Affirmation and Redemption

John 21:15-17

“When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’  ‘Yes, Lord,” he said, ‘you know that I love you.’ Jesus said, ‘Feed my lambs.’

Again Jesus said, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’  He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.’  Jesus said, ‘Take care of my sheep.’

The third time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me?’

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ He said, ‘Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.’  Jesus said, ‘Feed my sheep.’ “

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Alleluia!  He is risen!  The Lord is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

It feels so good to write those words.  Say them out loud!  Alleluia! He is risen!!

The pain of death from Good Friday is gone.  The emptiness, sadness and fear of hope lost from yesterday has vanished. 

Alleluia!  He is risen!

Our God, Jesus Christ, the risen Lord could have chosen to do many things upon His resurrection.  He could have gone to a mountaintop, appeared to the whole world and shouted in a loud voice which would have echoed across the universe: “I AM the One true God.  Worship me!  Bow down and honor me!”  But He does not do this, even though His infinite power permitted it.  He does not go and appear to Pilate, to Caiphas, or to the other members of the Jewish leadership who condemned Him to death.  He does not appear to those who mocked Him while wearing a crown of thorns, carrying a heavy rough-hewn cross.

Instead, He appears to His friends, those closest to Him; those who would most appreciate the importance of His resurrection.  He spent time with those on whom He would rely to spread the Good News.  He showed them that He had conquered Death once and for all.  He had borne the sins of the world for all time in order that all would have the opportunity to be with God for eternity.

But, for me, one of the most meaningful and beautiful moments we see of the resurrected Jesus, is this individual interaction with Peter.  Once again, Christ can be with all and for all, all at the same time, yet He can also have this personal and intimate relationship with one soul, with you, with me.

Jesus takes the time to allow Peter the opportunity to “undo” what he had done on the night He was arrested.   Jesus asks Peter three times, “Do you love Me?”  Jesus gives Peter a miraculous and special gift, attesting his Love for Jesus the exact same amount of times for which Peter also denied Him on Good Friday.

In this way, Jesus shows us that through Him, Peter has the ability to be restored and renewed.  Peter no longer has to bear the weight of his sin.  Peter does not have to be mired in the hell of his guilt.  Peter is welcomed with open arms into a loving relationship with Jesus, even though he has fallen down so many times.

How are you…how is every human soul…how am I, any different than Peter?

Heavenly Father,

Through the glorious resurrection of Your Son, You have given us an eternal life with You.

We praise You, we glorify You, we thank you for this gift of redemption.

Help us always, dear Lord, to remember that there is nothing which can separate us from Your Love.  When we miss the mark, when we sin, we can always return to You through our recognition of our sin and our repentance of it.

Because of His sacrifice, when You look upon us, You do not see our sin, but You see Your Son, Jesus Christ, who took on our sin.  We are so thankful for this.

Be with us, Lord, now and for all time, until Christ comes again in glory.

Alleluia!  Christ is risen!  The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

We ask and offer all of these things in the name of the Risen Christ,

Amen.

Is Faith Gone?

Lamentations 2:18

“The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord.  You walls of Daughter Zion, let your tears flow like a river day and night; give yourself no relief, your eyes no rest.”

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Such utter loss they must of felt; His disciples, His Mother, His followers. Their teacher was laying in a stone cold tomb.  Death had taken Him from them.

Their hope seems to have been dashed on the rocks of Golgotha.  They asked themselves, “Wasn’t He supposed to deliver us from our oppressors?  Wasn’t He Messiah, the Christ?”  Their loss of a friend, brother, son, rabbi and leader was compounded by the apparent lack of prophecy being fulfilled.

Should they wait?  Should they run in fear, lest they receive the same fate as Him?

This day rings hollow.  Emptiness abounds.  The laughing echoes of the evil one bounce off walls all around them.

Is faith gone?

God,

It is easy for us to lose faith in You as the world oppresses our hope, pulls us into doubt and lets chaos rule.

Help us to remain steadfast in our faith in You, even when all hope seems lost.  For you, Lord God, are greater than all things in the world.  You never abandon us.

We pray to you, Heavenly Father,

Amen.

Good Friday - Denial & Betrayal

 John 13:37-38

“Peter asked, ‘Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’  Then Jesus answered, ‘Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!’ “

John 18:15-17, 25-27

“Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in.  ‘You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?’ she asked Peter.  He replied, ‘I am not.’ ”

“Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, ‘You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?’  He denied it, saying, ‘I am not.’

One of the high priest’s servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, ‘Didn’t I see you with him in the garden?’  Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

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This section of John’s Gospel breaks my heart.

