Lived Out Love
A Church for the World by Rev. L. John Gable
January 12, 2020
During the past several weeks, since Easter, we have been looking together at the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. Recall we have heard of His appearing to the Mary at the tomb early that morning, then to two of His followers as they walked to Emmaus “that same day”, and then later that evening to the gathered disciples, sans Thomas, in the upper room behind closed doors and locked windows. A week later, He appeared again to them, this time with Thomas present, to assure him that He really was alive and to give that same assurance to all of us who “have not seen but have come to believe.”
In our reflections on these appearances we have explored together the nature of faith and the inevitability of doubt. We have asked questions as to how Christ continues to make Himself known to us today and what it takes for us to recognize Him in the “everyday” of our lives. And now this morning we ask the all- important question: so what are we supposed to do with all of this? Or ask I asked in the video I posted this week, “How should we then live?” Or as we asked on our “Can I Get a Witness?” Sunday, “What difference does the fact that Jesus is alive make in the way we live our lives?”
In our Gospel lesson from John, Peter decides that he has had enough of this inactivity (We could probably add an “amen” to that!), so he says, “I’m going fishing!” and several of the others say, “We’ll go with you.” Despite all that they had seen and heard, they were ready to get back to the “normal routine” of life (and again I think I hear an “amen” to that); and it is exactly there that they have yet another encounter with Jesus. It is there that the life of faith is actually lived out, for them and for us, not on the mountaintops or in the upper room. No, those are exceptions not the rule. This faith of ours in intended to be lived out in the day to day of life as we actually know it. It is in the commonplace of our lives that we come face to face with Jesus. But again the question is, do we recognize Him there?
The disciples had been at it the better part of the night and they were coming up empty. As dawn was breaking they still had no fish and were no doubt tired and frustrated and ready to call it a day. (It is not going to be easy getting back to the way it used to be.) Yet there was a stranger on the shore who offered some unsolicited advice, “Try casting your net on the right side of the boat and you’ll catch some there.” I’m sure that was well-received; yet to everyone’s amazement when they did so they pulled in a haul that strained their nets. In the miracle of that common experience the disciple John recognized that stranger and shouted, “It is the Lord!” and with that Peter dove in to the water and swam to shore.
It was there, in the common experience of a shoreline breakfast, that Jesus revealed Himself again, although once again He must not have looked like Himself. Somehow Jesus looked different in His post-resurrection appearances, yet still there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that it really was Him. It makes me wonder, when have we seen Jesus today not even recognized Him at all? Mother Theresa spoke of seeing “Jesus in disguise” as she cared for the sick, the poor, the outcast, which begs the question, “Lord, when did we see you?” Reading about these post-resurrection appearances has made me want to keep my eyes and my heart open and my spiritual antennae up.
After breakfast, Jesus and Peter have some much needed alone time together and Jesus begins to ask him some pressing questions, “Peter, son of John” (that would have been his full name, like when we call our children by their full names when we really want their attention), “Peter bar Johannes, do you love Me more than these?” Whatever “these” are that Jesus is referring to, Peter answers, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You.” Of course he meant it, but really, what else could he have said right at that moment? Then Jesus responds, “Feed My lambs.” Again, a second time, He asks, “Peter, son of John, do you love Me?” and again Peter answers, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You”, to which Jesus replies, “Tend My sheep”. We know that repetition in the Bible shows emphasis, even as it does in our conversations as well today, we repeat what we want to make sure is heard, so when Jesus asks him a third time, “Peter, do you love Me?” he is understandably hurt and confused and offended. His integrity and character are being called in to question. What is Jesus getting at, and really what more can he say? So, for the third time Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You”, and again Jesus, for the third time, replies, “Feed My sheep.”
Now, much has been made about the three-fold question of Jesus in relation to the earlier three-fold denial of Peter. Surely this is the restoration of Peter in to full fellowship with His Lord. Others have also focused on the two different words Jesus and Peter use for love. Jesus asks, “Peter, do you agape me (unconditional love)” and Peter responds, “Yes, Lord, You know that I phileo You (brotherly love).” There may be something worth exploring in that, but many scholars suggest that this simply the Gospel writers use of different language in the telling of this story. So, today I’d like to focus neither on Jesus’ question, which surely is the question He continually poses to us, or on Peter’s repeated response, which I pray is our answer as well; in order for us to focus our attention on perhaps the often overlooked thrice repeated instruction Jesus gives, “Feed My sheep/tend My lambs.” If repetition is the means of emphasis, then what is Jesus so desperately trying to tell us here?
Clearly there was nothing more that Peter could say to convince Jesus that he really did love Him, and that may be exactly the point Jesus was trying to make. There was nothing more that Peter could “say”, but undeniably there was something he could “do”.
You might recall I recently quoted Stanley Mooneyham who once said, “Love talked about is easily turned aside, but love demonstrated is irresistible.” Perhaps Jesus is saying exactly the same to Peter, and to us, here. “Don’t just TELL Me you love Me, SHOW Me.” Jesus is calling us not to a “talked about” love, but to a “demonstrated” love. He is calling us to a “lived out” love.
