3 Easter/Year C
May 1, 2022
Acts 9:1-6, (7-20); Psalm 30; John 21:1-19
Today’s readings gave me the feeling of being swept up in a great movement…a movement that keeps propelling me forward…to keep going…to keep travelling down this resurrection road with Jesus…to see what Jesus sees, to hear what Jesus hears, to offer forgiveness and mercy like Jesus does, to offer compassion and healing like Jesus does, to give others glimpses of hope like Jesus does…to love like Jesus loves us and has taught us to love him and one another…by the ways we reach out and care for one another…
In the conversation between Jesus and Simon Peter today, Jesus reminds him that love is a verb… Feed my lambs…tend my sheep…feed my sheep…
And that love…requires movement…a movement that takes us on a lifelong journey with Jesus, accepting his call to follow him in a Way of love that proclaims hope and the Way of Love that has the power to transform the world around us, one person at a time, one moment at a time, one step at a time…
In our 1st reading today…Saul, was known as a persecutor and an enemy of Jesus and his followers; he was intent on punishing anyone who believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, or believed any of the wonderful stories that others were proclaiming about him…No-one would have ever believed, that Saul, who later became known as Paul, would become one of Jesus’ most faithful and persistent followers…But as we heard in today’s reading in the Acts of the Apostles, something unexpectedly changed Saul when he was on the road to Damascus… Saul was traveling on the road to Damascus and, on the way, he is blinded for three days from a bright light from heaven. Upon receiving his sight again and then becoming baptized, he became a true follower of Christ and began traveling the world preaching only the good news. (Faith at Home)...the Good news of God’s love, being revealed to him, through Jesus, and with the laying of hands upon him by Ananias, on his way to Damascus…
Saul, was changed and transformed by the love and touch of God… His travels and journeys with Jesus were just beginning…
In our gospel reading today we see a lot of movement too…from empty nets to full nets, from doubt to renewed belief, from work to rest, from a limited view of what love looks like to a reminder from Jesus…that love is a verb…it requires movement…a movement that takes us on a lifelong journey with Jesus…
The guys are fishing, and their nets are coming up empty…but some guy (that they didn’t know was Jesus yet) calls out to them from the beach, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” And they answered, “No”. Jesus tells them to cast their net to the right side of the boat, and that they would catch some fish…and they did. So much fish…that they could barely haul it in. One of the disciples called out to Peter – “It is the Lord!”
Jesus invites them to come to the shore, and to have breakfast with him. He breaks the bread, does the same with the fish and gave it to them. They sit down and shre a meal together…
This is now the 3rd time, that Jesus has appeared to them after he was raised from the dead.
And this won’t be the last.
Today’s gospel reading ends with Jesus reminding them all…that love is a verb…It takes movement. That we are not only called to say we love Jesus…but we are called to love like Jesus loves us and has taught us to love others… Feed my lambs…tend my sheep…feed my sheep
There are a lot of hungry and hurting people everywhere we turn – including ourselves…there is no shortage of ways that we are being called from wherever we are today…to be an instrument of God’s love and compassion, to be an instrument of Christ’s mercy and forgiveness, and to be an instrument used for sharing the Holy Spirit’s healing balm…
The last words in today’s gospel were these words of invitation from Jesus… “Follow me.”
That invitation is for us, today, too. And it will require us to make the next move…to take the next step to embark on a lifelong journey with Jesus, accepting his call to follow him in a Way of love that proclaims hope and a way of Love that has the power to transform the world around us, one person at a time, one moment at a time, one step at a time…
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, AK
Hymn after the sermon: My Heart Sings Out - #127 - One more step along the world I go
Once more step along the world I go,
one more step along the world I go;
from the old things to the new
keep me traveling along with you:
and it’s from the old I travel to the new; keep me traveling along with you.
Round the corner of the world I turn,
more and more about the world I learn;
all the new things that I see
you’ll be looking at along with me:
and it’s from the old I travel to the new; keep me traveling along with you.
As I travel through the bad and good,
keep me traveling the way I should;
where I see no way to go
you’ll be telling me the way, I know:
and it’s from the old I travel to the new; keep me traveling along with you.
Give me courage when the world is rough,
keep me loving though the world is tough;
leap and sing in all I do,
keep me traveling along with you:
and it’s from the old I travel to the new; keep me traveling along with you.
You are older than the world can be,
you are younger than the life in me;
ever old and ever new,
keep me traveling along with you:
and it’s from the old I travel to the new; keep me traveling along with you.