Third Sunday in Easter: Breakfast on the Beach

 5/1

Community Garden tulips

On the first of May, the Third Sunday in Easter, I preached for my friends at Beverley Church of Brooklyn. Here's what I had to say:

So here we are. It’s the 3rd Sunday in Easter,  We’re officially six weeks into spring now.  The sun is out, but it’s still cool. But we’ve been through the cherry blossom season and  now the  tulips are out in full force brightening our day with their cheerful array of color.

89th Street Community Garden

The Five Boro Bike Tour is streaming up Adam Clayton Powell, Jr Boulevard about 6.5 miles in.  And workers all over the world are celebrating May Day, which actually ironically commemorates the Haymarket uprising in Chicago in a country that shifted Labor Day to September out of fear of communism.

Dr. Fauci has announced that we are no longer in  pandemic mode and have now entered intro the endemic stage but people we know are still getting covid. Masks are no longer “required” but well, you know? Looks like we’ll have to figure out how to live with covid. And the Ukrainian people are still under siege but are holding on with courage and determination. 

It’s the third Sunday in Easter.  And today we’ve got another of my favorite resurrection  stories…the one I call  breakfast on the beach, Now remember…Jesus has already appeared twice to these guys appearing out of nowhere through locked doors, showing the marks of his resurrection still visible on his resurrected body, And still, still, they are not yet ready to believe. 

They are so not ready that six of them, half of the original disciples, have decided to go back to their old line of work, go back to fishing. As if to say well, that certainly  didn’t work out, let’s  just  act like it never happened. 

They’ve been out all night with no luck. Jesus is there on the beach. He calls out to them to put the nets out  on the other side and what do you know, the nets are bursting. The one that Jesus loved, (still not sure about  that) says it’s the Lord…and Peter, the one with no impulse control, puts his clothes back on and jumps in to the water to swim to shore.

Now stop right there. This has never made sense to me.  If you’re going to swim, I’d think you’d want to be naked. Take your clothes off. And Peter puts his on. But then someone suggested this to me. Peter was always the one to make big bold  promises, like I will never leave you, I’ll be with you to the end, only to deny Jesus three times in the end. This is important.  Think how he must have felt. How ashamed he must  have felt.  How resistant to believing the resurrection he is that he’s gone back to his old work. Fishing. And then he sees Jesus on the beach.. He feels the shame. He’s like Adam in the garden when he realizes he is naked. So he puts his clothes in before jumping in.  The one who once couldn’t handle walking on water doesn’t want to have Jesus see him naked.  But even though he is ashamed, he still goes….

And now back to Jesus.  And I love this part. He’s on the beach.  He’s got a charcoal grill fired up.  And there’s fish on the grill. Stop there.  Close your eyes…see that. But feel it and smell it too, Feel the morning sea breeze on your face. Feel the breeze coming off the water to you. (Well, actually it’s lake water…)  Smell the charcoal. And the smell of fish on the grill.  Take that in. Let that surround you.

Okay.  When they get to shore with their  amazing catch, (and don’t even ask ..no one’s sure about what the number 153 is all about.) And Jesus says, “Come, have breakfast…” and they knew it was him.

John Shelby Spong, former Episcopal  Bishop of Newark, believed that this  was the first resurrection experience. That the disciples had gone back to their old work and as they sat on the beach, breaking bread, sharing food, like they had done with him,  so many times, (remember the bread and fishes story, feeding 5000 and more?) They looked at each other and knew, just knew, that he was with them, not dead, alive in them and would always be there. And so they share their breakfast of fish and bread.

Then there’s this mazing exchange with Peter.  Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him,  And three times Peter says of course I love you. With each response Jesus says, feed my sheep and then tend my lambs and then feed my sheep.

Three questions…three affirmations to follow three denials. 

But did you know that in Biblical Greek, the conversation comes off a bit differently?  The first time Jesus uses the word agape, do you love me with self-sacrificing full out love? And Peter responds, with filios, which is to say, I am your friend. Second time, Jesus uses agape again.  And Peter uses filios again.  I love you as a friend. Finally, the third time, Jesus uses filios as well, and Peter says You know I am your friend. And when Jesus says feed my sheep, he is saying that’s love enough. 

