Sermons from St. Martin-in-the-Fields:
May 01, 2022 |
God Keeps the Offer Alive
| The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
God Keeps the Offer Alive
Listen in to the sermon from the Rev. Jarrett Kerbel for the Third Sunday of Easter, May 1, 2022.
Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin’s by giving online: stmartinec.org/give
Today's readings are:
Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/
Please join me in the spirit of prayer.
Have you ever given your whole heart? Have you ever given your whole heart to someone and had your love rejected? Have you ever given your whole love to someone you adored or to a cause you cared about deeply or an institution that was beloved to you and had your love unreciprocated, had your love rejected, had your love attacked, even disdained? Do you have in your body that memory of the pain that comes from unrequited love, from entering that space of vulnerability where we risk so much and are available for so much damage to be loving and not to be loved in?
Return if like me you can feel that in your body, you can know you're not alone. You can know that this is an experience that God shares with us, for Jesus was and is the whole heart of God. Jesus was and is the whole heart of God shared with the world to include us in God's unbreakable love. And we know how the story goes that God took this risk, God made the ultimate offering to us of God's whole heart and Jesus was rejected, was disdained, was attacked and was killed, so God knows what it's like to offer love and have it refused, have it rejected.
And thanks be to God we know that the story doesn't end with that painful horrifying rejection but the story goes on. In fact God will not let this story end, God continues the story of love by raising Jesus from the dead. By raising Jesus from the dead God says, “this love is always on offer to you. My offer of love is alive forever for those who respond to it. My offer is there for you. Enter into this incredible transformation that is offered when you are loved this much.” And so we respond to that love and we grow in that love. Sometimes we reject it, sometimes we balk, sometimes we walk the other way. And whenever this love is rejected or attacked we know the cross is among us, but we also know that the resurrection is among us and that we can turn back to this new life that is alive for us and always on offer for the redemption of our souls.
We see the power of this paschal mystery in these stories we are offered today in the gospel and in the acts of the apostles. We see it in this story of a fisherman turned into a shepherd - a fisherman turned into a shepherd and someone who ran away in fear turned into someone willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
We see this good news story playing out in all of its power today in the story of Paul as well, a persecutor of the church who becomes one with the persecuted. The persecutor of the church who becomes one with those that he had persecuted, one who had breathed threats and murder who now breathes good news and new life. This is the transforming power of the Risen Christ still at work, and we know it so powerfully because it's the same Jesus we knew in his ministry doing all the same things. It's the in the continuity that we know there is in Christ, the one who healed, the one who loved, the one who included, the one who preached peace, the one who reconciled us to God and our enemies, is still adding in his risen life with Peter and with Paul and with all of us here today. The offering of new life is always alive for us, thanks be to God.
Let's start with Peter. My beloved, beloved, beloved Peter, how I love you. Peter, I want to be as bumbly and beloved as you are.
Peter is met by the Risen Christ on the beach in John in a situation of nurture. There is Jesus feeding his disciples, also instructing his disciples, he tells them where to find the fish, but this nurturing setting of breakfast on the beach is so much what Jesus taught his disciples to expect in his resurrected life, they will know he is there because he is nurturing them, he is feeding them. And more than that, Jesus is restoring Peter, restoring him to his purpose. Jesus wants Peter back. Jesus wants Peter restored so Peter can live out his purpose in the kingdom of God to spread the good news. Jesus needs to recover Peter from his betrayal.
There Peter is dripping wet on the beach in his clothes and Jesus has this dialogue with Peter, this uncomfortable dialogue with Peter where he is holding him accountable and pushing him deeper. Jesus wants Peter back and this is not going to be a forgiving or reconciliation that includes forgetting, this will not be forgiving and forgetting this will be remembering and forgiving.
Jesus leads Peter through those three questions, those tender painful difficult questions: Peter do you love me? Peter do you love me? Peter do you love me? And we know that these questions, they recapitulate the three betrayals when Peter said, “I don't know this man” and betrayed his Lord three times. These three questions are shepherding Peter back into this relationship and ministering to him by drawing him back into that essential love of his Lord that is core to his life.
“Do you love me?” It's painful. It is painful. We hear it right in the passage. It hurts Peter's feelings to be questioned this way but we know with Jesus in his ministry he is always drawing us deeper into this love that we have for him.
And why is Jesus drawing Peter deeper? Why? Because he has a mission for Peter, he has a purpose for Peter, a ministry for Peter. Like in his ministry Jesus is always looking for partners to send out to share the good news and he knows if Peter is going to do that to his full potential he must be fundamentally grounded in his love for Jesus. He must grow in his courage to love Jesus if he's going to become a good shepherd. A good shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep, a good shepherd who will pay the ultimate price for faithfulness and devotion when Peter is crucified for being an apostle.
