October 13, 2025 • 35 mins
A charcoal fire, the smell of fish, and a question that won’t let go: Do you love me? We walk the shoreline with Peter from the night of denial to a dawn of restoration, and we discover why Jesus asks three times—not to shame, but to heal, reframe, and entrust. The tension is familiar: there’s the self we intend to be and the self that shows up when fear hits. Instead of pretending the split isn’t there, we name it, then watch how grace composes something larger—like day three of creation, where separation becomes space for life.
We unpack how the miraculous catch opens Peter’s eyes, why the identical charcoal fire matters, and how trauma loses power when it’s spoken aloud. Each yes to “Do you love me?” turns into a concrete task: feed my sheep, tend my lambs. Service becomes the path out of shame’s loop. Along the way, we explore the Hebrew imagination of numbers—one, two, three—as a lens for unity, discord, and harmony that holds both without erasing either. This isn’t theory; it’s a map for everyday choices, from relationships to leadership to the way we show up for our neighbors.
We also turn toward our community and publicly commission Ben with five charges: receive unearned grace, see people with compassion, keep intimacy with God ahead of output, lead by serving, and extend forgiveness by raising others to lead. If your past feels like an anchor or your present feels like drift, this conversation offers a third way forward. Name what hurts. Answer the question. Then feed someone—literally, spiritually, practically. If this episode moves you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review with one tension you’re ready to name and transform.
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Amen.
Let's pray this morning.
God, we ask for your grace andmercy to be with us this
morning.
And um Yeah, would you open oureyes and our ears this morning
to hear what you'd have to sayto us?
And uh may the word preached andthe prayers and the songs and
this ordination ceremony forBen.
May it yeah, may it minister tothe deepest parts of our souls
that need uh uh that need it sobadly.
(00:21):
God may the good news overwhelmus this morning in every way.
And uh may this be uh indeed aday of celebration.
And uh we pray these things inyour holy and precious name.
Amen.
I may you be seated.
Morning, everyone, how are wedoing?
Good.
So we are in the uh at the inthe middle, a couple weeks into
our our sermon series calledThis Isn't Rhetorical, and it's
(00:41):
actually a sermon series aboutthe questions that Jesus asked.
So Jesus asked lots of questionsbecause he was a good Jewish
rabbi in the first century, andum that was one of the ways that
they would, you know, the thefancy word is pedagogy, that
pedagogically they would askquestions and that's what it
teach people.
And so he asked over 300questions.
So we are gonna pick out oneeach week and kind of just talk
(01:02):
about it and ask it.
And the idea is that as we as wehear the question that Jesus
asked, we would hear it, youknow, asked in the first
century.
Of course, that this one thismorning was asked to Peter, but
also we'd hear it asked of ustoday.
So Jesus asks Peter, Do you loveme?
And he asked him three times.
And uh, by the way, the there'sthrees all over this story this
(01:23):
morning.
My sermon title this morning isactually that.
It is uh, oh hang on one second.
It is uh sorry, what's any ideawhat's happening right now?
Close your eyes, close youreyes, hold on, close your eyes.
Nobody peeking.
That was weird of okay, there wego.
Now we're good.
Are you guys doing that or am I?
(01:44):
I I got the clicker, so I'llI'll take care of it.
How about all right, hang tight.
Keep them closed, keep themclosed.
Clearly, we did not rehearsethis this morning.
Okay, now we're ready.
Okay.
The sermon is titled, Do YouLove Me?
One, two, three.
Uh, there's lots of threes inthis story.
If you can find them, uh you geta prize at the end of the
(02:05):
sermon, I guess.
Uh so uh Jesus asks Peter, Doyou love me?
Now, here's the deal.
This is right after theresurrection.
And scholars don't really knowwhat the exact chronology, uh,
chrono uh chronological orderwas of the appearances of Jesus.
We know he appears a bunch oftimes.
Uh he appears as a gardener inthe uh in the tomb area.
Uh, he appears in the room withthe disciples.
(02:27):
He also appears here on the sideof the Sea of Galilee with Peter
and the disciples there.
And they're not really surebecause in the old in the
ancient world, they wouldsometimes arrange, you know, uh
stories and kind of patch themtogether.
So no one really knows which onecame first, but I love the
notion that this one might havecome first.
So this is the first time thatPeter and the other disciples
are seeing Jesus after theresurrection, and they're up
(02:50):
north in Galilee around the sea,and they're uh they're hanging
out and they're actuallyfishing, and then they see
Jesus.
So imagine that they haven'tseen Jesus resurrected yet, and
this is what happened.
So just prior to this, a coupleof days ago, Jesus, their rabbi,
their teacher, their theirmaster, like the one whom they
had lived for three years with.
They slept with him, theyjourneyed with him, they spent
(03:10):
tons of time with them.
He had called them as young mento come and follow him.
And they spent all this timedoing all these incredible
things, and then he was uh wasarrested, convicted for for no
child.
I mean, he was it was he was aninnocent man, and he was uh he
was murdered on a cross.
And in every way, the discipleshad lost.
(03:30):
Like the movement that wassupposed to start with Jesus,
this incredible thing that washappening, the crowds buzzing,
it all was over.
And these guys watched theirrabbi, their master, the leader
of their little tribe, theirmovement.
They watched him get hung on across, a shameful way of dying.
And it was all over.
The jig was up, and they ran fortheir lives.
(03:51):
Because you can imagine if yourleader was hung on a cross, that
meant that you were next in theRoman Empire.
Like you were next.
And they were gonna come findyou, and they were also gonna
crucify you as a rebel and as arabble rouser.
So they're like extremelyafraid, they're lost, they have
no idea where to go.
And so, in this moment of likedeep, dark despair, Peter says,
(04:11):
you know what?
Uh, I'm gonna go fishing.
Like you do when you're stressedout.
Like, I mean, I can't, I gottago out and go fishing.
I got I need to relieve somestress.
I'm going out on the on the seato do some fishing, which I
think is just hilarious becausePeter uh has no idea what else
to do.
So, you know what?
I'm gonna go fishing.
But there's also this Peter, asyou remember, was by trade a
(04:33):
fisherman.
He was a professional fisherman.
So years prior, three yearsprior, he was doing this work
day in and day out.
And then Jesus calls him out ofthat work and he goes to follow
Jesus.
And now, in the moment of likedespair and feeling lost and
broken, like the whole thing hascome to an end.
And after three years of beingwith Jesus and walking on water,
(04:56):
Peter walked on water afterwatching Jesus heal the woman
who was bleeding for 12 years,after he cuts a guy's ear off to
defend Jesus, after all of that,Peter simply goes back to his
old life as though nothinghappened, as though it was all a
dream.
You know, sometimes you and I wedon't know what to do, and the
(05:16):
stress is overwhelming, and wejust go back to our old way of
living.
I was thinking the other day,I'm like, you know what?
There are really uh twodifferent kinds of Ryan.
So, for example, there's theRyan, uh, and maybe you can
relate to this.
I don't know.
There's the Ryan over here.
This is Ryan.
We'll call it Ryan 1.
And this is like the Ryan I wantto be.
(05:39):
Like the Ryan I dream of kind ofbeing.
If I could be this guy, this iswhat I would be.
Here, I'll here's what he lookslike.
He looks like this.
Just always happy and smiley, ina good mood.
Very handsome in that picture.
You can clearly apparently he'swinking.
I did not mean to do that, buthe's winking.
(06:00):
But here's the reality.
There's another Ryan.
There's another Ryan that kindof lives in there too.
Uh the great Brennan Manningsays that you and I are like a
mixed bag of contradictions.
So over here is the Ryan thatsometimes surfaces.
I don't know, on a Thursdaymid-morning when I haven't had
my coffee yet.
Uh, or when I'm in lineanywhere, and the line is more
(06:23):
than three people deep, and it'staking forever.
Or in a matchup and they run outof guacamole.
This is the other Ryan thatshows up on occasion.
This Ryan looks like this,maybe.
How's that?
(06:44):
He's stressed out, Ryan.
You know what I mean?
And here's the reality (06:47):
maybe you have the same kind of thing
in you, and there's like thistension between these two Ryan's
like the Ryan I want to be, andthe Ryan I sometimes end, that
I'm not always the most proudof.
And I believe this in the story,you see this in Peter, and this
tension in Peter.
So Peter has no idea what to do.
So he's like, I'm gonna gofishing.
And he goes out on the lake withhis buddies, takes his nets, and
(07:09):
he goes back to his oldlifestyle he had just a few
years before.
Now remember, the last time thatPeter saw Jesus, because they're
about to meet again on this onthe Sea of Galilee's shores here
after the resurrection, but thelast time they saw each other
was a few days earlier.
And Peter is at the trial of hisbest friend.
Jesus is being convicted, andPeter's there.
(07:30):
Now, again, they know if theycrucify the leader of your tribe
or your little movement, they'regonna take all of you down.
