Saint Luke's Lutheran Church

Were you here for Easter this year? What a great service we had! The flowers and the decorations were beautiful. The music was wonderful. And we had such a crowd of people that we had to put up all of our folding chair and then drag stuffed chairs in from the narthex.

But that was two weeks ago. This is now the Third Sunday of Easter and the flowers are fading, along with our memories of Easter Sunday. But that's the way it is every year. In fact, that's the way it is every Sunday. Every Sunday is followed by a Monday - a day when we go back to work, a day when we go from the bread and wine of Holy Communion to the fast food of McDonalds and Subway, a day when the sacred sounds and symbols of Sunday are overshadowed by the problems and pressures of daily life. What do we do with Easter Sunday on Easter Monday? How do we incorporate Easter faith into a work-a-day world?

It seems as though Jesus' first disciples had the same kind of questions. Twice the Risen Lord had appeared to them while they were in Jerusalem. He had breathed on them and given them the Holy Spirit. He had sent them, as the Father had sent him. But they didn't know where to go or what to do. So they went back home, back to Galilee. They went back to what they did know - fishing. This was not the opening weekend of Walleye season. This was not recreation - this was what they did for a living. In other words, these disciples went back to their old job, back to their old life, because it was familiar, it was comfortable, and they didn't know what else to do.

This is the way that some of us deal with Easter as well. We just don't know what to do with the Easter message. We just don't know how to live as Easter people. So we go back to what we do know, we go back to work on Monday, or back to school, or back to whatever it was we were doing before.

But Jesus will not let us go. The one who died on a cross is as alive today as he was that first Easter. He's alive, and he is as much with us as he was with those first disciples. So just when we think things are getting back to normal, just when we think Easter is over for another year, Jesus shows up.

When I read this final chapter in the Gospel of John, I am struck by how this Gospel ends where it began - with Jesus saying to his disciples, "Follow me!" It ends where it began - with a dramatic display of divine extravagance. Only this time it is not turning 160 gallons of water into wine, it is filling an empty net so full of fish that they can't even lift it into the boat but have to drag it over to the shore.

There's Jesus ready to cook them breakfast and to teach them yet one more lesson on loving. You see, that's what this whole story is about - that's what the whole Bible is about. It's one great love story - the story of God's love for the people he created, the story of a love that would not let us go, the story of a love that would seek and find, forgive and embrace, suffer and even die. It is the story of God's love for us and of God's love calling us to answer his love with our own - by loving God and by loving one another.

When Jesus shows up on the beach, he does what God has always done. He reaches out in love to those who are lost and don't know what to do. He begins with Peter, because they have some unfinished business. "Simon, son of John," Jesus says, "do you love me?" In fact, Jesus asks this question not once, but three times. Now Peter gets his feelings hurt when it seems that Jesus questions his love so much. But there is a reason Jesus asks three times.

Just a few weeks earlier at his last meal with his disciples, Jesus told them that he was going where they could not follow. Peter boldly declared that he would follow Jesus anywhere - that he would even lay down his life for him. Jesus not only questioned Peter's statement but predicted that, before the morning rooster crowed, Peter would deny him - not once, not twice, but three times. That is exactly what happened, in the courtyard of the High Priest. While Jesus was being question before the Jewish Council, Peter had gotten into the courtyard outside. He was trying to stay in the shadows, close enough to see what was going on, but not close enough to be identified with the one they were planning to put to death. But the moon was full and some of the servants recognized Peter as one of Jesus' followers. Peter immediately denied it - not once, not twice, but three times.

Now do you see what Jesus is doing in our Gospel lesson? Peter denied Jesus three times. Jesus gives Peter a chance to affirm his love - not once, not twice, but three times. Peter's triple confession of faith and love perfectly matches his triple denial. And three times Jesus accepts Peter's confession and tells him to feed his sheep. Each time Jesus accepts Peter's profession of love. That's what love does - it seeks out the beloved, even when it has been betrayed, and it forgives. It forgives over and over and over again. Jesus wants Peter to know that he is forgiven. Then Jesus makes yet another prediction. He predicts that Peter will indeed lay down his life for his Lord. John doesn't tell us, but I can't help but think that once Peter finally understood what Jesus was doing here, he went out and wept once more. This time not with sobs of guilt and grief, but with tears of joy and love.

Today Jesus asks us the same question that he posed to Peter: Do you love me? With this question Jesus is offering us his love. He is offering us his forgiveness. It does not matter whether we have denied him in the past. It does not matter how many times we have denied him. Jesus' love seeks us out and offers us God's love and forgiveness.

Do you love Jesus? Do you really love him? To those who answer "Yes," Jesus says, "Feed my lambs!" Are you bringing your children to worship and Christian education as you promised the day they were baptized? Are you willing to tend the children and youth of this congregation as if they were your own? Are you willing to help make St. Luke's truly a Child in Our Hands congregation? Are you willing to model the Four Keys of caring conversation, family devotion, cross-generational service, and ritual and traditions? Are you willing to encourage others to do the same? Are you willing to work in the nursery, to help with Sunday School and Vacation Bible School?

Do you love Jesus? Do you really love him? To those who answer "Yes," Jesus says, "Feed my sheep!" Are you willing to step forward in service - to do the things that need to be done so that the people of God feel loved and cared for? Are you willing to be as much a minister as a consumer, as much a servant as one who is served? Are you willing to open your hearts to all God's people in this community - the sinners as well as the saints? Are you willing to welcome the poor and the outcast and those on the margins of our society? Are you willing to feed the hungry, provide shelter for the homeless, visit the sick?

Do you love Jesus? Do you really love him? Don't answer too quickly. For if you say "Yes," God may lead you where you do not want to go. If you say "Yes," you may have to sacrifice and even suffer for the kingdom of God. But if you say "Yes," you will have not only the love and forgiveness of God, but the power of God's Holy Spirit - the Spirit who is able to make us truly Easter people, not only on Easter Sunday, but on every Monday of our lives. The Spirit who is able to lead us to glorify God, not only with our worship, but also with our service.

Do you love Jesus? If so, answer "Yes." Then together, let us feed his sheep. Amen.