Second Sunday of Easter

27:46 also known as National Associate Pastor Preaches Sunday. I see that joke every year and it still gets you. Friends, will you please join me in prayer? spirit of the living god may you fall fresh on us may you speak to our minds our hearts and our souls may you remove any distractions your name we pray amen our passage today works as a kind of epilogue a continuation of a story now if you've ever read the harry potter series or for those of us who only watch the movies you know how the story ends There's a final scene at a train station, life goes on. I'm not a big fan of spoilers, so I won't say more, but you know how it ends. And then there's the Broadway play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

28:42 It's not the same writer or author, but it picks up right where the story ends. Literally, the first scene in the show is the last scene in the movie. With somebody else writing this epilogue, you would think there would be some controversy about someone else taking on the story. Yet, I haven't seen too much controversy about the extending of the canon of the Harry Potter series. It's a widely loved play. Honestly, I loved it. It tells something true. It's a beautiful story about the hardships and joy of friendship and father-son relationships. I loved the play. It's a great extension of the story. Just so we're all clear, when it comes to Hogwarts houses, I'm on Hufflepuff, if you couldn't tell already. But the passage we read feels kind of like this. It's an epilogue, probably written by a follower of John, someone who said, we've got a little more to say.

29:37 John chapter 20 ends the gospel pretty well. It says, these things are written so that you may believe. That is already a solid ending. But then the story continues, because there's still something unfinished. There's still the story about Peter that people want to share. So let's turn to this epilogue of the Gospel of John, at chapter 21, starting at verse 9.

31:59 do you all know the mission statement of our church maybe some our mission statement is we will be christ light leaven and salt in new york city and beyond we will be christ light leaven and salt in new york city and beyond and i love our mission statement it does a really great job of embodying who we are here at fifth avenue presbyterian church from beautiful worship to Christian education for all ages, to pastoral care, to outreach in New York City, and internationally, it's catchy, it's biblical, Christ's light, leaven, and salt. Now prior to coming here at Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, I was a co-pastor at a small United Methodist church in New Jersey while I was in seminary, and their mission statement was catchy as well. It only had three words, feed more sheep.

32:59 Feed more sheep. And honestly, it meant a lot of different things to different people. Sometimes it meant literally feeding the hungry. Sometimes it meant feeding our souls through worship and preaching. But this fun, quirky church just embodied feed more sheep everywhere. The church logo didn't have a cross. It wasn't assigned by a committee. It was just a sheep with its head in a bucket of food. The sheep became our mascot. We raffled off the name of the sheep and we named it Roland. after one of our long-term members who was known for being a little bit grouchy, but incredibly kind. And this quirky church took a huge risk. We tried entrepreneurial ministry. We started a food truck, selling breakfast food, hoping to connect with the wider community. We'd be at farmer's markets where people were greeted by church members and the hope was to invite these people to something deeper, to come serve on the truck when we did free meals at shelters or to hungry college students when they needed a study break.

34:00 And every once in a while at a special event, you will find Uncle Wernie's breakfast burrito. For those of you watching online, there's a picture right now if you're not hungry already. But it wasn't just about the food. It was about feeding people and meeting them right where they were at. That's why we called the food truck the feed truck. Whether you purchased a breakfast sandwich at the farmer's market or got one for free at a special event, we wanted to make sure that your belly and your soul were fed. The motto, feed more sheep, was simply ingrained in every aspect of ministry at this church. Now in the passage we just read, we see Jesus ask Peter three times if he loves him. And every time that Peter responds with, you know that I love you, Jesus says, feed my sheep. Now if your antennas are going up, because if you're thinking about Peter denying Jesus three times, you're on to something. But more on that later. A little more context on the passage. The disciples have already seen the risen Christ not once, but twice. And yet after all that, they go back to their daily lives. In the verses leading up to this passage, Peter says, I'm going fishing. And the others follow him because Peter is still Peter. He's the leader of the group. I think this makes sense. After something overwhelming, grief, trauma, and even resurrection, people don't always become instantly transformed. Sometimes the moment is powerful, even life-changing, and sometimes right after we just go back to what we know.

35:37 We go back to routine, back to work, back to the familiar rhythms that help us feel human again. because transformation doesn't happen all at once. It unfolds. And I think that's what's happening here. So they go out, they fish all night, they catch nothing. And then Jesus shows up. And at first they don't recognize him. And once again, he teaches them how to fish. He says, cast the nuts on the other side. And suddenly they catch a large amount, 153 to be exact. And people have been trying to figure out the significance of that number forever. Augustine thought it was mathematically symbolic. Others thought it represented known communities or nations. But what everyone agrees on is this. It was a lot of fish. Like net about to break kind of fish. And then Jesus says something simple. Jesus says, come, have breakfast.

36:33 And that's the moment they recognize him. And I think this is fascinating because if you know the passages, you know that Jesus had performed a miracle just like this in the past, and they don't recognize him there. They recognize him when he says, come, have breakfast. In the sharing of food and the quiet, ordinary holiness of eating together, just like on the road to Emmaus and Luke's gospel, they recognize Jesus in the breaking of bread. Because resurrection shows up at tables and in community, in the simple act of being together, and it still shows up in that way to us today. What throws me off though is the fish for breakfast. This past winter, my mom's sisters, my tías, they gathered at my parents' house while we were home visiting. We ate together, luckily not fish, and then we all held hands and prayed. And when my tías get together, it feels like the Avengers are assembling.