And so they someone spots Peter.
Peter's over there warminghimself by a coal fire.
I imagine that's like a firemade of coals.
And uh he's warming, he'swarming himself, watching, but
he won't he won't acknowledgewho he is.
And they they say to him, Hey,you're one of the followers of
that guy.
(07:51):
And Peter's like, No, I'm not.
No, I'm not.
And he denies his friendshipwith him.
And they ask him again, a secondtime, yo, dude, you're the guy,
you're you're with this dude.
Peter's like, not me, dude.
Nah, bro, I don't know that guy.
I don't know him at all.
Twice around this coal fire.
Third time, yo, you're the guy,you're with Jesus, you're with
(08:12):
that guy.
And again, the text tells usPeter denies it.
Now I don't know him.
Three times.
Jesus had warned Peter, you'regonna deny me three times.
And Peter's like, No, I won't,dude.
And here he is, denies him threetimes around this coal fire.
In fact, in Matthew's gospel, itsays he's so irate Peter is,
he's so he like doubles andtriples down, he curses at
(08:33):
everyone around him.
I don't know him.
Curse words.
I don't know that dude.
He's not me, it's not my friend.
I don't know him at all.
And that was the last time theysaw each other.
Three times Peter denies him.
So maybe Peter goes back tofishing because he's like, I
don't know what else to do.
I'm stressed out.
I could use a fish lunch or afish breakfast.
(08:56):
But maybe also Peter is acutelyaware of his failures that
happened just a couple days ago.
And his own weaknesses, hisinadequacies.
And Peter, maybe in this moment,thinks he's no longer worthy of
anything except to go back tohis old life.
Maybe you've been there, like Idon't I've I've I've I've I've
(09:20):
screwed up so bad I can't doanything else.
I all I know I gotta just goback.
I can't do anything else.
I'm not worthy of anything.
And Peter, in this excruciatingbetrayal of his best friend,
maybe thinks he's disqualifiedhimself from anything that Jesus
wanted him to do originally.
And all those three years thathave gone by, it meant nothing
because Peter's like, I I ruinedit all, and none of it matters.
(09:44):
And so he leaves and goesfishing.
It's all he knows to do.
He's discouraged, disillusioned,and disappointed.
See, there's this tension forPeter as well.
The Peter that Peter wants tobe, that maybe he sees kind of
emerging in the days of Jesuswhen he's hanging out, walking
(10:05):
on water, Peter, that guy.
Like, boy, that dude is a thatdude's a legend.
And then there's the other Peterthat also surfaces.
It's the denying Peter.
Peter the betrayer.
Yeah, that guy's down there too.
And Peter feels this tension andhe doesn't know what to do with
it.
And so what does he do?
(10:26):
He goes back to his old way ofliving, his old life, his old
lifestyle.
Because at least there, maybethe shame and the guilt and the
embarrassment won't feel aspainful.
So he goes backwards.
Now, there they are on the sideof the Sea of Galilee, and
they're fishing.
They fish all night, and thenthe next morning the sun comes
up, and there's somebody on theshore.
They don't know who it is yet.
(10:47):
It's Jesus, by the way.
They don't know yet, though.
So, and this person calls out tothem, hey friends, do you have
any fish?
Now, Peter, because he's afisherman, he knows the
fisherman code.
You know the fisherman code.
If you're catching a bunch offish and someone comes by on
their boat, hey, you guys catcha lot of fish?
Of course, the answer is, no,nothing here, man.
No fish here.
Sorry, move along.
(11:08):
Right?
Yeah, you know the fisherman'scode.
You don't tell anybody, yeah,bro, there's tons of fish.
Now you got 30 boats that comeon.
We don't want that.
No, dude, no fish here.
Nothing to see here.
Although, of course, theyactually hadn't caught any fish.
They caught nothing all night,which has got to be
disappointing.
I know we fishermen tellourselves, you know, I'm just
here for the scene and the freshair, and I love just being in
(11:29):
the, it's all part of thejourney.
No, I want to catch some fish,you know what I'm saying?
So the guy from the shores,wait, we haven't caught nothing.
And the guy from the shore goes,hey, why don't you throw your
nets on the other side of theboat?
Which is terrible advice.
Here's why.
This is a boat from the firstcentury.
This is actually excavated onthe Sea of Galilee.
It's a first century boat.
Those of us went to Israel acouple years ago, we saw this
(11:51):
boat.
It's called the Jesus boat orthe Sea of Galilee boat.
It's not very big, okay?
It's not very wide.
So this guy from the shoreline,who's like an expert apparently
in fishing, it's like, hey, takeyour net, because they would
fish with nets, and move it overtwo feet.
Now, I don't know about you, butthat's not a great idea, uh, in
my opinion.
That's like saying if someone'sshoveling and digging, you know,
(12:12):
for a treasure left-handed, andsomeone's like, hey, any
treasure?
Nothing.
Oh, try using your right hand.
Okay.
Nope, still nothing.
Idiot.
That's not in the text.
I made that part up, but andthey do it, and lo and behold,
(12:33):
they catch so many fish, theycan't bring them into the boat.
And then Peter's like, it'sJesus.
He goes, Is it you, Lord?
And Peter, ever the impetuousyoung fella who just is brash
and a bit maniacal, which I loveabout Peter, just jumps in the
water to swim ashore.
(12:54):
I love that about Peter.
He just goes for it.
Sometimes, you know, you're soafraid.
It's like we just need tochannel our inner Peter.
Just go for it, man.
You only get one life anyway,and life is what you make it.
So he jumps in the water, whichis also hilarious because, you
know, you've seen humans inwater.
Maybe you've been in water.
We're not very good in water.
Meanwhile, his body's around theboat, which is pretty good in
(13:15):
water.
And I imagine they just scootright by him.
They see it at the shore, Peter.
See when you get there, he'schugging along, trying to swim
along.
And I'm sure they beat him tothe shoreline.
And when they get there, Jesusis there.
And he's got a fire.
Actually, it's a it's a coalfire.
I got another coal fire on thestory here.
And he says, Hey, uh, you guyswant some breakfast?
(13:39):
Uh I'm paraphrasing it,something like that in the in
the text.
Yo, guys, come have somebreakfast.
Oh, it's just like Jesus.
Uh, three days ago, I wasbrutally murdered, crucified on
the cross in a shameful way thatwas against the Jewish law.
And the whole thing that we hadstarted was ended.
We all lost.
You ran for your lives, but herewe are.
You want to have some breakfast?
(13:59):
Here's some fish and bread.
I'm like, well, this iswhiplash, Jesus.
What can you explain whathappened?
What the heck?
Where have you been, man?
And how are you alive?
What's going on?
And he's just some fish, he'sgot some bread and some and some
fish, and he invites him to havesome breakfast.
I love it.
Then after they're done eating,because I'm sure there's like
this elephant in the room, youknow, like, uh, how did you get
(14:20):
what are you doing here?
And for Peter, of course heremembers what happened the last
time they were together.
I don't know that dude.
And so for Peter, it's like thisheavy, maybe elephant just right
there.
So Jesus asks him, Hey Peter,uh, Simon, he says, son of
Jonah, son of John, do you loveme?
That's an odd question.
(14:42):
Peter's like, Yeah, of course Ido.
And then Jesus asks him again,Simon, son of John, do you love
me?
Yeah, God, of course I love you.
By the way, after each time hesays to them, Okay, well then
feed my sheep or tend my lambs.
Lambs are like baby sheep.
So, okay, okay.
And then he asks him a thirdtime, Simon, son of John, do you
(15:03):
love me?
And Peter says, Yeah, Jesus, healmost sounds irritated.
You know I love you, of course Ilove you.
Why does he ask him three times?
Well, many of you know theanswer.
He's he's of course taking himback.
The coal fire.
This is the second coal fire inthe story within three days.
Also, these are the only twomentions of a coal fire in the
(15:24):
entire New Testament.
The word for coal fire is theword anthrax.
Did you know this for coal?
Anthrax is the Greek word forcoal, which is hilarious or
something interesting, maybe.
It's not actually hilariousbecause when you get when you
get anthrax exposure, your skinturns charcoal black.
So not funny, but justinteresting.
So John's clearly tying thesetwo stories together, and so is
(15:48):
Jesus.
He asks him three times to sortof mirror and reflect and take
Peter back to Peter's threedenials.
Hey, aren't you his follower?
Nah, man, not me.
Don't you know that guy?
Not I don't know that dude.
Don't you?
Aren't you a friend?
No, I'm not his friend.
Curses, curses, curses.
Uh Peter, do you love me?
Of course I love you.
Feed my sheep.
Peter, do you love me?
(16:08):
Yes, of course.
Peter, do you love me?
Of course.
Jesus is, of course, in thisbrilliant move taking him back.
