{"id":1346,"date":"2016-04-10T11:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-04-10T15:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=1346"},"modified":"2019-10-08T11:13:49","modified_gmt":"2019-10-08T15:13:49","slug":"breakfast-with-peter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2016\/04\/10\/breakfast-with-peter\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakfast With Peter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service<\/a><\/p>\n

John 21:1-19<\/a><\/p>\n

Click here to listen to the meditations\u00a0only<\/a><\/p>\n

In pastoral work, day by day, we come back to a familiar story.<\/span><\/p>\n

One man asked another, \u2018Tell me, in just one word, how is your life?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His friend replied, slowly, \u201cIn one word? \u00a0In one word, my life is, well\u2026good\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sensing something, the man asked again, \u201cThen tell me, in just two words, how is your life?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

His friend replied, slowly, \u201cMy life, in two words? \u00a0In two words, my life is, well\u2026not good\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both the brevity of life and the strange estrangements of our experience in life, place us, if we are honest, come Sunday, somewhere between the first and second replies, between good and not good.<\/span><\/p>\n

We know the thrill of victory and the agony of betrayal. \u00a0We know the joy of birth and the pain of death. \u00a0We know the exuberance of growth and the hurt of departure.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Gospel of John ended last week, with its concluding sentence, \u2018These things are written that you may believe that Jesus in the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.\u201d \u00a0Jesus: \u00a0Lord and God, doorway both to allegiance and to reverence. \u00a0Jesus: \u00a0word incarnate, good shepherd, feeder of thousands, alchemist of water and wine, healer of the blind, raiser of the dead, doorway to grace, freedom, love, spirit, community, and friendship. \u00a0Only believe, only believe. \u00a0Live in tune with the universe.<\/span><\/p>\n

Startling then, today\u2019s lesson, added ten or twenty years after the Gospel\u2019s original conclusion. \u00a0A simple meal, of 153 fish, breakfast with Peter. \u00a0\u00a0Different language and imagery here. \u00a0A different, now heroic role, for the robbing and disrobing Peter, here. \u00a0A different voice for the beloved disciple here. \u00a0A different reflection on death and life here. \u00a0A different prediction of Peter\u2019s martyrdom here. \u00a0\u00a0What is the meaning of this strange breakfast?<\/span><\/p>\n

Just this: \u00a0for all the grace, freedom and love, all the spirit, community and friendship rightly trumpeted in the Fourth Gospel, people are still people. \u00a0This chapter is about fishing and farming, about catching and tending, about boats and fields, fishermen and shepherds. \u00a0In church language, that is, 21 is about evangelism and pastoral care. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You are leading a Christian life, you are committed to the way of discipleship, the path of love. \u00a0Then, and so, you will need to receive and give invitation and comfort.<\/span><\/p>\n

Life<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

In a word, \u00a0resurrection. \u00a0In two words, evangelism and pastoral care, work and structure, laity and clergy, world and church. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Breakfast is a simple meal. \u00a0The worst hour of the day, the worst food of the day, the worst attitude of the day, everything and everyone more human than not. \u00a0\u00a0Carried by resurrection, we re-enter the world of invitation and compassion, the world of the preacher and the pastor. \u00a0Every week, you are encouraged to make one invitation to another about what you find lastingly good. \u00a0<\/span>Come to worship with me.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0Every week, you are encouraged to offer one compassionate word to another from the source of lasting compassion<\/span>. \u00a0I will pray for you.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Public worship places us in the necessary presence of others who are not our own kith, kin and kindred. \u00a0With the child behind us, the student beside us, the professor ahead of us, the widow across from us, we worship God. \u00a0We perceive again the utter variety and actual need of others. \u00a0It is a cautionary move against the prevailing winds about us, including tornadoes, including dehumanizing techno-communication and distance drone aerial bombardment. \u00a0A woman will receive that email. \u00a0I might have seen her, or her kith, kin and kindred, in church. \u00a0A child could be harmed by that weapon. \u00a0I might have seen his kith, kin and kindred, in church. Public worship places us in the necessary presence of others who are not our own kith, kin and kindred. \u00a0So crucial, saving, significant, then the simple invitation: join me for worship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Compassionate pastoral care, personal kindness, a willingness to listen\u2014feed, tend, sheep to sheep\u2014connects us to the deeper dimensions, those for which life is given. \u00a0Fifty years ago M L King sat writing in a prison cell in Birmingham Alabama. \u00a0He wrote the famous Letter, which bears your re-reading this afternoon, addressed to pastors, fellow clergy, who could not or did not or would not hear: \u201c<\/span>when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness\u201d.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0While most of us will not regularly write such a momentous letter, in our pastoral that is personal correspondence, we will write. \u00a0\u00a0You know of another\u2019s inattention, another\u2019s pain. \u00a0You can sit down, put pen to paper, and select some caring words\u2014sorry, condolence, hope, help, prayer. \u00a0You can imagine another opening the mailbox, holding the letter, seeing the penmanship, removing the page, reading the card. \u00a0Feed my lambs. \u00a0Tend my sheep. \u00a0Feed my sheep.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not \u00a0that the Fourth Gospel diminishes or discounts invitation and compassion, evangelism and pastoral care, laity and clergy. \u00a0It is just that the writer(s) had bigger fish to fry and sheep to tend of another fold. \u00a0So along came\u2014someone\u2014who wrote 21 for us, to remind us. \u00a0In a word\u2014good. \u00a0In two words\u2014not good. \u00a0Your life in Christ requires invitation and compassion, beginning again every day at breakfast. \u00a0The good news is that a restored Peter is there at breakfast with you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Jesus speaks to us today from the edge of the shoreline. \u00a0His voice, although we often mistake or mishear or misunderstand it, carries over from shore to sea, from heaven to earth. \u00a0For the \u00a0souls gathered here today, that voice\u2014His voice\u2014makes life worth living. \u00a0Within earshot of His voice there are no merely ordinary nights or days or catches of fish or meals or questions or answers or friendships or loves or losses. \u00a0Within earshot of His voice there are no merely ordinary moments. \u00a0When the Master calls from the shoreline, \u201cchildren\u2026have you\u2026cast the net\u2026bring some fish\u2026have breakfast\u201d, no one who hears will dare ask, \u201cAnd who are you?\u201d. \u00a0We dare not. \u00a0For we know. \u00a0Jesus speaks to us today from the edge of the shoreline.<\/span><\/p>\n