37:34 I'm serious, tía Avengers. They do this regularly, but this time I was in a room for it for the first time in a very long time. and the way that they talked to God their heavenly parent praising asking for guidance holding on to hope it was nothing short of beautiful they speak with boldness they laugh they cry they trust and sitting there I realized that Christ was in our midst and that's what Jesus is inviting this disciple the disciples into when he says come and have breakfast he's inviting them into his presence into relationship into restoration into a table where failure is not the end of the story into a space where they are seen known and still loved a space where communities were built and where grace is shared and where new life begins again and today we will do the same when the invitation to the table comes may you hear it like this come and have breakfast come and be seen be fed be restored come and know that christ is in our midst but let's get back to peter the fish is cooking on the coals and that might feel like a throwaway detail but it's not if your antennas were already up about peter denying jesus three times this is another signal. When Peter denies Jesus, he is standing around a charcoal fire trying to keep warm. And now you see another charcoal fire. If this were a movie, you'd see the fire and there'd be a quick flashback at the moment of denial. And then comes the questions from Jesus. Do you love me?

39:22 Three times Jesus asks this to Simon Peter. You have to imagine what Peter's feeling here. there's got to be a mix of shame maybe even embarrassment jesus you you know you know that i messed up maybe even some confusion why do you keep asking me this and perhaps maybe even a little bit of hope is this my chance to make things right every time peter says peter says yes Jesus responds by saying, you love me? Okay, then feed my sheep. Throughout scripture, loving God always shows up as loving your neighbor, caring for the marginalized, the orphan, the immigrant, the widow, the poor, and the oppressed. And Jesus is saying the same thing here, just using imagery of a shepherd. Jesus is the good shepherd, the one who knows the sheep, who loves them, who lays down his life for them. And now he's telling Peter and us, if you love me, then you care for them too.

40:29 You feed them. You tend to them. You show up for them. At Princeton University, when freshmen arrive, part of orientation week is choosing between a wilderness adventure, where by the way, one of our freshmen has a wild story about a bear stealing his backpack and the call marks are still on his iPhone. So you could choose a week of wilderness adventure or a week of community service. Both are great ways to build community before class starts. One year, the university reached out to the small United Methodist Church and asked us if a group of freshmen could stay at the church. Their schedule was packed with community service, but they also wanted to volunteer on the feed truck and to serve at a shelter event. It went really well. One night, they came back exhausted and they were hungry.

41:23 There were no snacks. They had no cars. There was nothing nearby. And my co-pastor, Reverend Jess Winderweedle, who was our pride preacher last year. We had one of those conversations you have with your eyes. We looked at each other and we both said, feed more sheep. So we checked the church fridge. We fired up the feed truck. We made breakfast sandwiches, fries, rolled out some Uncle Warnie's breakfast burritos. And then we played mafia with them. It was such a fun night. Now we were told since they were staying in our church building, we weren't supposed to impose our religious views. And I totally get that. But radical Jesus-like hospitality, that couldn't be held back. As we said goodbye to them at the end of the week, we were standing in a circle, and one of the young women asked us, I don't know much about church, but do you have to be Methodist to come here?

42:18 I responded with a story. I told her about a man who showed up to church one Sunday morning. He sat in the back, didn't stand up when he was supposed to, looked kind of grumpy, had his arms crossed the whole time. And after the service, he came up to me and said, I'd like to chat with you later this week. So I grabbed coffee with him, and for an hour, he just vented about how he didn't believe in God, how he hated the church, and he just carried a lot of bitterness. So I finally asked him, why'd you want to meet with me? and he said, oh, I'm just lonely, and I needed someone to talk to, and I knew I could do that at a church. I told the young woman, church is for people like that. She smiled, and she said, I get it. Thank you. Friends, this is what it means to love Jesus. If we love Christ, we feed Christ's sheep.

43:16 We, the church, Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, and the church universal, we are birthed by the Spirit for this very purpose, to feed more sheep, to say with our lives and our ministries, come and have breakfast. We say that to the lonely, the brokenhearted, the hungry, the refugee, and the oppressed. Because throughout scripture, that's what love always looks like, by caring for those in need. Jesus is that good shepherd who lays down his life for them. And now he calls us to be shepherds too. But there is a rhythm to this life. There will be times when you are the sheep. You're hungry, you're worn down, needing care, needing to be fed by the good shepherd. Receive that. When you're hungry, receive the good news of the good shepherd. And there will be times when you are the ones feeding others, extending that same care and that same love. That's the rhythm of the church. We receive and we give.

44:20 We are fed and we feed. And in a world where sheep are being led astray, where politicians threaten people with the end of an entire civilization, when those in charge of war dare to use God's name to bless violence and bloodshed, we are called to follow a different way. In a world where fear is preached instead of love, where power speaks louder than compassion, we are called to be different. We're called to follow the good shepherd, to feed, to welcome, to love. So hear the invitation today. Come and have breakfast. Be fed. Be restored. And then go and feed others. friends if you're willing will you please rise in body or in spirit and join me in our affirmation of faith from psalm 23 the king james version