Taking him back to his place ofshame and brokenness and
addressing the elephant in theroom.
Because, friends, sometimes youhave to address the elephant in
the room.
Because there it is, we all knowit, we all see it, we all walk
around it.
You have to name it.
(16:28):
Because there's trauma researchthat suggests that if you don't
name it, unnamed wounds, theyremain kind of stuck on replay.
And though you shove it down ortry to hide it, it sort of leaks
out sideways.
It's just on replay, dumpedsomewhere down in your soul.
And they exist in the shadows,these past wounds or past
mistakes or past failures orpast weaknesses.
(16:49):
And the shame it begins tofester and it just goes on
replay over and over again.
And the only way to heal it isto name it, to call it out.
This is why it's super awkwardwhen you go to those family
reunions and nobody mentionsUncle Kenny's drinking problem.
Or that shamefully embarrassingspeech he gave at the wedding
(17:10):
three months ago that washorribly embarrassing.
Like no one wants to mentionthat at all.
Or the fact that he's on hisfourth wife.
No one wants to talk about that.
Or that he was in jail two yearsago for the second time.
We don't talk about thesethings.
But guess what?
For Uncle Kenny, then he justsort of lives down here in this
shame and this shadows.
(17:31):
And I'm just telling you, inorder for there to be relational
reconciliation and healing, youhave to name it.
Somebody has to say, hey, UncleKenny, I think you have a
problem.
Hey, let's talk about this.
Hey, are you doing all right?
Hey, what you what you said tome really hurt my feelings.
Can we talk about that?
I know it's I know it's kind ofawkward and it's painful, but if
(17:55):
you don't name the elephant inthe room, it'll just live down
there.
And unnamed wounds don'tdisappear.
They fester and they come outsideways.
And so Jesus takes Peter intohis deepest, most recent wound
when he rejects him three times.
Takes him backwards.
And then he says, Hey, but also,buddy, I'm still here.
(18:16):
Let's have some breakfast.
But also, he doesn't just takehim backwards, he takes Peter
forwards.
I love this part about thestory.
See, this story is full ofsymbolic numbers.
Now, in the Jewish, in theJewish history of the Jewish
mind, um, there are all kinds ofnumbers that are symbolic.
You probably know this.
I'm gonna erase this here.
There's uh a lot of they call itnumerology in the in the
(18:36):
scriptures.
So the number seven, a verysymbolic number in the
scriptures.
Seven, you know, means seven.
It also means like perfection,wholeness, completeness.
The earth was, of course,created in how many days?
Seven.
So it's done, it's finished,it's complete, it's whole, it's
good.
Actually, by the way, in theGenesis narrative, that seventh
day doesn't ever end.
It keeps on going.
(18:57):
So you and I are perhaps livingin day seven, and the creation
is ongoing, and you and I areinvited to be a part of this
ongoing creation of the world.
That was free, by the way.
I didn't have that in the firstsermon.
Okay.
Uh the number 12.
Another one.
There were 12 tribes of Israel.
That's that's symbolic of themission of God in the world.
God wants to save the worldthrough the 12 tribes of Israel.
(19:18):
And so his mission that includedeverybody, the Gentiles, the
Jews, you know, uh dolphin fans,all those people.
Um there's how many disciples?
12.
Also, the numbers one and two.
Any dolphin fans in the house?
I don't know why I said dolphinfans, I don't know if it's kin
man.
The numbers one, two, and three.
(19:39):
The number one, in the in theHebrew consciousness, the sages
suggest the number onesymbolizes wholeness, unity,
completeness, peace.
Because there's just one.
We will worship the Lord ourGod.
The Lord God is one, one,wholeness, completeness.
It's unity, it's it'sperfection.
This is why when you uh when yougo to the bathroom, you lock the
(20:00):
door.
Especially if you have littlekids.
It's your only moment of peace.
You want to lock that door.
I need to be alone in peace andharmony and wholeness, right?
That was funny to me.
I thought it was funny.
That was funny.
Um somehow those darn kids theystill find you in the bathroom
at the door, like they sort ofshoving their fingers under the
door, you know, on the bottom ofthe which brings me to number
(20:21):
two.
Two symbolizes discord.
So this is harmony.
I'll just put unity here.
Yeah, here we go.
Unity.
And uh two symbolizes discord ordisharmony, or uh dichotomy,
separation, tension.
(20:41):
There's a tension between theone and the two.
When that kid shows up shovinghis fingers under the door,
like, oh, I had I had peace, nowI don't.
You know, if you're at homealone on a Friday night and you
order a pizza just for yourselfand eat that whole pizza alone,
that's a good night, am I right?
Am I right, Jenny?
Where's Jenny?
(21:02):
But if you do the same thing, ifyou order a pizza and you eat
that whole pizza by yourself,and there's a friend there
watching you, now it's judgmentzone.
And you're like, oh, I'm soashamed, I mean this whole pizza
by myself.
It reminds me of this greatjoke.
What happens when you take aBaptist preacher fishing with
you?
Uh, he drinks all your beer.
What happens when you drink twoor when you bring two Baptist
(21:22):
preachers with you to gofishing?
They don't drink any of yourbeer.
It's a slow burn.
Some of you will get that lateron the way home.
Uh forgive me, Baptists.
I I love you too.
See, we Lutherans, we're just ona shame.
We like beer, we're fine.
We don't, no shame in that.
Luther was our hero, so okay,hey, moving on.
(21:47):
Discord, tension.
What do you do?
How do you handle it?
What do you do when there'stension?
Peter, the Peter he wanted tobe, that he saw that Jesus was
maybe like showing him on thefront end of things, and the the
Peter of his dreams that hethought he was becoming.
And then wham! Peter thebetrayer shows up.
(22:11):
Tension, discord, disunity.
What does he do?
And he goes back.
He goes back to just being theold guy.
Peter.
In the creation story, you havethis.
The sages talk about on day one,it was just God, God alone
exists, there's beautiful unity,wholeness, completeness.
Day two, God begins to separatethings.
The light from the dark, thewaters from above, and waters
(22:33):
are below.
There's separation, there'sdisunity, there's discord.
For the first time in the story,there's a discord, there's
separation.
What is to happen?
Oh, this is where number threecomes in.
So number three symbolizesharmony.
(22:54):
Harmony, though, that includesone and two.
So it takes both the ones andthe twos, seemingly opposite
things, and it unifies them,brings that harmony to both of
them.
So on day three, God takes theseparated light and darkness,
the separated waters above andwaters below, and he begins to
sort of make room for life.
And he gathers the waters and hemakes room for life.
(23:18):
So day three is of course thisnow this harmony.
You have this way forward.
It's a way forward, it's a wayto relieve the tension that
includes both one and the two.
Does that make sense?
It doesn't eliminate thetension, it incorporates all of
it.
Okay, here's another example incase I'm losing any of you.
My wife and I love movies.
We love watching movies, but Ilove action and adventure
(23:39):
movies.
Am I right, fellas?
So just you know, me and Katieare stereotypically uh male and
female.
Like you, I know that not allguys like action, and that's
totally fine.
Some women, whatever.
But like her and I we're verymuch like no, I'm kind of like a
dude kind of kind of guy, andKatie's like stereotypically
kind of like a lady kind oflady, you know.
So she loves, of course, romcoms.
(24:00):
Yep, you got it, yeah, exactly.
So when we watch a movie, like,oh, there's tension.
Uh action adventure or rom com?
What are we gonna watch?
Now we could eliminate one orthe other, like, well, you watch
your show, I'll watch my show.
But if we want harmony, we willof course settle on romanting
the stone.
(24:20):
Okay, for you younger folks thatdon't get that joke, uh, how
about uh free guy?
Free guy?
Okay, uh, okay, for you reallyyoung, uh Spider-Man.
What I'm trying to do here, ifyou don't get it still, is you
know, uh, it's a unification ofboth the rom-com romance and
action adventure.
They come together in one gowatch Romancing the Stone.
(24:41):
It's a great classic.
Okay, how about this one?
Um, I like hip-hop music.
Um, Katie does not.
She likes country music.
Tension.
So if you want to listen tomusic together, we of course
listen to Shaboozy.
Right?
(25:03):
Now, for some of you older folkswho don't get that joke, uh, you
could say that like Katie lovescountry music, and I kind of dig
reggae.
So we listen to Willie Nelson.
Linda Ronstadt, maybe she's likea genre bending artist.
Okay, you get the idea.
So there's like this harmonythat doesn't exclude either one.
(25:25):
See, entity one leaves no roomfor two.
The Ryan I want to be, I don't Idon't wanna have, I don't wanna
acknowledge that guy over there,or Peter.
I don't acknowledge him.
That's I don't like discord andI don't want tension.
This guy over here is like, oh,I'm so full of shame and guilt.
I will never be that guy.
I can I can't have it.
They're dichotomous, you can't,you can't merge them.