This is Jesus doing tough love. This is Jesus caring for his friend and preparing him to have that depth of love he will need to give his life away for his friends. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. A life is restored, a vocation is restored. The church finds an advocate. This is the Risen Christ at work.
We have Paul as well. We have Paul in a slightly different story, Paul breathing threats and murder. Paul the persecutor of the earlier followers of Jesus. He is knocked down. The context is not breakfast on the beach. The context is a slap down on the road to Damascus. Notice there's no horse, by the way, every picture you've seen of Paul getting knocked off a horse - there's no horse in the story. I would love to know how many people saw a horse when we read the story.
Paul, being intense and zealous and hard-headed, is one of those folks a little bit like me who needs a good knock from God to get it together. God has multiple approaches. Paul knocked down is enfeebled, he's blinded, he's made dependent. He is humbled in every way and made to depend on exactly the same people he was persecuting. He is taken in by Judas, he is prayed for by Ananias, all under the direction of the Risen Christ. He is turned over into the hands of those he called enemies and those early followers of Jesus were challenged to live up to the teaching - love your enemies. Love the guy who's breathing threats and murder. Love the guy who stood by when Stephen was stoned to death. Love this deadly enemy and bring him in.
And here in Paul we have another testimony of how the Risen Christ works to change a life, to transform a life from threats and murder to good news and new life, rom persecutor to persecuted, in a way that would teach us all how to accept transformation, to be humbled, to be blinded, which is to say to no longer be so sure about what we thought we knew. To be dependent on others, on community, to pray for us and to lead us into what love means. Paul is transformed by this power of the Risen Christ that was available to him and is equally available to us.
If we risk it, if we so dare, this Risen Christ offers us transformation of life. How will we be changed from fisherman to shepherd? How will we be changed from persecutor to persecuted? How will we make ourselves available to the Risen Christ who is working in us to change us forever? I really sincerely believe that people are right to be wary of this relationship with Christ because deep inside we know it will change us. For those of us who have faith in this process and know that Christ leads us only deeper into love, we must be escorts on this journey. We must be people who remind our brothers and sisters, our siblings in christ, that this is a journey deeper into love from death into life, from despair into hope, from fear into courage, and most of all that it's a journey that enlists us to be part of the healing of the world, the healing of the world we know in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved.
Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org
Support the worship and ministry of St. Martin’s by giving online: stmartinec.org/give
Today's readings are:
Readings may be found on LectionaryPage.net: https://lectionarypage.net/
Please join me in the spirit of prayer.
Have you ever given your whole heart? Have you ever given your whole heart to someone and had your love rejected? Have you ever given your whole love to someone you adored or to a cause you cared about deeply or an institution that was beloved to you and had your love unreciprocated, had your love rejected, had your love attacked, even disdained? Do you have in your body that memory of the pain that comes from unrequited love, from entering that space of vulnerability where we risk so much and are available for so much damage to be loving and not to be loved in?
Return if like me you can feel that in your body, you can know you're not alone. You can know that this is an experience that God shares with us, for Jesus was and is the whole heart of God. Jesus was and is the whole heart of God shared with the world to include us in God's unbreakable love. And we know how the story goes that God took this risk, God made the ultimate offering to us of God's whole heart and Jesus was rejected, was disdained, was attacked and was killed, so God knows what it's like to offer love and have it refused, have it rejected.
And thanks be to God we know that the story doesn't end with that painful horrifying rejection but the story goes on. In fact God will not let this story end, God continues the story of love by raising Jesus from the dead. By raising Jesus from the dead God says, “this love is always on offer to you. My offer of love is alive forever for those who respond to it. My offer is there for you. Enter into this incredible transformation that is offered when you are loved this much.” And so we respond to that love and we grow in that love. Sometimes we reject it, sometimes we balk, sometimes we walk the other way. And whenever this love is rejected or attacked we know the cross is among us, but we also know that the resurrection is among us and that we can turn back to this new life that is alive for us and always on offer for the redemption of our souls.
We see the power of this paschal mystery in these stories we are offered today in the gospel and in the acts of the apostles. We see it in this story of a fisherman turned into a shepherd - a fisherman turned into a shepherd and someone who ran away in fear turned into someone willing to make the ultimate sacrifice.
We see this good news story playing out in all of its power today in the story of Paul as well, a persecutor of the church who becomes one with the persecuted. The persecutor of the church who becomes one with those that he had persecuted, one who had breathed threats and murder who now breathes good news and new life. This is the transforming power of the Risen Christ still at work, and we know it so powerfully because it's the same Jesus we knew in his ministry doing all the same things. It's the in the continuity that we know there is in Christ, the one who healed, the one who loved, the one who included, the one who preached peace, the one who reconciled us to God and our enemies, is still adding in his risen life with Peter and with Paul and with all of us here today. The offering of new life is always alive for us, thanks be to God.