His disciples stumble through all the magic and grit of a fishing expedition. \u00a0Many of us still find some magic in fishing, though few of us have had to depend on this sport for sustenance. \u00a0Still\u2014we know the thrill of it! \u00a0And the disappointment. \u00a0The roll of the boat with each passing wave. \u00a0The smell of the water and the wind. \u00a0The feel of the fish, the sounds of cleaning, the sky, a scent of rain: \u00a0this is our life, too. \u00a0All night long, dropping the nets, trawling, lifting the nets with a heave. \u00a0And catching nothing. \u00a0The magic comes with the connection of time and space\u2014being at the right place at the right time. \u00a0How every fisherman would like to know the right place and the right time. \u00a0It\u2019s magic! \u00a0The tug on the line! \u00a0The jolt to the pole! \u00a0The humming of the reel! \u00a0A catch. \u00a0And woe to the sandy-haired, freckle faced girl or boy (age 12 or 90) who cannot feel the thrill of being at the right place at the right time!<\/span><\/p>\n

John Stewart Mill once wrote that understanding the chemistry of a pink sunset did not diminish at all his profound sense of wonder at sunset beauty. \u00a0In fact, we might add, real understanding heightens true apprehension. <\/span><\/p>\n

Easter is a season of new beginnings. The promise of resurrection is upon us. \u00a0Resurrection disarms fear. \u00a0Resurrection ignores defeat. \u00a0Resurrection displaces and replaces loneliness. \u00a0Resurrection will not abide the voice that whispers, \u201cThere\u2019s nothing extraordinary here. \u00a0There\u2019s no reason for gaiety, excitement, sobriety or wonder.\u201d \u00a0Resurrection will not abide the easy and the cheap. \u00a0Resurrection takes a day-break catch, a charcoal fire, a dawn mist, fish, bread, and hungry, weary travelers, and reveals the Lord present, and Peter at the table. <\/span><\/p>\n