(25:46):
But the three is like, no, no,no, I'm gonna take you, I'm
gonna take you, and we're gonnamake something brand new.
Jesus asks Peter three times.
I think certainly take him back,like, hey, remember that moment?
But he also takes him forward.
Hey, buddy, you think you can'tfind a way forward?
I got you.
I'm gonna make a way forward foryou.
When you came in this morning,you should have gotten a piece
(26:07):
of paper and you have your paperon you.
Take that out.
Because this is true of all ofus.
There are things in you thatthere's a tension.
Maybe you're like, hey, uh,gosh, I want to be this kind of
person so badly, but I keepscrewing up.
Yeah, that's they're they'reboth in you.
They're both there.
(26:28):
Man, I wanna I want to be aleader for Ben in student
ministries, but I don't, I don'tknow the Bible at all.
Or I've got this past, it's justshameful and broke.
I man, I wanna I want to serveand love God, or I want to be a
Christian, but I'm on I'm on aI'm on my own third marriage.
I don't know what to do aboutthat.
I want to do the right thing,but I keep doing the wrong
(26:48):
thing.
The apostle Paul says, Why do Ido the things I don't want to
do?
And why do I not do the things Iwant to do?
There's this tension.
And what is your tension?
On your sheet of paper, when wesing in a minute and even as I'm
talking, what are the thingsthat where's your tension?
Where do you feel it?
And what might God call you toto move forward?
To include all of it, becauseit's it's all belongs, it all
(27:11):
belongs.
In that day three of creation,God takes all of it.
Yeah, we're gonna make somethingcool out of this, and he makes
life day three, it's good.
He calls it good, and he doesn'texclude it, he includes all of
it.
All of it.
See, Peter, uh the Peter hewanted to be, and Peter the
betrayer, it's this divisionwithin him, this tension.
(27:32):
Peter has both this love andbetrayal, this division and this
devotion to Jesus, and also hisuh his denial of Jesus, his
calling and his shame.
What does he do with it?
He goes back to fishing, andJesus is like, nah, dude, we're
not doing that.
Do you love me?
(27:54):
Yes, and feed my sheep.
Jesus gives him a third way, andit's a calling, a commission to
do something to go forward.
And by the way, notice this thethird option is neither denial
of the wound nor despair andshame, but it's reconciliation.
He names the elephant in theroom, gives him a way for to get
out of it, and calls him for itto serve other people.
(28:16):
I love it.
Yeah, Jesus doesn't erase thepast, you can't.
Look at me, friends.
You you cannot go backwards, andneither can I.
That junk in your past, thescuba that's back there, it's
still back there.
And you can't ignore it or denyit.
Sometimes the appropriateresponse is to rip our clothes
and to uh you know pour ashesover our head.
(28:36):
That's ancient world stuff, butto beg forgiveness, to make, you
know, to go and apologize and doall of that.
But you can't go back and changeit.
So include it, incorporate it,and move forward.
So he doesn't erase the past,but he transforms it.
Because also, if you don't letGod transform your past wounds,
because they're down there, andif you don't let him transform
it, you will transmit them toothers.
(28:57):
You always will.
Whatever's down in here, if wedon't let God change them, we'll
just give them out to otherpeople.
This is why folks who've beenhurt just hurt other people all
the time.
Because they have not let Godheal them.
And G is like, nah, Peter, we'renot going back, dude.
We can't go back.
You can't repeat the past, we'regoing forward, buddy.
(29:18):
And he gives them thiscommission.
And the command is a calling.
It's like, hey, Peter, do youlove me?
Feed my sheep.
By the way, if you're stuck in aspiral of despair or shame or
brokenness or guilt, go andserve somebody else.
Go help read uh books to kids.
(29:38):
Go serve in a soup kitchen downwherever they have those, you
know, right now.
Uh go bring some casserole foodto your neighbor.
Go mow your uh you know, theelderly person's lawn.
Go volunteer at Faith in Action.
Do something for somebody else.
Get to focus off yourself.
This is why the 12th step in AAis like, hey, now that you've
like awakened, go help otherpeople, go sponsor somebody.
(30:00):
Go spread the good news.
Go help somebody else.
For God's sake, help somebody.
Go and feed my sheep.
Yeah, this is the way forwardthat uh Jesus calls Peter to.
And this is true for us too.
That whatever you got in yourpast is tension and write it
down.
I want you to name it on yoursheet of paper.
And then hear the call thatJesus gives to all of us to
(30:24):
transform those past wounds andour tension and to call us
forward.
I want to end by giving fivepieces of advice to Ben, who uh
will be our pastor here.
Just a actually, we alreadycommissioned him this morning,
so we're gonna, but you get theidea.
Um because it's a sermon forBen, too.
And I love this story.
If you know Ben, Ben has a past,like all of us, you know.
(30:47):
And uh and yet here he is.
And there's the Ben that Benwanted to be probably years ago,
and there's the Ben that hit afew hiccups, to say the least
along the road a while back.
Now, we could hide Ben's pastand be like, we're not gonna
acknowledge that, and we'regonna just move forward.
That'll leak out sideways.
And you can hide your past, itleaks out sideways.
(31:09):
Or Ben can be like, you knowwhat?
That guy will never existbecause I just screwed up so
badly, I'm not gonna be able to.
Or we can tell Ben here today,and all of us tell ourselves,
uh, maybe Jesus has a betterway.
The third way.
Feed my sheep.
So, five things.
Number one, Ben's uh Ben'smishap, Ben's sins, Ben's past
(31:32):
mistakes were made very publicyears ago.
You probably know this.
Ben knows this.
And this is very public fallingout with Ben and the church, and
uh, and he's acknowledged all ofthose things, and he still does.
Um Peter, Peter vehementlydenies Jesus three times in
front of everybody.
And what does Jesus do?
(31:53):
He doesn't shame him, he doesn'tbeat him up, he offers him
grace.
Peter doesn't earn anything,he's not scraping and clawing
his way back.
Jesus extends the invitation toPeter.
It's unadulterated mercy andgrace.
And he restores him publicly.
So, Ben, I don't know if thishas happened to you before.
I mean, it did an hour ago atthe first service, but and we're
(32:16):
gonna try to cry again like wedid at the first service.
But I want you to hear me say, Iknow your past transgressions
were very public.
Mine weren't.
None of yours probably were.
Maybe some of yours were, butyours were.
And so I want to declarepublicly that we are with you,
dude.
We forgive you, we love you, wesupport you.
We're glad to have you as apastor at Central, and we're
(32:36):
behind you and 100%.
And so I want to restore youpublicly and hear the words to
feed my sheep.
Number two, I want to say thisabout to Ben.
Uh, Jesus saw the crowds and hadcompassion on them because they
were like sheep without ashepherd.
Jesus was the good shepherd.
He was a good shepherd, and hegives that shepherd mantle to
(32:57):
Peter, and we're giving it toBen.
So, Ben, may you see the peoplelike sheep without a shepherd.
Not these folks, they're reallysmart and wise and good and
they're handsome and otherpeople.
May you see them like lost sheepwithout a shepherd.
May you have, but behind that,may you have compassion on
people as you pastor people.
May you see them.
(33:17):
Not their story or their rapsheet or their resume or their
uh fancy car, but may you seethem and the depth of their own
soul and lostness and shame andguilt or joy or excitement and
their longings and theirdesires.
May you see them.
May you have compassion on them.
Number three, Ben, may youprioritize always intimacy over
ministry.
Jesus calls Peter, hey, love me.
(33:39):
Do you love me?
That's the basis of all of ourstuff.
May we all know Jesus, the risenJesus, and the power that he
gives to us.
Then may our ministry flow outof that.
May your ministry always take asecond or back seat to your
intimacy and love for Jesus.
May you spend time with Jesus.
May you know him deeply.
May He let him get to know you.
(33:59):
Let Him into those deep placesthat we all have, the places
that are down, you know, beneaththe surface.
And may you know Jesus.
May you find intimacy and enjoyspending time with him.
Number four, uh, Ben, may you bea servant leader.
Jesus says, in the world that Ilive in, and this is the first
century, the leaders and therulers they rule over people and
(34:19):
they lord over them.
I'm so glad our leaders todaydon't do this to us, right?
Oh boy, don't get me started.
Leaders should be servants.
This is why politicians need toremember, you're a public
servant.
You're to serve the people.
Pastors, myself, we shouldremember these things.
(34:41):
I should be a servant of thepeople.
Ben, you're a servant of thepeople.
You're to lead them by servingthem, coming underneath them.
That's what Jesus does.
Wash their feet.
Love them, feed them, take careof the little lambs, the broken,
the babies, the infants, themarginalized, the forgotten, the
ones that are helpless, who'vewandered off for the tenth time.
Go get them and bring them back.
May you be a servant leader.
Lastly, Ben, may you alwaysforgive and commission others.
