Feed My Lambs (Acts 9.1-20, John 21.1-19)
Feed my Lambs
I sometimes look at the pages of the Bible and think that God
uses the most unlikely people doesn’t He? From Moses, the Murderer to Ruth the
Moabite, David the womaniser, to Paul, also a murderer. As far as I know I’ve not murdered anyone,
well, not lately anyway, there’s nothing under my patio by the way, what patio,
who’s even talking about a patio, not me!
Unlikely people, that are used for God’s purposes. For me that’s one of the most wonderful things about the Bible, it’s got every little bit of humanity poured into its pages. Whoever said ‘we shouldn’t use our experience to shape our thinking about God, only the bible!’ Is clearly a bit flawed in my view. Because the whole of the Bible is lived human experience. Story, History, Poetry, Gospel all combine into a beautiful mess of complicated questions, thoughts and meaning.
Our faith isn’t a neat little box,
but like that box of wires at the back of the drawer, you all know the one I
mean. The one with the chargers in it for the phone you haven’t seen in ten
years, or old USB wires.
Human beings are flawed and yet flawed people are useful to
God. Nobody is useless and it gives me hope, because if God can do something
with these people, surely She can do something with me!
It’s just the way God works, not in the way we expect, and
sometimes not in the way we want either. I know it’s cliché but “God really
does work in mysterious ways”, yes, I can feel your eyes rolling as I say that,
but it’s true friends. Cliches are true, and sometimes useful, and we have two
narratives this morning about unexpected things, and unexpected people.
The church started off as a rag-tag band of misfits and poor people. Men and women struggling to survive
in a world that persecuted them, which I know sounds like the tagline for a
Nicholas Cage Movie, but it really was true. You only need to read the letters
and Gospels of the NT to see it.
The Church was not a place for the spiritually well and
sorted, but a place for those who came to know something about Jesus, who felt
God moving within them. That’s how Saul came to be a member.
Not an institution, but a way, the way. That’s what
early Christians called themselves, and it’s mentioned in our Acts reading “He
went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in
Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether
men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.”
Perhaps the way is a better term to describe
Christianity, and there’s a reason why Jesus calls himself ‘the way, the truth
and the life.’[1]
Jesus is the way, shows us the way and we follow his way. We follow, we
try, and sometimes we succeed.
Saul, who later became Paul, was a powerful man. He was a
Pharisee and one of the most violent persecutors of the way. He was on a
journey with bloodlust in his nostrils, ready to really inflict harm on those
early followers. Yet, God came to him, and he abandoned all that. Seems to me
to be like a bit of a divine joke! Somebody who opposed the way so much,
suddenly changed beyond all recognition? And became one of the greatest
evangelists and apostles in Christian history?
It must’ve been frightening to have the Damascus Road
experience, but I wonder how many of us have longed for something like that to
happen to us?
Longed for a clear voice to tell us what to do? Longed to
know and to have something that dramatic and life changing happen? Perhaps some
of us have had similar experiences to Paul on the Damascus Road. For many of us
perhaps our experiences have been more subtle than a flash of light, a voice
and a blinding.
Ananias trusted God, but, Saul had such a reputation
he was rightly terrified. It was an unexpected thing for God to bring Saul, of
all people to him. I think we can all identify with Ananias can’t we? When he
said ‘umm, you sure Lord, like, he has killed loads of my friends and stuff.’
But God says ‘No. I’ve chosen Saul. He will bear my name to
many people.’
Unexpected things, unexpected people. And an unexpected catch
and breakfast.
What does it mean for us to follow the way?
After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples, our
reading today is the third post-resurrection appearance. The disciples are in
the boat and suddenly they realise it’s Jesus calling to them. There’s a lovely
cyclical nature of this as Jesus repeats the first miracle he did in front of
them, the miraculous catch of fish, the thing that drew them to him in the
first place.
Peter, impetuous, impulsive, Peter was so keen to see Jesus
that he leapt into the water without thinking, and swam towards him. In what I
expect was quite a funny moment.
And they have breakfast.
But it’s more than that, it’s a frank conversation. The basis
of what is going to happen, and what it means to be a follower of the way.
Simon son of John, do you love me?
Yes Lord, you know that I love you.
Jesus said “feed my lambs.”
The basis of love, the basis of following the way is simple,
look after each other.
Simon son of John, do you love me?
Yes Lord, you know
that I love you.
Jesus said “take care of my sheep.”
He says it again, like the unfolding of the three fold
denial. When we deny him, when we don’t know what to do, or who we are, he is
there asking us, do you love me?
That’s all that is required. Do you love me?
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do
you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third
time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you
know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”
Our response to the love of Jesus should be to feed His
sheep. To care for one another, to care for our community in small and large
ways. It’s not just my job to do the Ministry of God, it’s all our
responsibility. Because we are followers of the way, God’s way.
Jesus turns to all of us and asks, do you love me? He calls
us into doing unexpected things, just like he unexpectedly called Saul to him.
What is God calling you to do? Is there a thought, an idea, an inspiration that
has been niggling away at the back of your mind? Is there something you want to
do but just don’t know how?
Perhaps that’s a question we must all ask ourselves. God
doesn’t call us into brow beating drudgery. God is madly in love with you.
Nobody is dead weight, we are all good enough to serve Him. But my question is
How do we feed our sheep?
How do we become even more of a blessing to our community?
Because the mess, the tangled wires, the human filled pages
of the Bible, the stuff of life, that’s where God is.
[1] John 14.6
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