John 21:15-19
When 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 am your friend.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I am your friend.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, are you my friend?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Are you my friend?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I am your friend.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Very 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.” (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
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What wonderful stories we have this morning. Peter is released from prison by the power of his praying congregation, Paul writes about his approaching death after a very good run of ministry, and then we have this Gospel reading. This breakfast Jesus shares with his friends comes just after the disciples have decided to return to business as usual. They’ve been out fishing, just like old times. Well, like times before old times, back when they had never heard of this Jesus fellow before. And now that the excitement is over, and Peter certainly feels a bit depressed or guilty or something about that unfortunate series of events where he denied ever knowing Jesus just when Jesus was being beaten and bullied, now that all of that is behind them, what else is there left to do but retire from the disciple business and get back to the daily grind they know so well?
Well, except then Jesus shows up, finds them right where he first found them, feeds them a nice full breakfast, and has this moment with Peter. They talk around a campfire which might well remind Peter of the last campfire he stood at, in the dark, not too long ago. Many say this conversation reinstates Peter into the fold after his three denials before the rooster called out. Before night fell for everyone who knew Jesus, in that way that their hopes and dreams died with him. Back when Peter was warming himself by another fire.. which feels like so long ago now, though I’d imagine it was an event that replayed itself in Peter’s mind over and over and over again in the days that followed.
Back when the conversation was a little different. The servant girl, of little to no power, saw him at the door to the courtyard, let him in at the request of the beloved disciples, and asked such a simple question: “Are you also one of this man’s disciples?” Peter said “I am not,” and he went to the fire to warm himself with the other servants. But in that light of that fire, the servants asked him again, “Aren’t you one of his disciples?” and he again said “I am not.” Then one who had been in the garden for the arrest of Jesus recognized Peter and called him out: “Did I not see you in the garden with him?” Peter took this third and final opportunity to deny a final time that he had any connection with Jesus.
Then we’ve got Paul’s story here today, too. Today we get the end of his story, the letter which seems to imply that he is on his way to death, having run the race, and finished the fight. Paul, whose name hasn’t always been Paul, but started out as Saul, one of those righteous Pharisees who kept strict adherence to the Law, who observed every bit of the Torah, who was there to hold the coats of those who stoned Stephen to death, a story we get in the beginning of the book of Acts, though not today.
They say sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me? Saul persecuted the Jesus-followers, Simon Peter denied Jesus as he was being beaten and tried. By their words they did a LOT of damage. By their silence they caused a lot of hurt.
The other thing they say (though when we use that line I’m never quite sure who ‘they’ are supposed to be) is that church is full of hypocrites. Of people with two faces, who say one good thing one day a week and live the rest of the week as though nothing they said on Sunday was true.
Looking at the two men we credit with most of the western church’s beginnings, it’s not difficult to see where that idea comes from. Looking at the various kings of Israel in the Old Testament, it’s not difficult to see where that idea comes from. Looking at the ways Christians throw rocks at each other nowadays, it’s not difficult to see where that idea comes from. We’ve got a history of hypocrites. I mean, the Pope who sanctioned the Crusades called himself “Innocent,” for crying out loud.
So, if God can make Saints out of such rotten lowlifes, if God’s church can survive and grow even with confusing, complicated, diverse scoundrels who stand by and watch violence against their own, who let the bullies and threats have more sway over them than their love of Christ, if God can grow a church out of such a stew of mess, then we’re in pretty good company, and pretty good hands, aren’t we?
Because we have to be honest about the saints - they made mistakes. They thought ‘unChristian’ thoughts. They acted out. They fought with each other. They put their feet in their mouth and refused to name any elephant in the room. And we don’t like to talk ill of the dead - when people found out MLK wasn’t the best feminist, or that Mother Teresa had doubts, or that John Paul II did not support liberation theologians, or that King David did this thing with his neighbor’s wife that he really should not have done... There’s a spot in Galatians where Paul says he opposed Peter to his face because he did this thing where at first he said all were welcome, but then he changed his mind when peer pressure got him to say, ‘whoops, nevermind, you’ve got to become Jewish first.’ We dislike talking about the conflict because the church of all places should be a place of peace, right?
But that’s the whole point of saints days, to point us to the whole complicated human, the inner, personal struggles of people who try their darndest to follow a very demanding, very loving God. To show us how others have dealt with their communities in times of disagreement. To remind us that these people who have become heroes in the faith were just as human as we are.
And if God can do with them what God has done with them, imagine what is possible for us. Only God knows what might happen here in our midst, even as we try to clarify what it is God has for us to do here. Only God knows what sorts of saints we truly are, here and now. Some traditions hold up particular saints for miracles after their death or great acts of faith while they lived, and we certainly need that great cloud of witnesses. But we also hold that everyone, by virtue of their baptism, is a saint, consecrated and made holy, set apart for the work and the love of God. We don’t have saints just so that we can point at them and say ‘look at that. see how holy they were. glad they took care of holiness so I don’t have to.’ No, we have saints so that we can say, ‘wow, look at what God has done in that life. I wonder what people see of God in my life?’
So, yeah, the church is full of hypocrites. Of people who say one thing and do another. Paul himself says in Romans, “ I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but the very thing I hate.” [Romans 7:15] It isn’t required of us to be perfect, to have our lives entirely tied up and figured out, in order to be saints. Like Peter and Paul, we do the best we can with what we have been given, and God does marvelous things beyond what we could imagine. Because what we mostly have saints for is to point us to the marvelous grace and mercy and love of a God who could with a word re-create the world, but instead chooses to walk beside us and work through us and around us and in us. Peter and Paul had sketchy backgrounds, but God grabbed them and turned their lives inside-out upside-down to get the word out about resurrection and forgiveness and new life. To show the world the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God. To bring all people, imperfect hypocrites just trying to survive, into the freedom poured out for all the world in the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus.
It’s a kind of freedom that is so big we might not believe it at first, might need some time together to get used to the reality that our chains are gone and the prison doors are open. So we gather together and pray, just like Rhoda and her house church did that night when Peter was escorted out of jail by an angel. We pray, and we marvel, and we stumble, and we forgive. And over and around it all God continues to make saints of us all. And King provided leadership and encouragement for the Civil Rights movement when we needed it. And Mother Teresa brought hope and love to so many. And John Paul II helped bring down communism. And King David repented and still ruled well. And Peter was a preacher through the book of Acts who brought many to faith in Christ. And Paul's letters have made up a good portion of our New Testament and out theology. And you? Where have you noticed God working in, with, through you?
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