Here at Tab we talk regularly about what it means to have a “lived out” faith. Our faith is not something designed simply for us to experience and enjoy, but to actually put in to practice. We speak of the desire to have GREATER FAITH which moves us in to DEEPER RELATIONSHIPS and a STRONGER COMMUNITY. Jesus calls us not simply to “tell” Him how much we love Him or rightly think about Him; He actually want us to “show” Him how much we love Him by living out His love for others. “If you really love Me, show Me. Love one another as I have loved you. Feed my sheep.” In this sense, faith is not a noun; it’s a verb; it is not so much something we HAVE as it is something we DO. Our relationship with Christ is intended to be a “lived out” experience.
The story is told of the college professor who reprimanded his neighbor for disciplining his child for doing something wrong, saying, “You should not punish him when he does wrong, you should love him.” Several days later, the learned professor was laying a new driveway and just after pouring the final yard he was shocked to see the little neighbor boy romping merrily through the wet cement. Furious, he grabbed the little fellow and was about to spank him when the boy’s father called over, “Remember, professor, don’t punish him, love him.” The professor responded, “I do love him; in the abstract, but not in the concrete.”
We laugh, but I wonder if perhaps we don’t do the very same thing. We love the thought of loving, but struggle with the actual doing of it. It is easy to say that we love our neighbors, until we actually have a neighbor who needs loving, right? Wasn’t it Mark Twain who said, “Forgiveness is a lovely idea until you actually have someone to forgive”? Yet difficult as this may be, this is the plain call of the Gospel. We read in the First Letter of John: “Those who say, ‘I love God’ and hate their brothers or sisters are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from Him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters.”
Now I know it is easy to nod our heads in agreement with the rightness of this teaching, but the problem is, as we do that we keep hearing Jesus asking the same question of us, over and over, again, “Do you really love Me?” And as many times as we may say, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You”, He keeps saying, “Feed My sheep.” Friends, it appears He is not asking for our agreement on this; He is calling us to action. He is calling us to love; not in the abstract but in the concrete. He is calling us not simply to love being loved by Him, but to actually live out His love for others.
I have been asked recently by several different people in several different ways what they can actually “do” in this season of pandemic separation, in effect, how we can “live out” this love in real time. I agree, there is a pent up demand for us to want to “do” something, and I commend you for that, and my response is simple: hold on, there will come a time for “doing”, but not yet. Here is what I mean. “Doing something” in response to the needs of others is absolutely an appropriate and necessary response of our faith; but saying that, there is also a timing aspect to our doing. We must do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.
Many have written in recent years about how we might “best respond” to the needs of our neighbors and address great societal issues which confront us, and this before there was any thought of pandemic. These thinkers offer three categories of response that I am finding to be helpful now: sequentially they speak of relief, rehabilitation and development.
Think in terms of a hurricane or a tornado which hits a city or a region. Our first and immediate response is relief. Once the danger has passed we rush in with food and water and medical assistance. In this age of pandemic, as we are still in the midst of the crisis, our first and best “relief” efforts are things such as: social distancing, washing our hands, testing, caring for our first responders and those who care for us, prayer, making masks and wearing them, providing financial gifts, and the like; all the things we are doing to help diminish the spread of the virus. That is why our Session acted immediately to provide emergency funds to those of our mission and ministry partners who are doing front line ministries. While it feels to some like that isn’t “doing anything”, in the first stage of a crisis that is exactly what we must be doing.
The second stage of response is rehabilitation. In a natural disaster, after the relief efforts are in place, this is when teams of people start coming in to help restore services and rebuild homes. In the age of pandemic, when the time is right, rehabilitation may look like volunteering at the Open Door, or at the food pantry or Habitat for Humanity, sending a check, supporting local businesses, by caring for your neighbor right next door. Rehabilitation looks more like we are “doing” something, when in reality it is simply the next step after our doing of relief.
The third stage, after relief and rehabilitation is development. Again, in a natural disaster development is the long-term strategy and takes the long-view of recovery. It addresses improvements to standards of living and the systemic issues which make communities vulnerable to disaster. Development in regards to this pandemic forces us to ask the logistical questions such as how can we be better prepared for the next time, but also the systemic questions such as why are the poor and persons of color proportionally more impacted by this virus than the general population? The work of development asks the harder questions because they address the underlying issues of our society, and we, in the Church, who fundamentally understand the value of every human life, will have to weigh in on these issues of inequity and injustice with our own advocacy. At every stage (relief, rehabilitation and development), and in every circumstance, there is something we can and must “do”.
“Love talked about is easily turned aside, but love demonstrated is irresistible.” Love demonstrated is God’s way of loving. God didn’t just talk about His love for us, He put it in to flesh and blood. Christ’s love for us is proved by His death; our love for Christ is proved by our living for Him. “We love because God first loved us.”
Friends, Jesus asks us still, “Do you love Me?” And as many times as we may answer, “Yes, Lord, You know that I love You”, He will, again and again, say, “Then feed My sheep.” May our response always lead us to a lived out love.