Let's start with Peter. My beloved, beloved, beloved Peter, how I love you. Peter, I want to be as bumbly and beloved as you are.
Peter is met by the Risen Christ on the beach in John in a situation of nurture. There is Jesus feeding his disciples, also instructing his disciples, he tells them where to find the fish, but this nurturing setting of breakfast on the beach is so much what Jesus taught his disciples to expect in his resurrected life, they will know he is there because he is nurturing them, he is feeding them. And more than that, Jesus is restoring Peter, restoring him to his purpose. Jesus wants Peter back. Jesus wants Peter restored so Peter can live out his purpose in the kingdom of God to spread the good news. Jesus needs to recover Peter from his betrayal.
There Peter is dripping wet on the beach in his clothes and Jesus has this dialogue with Peter, this uncomfortable dialogue with Peter where he is holding him accountable and pushing him deeper. Jesus wants Peter back and this is not going to be a forgiving or reconciliation that includes forgetting, this will not be forgiving and forgetting this will be remembering and forgiving.
Jesus leads Peter through those three questions, those tender painful difficult questions: Peter do you love me? Peter do you love me? Peter do you love me? And we know that these questions, they recapitulate the three betrayals when Peter said, “I don't know this man” and betrayed his Lord three times. These three questions are shepherding Peter back into this relationship and ministering to him by drawing him back into that essential love of his Lord that is core to his life.
“Do you love me?” It's painful. It is painful. We hear it right in the passage. It hurts Peter's feelings to be questioned this way but we know with Jesus in his ministry he is always drawing us deeper into this love that we have for him.
And why is Jesus drawing Peter deeper? Why? Because he has a mission for Peter, he has a purpose for Peter, a ministry for Peter. Like in his ministry Jesus is always looking for partners to send out to share the good news and he knows if Peter is going to do that to his full potential he must be fundamentally grounded in his love for Jesus. He must grow in his courage to love Jesus if he's going to become a good shepherd. A good shepherd who lays his life down for the sheep, a good shepherd who will pay the ultimate price for faithfulness and devotion when Peter is crucified for being an apostle.
This is Jesus doing tough love. This is Jesus caring for his friend and preparing him to have that depth of love he will need to give his life away for his friends. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. A life is restored, a vocation is restored. The church finds an advocate. This is the Risen Christ at work.
We have Paul as well. We have Paul in a slightly different story, Paul breathing threats and murder. Paul the persecutor of the earlier followers of Jesus. He is knocked down. The context is not breakfast on the beach. The context is a slap down on the road to Damascus. Notice there's no horse, by the way, every picture you've seen of Paul getting knocked off a horse - there's no horse in the story. I would love to know how many people saw a horse when we read the story.
Paul, being intense and zealous and hard-headed, is one of those folks a little bit like me who needs a good knock from God to get it together. God has multiple approaches. Paul knocked down is enfeebled, he's blinded, he's made dependent. He is humbled in every way and made to depend on exactly the same people he was persecuting. He is taken in by Judas, he is prayed for by Ananias, all under the direction of the Risen Christ. He is turned over into the hands of those he called enemies and those early followers of Jesus were challenged to live up to the teaching - love your enemies. Love the guy who's breathing threats and murder. Love the guy who stood by when Stephen was stoned to death. Love this deadly enemy and bring him in.
And here in Paul we have another testimony of how the Risen Christ works to change a life, to transform a life from threats and murder to good news and new life, rom persecutor to persecuted, in a way that would teach us all how to accept transformation, to be humbled, to be blinded, which is to say to no longer be so sure about what we thought we knew. To be dependent on others, on community, to pray for us and to lead us into what love means. Paul is transformed by this power of the Risen Christ that was available to him and is equally available to us.
If we risk it, if we so dare, this Risen Christ offers us transformation of life. How will we be changed from fisherman to shepherd? How will we be changed from persecutor to persecuted? How will we make ourselves available to the Risen Christ who is working in us to change us forever? I really sincerely believe that people are right to be wary of this relationship with Christ because deep inside we know it will change us. For those of us who have faith in this process and know that Christ leads us only deeper into love, we must be escorts on this journey. We must be people who remind our brothers and sisters, our siblings in christ, that this is a journey deeper into love from death into life, from despair into hope, from fear into courage, and most of all that it's a journey that enlists us to be part of the healing of the world, the healing of the world we know in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Permission to podcast/stream music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-701187 and CCLI with license #21234241 and #21234234. All rights reserved.
Video, photographs, and graphics by the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.stmartinec.org