(35:02):
As Peter was forgiven andcommissioned, as you've been
forgiven and commissioned, mayyou also forgive others and
commission other people.
Central Lutheran Church and Ben,may you know the depth of the
love of Jesus.
May you feel this tension.
I want you to feel it.
Write it down on your sheet ofpaper.
And if you want, you can show itto me or to Pastor Ben later on.
(35:23):
And hear the words of the thirdway feed my sheep.
Or maybe you hear somethingdifferent from Jesus this
morning.
Write it down.
And remember there is a wayforward that incorporates all of
this.
May you have hope and may youreceive the grace and
forgiveness and the love of God.
And Ben, may you feed his sheep.
Amen.
Amen.
Let's pray this morning.
God, we ask for your grace andmercy to be with us this
morning.
And um Yeah, would you open oureyes and our ears this morning
to hear what you'd have to sayto us?
And uh may the word preached andthe prayers and the songs and
this ordination ceremony forBen.
May it yeah, may it minister tothe deepest parts of our souls
that need uh uh that need it sobadly.
(00:21):
God may the good news overwhelmus this morning in every way.
And uh may this be uh indeed aday of celebration.
And uh we pray these things inyour holy and precious name.
Amen.
I may you be seated.
Morning, everyone, how are wedoing?
Good.
So we are in the uh at the inthe middle, a couple weeks into
our our sermon series calledThis Isn't Rhetorical, and it's
(00:41):
actually a sermon series aboutthe questions that Jesus asked.
So Jesus asked lots of questionsbecause he was a good Jewish
rabbi in the first century, andum that was one of the ways that
they would, you know, the thefancy word is pedagogy, that
pedagogically they would askquestions and that's what it
teach people.
And so he asked over 300questions.
So we are gonna pick out oneeach week and kind of just talk
(01:02):
about it and ask it.
And the idea is that as we as wehear the question that Jesus
asked, we would hear it, youknow, asked in the first
century.
Of course, that this one thismorning was asked to Peter, but
also we'd hear it asked of ustoday.
So Jesus asks Peter, Do you loveme?
And he asked him three times.
And uh, by the way, the there'sthrees all over this story this
(01:23):
morning.
My sermon title this morning isactually that.
It is uh, oh hang on one second.
It is uh sorry, what's any ideawhat's happening right now?
Close your eyes, close youreyes, hold on, close your eyes.
Nobody peeking.
That was weird of okay, there wego.
Now we're good.
Are you guys doing that or am I?
(01:44):
I I got the clicker, so I'llI'll take care of it.
How about all right, hang tight.
Keep them closed, keep themclosed.
Clearly, we did not rehearsethis this morning.
Okay, now we're ready.
Okay.
The sermon is titled, Do YouLove Me?
One, two, three.
Uh, there's lots of threes inthis story.
If you can find them, uh you geta prize at the end of the
(02:05):
sermon, I guess.
Uh so uh Jesus asks Peter, Doyou love me?
Now, here's the deal.
This is right after theresurrection.
And scholars don't really knowwhat the exact chronology, uh,
chrono uh chronological orderwas of the appearances of Jesus.
We know he appears a bunch oftimes.
Uh he appears as a gardener inthe uh in the tomb area.
Uh, he appears in the room withthe disciples.
(02:27):
He also appears here on the sideof the Sea of Galilee with Peter
and the disciples there.
And they're not really surebecause in the old in the
ancient world, they wouldsometimes arrange, you know, uh
stories and kind of patch themtogether.
So no one really knows which onecame first, but I love the
notion that this one might havecome first.
So this is the first time thatPeter and the other disciples
are seeing Jesus after theresurrection, and they're up
(02:50):
north in Galilee around the sea,and they're uh they're hanging
out and they're actuallyfishing, and then they see
Jesus.
So imagine that they haven'tseen Jesus resurrected yet, and
this is what happened.
So just prior to this, a coupleof days ago, Jesus, their rabbi,
their teacher, their theirmaster, like the one whom they
had lived for three years with.
They slept with him, theyjourneyed with him, they spent
(03:10):
tons of time with them.
He had called them as young mento come and follow him.
And they spent all this timedoing all these incredible
things, and then he was uh wasarrested, convicted for for no
child.
I mean, he was it was he was aninnocent man, and he was uh he
was murdered on a cross.
And in every way, the discipleshad lost.
(03:30):
Like the movement that wassupposed to start with Jesus,
this incredible thing that washappening, the crowds buzzing,
it all was over.
And these guys watched theirrabbi, their master, the leader
of their little tribe, theirmovement.
They watched him get hung on across, a shameful way of dying.
And it was all over.
The jig was up, and they ran fortheir lives.
(03:51):
Because you can imagine if yourleader was hung on a cross, that
meant that you were next in theRoman Empire.
Like you were next.
And they were gonna come findyou, and they were also gonna
crucify you as a rebel and as arabble rouser.
So they're like extremelyafraid, they're lost, they have
no idea where to go.
And so, in this moment of likedeep, dark despair, Peter says,
(04:11):
you know what?
Uh, I'm gonna go fishing.
Like you do when you're stressedout.
Like, I mean, I can't, I gottago out and go fishing.
I got I need to relieve somestress.
I'm going out on the on the seato do some fishing, which I
think is just hilarious becausePeter uh has no idea what else
to do.
So, you know what?
I'm gonna go fishing.
But there's also this Peter, asyou remember, was by trade a
(04:33):
fisherman.
He was a professional fisherman.
So years prior, three yearsprior, he was doing this work
day in and day out.
And then Jesus calls him out ofthat work and he goes to follow
Jesus.
And now, in the moment of likedespair and feeling lost and
broken, like the whole thing hascome to an end.
And after three years of beingwith Jesus and walking on water,
(04:56):
Peter walked on water afterwatching Jesus heal the woman
who was bleeding for 12 years,after he cuts a guy's ear off to
defend Jesus, after all of that,Peter simply goes back to his
old life as though nothinghappened, as though it was all a
dream.
You know, sometimes you and I wedon't know what to do, and the
(05:16):
stress is overwhelming, and wejust go back to our old way of
living.
I was thinking the other day,I'm like, you know what?
There are really uh twodifferent kinds of Ryan.
So, for example, there's theRyan, uh, and maybe you can
relate to this.
I don't know.
There's the Ryan over here.
This is Ryan.
We'll call it Ryan 1.
And this is like the Ryan I wantto be.
(05:39):
Like the Ryan I dream of kind ofbeing.
If I could be this guy, this iswhat I would be.
Here, I'll here's what he lookslike.
He looks like this.
Just always happy and smiley, ina good mood.
Very handsome in that picture.
You can clearly apparently he'swinking.
I did not mean to do that, buthe's winking.
(06:00):
But here's the reality.
There's another Ryan.
There's another Ryan that kindof lives in there too.
Uh the great Brennan Manningsays that you and I are like a
mixed bag of contradictions.
So over here is the Ryan thatsometimes surfaces.
I don't know, on a Thursdaymid-morning when I haven't had
my coffee yet.
Uh, or when I'm in lineanywhere, and the line is more
(06:23):
than three people deep, and it'staking forever.
Or in a matchup and they run outof guacamole.
This is the other Ryan thatshows up on occasion.
This Ryan looks like this,maybe.
How's that?
(06:44):
He's stressed out, Ryan.
You know what I mean?
And here's the reality (06:47):
maybe you have the same kind of thing
in you, and there's like thistension between these two Ryan's
like the Ryan I want to be, andthe Ryan I sometimes end, that
I'm not always the most proudof.
And I believe this in the story,you see this in Peter, and this
tension in Peter.
So Peter has no idea what to do.
So he's like, I'm gonna gofishing.
And he goes out on the lake withhis buddies, takes his nets, and
(07:09):
he goes back to his oldlifestyle he had just a few
years before.
Now remember, the last time thatPeter saw Jesus, because they're
about to meet again on this onthe Sea of Galilee's shores here
after the resurrection, but thelast time they saw each other
was a few days earlier.
And Peter is at the trial of hisbest friend.
Jesus is being convicted, andPeter's there.
(07:30):
Now, again, they know if theycrucify the leader of your tribe
or your little movement, they'regonna take all of you down.
And so they someone spots Peter.
Peter's over there warminghimself by a coal fire.
I imagine that's like a firemade of coals.
And uh he's warming, he'swarming himself, watching, but
he won't he won't acknowledgewho he is.
And they they say to him, Hey,you're one of the followers of
that guy.
(07:51):
And Peter's like, No, I'm not.
No, I'm not.
And he denies his friendshipwith him.
And they ask him again, a secondtime, yo, dude, you're the guy,
you're you're with this dude.
Peter's like, not me, dude.
Nah, bro, I don't know that guy.
I don't know him at all.
Twice around this coal fire.
