{"id":692,"date":"2013-04-14T11:00:39","date_gmt":"2013-04-14T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/?p=692"},"modified":"2019-11-19T12:49:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T17:49:16","slug":"breakfast-with-jesus-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/2013\/04\/14\/breakfast-with-jesus-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Breakfast with Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

Click here to hear the sermon only.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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

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

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

 <\/p>\n

His friend replied, slowly, \u201cIn one word?\u00a0 In one word, my life is, well\u2026good\u201d.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

His friend replied, slowly, \u201cMy life, in two words?\u00a0 In two words, my life is, well\u2026not good\u201d.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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We know the thrill of victory and the agony of betrayal.\u00a0 We know the joy of birth and the pain of death.\u00a0 We know the exuberance of growth and the hurt of departure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Gospel of John ended last week, with its concluding sentence, \u2018This 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.\u00a0 Jesus:\u00a0 Lord and God, doorway both to allegiance and to reverence.\u00a0 Jesus:\u00a0 word 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.\u00a0 Only believe, only believe.\u00a0 Live in tune with the universe.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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

 <\/p>\n

You are leading a Christian life, you are committed to the way of discipleship, the path of love.\u00a0 Then, and so, you will need to receive and give invitation and comfort.<\/p>\n

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The deep resonance of Handel\u2019s Messiah, its third part sung gloriously today, undergirds our good and not so good life with triumph, with the triumphant song, with the triumphant promise, with the triumphant promise of redemption, heaven, hope, healing, wholeness, God.\u00a0 In a word, today, triumph.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

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

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

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

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

 <\/p>\n

Breakfast is a simple meal.\u00a0 The 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\u00a0 Carried by triumph, we re-enter the world of invitation and compassion, the world of the preacher and the pastor.\u00a0 Every week, you are encouraged to make one invitation to another about what you find lastingly good.\u00a0 Come to worship with me.<\/i> Every week, you are encouraged to offer one compassionate word to another from the source of lasting compassion.\u00a0 I will pray for you.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Public worship places us in the necessary presence of others who are not our own kith, kin and kindred.\u00a0 With the child behind us, the student beside us, the professor ahead of us, the widow across from us, we worship God.\u00a0 We perceive again the utter variety and actual need of others.\u00a0 It is a cautionary move against the prevailing winds about us, including tornadoes, including dehumanizing techno-communication and distance drone aerial bombardment.\u00a0 A woman will receive that email.\u00a0 I might have seen her, or her kith, kin and kindred, in church.\u00a0 A child will be harmed by that bomb.\u00a0 I 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.\u00a0 So crucial, saving, significant, then the simple invitation: join me for worship.<\/p>\n

 <\/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.\u00a0 Fifty years ago M L King sat writing in a prison cell in Birmingham Alabama.\u00a0 He 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: \u201cwhen 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.<\/i> While most of us will not regularly write such a momentous letter, in our pastoral that is personal correspondence, we will write.\u00a0\u00a0 You know of another\u2019s inattention, another\u2019s pain.\u00a0 You can sit down, put pen to paper, and select some caring words\u2014sorry, condolence, hope, help, prayer.\u00a0 You can imagine another opening the mailbox, holding the letter, seeing the penmanship, removing the page, reading the card.\u00a0 Feed my lambs.\u00a0 Tend my sheep.\u00a0 Feed my sheep.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It is not I believe that the Fourth Gospel diminishes or discounts invitation and compassion, evangelism and pastoral care, laity and clergy.\u00a0 It is just that the writer(s) had bigger fish to fry and sheep to tend of another fold.\u00a0 So along came\u2014someone\u2014who wrote 21 for us, to remind us.\u00a0 In a word\u2014good.\u00a0 In two words\u2014not good.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Triumph, triumphant joy, triumphant promise comes your way.\u00a0 Put them to work this week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I know that my Redeemer lives.<\/p>\n

Behold I tell you a mystery.<\/p>\n

The trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised.<\/p>\n

Death is swallowed up in victory.<\/p>\n

But thanks be to God who gives us the victory.<\/p>\n

If God is for us who is against us?\u00a0 If God is for us , who is against us?<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/i><\/p>\n

Blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him.<\/i><\/p>\n

~The Rev. Dr. Robert Allan Hill, Dean of Marsh Chapel<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 21: 1-19 Click here to hear the full service. Click here to hear the sermon only.   John One man asked another, \u2018Tell me, in just one word, how is your life?\u201d   His friend replied, slowly, \u201cIn one word?\u00a0 In one word, my life is, well\u2026good\u201d.   Sensing something, the man asked again, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2679,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692"}],"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=692"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2461,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692\/revisions\/2461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}