April 10, 2016 – John 21:1-19
John 21:1-19
Where You Do Not Wish to Go
Third Sunday of Easter – April 10, 2016
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
It’s weird writing a sermon while on holiday.
I wrote this in the Vancouver Airport, with all the travellers going here and there.
Some of them going where they wish, others not.
Some going for work.
Some going for pleasure.
I had a Hawaiian shirt on so the ticket agent in Kelowna asked me initially
if I was going to Hawaii –
“Everyone seems to be going to Hawaii this morning!” she says.
“I’m going to Winnipeg,” I said. “Going home.
My sisters and my Dad live here – my sisters really want me to move here.”
“Don’t do it!” she said. “Winnipeg is way more fun!”
I had gone to Kelowna so my sisters and I could move my Dad into an assisted living place.
In a way, it is kind of a hard thing to do.
Maybe I wished I’d been to Hawaii.
But that is not where God had wanted me to be last week.
God had wanted me to be in Kelowna – and I’m so glad I went.
Today, Jesus makes yet another resurrection appearance in John’s Gospel.
Yet again, the disciples fail to recognize the risen Jesus, which makes you think.
Could be the gardener who is Jesus speaking to you.
Could be the person making you breakfast.
You just never know.
This morning it’s the guy telling the disciples where the best spot to fish is.
And the guy making them breakfast.
Which is a pretty gracious thing to do as these guys just abandoned him in
his hour of greatest need.
Then he gives Peter a chance to redeem himself after the awful debacle of
Peter denying him three times.
This morning, he gives Peter a chance to say Yes to him three times:
when Jesus asks Peter three times to feed his sheep, Peter says, “Okay.”
When Jesus says that doing that may take Peter places he does not want to go,
Peter says, “Okay.”
And he does: eventually it takes him to Rome, where Peter will die just like Jesus,
after a ministry of feeding the hungry and healing the sick and forgiving the sinful –
after a ministry of feeding Jesus’ sheep.
There is so much good news in this story.
It’s wonderful news that Jesus sticks by the disciples, giving them direction.
It’s wonderful news that Jesus continues to speak to the disciples and speak to us through
ordinary people – the person making us breakfast,
the person telling us the best spot to fish.
And it’s great news that Jesus gives us chance after chance after chance to follow him.
To redeem ourselves. To get it right. To go to the places Jesus would bid us go.
To know that Jesus will feed us breakfast with our friends and strengthen us and
then send us on our way to feed the hungry sheep of this world with his love.
To continue his ministry despite its many difficulties:
To reach out the hand of forgiveness to a friend.
To offer kindness to a stranger.
To care for a difficult child or an aging parent.
To continue to engage in a challenging workplace with challenging people.
There are a million stories in the airport and mine is just one of them.
I overhear a father talking about going to see a daughter who works in Bangkok because s
he is lonely.
I overhear people discussing going to visit elderly parents who are in need of care.
I overhear a girl talking about travelling north to visit a boyfriend who had recently been in a bad
work accident.
I overhear people on phones figuring out ways to be with the ill in their families.
I overhear people travelling for work to serve the needs of their customers.
I hear people struggling to get to where God needs them to be.
Most of them are not, in fact, going to Hawaii.
Maybe going not to where they wish to be, but to where they need to be.
I pray for these people while I’m sitting there.
I pray that they will be given the support and the strengthening they need.
That Jesus will feed them through the person serving them breakfast.
That they will find strength and support through their friends and family and
the people they stay in touch with on their phones back home.
In my case, my sisters and I worked together and got everything done we needed to with
grace and aplomb and in the end my Dad had a super nice place to move into and
he felt cared for.
And we had a ton of fun together, eating together and laughing together.
And that was where the risen Jesus was, and that was where Jesus was calling me to be.
It was good to be together.
The good news of the resurrection is that Jesus continues to give us direction and
continues to invite us into what’s important and what carries meaning and what will
lead us into the future of safety and well-being God intends for us all.
Jesus is risen and promises to be with us.
To give us direction.
To feed us along with our friends and strengthen us.
To give us another chance with another day that begins with the promise of morning.
And with the promise that no matter where he invites us to go, he will be there,
right alongside us.
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! So together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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