Third time, yo, you're the guy,you're with Jesus, you're with
(08:12):
that guy.
And again, the text tells usPeter denies it.
Now I don't know him.
Three times.
Jesus had warned Peter, you'regonna deny me three times.
And Peter's like, No, I won't,dude.
And here he is, denies him threetimes around this coal fire.
In fact, in Matthew's gospel, itsays he's so irate Peter is,
he's so he like doubles andtriples down, he curses at
(08:33):
everyone around him.
I don't know him.
Curse words.
I don't know that dude.
He's not me, it's not my friend.
I don't know him at all.
And that was the last time theysaw each other.
Three times Peter denies him.
So maybe Peter goes back tofishing because he's like, I
don't know what else to do.
I'm stressed out.
I could use a fish lunch or afish breakfast.
(08:56):
But maybe also Peter is acutelyaware of his failures that
happened just a couple days ago.
And his own weaknesses, hisinadequacies.
And Peter, maybe in this moment,thinks he's no longer worthy of
anything except to go back tohis old life.
Maybe you've been there, like Idon't I've I've I've I've I've
(09:20):
screwed up so bad I can't doanything else.
I all I know I gotta just goback.
I can't do anything else.
I'm not worthy of anything.
And Peter, in this excruciatingbetrayal of his best friend,
maybe thinks he's disqualifiedhimself from anything that Jesus
wanted him to do originally.
And all those three years thathave gone by, it meant nothing
because Peter's like, I I ruinedit all, and none of it matters.
(09:44):
And so he leaves and goesfishing.
It's all he knows to do.
He's discouraged, disillusioned,and disappointed.
See, there's this tension forPeter as well.
The Peter that Peter wants tobe, that maybe he sees kind of
emerging in the days of Jesuswhen he's hanging out, walking
(10:05):
on water, Peter, that guy.
Like, boy, that dude is a thatdude's a legend.
And then there's the other Peterthat also surfaces.
It's the denying Peter.
Peter the betrayer.
Yeah, that guy's down there too.
And Peter feels this tension andhe doesn't know what to do with
it.
And so what does he do?
(10:26):
He goes back to his old way ofliving, his old life, his old
lifestyle.
Because at least there, maybethe shame and the guilt and the
embarrassment won't feel aspainful.
So he goes backwards.
Now, there they are on the sideof the Sea of Galilee, and
they're fishing.
They fish all night, and thenthe next morning the sun comes
up, and there's somebody on theshore.
They don't know who it is yet.
(10:47):
It's Jesus, by the way.
They don't know yet, though.
So, and this person calls out tothem, hey friends, do you have
any fish?
Now, Peter, because he's afisherman, he knows the
fisherman code.
You know the fisherman code.
If you're catching a bunch offish and someone comes by on
their boat, hey, you guys catcha lot of fish?
Of course, the answer is, no,nothing here, man.
No fish here.
Sorry, move along.
(11:08):
Right?
Yeah, you know the fisherman'scode.
You don't tell anybody, yeah,bro, there's tons of fish.
Now you got 30 boats that comeon.
We don't want that.
No, dude, no fish here.
Nothing to see here.
Although, of course, theyactually hadn't caught any fish.
They caught nothing all night,which has got to be
disappointing.
I know we fishermen tellourselves, you know, I'm just
here for the scene and the freshair, and I love just being in
(11:29):
the, it's all part of thejourney.
No, I want to catch some fish,you know what I'm saying?
So the guy from the shores,wait, we haven't caught nothing.
And the guy from the shore goes,hey, why don't you throw your
nets on the other side of theboat?
Which is terrible advice.
Here's why.
This is a boat from the firstcentury.
This is actually excavated onthe Sea of Galilee.
It's a first century boat.
Those of us went to Israel acouple years ago, we saw this
(11:51):
boat.
It's called the Jesus boat orthe Sea of Galilee boat.
It's not very big, okay?
It's not very wide.
So this guy from the shoreline,who's like an expert apparently
in fishing, it's like, hey, takeyour net, because they would
fish with nets, and move it overtwo feet.
Now, I don't know about you, butthat's not a great idea, uh, in
my opinion.
That's like saying if someone'sshoveling and digging, you know,
(12:12):
for a treasure left-handed, andsomeone's like, hey, any
treasure?
Nothing.
Oh, try using your right hand.
Okay.
Nope, still nothing.
Idiot.
That's not in the text.
I made that part up, but andthey do it, and lo and behold,
(12:33):
they catch so many fish, theycan't bring them into the boat.
And then Peter's like, it'sJesus.
He goes, Is it you, Lord?
And Peter, ever the impetuousyoung fella who just is brash
and a bit maniacal, which I loveabout Peter, just jumps in the
water to swim ashore.
(12:54):
I love that about Peter.
He just goes for it.
Sometimes, you know, you're soafraid.
It's like we just need tochannel our inner Peter.
Just go for it, man.
You only get one life anyway,and life is what you make it.
So he jumps in the water, whichis also hilarious because, you
know, you've seen humans inwater.
Maybe you've been in water.
We're not very good in water.
Meanwhile, his body's around theboat, which is pretty good in
(13:15):
water.
And I imagine they just scootright by him.
They see it at the shore, Peter.
See when you get there, he'schugging along, trying to swim
along.
And I'm sure they beat him tothe shoreline.
And when they get there, Jesusis there.
And he's got a fire.
Actually, it's a it's a coalfire.
I got another coal fire on thestory here.
And he says, Hey, uh, you guyswant some breakfast?
(13:39):
Uh I'm paraphrasing it,something like that in the in
the text.
Yo, guys, come have somebreakfast.
Oh, it's just like Jesus.
Uh, three days ago, I wasbrutally murdered, crucified on
the cross in a shameful way thatwas against the Jewish law.
And the whole thing that we hadstarted was ended.
We all lost.
You ran for your lives, but herewe are.
You want to have some breakfast?
(13:59):
Here's some fish and bread.
I'm like, well, this iswhiplash, Jesus.
What can you explain whathappened?
What the heck?
Where have you been, man?
And how are you alive?
What's going on?
And he's just some fish, he'sgot some bread and some and some
fish, and he invites him to havesome breakfast.
I love it.
Then after they're done eating,because I'm sure there's like
this elephant in the room, youknow, like, uh, how did you get
(14:20):
what are you doing here?
And for Peter, of course heremembers what happened the last
time they were together.
I don't know that dude.
And so for Peter, it's like thisheavy, maybe elephant just right
there.
So Jesus asks him, Hey Peter,uh, Simon, he says, son of
Jonah, son of John, do you loveme?
That's an odd question.
(14:42):
Peter's like, Yeah, of course Ido.
And then Jesus asks him again,Simon, son of John, do you love
me?
Yeah, God, of course I love you.
By the way, after each time hesays to them, Okay, well then
feed my sheep or tend my lambs.
Lambs are like baby sheep.
So, okay, okay.
And then he asks him a thirdtime, Simon, son of John, do you
(15:03):
love me?
And Peter says, Yeah, Jesus, healmost sounds irritated.
You know I love you, of course Ilove you.
Why does he ask him three times?
Well, many of you know theanswer.
He's he's of course taking himback.
The coal fire.
This is the second coal fire inthe story within three days.
Also, these are the only twomentions of a coal fire in the
(15:24):
entire New Testament.
The word for coal fire is theword anthrax.
Did you know this for coal?
Anthrax is the Greek word forcoal, which is hilarious or
something interesting, maybe.
It's not actually hilariousbecause when you get when you
get anthrax exposure, your skinturns charcoal black.
So not funny, but justinteresting.
So John's clearly tying thesetwo stories together, and so is
(15:48):
Jesus.
He asks him three times to sortof mirror and reflect and take
Peter back to Peter's threedenials.
Hey, aren't you his follower?
Nah, man, not me.
Don't you know that guy?
Not I don't know that dude.
Don't you?
Aren't you a friend?
No, I'm not his friend.
Curses, curses, curses.
Uh Peter, do you love me?
Of course I love you.
Feed my sheep.
Peter, do you love me?
(16:08):
Yes, of course.
Peter, do you love me?
Of course.
Jesus is, of course, in thisbrilliant move taking him back.
Taking him back to his place ofshame and brokenness and
addressing the elephant in theroom.
Because, friends, sometimes youhave to address the elephant in
the room.
Because there it is, we all knowit, we all see it, we all walk
around it.
You have to name it.
(16:28):
Because there's trauma researchthat suggests that if you don't
name it, unnamed wounds, theyremain kind of stuck on replay.
And though you shove it down ortry to hide it, it sort of leaks
out sideways.
It's just on replay, dumpedsomewhere down in your soul.
And they exist in the shadows,these past wounds or past
mistakes or past failures orpast weaknesses.
(16:49):
And the shame it begins tofester and it just goes on
replay over and over again.
And the only way to heal it isto name it, to call it out.