The failing of this world, whether we see it more clearly in the superstition of religion, the idolatry of politics, or the hypocrisy of social life, has its root in blindness to the extraordinary. \u00a0Because we are unholy, we think God must be, too. \u00a0But hear\u2014and today taste\u2014the good news! \u00a0The King of love his table spreads. \u00a0And the humblest meal becomes\u2014Breakfast with Peter!<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore Christian people, as we work and fight, play and pray this week, let us resist with joy all that cheapens life, all that dishonors God, all that mistakes our ordinary sin for the extraordinary love, power, mercy and grace of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Beginnings<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Real change is real hard but it happens in real time when real people in real ways really work at it. \u00a0Or, at least, that is the good news of John 21, a late addition to a late edition of the fourth gospel, and its menu of freedom over Breakfast with Peter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take a look at the soteriology next door. \u00a0You may be at a point where a different chapter or a different verse may bring healing. \u00a0\u00a0You have been raised Roman Catholic and left the church, but now seek elsewhere a measure of meaning, belonging and community as your faith develops. \u00a0\u00a0You are looking toward a soteriology next door, a way of salvation next door, a religious perspective and posture next door, a healing next door. \u00a0You may have been raised an evangelical and left that church, but now seek elsewhere a measure of meaning, belonging and community as your faith develops. \u00a0\u00a0You are looking toward a soteriology next door, a way of salvation next door, a religious perspective and posture next door, a healing next door. \u00a0You may have been raised in a mainline church but having left that fold now seek elsewhere a measure of meaning, belonging and community as your faith develops. \u00a0\u00a0You are looking toward a soteriology next door, a way of salvation next door, a religious perspective and posture next door, a healing next door. \u00a0Good for you. \u00a0Find your way forward. \u00a0Sometimes a new look at salvation, for a new need in life, is the very gospel. \u00a0\u00a0John 21, if nothing else, gives biblical currency to such courageous change on your part. \u00a0We are with you, and we are for you, as you walk up the steps to another house within the lasting, loving neighborhood of salvation. \u00a0There are many faithful ways of keeping faith.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hear the good news that forgiveness is about the future, not the past. \u00a0Stephen Bauman reminded me of this last week. \u00a0The past is finished, and unchangeable. \u00a0There is no changing what has happened. \u00a0We may revisit, by memory travel, and we may relearn by historical excavation, but the past is what it is. \u00a0Done. \u00a0Forgiveness is not about the past. \u00a0That is what the church discovered at Easter. \u00a0Easter is not about Mary\u2019s misunderstanding, nor about Thomas\u2019s doubt, nor about the disciples\u2019 fear, nor about the worst of horror, the cross. \u00a0All that is set, \u00a0forever, in the past. \u00a0Forgiveness opens the future. \u00a0Forgiveness does not change the past, but opens up a new future, a free future, a joyful future, <\/span>in spite of<\/span><\/i> the past. \u00a0That is what makes Easter such a miracle. \u00a0That is what makes Peter fit company at breakfast. He is good company over the fish. \u00a0He has a new life, a new open future. \u00a0\u00a0He has a new future, <\/span>in spite of, in spite of, in spite of<\/span><\/i>, the past. \u00a0Hear the good news that forgiveness is about the future, not about the past.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reclaim the power of conversation in a cyber held world. \u00a0\u00a0Would that we could, including breakfast, understand the power and lasting meaning of fellowship at tables. \u00a0\u00a0Our bodily nourishment requires this pause, this consumption, this energy. \u00a0Our spiritual nourishment requires the words spoken and heard during this pause, this consumption, this energy. \u00a0If you have been recently, around a convivial meal, around a conversational table, around a gathered companionship\u2014well, you know. \u00a0\u00a0Friendship is conversation. \u00a0Love is conversation. \u00a0Marriage is conversation. \u00a0Community, real communion, community, real consanguinity, is mightily \u00a0and in some ways totally conversation. \u00a0So the disciples are around a fire, charcoal fire, eating breakfast, 153 fish, with a restored leader, Peter. \u00a0If you are not indulging in at least one decent conversational meal a day you are missing the mark. \u00a0\u00a0Fast food is real, but not fast conversation. \u00a0Reclaim the power of conversation in a cyber held world. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Feel free to shake the dust from your employment feet and find another job. \u00a0You know, now that the economy is a little better, at least for some, it is a little easier to say what needs saying in any case at any time. \u00a0You have one life to live. \u00a0You need to make a living, but you need to make a living in a way that makes a life. \u00a0If what you are doing with your body is killing your soul, it is time to quit. \u00a0\u00a0There are sixty ways to leave your employer, as Paul Simon said, sort of. \u00a0Make a little plan, Stan. \u00a0Easter breakfast with Peter is just the time to converse about this, in a forgiving mode, in light of the soteriology next door.<\/span><\/p>\n

Real change is real hard but it happens in real time when real people in real ways really work at it. \u00a0Or, at least, that is the good news of John 21, a late addition to a late edition of the fourth gospel, and its menu of freedom over Breakfast with Peter.<\/span><\/p>\n

– The Reverend Doctor, Robert Allan Hill, Dean.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to listen to the full service John 21:1-19 Click here to listen to the meditations\u00a0only In pastoral work, day by day, we come back to a familiar story. One man asked another, \u2018Tell me, in just one word, how is your life?\u201d His friend replied, slowly, \u201cIn one word? \u00a0In one word, my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[6],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2679"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1346"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1972,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1346\/revisions\/1972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}