Traditionally, scholars have used this as a way to oh, make Peter not look so good. Jesus is asking for self-sacrificing love and all Peter can offer is friendship, as if  this is a fault.  

I’ve known this story and preached  on this story for over 45 years. And this time I saw something I never saw before. Like I said, Peter was the guy with no impulse control. The one who will alway make the big bold statement, the grand sweeping promises.  But not this time. This time, for the first time in all his exchanges with Jesus, Peter does not over promise. He is honest and clear about what he can do. And can’t do. He has come to understand his own limits.  And I am convinced that it is because of that, the he has finally come to understand what he  can and can’t do that Jesus makes him the rock on which the church will stand. He can finally be trusted. Then Jesus more or less tells him how his days will end. 

Okay, so what’s in this for us? I think the bottom line is something like this. That like Peter, we become most helpful when we can finally accept ourselves as we are. Know our limits. Understand what we can and can’t do That  we won’t promise to do what we won’t do.   And once we have done that , we are finally prepared and ready to feed his sheep, tend his lambs, feed his sheep.  

Jesus’ last words to Peter are Follow me. Not believe in me, follow me. Any of you out there who have trouble with believing, don’t worry about that. Just put your feet on the path and follow.  The rest will follow. And for those out there who say you love Jesus, that in itself is as empty as an immature Peter promise. If you love Jesus, know what the content of your love is.  Know what the capacity of your love is. Know what you are capable of. Know what you can and can’t do and then by God do it.  Feed the sheep. Tend the lambs. Feed the sheep.  Let those with ears to hear, hear. 

Amen

After I preach, I sing my version of 'O Good Shepherd, feed my sheep..

John 21: 1-19

1After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." 6He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 8But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

9When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." 11So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. 13Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

15When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." 16A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." 17He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 18Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." 19(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me."

Third Sunday in Easter: Feed my sheep

5/5

Beverley Church

On a cold and rainy day, the walk to Beverley from the subway station is no fun. As I arrive, I find my pone is dying and with it my sermon. Thankfully, Irina the accompanist has a charger and I don't need to freestyle...

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! (I'm trying to get them to learn this exchange for the whole of Easter..)

Today our Resurrection celebration continues....

This is another of my favorite resurrection stories. Former Episcopal Bishop Spong of Newark used to say he believed this was the first story of the resurrection.   Let's be clear on what's  going on  here.

It's clear that the disciples have given up. Jesus is dead and gone. It was a nice run, a good  run. There had been hope, excitement. But it's all gone now. No use crying over spilt milk. Time to move on. And go back to their old life. Back to being fishermen as if nothing had ever happened. And when Peter says he's going fishing, they all follow.  And they fish all night. And catch nothing.

When Jesus tells them to try the other side, they get so many they can barely haul it in. (As to why 153? Don't ask. No one knows...) Stop right there. Sometimes we keep on doing what we've always been doing with no results. Jesus says Try the other side. That's what he always does. Gets us to see what we haven't seen before. Try what we haven't tried. And then????..they get so many they can barely haul it in. 

John, the one who loved him, gets it immediately and cries "it's the Lord" and jumped in. Maybe it was Jesus' voice that got him, just like Mary on Easter day. Peter, hears John, but doesn't know, and like Adam in the garden, feels embarrassed and puts his clothes on. (Swimming  naked would have been easier..)

It's what happens on the beach I love. Notice they had not recognized him. No glowing body, no halo. Nothing fancy. Just like Mary thought he was the gardener, the resurrected Jesus looks ordinary. (Warning....he still does that ...shows up when least expected...and so ordinary looking you don't recognize him at first...)

There's a charcoal fire going. And he puts some fish on the fire. Stop a minute. Close your  eyes. Imagine the beach. The feel of the morning sun. The smell of salt in the air. (Or not, it's actually a lake...But I like the smell of sea air..)..the smell of charcoal...then of the fish starting to cook.....

(Throughout Lent when I was growing up, every neighborhood church had a fish fry every Friday...I associate that smell with Lent...)

And Bishop Spong says here is where they know he is with them...not through some spectacular resurrection display, but in the simplest of acts, something they had done a 100 times before, breakfast on the beach, and in the smell an the taste and the presence of each other around the fire, they know he is there with him. And my friends, that's how we know he is risen..in our presence, here in this place,  with each other, we feel it, know it, he is in our midst.