This is why it's super awkwardwhen you go to those family
reunions and nobody mentionsUncle Kenny's drinking problem.
Or that shamefully embarrassingspeech he gave at the wedding
(17:10):
three months ago that washorribly embarrassing.
Like no one wants to mentionthat at all.
Or the fact that he's on hisfourth wife.
No one wants to talk about that.
Or that he was in jail two yearsago for the second time.
We don't talk about thesethings.
But guess what?
For Uncle Kenny, then he justsort of lives down here in this
shame and this shadows.
(17:31):
And I'm just telling you, inorder for there to be relational
reconciliation and healing, youhave to name it.
Somebody has to say, hey, UncleKenny, I think you have a
problem.
Hey, let's talk about this.
Hey, are you doing all right?
Hey, what you what you said tome really hurt my feelings.
Can we talk about that?
I know it's I know it's kind ofawkward and it's painful, but if
(17:55):
you don't name the elephant inthe room, it'll just live down
there.
And unnamed wounds don'tdisappear.
They fester and they come outsideways.
And so Jesus takes Peter intohis deepest, most recent wound
when he rejects him three times.
Takes him backwards.
And then he says, Hey, but also,buddy, I'm still here.
(18:16):
Let's have some breakfast.
But also, he doesn't just takehim backwards, he takes Peter
forwards.
I love this part about thestory.
See, this story is full ofsymbolic numbers.
Now, in the Jewish, in theJewish history of the Jewish
mind, um, there are all kinds ofnumbers that are symbolic.
You probably know this.
I'm gonna erase this here.
There's uh a lot of they call itnumerology in the in the
(18:36):
scriptures.
So the number seven, a verysymbolic number in the
scriptures.
Seven, you know, means seven.
It also means like perfection,wholeness, completeness.
The earth was, of course,created in how many days?
Seven.
So it's done, it's finished,it's complete, it's whole, it's
good.
Actually, by the way, in theGenesis narrative, that seventh
day doesn't ever end.
It keeps on going.
(18:57):
So you and I are perhaps livingin day seven, and the creation
is ongoing, and you and I areinvited to be a part of this
ongoing creation of the world.
That was free, by the way.
I didn't have that in the firstsermon.
Okay.
Uh the number 12.
Another one.
There were 12 tribes of Israel.
That's that's symbolic of themission of God in the world.
God wants to save the worldthrough the 12 tribes of Israel.
(19:18):
And so his mission that includedeverybody, the Gentiles, the
Jews, you know, uh dolphin fans,all those people.
Um there's how many disciples?
12.
Also, the numbers one and two.
Any dolphin fans in the house?
I don't know why I said dolphinfans, I don't know if it's kin
man.
The numbers one, two, and three.
(19:39):
The number one, in the in theHebrew consciousness, the sages
suggest the number onesymbolizes wholeness, unity,
completeness, peace.
Because there's just one.
We will worship the Lord ourGod.
The Lord God is one, one,wholeness, completeness.
It's unity, it's it'sperfection.
This is why when you uh when yougo to the bathroom, you lock the
(20:00):
door.
Especially if you have littlekids.
It's your only moment of peace.
You want to lock that door.
I need to be alone in peace andharmony and wholeness, right?
That was funny to me.
I thought it was funny.
That was funny.
Um somehow those darn kids theystill find you in the bathroom
at the door, like they sort ofshoving their fingers under the
door, you know, on the bottom ofthe which brings me to number
(20:21):
two.
Two symbolizes discord.
So this is harmony.
I'll just put unity here.
Yeah, here we go.
Unity.
And uh two symbolizes discord ordisharmony, or uh dichotomy,
separation, tension.
(20:41):
There's a tension between theone and the two.
When that kid shows up shovinghis fingers under the door,
like, oh, I had I had peace, nowI don't.
You know, if you're at homealone on a Friday night and you
order a pizza just for yourselfand eat that whole pizza alone,
that's a good night, am I right?
Am I right, Jenny?
Where's Jenny?
(21:02):
But if you do the same thing, ifyou order a pizza and you eat
that whole pizza by yourself,and there's a friend there
watching you, now it's judgmentzone.
And you're like, oh, I'm soashamed, I mean this whole pizza
by myself.
It reminds me of this greatjoke.
What happens when you take aBaptist preacher fishing with
you?
Uh, he drinks all your beer.
What happens when you drink twoor when you bring two Baptist
(21:22):
preachers with you to gofishing?
They don't drink any of yourbeer.
It's a slow burn.
Some of you will get that lateron the way home.
Uh forgive me, Baptists.
I I love you too.
See, we Lutherans, we're just ona shame.
We like beer, we're fine.
We don't, no shame in that.
Luther was our hero, so okay,hey, moving on.
(21:47):
Discord, tension.
What do you do?
How do you handle it?
What do you do when there'stension?
Peter, the Peter he wanted tobe, that he saw that Jesus was
maybe like showing him on thefront end of things, and the the
Peter of his dreams that hethought he was becoming.
And then wham! Peter thebetrayer shows up.
(22:11):
Tension, discord, disunity.
What does he do?
And he goes back.
He goes back to just being theold guy.
Peter.
In the creation story, you havethis.
The sages talk about on day one,it was just God, God alone
exists, there's beautiful unity,wholeness, completeness.
Day two, God begins to separatethings.
The light from the dark, thewaters from above, and waters
(22:33):
are below.
There's separation, there'sdisunity, there's discord.
For the first time in the story,there's a discord, there's
separation.
What is to happen?
Oh, this is where number threecomes in.
So number three symbolizesharmony.
(22:54):
Harmony, though, that includesone and two.
So it takes both the ones andthe twos, seemingly opposite
things, and it unifies them,brings that harmony to both of
them.
So on day three, God takes theseparated light and darkness,
the separated waters above andwaters below, and he begins to
sort of make room for life.
And he gathers the waters and hemakes room for life.
(23:18):
So day three is of course thisnow this harmony.
You have this way forward.
It's a way forward, it's a wayto relieve the tension that
includes both one and the two.
Does that make sense?
It doesn't eliminate thetension, it incorporates all of
it.
Okay, here's another example incase I'm losing any of you.
My wife and I love movies.
We love watching movies, but Ilove action and adventure
(23:39):
movies.
Am I right, fellas?
So just you know, me and Katieare stereotypically uh male and
female.
Like you, I know that not allguys like action, and that's
totally fine.
Some women, whatever.
But like her and I we're verymuch like no, I'm kind of like a
dude kind of kind of guy, andKatie's like stereotypically
kind of like a lady kind oflady, you know.
So she loves, of course, romcoms.
(24:00):
Yep, you got it, yeah, exactly.
So when we watch a movie, like,oh, there's tension.
Uh action adventure or rom com?
What are we gonna watch?
Now we could eliminate one orthe other, like, well, you watch
your show, I'll watch my show.
But if we want harmony, we willof course settle on romanting
the stone.
(24:20):
Okay, for you younger folks thatdon't get that joke, uh, how
about uh free guy?
Free guy?
Okay, uh, okay, for you reallyyoung, uh Spider-Man.
What I'm trying to do here, ifyou don't get it still, is you
know, uh, it's a unification ofboth the rom-com romance and
action adventure.
They come together in one gowatch Romancing the Stone.
(24:41):
It's a great classic.
Okay, how about this one?
Um, I like hip-hop music.
Um, Katie does not.
She likes country music.
Tension.
So if you want to listen tomusic together, we of course
listen to Shaboozy.
Right?
(25:03):
Now, for some of you older folkswho don't get that joke, uh, you
could say that like Katie lovescountry music, and I kind of dig
reggae.
So we listen to Willie Nelson.
Linda Ronstadt, maybe she's likea genre bending artist.
Okay, you get the idea.
So there's like this harmonythat doesn't exclude either one.
(25:25):
See, entity one leaves no roomfor two.
The Ryan I want to be, I don't Idon't wanna have, I don't wanna
acknowledge that guy over there,or Peter.
I don't acknowledge him.
That's I don't like discord andI don't want tension.
This guy over here is like, oh,I'm so full of shame and guilt.
I will never be that guy.
I can I can't have it.
They're dichotomous, you can't,you can't merge them.
(25:46):
But the three is like, no, no,no, I'm gonna take you, I'm
gonna take you, and we're gonnamake something brand new.
Jesus asks Peter three times.
I think certainly take him back,like, hey, remember that moment?
But he also takes him forward.
Hey, buddy, you think you can'tfind a way forward?
I got you.
I'm gonna make a way forward foryou.
When you came in this morning,you should have gotten a piece
(26:07):
of paper and you have your paperon you.
Take that out.
Because this is true of all ofus.
There are things in you thatthere's a tension.
Maybe you're like, hey, uh,gosh, I want to be this kind of
person so badly, but I keepscrewing up.
Yeah, that's they're they'reboth in you.
They're both there.