Peter…who walked with Christ, saw His miracles, heard God’s own voice affirming who Jesus was on the mountaintop during the Transfiguration…still, denies his Lord.

Many focus on Judas’ betrayal of Jesus as one of great importance due to the path of destruction it initiated.  But here we see a denial with impacts on so many levels.  Peter, in fulfilling Jesus’ prediction, denies not only his friend and teacher, but his experiences, his heart, his own spirit and his God as well.

Imagine yourself as Peter.  Standing in the cold, watching your friend to whom just hours before you affirmed “I will lay down my life for you.”  You have just denied even knowing Him.  The emptiness he must of felt is almost unimaginable.  I feel tears welling up in my own eyes, thinking about his pain.

I say to myself, “I would NEVER do that!  If I were Peter, I would have stood up and defended Jesus, acknowledged Him before all.  I WOULD have laid down my life for Him!”

But every day, don’t I deny Him a dozen…a hundred times?  When I seek my own glory, I am denying Him.  When I focus on my needs, wants and desires, I am denying Him.  When I hold onto things of this world too tightly, I am denying Him.  When I am angry or hating any man or woman, I am denying Him.  When I hold onto forgiveness which needs to be given, I am denying Him. 

How am I any different than Peter?

Lord Jesus Christ,

I see your miracles daily.  I feel You walking with me and talking to me.  There is no doubt in my mind that You are God.  I know all that you ask me to do is to love You and love those around me. But so often, I do not.

Grant me faith, to have the faith in myself that You have in me.  You will never forsake me, You will never abandon me, You will never stop loving me, You will bless me always.  Even when I forsake You, abandon You, stop loving You or stop allowing Your blessings to bless me, You are there.

I am in the crowd, shouting “Crucify!  Crucify!  Crucify!” when I am not fully for You. 

I beg you to forgive me, Lord Jesus,

Amen.

The Servant

John 13:1-9

“It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.  The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus.  Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.  He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus replied, ‘You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ ‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’  ‘Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, ‘not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!’ ”

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Imagine the Son of God, the One who was present at the creation of the universe, who knows all things, who knows you inside and out, kneeling humbly before you and washing your feet.  In spite of your faults and flaws, your sins and shortfalls, He believes you are worthy of His service.

Is there anything we do today which has a similar magnitude of the contrast between earned superiority and purposeful diminishment?  It would be like witnessing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court bussing tables at a local diner.  By no means  was Jesus in any position to be forced into this role of servant.  

But yet, when He could be focused on running to another city or country to avoid persecution and death, He was there with His friends.  Instead of using His infinite power to annihilate the forces of evil oppressing His work, He welcomes the role of being a sacrifice. 

If you have the opportunity to participate in a Maundy Thursday service which has the foot washing ceremony, I encourage you to go.  It is a moving and beautiful experience, based merely on the act you are performing.  But more importantly, it allows you to picture yourself in the place which Jesus put himself, at His friends’ feet, blessing them with his servant heart.

Dearest Lord,

You sent Your Son to be with us, to be like us in almost every way.  Even though He is our King of Glory, He served us in the simplest and lowliest of ways.

Thank you, God, for the time Jesus spent with us on the earth.  Thank you for His miracles, His healing, His sacrifice.

In some small way, give us a spirit to serve as He served and love as He loved.

All things, we ask and offer in His name,

Amen.

A Humble Offering

Psalm 95:1-3

“Come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving;
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.
For the Lord is a great God;
and a great King above all gods."

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Tuesday evening at our church, Holy Family Episcopal, Fishers, our choir gave us a beautiful gift in a sublime performance of Gabriel Faure’s “Requiem”.  For such a small group, the members of our choir when combined with our organist, gave us a magnificent and moving rendition of this timeless piece of music.

A special element is not just what happened this evening, but the work which went into their learning, rehearsing and preparing for the performance.  Each of them had to sacrifice family and leisure time to put the whole thing together.  It was not just meeting a couple of times and winging it.  This involved weeks and weeks, hours and hours of practice.

The best part, is that they did not undertake this task with the purpose of glorifying themselves or trying to bring attention to their own talents.  It was a humble offering meant to honor the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ during Holy Week.

I am thankful to know these wonderful people who sing with joy to the Lord, who raise a loud and beautiful shout to Him with psalms, because He is a great God.

Dear God,

Thank you for the gift of music and for the gift of those who use it to honor and glorify You.

As the notes and voices weave a beautiful tapestry of sound, we are reminded of the symphony which is Your creation, flowing harmonically within Your plan for us.

Using our voices and our talents, allow us to celebrate with thanksgiving, the majesty of Your love.

We praise you and offer all things in the name of Jesus,

Amen.