But my friends, if you know he is alive, there are consequences. Demands. And that's what now faces Peter. He's got to be filled with guilt. When he pulled his clothes on, he felt guilty as Adam. He had after all, denied Jesus three times. So Jesus gives him three chances to un-deny him. By the the third time, Peter's starting to feel hurt.

Now I'm one who believes you all can understand the Bible by reading it yourself, with discipline, with regularity. With prayer. And the leading of the Holy Spirit. And community, with each other. You don't need a seminary degree to get it.  But here's where we ministers help.

Jesus asks Peter "do you love me"  with the word "agape" ..self-giving  love...and Peter answers with "philos"....brotherly love...he's still holding back, you see? And Jesus' answer is pretty clear...if you love me, tend my lambs, feed my sheep..

That's it, right there.

Look, it's our call  to extend grace to each other. But the fact is, in human relationships, you can exhaust another's patience and run out of grace. Believe me, I know.  But not so with Jesus.

I'm willing to bet that like Peter, everyone of us in here has denied Jesus (and not just in words) at least 3 times...some of us might be feeling that this morning...

And the point is, our Easter story, our resurrection story is that he's ready to take us back again. Even today. BUT....
you can't just tell Jesus you love him. The way you let him know you mean it is you tend his lambs, you feed his sheep. Believe me, he'll know.  And on this rock, Peter and all of us Peters, the church is built...


After this he said, Follow me...

Let those with ears to hear, hear..
Amen.

                                                    ****


Three  postscripts..yesterday was the 49th anniversary of the Kent State/Jacksom State shootings. A day that changed my life...Pete Seeger's 100th birthday.  Throughout his life Pete tended the lambs and fed the sheep and kept us going in dark times ...we give thanks to God for his life and witness..

Today is Cinco de Mayo. No it's not Mexican independence day. It's when a badly outnumbered Mexican army unit defeated the French at Puebla. Thus preventing the French from aiding the US Confederacy. What we're really celebrating is the ongoing contribution of Mexicans to US society and culture. We do that by opening doors and embracing brothers and sisters, not building walls. No one who doesn't support immigrants should have a shot of tequila or Corona, lime or no lime.
Tend his lambs, feed his sheep.



Gospel John 21:1-19

1After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. 2Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." 6He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. 8But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

9When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." 11So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. 13Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

15When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." 16A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." 17He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. 18Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." 19(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me."

The 3rd Sunday in Easter: Have you anything to eat?

4/19

The PDA volunteer work crew from Sacramento Presbytery

Today we have our friends from the Sacramento Presbytery with us. We’ve got 8 volunteers from the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance program to do a week’s worth of reconstruction work with us, under the leadership of my longtime friend Jeanie. (Marsha finds it a fun thought that we qualify as a Presbyterian disaster.) Andre has come to lend his voice and jazz musician Adam Birnbaum is our musician.

Pat and Larry decorated again

As we do throughout Easter, we begin with Alleluias. And the traditional greeting:

One: Christ is risen!

All: Christ is risen indeed!

Our first hymn is  Come Ye Faithful Raise the Strain. And for the first time in a long time, we get one of Andre’s jazz improvs on Psalm 4. Today’s gospel reading is LUKE 24:36B-48

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence

⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.”

I start my reflection with the question:

Have you seen Jesus this week?   Just wondering…was he on one of the posters of the victims of police shootings at the rally last Tuesday at Union Square? With Cornel West and Eve Ensler and Arturo O’Farrill? Did he spend the night in jail? Was he with the one who came in to my office last week, the one who we helped find housing who said you helped me can you help him? Asking me to contact our Reachout friends and write a letter to help get his friend a place to live. Passing it on, you might say. Or was he the one who needed a home? Was he at the PCUSA DC training on Mass Incarceration last Friday? Maybe a cell mate of my friend whose 39 year old son has been in since age 17? Or did he come from Sacramento with a hammer and paintbrush? Have you seen Jesus this week.?