(26:28):
Man, I wanna I want to be aleader for Ben in student
ministries, but I don't, I don'tknow the Bible at all.
Or I've got this past, it's justshameful and broke.
I man, I wanna I want to serveand love God, or I want to be a
Christian, but I'm on I'm on aI'm on my own third marriage.
I don't know what to do aboutthat.
I want to do the right thing,but I keep doing the wrong
(26:48):
thing.
The apostle Paul says, Why do Ido the things I don't want to
do?
And why do I not do the things Iwant to do?
There's this tension.
And what is your tension?
On your sheet of paper, when wesing in a minute and even as I'm
talking, what are the thingsthat where's your tension?
Where do you feel it?
And what might God call you toto move forward?
To include all of it, becauseit's it's all belongs, it all
(27:11):
belongs.
In that day three of creation,God takes all of it.
Yeah, we're gonna make somethingcool out of this, and he makes
life day three, it's good.
He calls it good, and he doesn'texclude it, he includes all of
it.
All of it.
See, Peter, uh the Peter hewanted to be, and Peter the
betrayer, it's this divisionwithin him, this tension.
(27:32):
Peter has both this love andbetrayal, this division and this
devotion to Jesus, and also hisuh his denial of Jesus, his
calling and his shame.
What does he do with it?
He goes back to fishing, andJesus is like, nah, dude, we're
not doing that.
Do you love me?
(27:54):
Yes, and feed my sheep.
Jesus gives him a third way, andit's a calling, a commission to
do something to go forward.
And by the way, notice this thethird option is neither denial
of the wound nor despair andshame, but it's reconciliation.
He names the elephant in theroom, gives him a way for to get
out of it, and calls him for itto serve other people.
(28:16):
I love it.
Yeah, Jesus doesn't erase thepast, you can't.
Look at me, friends.
You you cannot go backwards, andneither can I.
That junk in your past, thescuba that's back there, it's
still back there.
And you can't ignore it or denyit.
Sometimes the appropriateresponse is to rip our clothes
and to uh you know pour ashesover our head.
(28:36):
That's ancient world stuff, butto beg forgiveness, to make, you
know, to go and apologize and doall of that.
But you can't go back and changeit.
So include it, incorporate it,and move forward.
So he doesn't erase the past,but he transforms it.
Because also, if you don't letGod transform your past wounds,
because they're down there, andif you don't let him transform
it, you will transmit them toothers.
(28:57):
You always will.
Whatever's down in here, if wedon't let God change them, we'll
just give them out to otherpeople.
This is why folks who've beenhurt just hurt other people all
the time.
Because they have not let Godheal them.
And G is like, nah, Peter, we'renot going back, dude.
We can't go back.
You can't repeat the past, we'regoing forward, buddy.
(29:18):
And he gives them thiscommission.
And the command is a calling.
It's like, hey, Peter, do youlove me?
Feed my sheep.
By the way, if you're stuck in aspiral of despair or shame or
brokenness or guilt, go andserve somebody else.
Go help read uh books to kids.
(29:38):
Go serve in a soup kitchen downwherever they have those, you
know, right now.
Uh go bring some casserole foodto your neighbor.
Go mow your uh you know, theelderly person's lawn.
Go volunteer at Faith in Action.
Do something for somebody else.
Get to focus off yourself.
This is why the 12th step in AAis like, hey, now that you've
like awakened, go help otherpeople, go sponsor somebody.
(30:00):
Go spread the good news.
Go help somebody else.
For God's sake, help somebody.
Go and feed my sheep.
Yeah, this is the way forwardthat uh Jesus calls Peter to.
And this is true for us too.
That whatever you got in yourpast is tension and write it
down.
I want you to name it on yoursheet of paper.
And then hear the call thatJesus gives to all of us to
(30:24):
transform those past wounds andour tension and to call us
forward.
I want to end by giving fivepieces of advice to Ben, who uh
will be our pastor here.
Just a actually, we alreadycommissioned him this morning,
so we're gonna, but you get theidea.
Um because it's a sermon forBen, too.
And I love this story.
If you know Ben, Ben has a past,like all of us, you know.
(30:47):
And uh and yet here he is.
And there's the Ben that Benwanted to be probably years ago,
and there's the Ben that hit afew hiccups, to say the least
along the road a while back.
Now, we could hide Ben's pastand be like, we're not gonna
acknowledge that, and we'regonna just move forward.
That'll leak out sideways.
And you can hide your past, itleaks out sideways.
(31:09):
Or Ben can be like, you knowwhat?
That guy will never existbecause I just screwed up so
badly, I'm not gonna be able to.
Or we can tell Ben here today,and all of us tell ourselves,
uh, maybe Jesus has a betterway.
The third way.
Feed my sheep.
So, five things.
Number one, Ben's uh Ben'smishap, Ben's sins, Ben's past
(31:32):
mistakes were made very publicyears ago.
You probably know this.
Ben knows this.
And this is very public fallingout with Ben and the church, and
uh, and he's acknowledged all ofthose things, and he still does.
Um Peter, Peter vehementlydenies Jesus three times in
front of everybody.
And what does Jesus do?
(31:53):
He doesn't shame him, he doesn'tbeat him up, he offers him
grace.
Peter doesn't earn anything,he's not scraping and clawing
his way back.
Jesus extends the invitation toPeter.
It's unadulterated mercy andgrace.
And he restores him publicly.
So, Ben, I don't know if thishas happened to you before.
I mean, it did an hour ago atthe first service, but and we're
(32:16):
gonna try to cry again like wedid at the first service.
But I want you to hear me say, Iknow your past transgressions
were very public.
Mine weren't.
None of yours probably were.
Maybe some of yours were, butyours were.
And so I want to declarepublicly that we are with you,
dude.
We forgive you, we love you, wesupport you.
We're glad to have you as apastor at Central, and we're
(32:36):
behind you and 100%.
And so I want to restore youpublicly and hear the words to
feed my sheep.
Number two, I want to say thisabout to Ben.
Uh, Jesus saw the crowds and hadcompassion on them because they
were like sheep without ashepherd.
Jesus was the good shepherd.
He was a good shepherd, and hegives that shepherd mantle to
(32:57):
Peter, and we're giving it toBen.
So, Ben, may you see the peoplelike sheep without a shepherd.
Not these folks, they're reallysmart and wise and good and
they're handsome and otherpeople.
May you see them like lost sheepwithout a shepherd.
May you have, but behind that,may you have compassion on
people as you pastor people.
May you see them.
(33:17):
Not their story or their rapsheet or their resume or their
uh fancy car, but may you seethem and the depth of their own
soul and lostness and shame andguilt or joy or excitement and
their longings and theirdesires.
May you see them.
May you have compassion on them.
Number three, Ben, may youprioritize always intimacy over
ministry.
Jesus calls Peter, hey, love me.
(33:39):
Do you love me?
That's the basis of all of ourstuff.
May we all know Jesus, the risenJesus, and the power that he
gives to us.
Then may our ministry flow outof that.
May your ministry always take asecond or back seat to your
intimacy and love for Jesus.
May you spend time with Jesus.
May you know him deeply.
May He let him get to know you.
(33:59):
Let Him into those deep placesthat we all have, the places
that are down, you know, beneaththe surface.
And may you know Jesus.
May you find intimacy and enjoyspending time with him.
Number four, uh, Ben, may you bea servant leader.
Jesus says, in the world that Ilive in, and this is the first
century, the leaders and therulers they rule over people and
(34:19):
they lord over them.
I'm so glad our leaders todaydon't do this to us, right?
Oh boy, don't get me started.
Leaders should be servants.
This is why politicians need toremember, you're a public
servant.
You're to serve the people.
Pastors, myself, we shouldremember these things.
(34:41):
I should be a servant of thepeople.
Ben, you're a servant of thepeople.
You're to lead them by servingthem, coming underneath them.
That's what Jesus does.
Wash their feet.
Love them, feed them, take careof the little lambs, the broken,
the babies, the infants, themarginalized, the forgotten, the
ones that are helpless, who'vewandered off for the tenth time.
Go get them and bring them back.
May you be a servant leader.
Lastly, Ben, may you alwaysforgive and commission others.
(35:02):
As Peter was forgiven andcommissioned, as you've been
forgiven and commissioned, mayyou also forgive others and
commission other people.
Central Lutheran Church and Ben,may you know the depth of the
love of Jesus.
May you feel this tension.
I want you to feel it.
Write it down on your sheet ofpaper.
And if you want, you can show itto me or to Pastor Ben later on.
(35:23):
And hear the words of the thirdway feed my sheep.
Or maybe you hear somethingdifferent from Jesus this
morning.
Write it down.
And remember there is a wayforward that incorporates all of
this.
May you have hope and may youreceive the grace and
forgiveness and the love of God.
And Ben, may you feed his sheep.
Amen.
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