Skip to main content

John 21:15-17: Restored

One night when I was sixteen, I was allowed to borrow my parents’ car on one condition, that I bring my along little sister and she has a curfew; so I have to stop whatever I am doing to bring her home by 9 pm.

I take her down to the local hangout and tell her not to bother me. It is a good evening. I meet some friends. There is a party that night that we are planning to attend – there is just one problem – I have to get my sister home by 9 pm.

As my friends and I are in the middle of planning our night, my sister shows up and says, “It’s time to go” and she is not alone. She has found herself a boyfriend! And this boyfriend, Tony,  is a friend of mine! I have an idea…

He can bring Lorinda home! There are, however, a couple of details to work out: (1) my sister isn’t allowed to date yet and (2) this boy will bring her home on a motor scooter. These won’t go over so well with my mom, so I come up with a plan: I tell him he can take my sister home but to make sure he parks around the corner from our house so my mom won’t see them and I tell her to tell mom that she got a ride home from Melody, a girl from church group, instead of from a boy on a motor scooter.

He gets her home all right but rather than parking around the corner he parks on the street, under a streetlight, and he gives her a good night kiss. Then my sister has a cigarette as she walks the rest of the way home - where my mom is watching this whole scene. My sister walks in the door and mom asks, “How did you get home?”

“Melody…”

A couple of hours later I come home. All the lights are on and mom is waiting at the front door… “How did your sister get home? How did she get home? Who took her home? I am caught. I know it. I betrayed my mom’s trust and now I am being asked these questions over and over again .

‘Do you love me?’ is the question Jesus asks Peter over and over again. Peter must feel just about the same way I did. “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?” Jesus trusted him. Peter betrayed that trust and now he is in need of restoration.

Now, of course, Jesus does restore Peter. Jesus is faithful to build his church upon Peter’s work for the Kingdom. Jesus forgives him and restores him just like my mom forgave me and after grounding me for a month or so, restored me to being trusted with her car.

It is the same with each of us. Whatever it is that we may have done to deny our responsibilities or to betray Jesus’ trust we are forgiven and we can be restored; all we need to do is to come to Jesus and accept his offer to ‘feed his sheep’


What does it look like to ‘feed his sheep’? How can we do that today?


Presented to River Street Cafe, 24 February 2017
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hosanna! The Triumphal Entry into Holy Week (Matthew 21:1-11)

Today  is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is when we commemorate the Sunday before Jesus’ death. Jerusalem was occupied then, like it is now; now it is occupied by the Israelis, then it was occupied by the Romans. The Judeans in the first century didn’t like being occupied then any more than the Palestinians like it today. The Romans were harsh, not nearly as brutal as modern Israel, but harsh enough that the first century had their version of … (Remember the suicide bombers of the ‘70s and ‘80s?) …suicide bombers: the Sicarii (zealots), Judean terrorists / revolutionaries would walk into crowds with daggers looking for Romans to kill –. One of Jesus’ followers, Simon, was arguably a Sicarii or zealot.   Passover is the commemoration of ancient Israel’s birth as a nation. The Angel of Death passed over Egypt and the nations of Isreal and Judah were created through the Exodus. Passover, in the Roman period, was a time when many people of Judean descent descended upon Jerusalem. I ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Luke 24:38-34: Revelation of a King

James V, the King of Scotland used to go around the country disguised as a common person. That is because he wanted to meet the everyday people of the country not just the rich and powerful. He wanted to see how the normal people lived. One day he was dressed in very old clothes and was going by a place known as Cramond Brig, when he is attacked by robbers who don’t know who he is. There is a fierce struggle and he is nearly overcome when, at just the right moment, a poor farm worker - Jock Howieson - hears the commotion comes to the disguised king’s aid. Now Jock, the poor labourer, who works on this portion of the King’s land, Cramond Brig, unawares takes the undercover king home and gives him a dinner of broth and Jock - as the king is recouping – naturally asks the man who he is. The King responds ‘I’m a good man of Edinburgh.’ ‘And where do you live in that city and where do you work?’ ‘Well,’ says James, ‘I live at the palace and I work there too.’ ‘The palace, is it?...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lanterns (Matthew 25:1-13, Psalm 146)

  The topics I chose from our Lenten list for today are “God has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness”; “He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin”; the Kingdom of God is at hand. Do we believe that? Do we live that?   In theology we use the term ‘prolepsis’ to refer to the time when the Kingdom of God begins, which is now, the time between the resurrection of Christ and His return at the eschaton. This is the time in which we are living and as Christians it is our responsibility to be willing instruments of God to display what it means that He has rescued us from the Dominion of Darkness; He has Freed Us from the Power of Sin, that the Kingdom of God is at hand. But do we even actually believe that He has already done this? And if He has why does it not seem that the Sin and Darkness still reign?   We know the parable of the bridesmaids (holy ones) in the Bible who needed to keep their lanterns lit – because lit lanterns were to be there when the Bridegroom Jesus returns...
Post a Comment
Read more