his footprints.

Amen.

 

 

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