Rising…resurrection living…that’s our topic, that’s our theme…today the question is…do you have anything to eat? We’re looking at what the disciples saw, reported…

Let’s set the context….after Easter morning, in the late afternoon, two unsuspecting characters were walking along the road to Emmaus and were taken by surprise by a stranger. And they walk and talk and ask the stranger to stay for dinner and when he breaks bread, they recognize him…like Mary needed to heart her voice, and Thomas needed to see the wounds, it’s this familiar act, they must have shared with him so many times….those must have been great meals, not the food so much, but the fellowship…during the revolution in Nicaragua, the usual form of address was companero, the one I break bread with …like our word companion…with the Latin word for bread in the middle..Jesus was before all else, their companero, the one they shared bread with…and in that act, they knew him..

So the two guys, already late in the day, walk the seven miles back to Jerusalem…anxious to tell the disciples…and all of a sudden, Jesus is there…don’t ask how he got there…and he says, Shalom….peace…

And how do they respond? ³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.

And how does he respond? As he did to Thomas…

Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 

And although they feel joy, it was too much to believe…so what does Jesus do? He asks for something to eat…(It’s been a pretty long day after all…) And they offer him broiled fish. (Several were after all, fishers…) And he eats….

What is the gospel writer trying to tell us? That this was a flesh and blood rising…even this risen, resurrected one could hunger and need food and nourishment…that just as Christmas was about incarnation, so too is Easter…God made flesh…(John puts this story on a beach…at breakfast…here, we’re still on Easter night..)

And then he connects his story with the Bible story they all know…and before he’s done, tells them to take this story to all nations…as witnesses…that’s what it means to be a disciple…to be  a witness….

So what is this supposed to tell us about our rising? Our resurrection living?

First of all, it’s not about metaphor. We are being challenged with flesh and blood reality. Go wrestle with that. There’s no how here. There may be a why. But at the end, it’s just an IS.

Believe me, I have struggled with that my whole adult life. Je suis Thomas,  le incredule…I survived for years on the power of metaphor…but I feel I’m starting to get it… it has to be flesh and blood….

And we are to be witnesses…what do we witness? How do we witness? It’s got to be flesh and blood real.. He asking for something to eat…

My Easter ended perfectly with the meal we served at the women’s homeless shelter…no fish this time, though Kate can put out  mean salmon…but we did have lamb and ham..he wants  to break bread…he wants to walk the road with us…he wants a place for the night to rest his head…and yes, he wants to breathe…

SO your job for next week? See if you see Jesus…maybe carry a notebook, or just put a memo on your smart phone…

I want to close with a poem by John Updike, not usually one of my favorites, but with this one he took me by surprise…

Seven Stanzas at Easter

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that–pierced–died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mâché,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

John Updike, 1960.

We enter into our prayers by singing

Lead me, guide me along the way

For if you lead me I cannot stray

Lord let me walk each day with thee

Lead me, O Lord, lead me

And then there’s a joyous passing of the peace all around. Andre treats us to a an artful

Fairest Lord Jesus as we pass the plates.

a circle of friendship

And we close the service with Christ is Risen Shout Hosanna to the tune of Beethoven’s Ode to joy. And it feel something like that.

After our post worship conversations, Don from Sacramento, the construction manager of the team, and I will head down to Home Depot in Chelsea to get all the supplies needed for the week’s work.

I get back to the church in time for Noche’s  final flamenco singing class. The song that begins Si alguna vez va a Cadiz a el barrio de Santa Maria, tu veras los gitanitos bailando con alegria is working its way inside of me. We’ve been working on it all week. Since it’s the last class, there are bottles of wine and Spanish sherry and cheese and later chicken. Voices are singing open and full. I learned from el maestro Juan Ogallo that you riff on the open vowels, the a’s and o’s. It’s like una ventana entro la alma…To do it on the i (sung as e in Spanish) sounds like you saw a mouse. So I did learns something. 

Talking with Juan about flamenco singing

Around 7 PM, I’m in the lobby. In the sanctuary, the francophone African fellowship is finishing it’s service with vibrant soul stirring song. Upstairs in McAlpin Hall the Stop Mass Incarceration Network is working diligently and determinedly on their next action.

The Stop Mass Incarceration Network

And in Martin’s studio, the flamenco fiesta continues. I think to myself, this is how it is supposed to be.