{"id":175,"date":"2016-04-10T20:27:51","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T00:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=175"},"modified":"2016-04-13T08:31:35","modified_gmt":"2016-04-13T12:31:35","slug":"never-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2016\/04\/10\/never-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Never Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY<\/h4>\n

by Rev. James Eaton, Pastor – Copyright 2016 All rights reserved<\/h4>\n

Third Sunday in Easter\/C \u2022 April 10, 2016<\/h4>\n

Click here for an audio version of this sermon being preached<\/a><\/h2>\n

Isn\u2019t it amazing how life can change in a moment? I used to be the kind of person who would carefully plan all the stages of a trip. I had my airline reservation printed, hotel, car, each of them laid in a folder in consecutive order. I got annoyed when planes were delayed; I got angry if my car or room wasn\u2019t ready. But when Jacquelyn became a flight attendant and I started flying space available, I was introduced to traveling without any assurance. I had to learn that even though I had a plan, things could change, the world could say \u201cNever mind\u201d to my plan. Of course, there are many times, may circumstances where we go along as if our lives were on rails like a train. Then something happens and suddenly it\u2019s as if someone said \u201cnever mind\u201d to our whole plan, our whole life, and we\u2019re starting over.<\/p>\n

Life After the Cross – Never Mind<\/h2>\n

It must have been like that for the disciples. For a few years, they\u2019ve been following Jesus through the villages of Galilee, up and down the roads, then on to Jerusalem and its crowds. All along he was there; all along, they thought something great was going to happen. They saw him heal; they heard him preach. They\u2019d been present at amazing, miraculous events. <\/p>\n

Surely they knew what the prophets had said; one day God would send someone who would be a Messiah, who would lead a great movement to renew Israel. They must have known their history, how God inspired Moses to lead their ancestors out of Egypt, how Joshua led them to claim the promised land, how David created a kingdom among God\u2019s people, how that kingdom though fallen had risen again and then been recaptured by Judas Maccabeus. <\/p>\n

So the idea of someone who would stand at the head of a great movement, a military movement, was in their collective memory; it was the frame they put around Jesus. We get bits and pieces of this expectation. When Jesus asks who they think he is, Peter responds, \u201cthe Messiah\u201d. But when he connects that to a cross, they argue with him. They themselves are found arguing about who is going to be first in his kingdom, a moment he uses to teach them servanthood. So even if they didn\u2019t know exactly what to expect, they must have expected something great, something victorious.
\n\fNow it\u2019s as if God said, \u201cNever mind.\u201d Jesus is gone, dead, buried, and even though they\u2019ve heard the tomb is empty, even though Peter himself saw the empty tomb, every story about this time after Easter suggests they didn\u2019t believe Jesus had risen. So many things can happen: perhaps someone stole the body, perhaps the burial wasn\u2019t done properly. All those stories were floated later. Who cares, really? Empty tombs don\u2019t inspire; nothing doesn\u2019t get you something. It\u2019s easier to just believe God said \u201cNever mind\u201d, one more dream dying, one more dream shattered, one more never mind in a life of never minds.<\/p>\n

Back to the Old Plan<\/h2>\n

So they do what people often do when a life plan ends. They go back where they were before it all began. They\u2019ve gone back to Galilee, back to where it all started. They\u2019ve gone back to what they used to do: fishing. How long have they been doing that? Doesn\u2019t time seem to stop sometimes when your whole plan, your whole life, has run into one big \u201cNever mind?\u201d But it doesn\u2019t seem to be working; they go out fishing and don\u2019t catch a single thing. Have they lost the touch? Bad luck? Who knows? It seems the new plan, to go back to the old plan, is getting a big never mind as well.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just then, when they come back to shore, hungry, depressed, quiet the way you are when everything has failed that they meet this guy on the beach. Who is he? No one knows. He calls them children. That may seem kind but actually since the word for children and slave is about the same it may have come across as strange. Maybe it sounded like he was recognizing how hard they worked. Next thing, he\u2019s giving directions and somehow they feel compelled to do what he says: \u201cCast the net on the right side.\u201d Is it just that nothing else has worked so why not or something mysteriously compelling about him? All we know is that as the net fills up and one of them recognizes something in the man on the beach. \u201cIt is the Lord!\u201d he says and Peter\u2014Peter who always rushes in, whether it\u2019s the right thing or not\u2014Peter can\u2019t help jumping in and wading ashore. <\/p>\n

Once there, they discovered everything they need is already set: bread, grilled fish. I love the note that says that the net didn\u2019t break. That detail makes this story for me: who else but someone who\u2019s spent hours mending nets would think of it? So there they are: on the beach with the Lord, eating breakfast. Some have said that just as there was a Last Supper, this is the First Breakfast. <\/p>\n

