3 Easter C April 14, 2013
Acts 9:1-20 Ps. 30
Rev. 5:11-14 John 21:1-19
Sometimes when we put the Bible on such a pedestal
of supernaturalism, we can miss what truly endears it to us with the profound
insights that makes the Bible an inspired books. If one makes the Gospel just about
supernatural, scientific law defying events, then the Bible gets put upon a
shelf of not actually being relevant to our lives because you and I don’t live
scientific law defying events in our lives; we must be content to be all too
human. Frankly I like it better that way
and I like the fact that the Bible is all too human as well. It is brutally honest about the foibles of
all of the heroes, two of which we’ve read about today. The Bible has gone the way of classic
literature; it is very popular but increasingly unread. Looks good in Moroccan bound leather on the
shelf. The efforts of my sermons are about
how we can read the Bible and hint at its relevance to potential “original”
readers and to us today.
In
Christian tradition, Peter and Paul were
leaders of churches in Rome. The
churches in Rome pre-existed Peter and Paul. The Gospel had already resulted in
house churches before Peter and Paul arrived in Rome. Christian writers in the
second century write that Peter and Paul probably died in Rome during the Nero
persecution in mid 60’s. Nero was the
Caesar who “fiddled” while Rome burned and supposedly blamed it upon
Christians.
Peter was the one who denied Jesus three
times at the time of his arrest and interrogation. His
denial was a bit more dramatic since he had so loudly proclaimed his fearless
devotion. Peter had
a significant restoration encounter with Jesus.
He had a reputation to reestablish if he were to be a worthy leader of
the church.
Paul was the once-known Rabbi Saul who
persecuted the followers of Jesus. He
was complicit in their stoning deaths. Saul had a dramatic encounter with the Risen Christ. The story of Paul was told for reasons of
establishing his reputation in Christian communities.
The Gospels and the writings of the New Testament are literature that were
created because the death of Jesus did not end his influence upon the lives of
his followers. In various ways, they
continued to experience the presence of Christ.
The New Testament writings are evidence that writing had become the media of the spirit-words and that through these
writings, people could come to belief.
These writing served very pragmatic purposes in the Christ
communities. They served as evidence of
the success of the Christian communities even as they helped to extend and consolidate
the success.
In any religious movement the question of succession to the founder is
crucial. No one could really succeed
Jesus as his equal. But who would
continue the mission that Jesus started in this world? What
did Jesus stand for? How could the genius
of the message of Jesus continue in this world he was gone?
Who would best be able to do this?
And how would the legitimacy of their leadership established?
Since the New Testament writings have been around for a long time and we
are recipients of their “taken for granted” status. It is hard for us to get a sense of their
original setting to understand the pragmatic purposes that these writings held
for the early communities that read them for the first time.
The Jesus Movement was successful but all of the Christian communities did not have
easy contact with each other. Communication was slow; churches were
separated by great distances. Traditions
and practices grew in one community that were not present in another.
Travelling prophets and preachers were
the ones who brought a cross-pollination of ideas and practices but such
travelling prophets were also a source of division. Paul was known to warn his congregations
about prophets who were teaching them Gospel that was different from what he
preached. There were disagreements
too. Paul and Peter had a major dispute about the
interactions of Christ Communities that still kept Jewish customs and the
Gentiles Christ communities that didn’t.
You and I are tempted to idealize the ancient Christian communities as being
really pure and holy since they were so much closer to the dates of Jesus
living on this earth. What we find from
reading Church history closely is that there was lots of diversity and that some
teaching and writing of influential teacher did not suvive. Their writing was destroyed or not preserved by competing
groups that came to gather around other influential church leaders.
One can understand the Gospel of John and the Acts of the Apostles as
writings that were intended to establish the profile of leaders who were to be
regarded as the rightful heir in the succession of the message of Jesus Christ.
The 21st chapter of John is about the leadership of Peter and
the beloved disciple whom some believe is John, son of Zebedee. The portion
that we read from the Acts of the Apostles recounts the dramatic conversion of
St. Paul. Some scholars believe that the
Acts of the Apostles was written as a way to bring credibility to the letters
of Paul and to promote their acceptance within the churches.
The New Testament is a collection of writings written for pragmatic and
specific purposes, one of which was to establish the credibility of leadership
and doctrinal teaching within the churches.
John or the beloved disciple is associated with the church that
developed in the city of Ephesus. Peter
and Paul are associated with the churches in Rome. In a subtle way, the Gospel of John is both
promoting Peter’s role but at the same time hinting at a special role of the
beloved disciple. In the account of the Gospel
of John, Peter denied Jesus three times.
What did the beloved disciple do?
He went into the trial location with Jesus. He was given the charge of the mother of
Jesus at the Cross and while Peter hid in fear, the beloved disciple stayed
with Jesus at the Cross.
The
writing of the early church had to show how the leadership of Peter was
rehabilitated. Peter, seemed to be one
who after the resurrection was ready to be practical about going back to being
a fisherman, or perhaps he thought that his denial of Jesus left him
unqualified to be a disciple of Jesus.
In our appointed Gospel we have a scene that is set up to indicate the
direct rehabilitation of Peter into the good graces of Jesus. Peter denied the Lord three times before the
rooster crowed; Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved him as a way to get
Peter to counter each denial with a confession of his love for Jesus. Peter was restored in his relationship with
Jesus and his reputation was established as a legitimate leader in the
church. This portion was written after
the death of Peter because it gives an indication that he would have the
strength to go where he was unwilling to go before with Jesus, namely to his
own crucifixion.
In this same post-resurrection encounter, Peter was seen as being nosy
about what would happen to the beloved disciple and Jesus said to him, “What is
that to you, follow me.”
The
Gospels present the disciples as students of Jesus who learn in ways that we
can identity with. Peter, John and Paul
could be like any of us in the church.
We can be petty and we can be profound; we can live sacrificially and
egotistically. We can be heroic in faith
and at other times denying the significance of God in our lives.
And what is the point? Leadership
comes from being rehabilitated, reconciled and received by a loving Christ, who
simply says, “ Feed my sheep.” Get to
work and help the vulnerable. We don’t
have time for all this petty competition drama.
Get to work, take care of the lambs.
The lessons for today invite all of us to be leaders in the church. Let us lead because we know that we are
restored in our relationship with God through Christ and we know that we are
called to take care of those who are vulnerable in this world. Amen.