On the Beach<\/h2>\n

So there they are: in some ways it must have seemed like all their fears, all their grief has just received in its turn a great Never Mind. But then, when they\u2019ve all had breakfast, Jesus takes Peter aside and asks him this question: do you love me? What did Peter think? Last week I talked about the song, Tradition! from the musical Fiddler on the Roof. There\u2019s another song in the same show when Tevye, the father, is discussing a daughter\u2019s impending marriage with his wife Golde. He says, \u201cShe loves him\u201d, and then he asks Golde, \u201cDo you love me?\u201d She rolls her eyes and says, <\/p>\n

For years, I’ve washed your clothes\u2028Cooked your meals, cleaned your house\u2028Given you children, milked your cow\u2028After years, why talk about love right now?
\nBut Tevye persists: do you love me? And Golde thinks,
\nDo I love him?\u2028For years, I’ve lived with him\u2028Fought with him\u2028Starved with him\u2028For years, my bed is his\u2028If that’s not love, what is?\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the end, she says she does love him\u2014and that it doesn\u2019t change a thing. <\/p>\n

Do You Love Me?<\/h2>\n

\u201cDo you love me?\u201d It\u2019s a question we all ask, one we all need answered. \u201cDo you love me?\u201d Jesus asks Peter. Remember Peter? Brash Peter, one moment proclaiming Jesus is the messiah, the next arguing so violently with him that Jesus calls him a devil. One moment proclaiming his ultimate loyalty; the next sitting in a courtyard denying he ever knew Jesus. \u201cI never met the man!\u201d Peter says. I wonder if, when Jesus asked, \u201cDo you love me?\u201d Peter was thinking of that moment. I wonder if he was remembering how Jesus said he would deny him three times before dawn and Peter said \u201cnever\u201d and then indeed, not once, but just as Jesus said, three times, denied him, betrayed him. \u201cDo you love me?\u201d How do you come back from that guilt? How do you come back from that moment? Do you apologize? Do you grovel? What do you say?
\n\f\u201cDo you love me?\u201d Jesus asks. the first time, Peter says, \u201cYes, Lord, you know I love you.\u201d Like a married spouse yelling, \u201clove ya\u201d as they walk out the door, the unthinking response: \u201cDo you love me\u201d sure, Jesus, whatever. Jesus responds: tend my lambs. And he asks a second time, a deeper time: \u201cDo you love me?\u201d I think that\u2019s when Peter must have realized the pretense was over; I think that must have been when Peter\u2019s front began to crumble, when the moment of betrayal came back to haunt him.<\/p>\n

\u201cFeed my sheep\u201d, Jesus says. And then, I imagine Jesus looking right into his eyes, knowing as he always knew, what was behind Peter\u2019s eyes, knowing and yet asking once again, \u201cDo you love me?\u201d and when Peter, perhaps crumbling now, says yes; once again, Jesus says, \u201cFeed my sheep.\u201d This is the moment Peter became an apostle. This is the moment when Jesus came to him and said: \u201cNever mind!\u201d All those misunderstandings along the way? Never mind! Go feed my sheep. Those times you denied me? Never mind! Go feed my sheep. The fact that you went back to your old life? Never mind! I\u2019m giving you a new life and a new mission: feed my sheep.<\/p>\n

Now, I imagine most of us have at least one story about a time we thought we were on the way, pursuing a plan, on a mission and suddenly something happened that said, \u201cNever mind!\u201d and suddenly we were sitting there like a person who just slipped on a patch of ice and fell down. So perhaps you know how Peter felt. And today, this day, this very day, <\/p>\n

Never mind: feed my sheep<\/h2>\n

Jesus is speaking to us just as he did with Peter and the others. Whatever we think about our future as a church, whatever plan we have, Jesus has this to say: \u201cNever mind\u2014feed my sheep\u201d. How? He doesn\u2019t say; he leaves that for us to figure out, just as he does with Peter. What he seems to have in mind is in that confusing little bit at the end about being bound and taken where Peter doesn\u2019t want to go. Certainly he knows that despite all our plans, we are going to have to live when the plans fall apart. Life is full of never minds. In the midst of them, just this counts: how we answer the question Jesus asks, \u201cDo you love me?\u201d and whether we are every day doing something, everything, to feed his sheep.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY by Rev. James Eaton, Pastor – Copyright 2016 All rights reserved Third Sunday in Easter\/C \u2022 April 10, 2016 Click here for an audio version of this sermon being preached Isn\u2019t it amazing how life can change in a moment? I used to be the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[31,3,2,32],"tags":[24,34,33],"class_list":["post-175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-easter","category-sermon","category-worship","category-year-c","tag-forgiveness","tag-new-life","tag-resurrection"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":184,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175\/revisions\/184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}