A Sermon preached on Easter III 4 May 2025 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden
Acts 9:1-6, Revelation 5:11-14, John 21:1-19
May these spoken words be faithful to the written word and lead us to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
The Gospel readings on the first three Sundays of Easter are all about Jesus’ post resurrection appearances. On Easter Day we began with his appearance to Mary outside the tomb, last week we heard how he appeared first to the disciples hiding away in the upper room (note the difference: Mary is out in the open, the men are hiding!) and then a week later to Thomas. This week we get two post resurrection appearances for the price of one, not only in the Gospel but also in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles that during the Easter season replaces the Old Testament passage. One is to Paul, the other to Peter together with Thomas, Nathanael, the beloved disciple and one other.
What do they have in common? Jesus’ appearance of course, although Paul only gets to hear his voice. Both appearances are to the two great leaders of the early church, the ones who shaped and directed those who followed the Way. Which is even more surprising when we think about how faulty and broken both of them were. Paul, still called Saul, was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” (Acts 9:1) We first met him when he got to look after the coats and cloaks of those who stoned St. Stephen, the first Deacon and Martyr. Just as Jesus identified himself with the hungry, thirsty, sick, stranger, homeless and imprisoned in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats in Matthew 25, so here he identifies himself with his disciples: "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” (Acts 9:5)
Peter also betrayed his Lord by denying him three times after his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, and judging by the setting of the Gospel passage, he and his friends have gone back to being fishermen rather than the fishers of men (and women) that Jesus called them to be. And yet it is to Peter and Paul that he appears, these are the ones he offers forgiveness, these are the two people he commissions to lead and teach his followers. In the following section of Acts that we did not hear this morning; Jesus describes Paul as “an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel.” (Acts 9:15)) And in the Gospel, Jesus tasks Peter with feeding and tending for his sheep.
Two major global Christian denominations are currently leaderless: The Roman Catholic Church following the death of Francis on Easter Monday and the Anglican Communion following the resignation of Justin Welby at the turn of the year. (As John Adam commented last Sunday, we really need to pray for Bartholomew, the ecumenical patriarch.) The process of choosing a new pope will begin on Wednesday and will probably only take a few days. The process of choosing a new Archbishop of Canterbury has already begun, but we don’t expect a result from the CNC until autumn! One thing both readings tell us when choosing Christian leaders is that they will not be without fault. Nor can they be, as they are human beings. In fact, I would argue that a little faultiness and brokenness is good and necessary. We don’t want people who think they are perfect or that they have all the answers or that they need no help at all. In the lyrics to his 1992 song Anthem, that great spiritual writer Leonard Cohen wrote “In the broken places, the light shines through.” And I would add, through broken people light also shines, the light of Christ.
What else do Christian leaders have to bring? They have to love the Lord, ideally as much as Jesus loves us. The English language unfortunately has a paucity of words for love, and so we can’t see that in the threefold dialogue between Peter and Jesus: “Simon son of John, do you love me more?” …. "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you" two different words for love are used. The first and second time Jesus uses the verb agape (which is love on behalf of others), and each time Peter uses philia (which is the love of friendship). Jesus wants agape: the kind of love that is life-transforming, and self-giving and that sacrifices its own needs for the good of others. This is the love Jesus showed us on the cross, and Jesus is asking for this kind of love in return. Only in the third question does Jesus also use philia, conceding that agape was not quite possible for Peter, at least not at that time. However, the cryptic comment about Peter stretching out his hands when he grows old, when “someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go," which is taken to refer to Peter’s own crucifixion - “He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God” – indicates that Jesus knows that Peter will eventually grow into agape love. We should also note that the three questions mirror Peter’s three denials – and that through them reconciliation is achieved.
Love is of course not only what we owe the Lord, but also what we owe others. In the new commandment (John 13:34) of the Last Supper Jesus tells us: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” And so, Peter is called to love those entrusted to his care: Feed, tend, care for my lambs and sheep! At its core our faith and our commission are really very simple. There is a lovely little cartoon that pops up in Facebook now and again showing Jesus at his Ascension. He is saying farewell with the words “Gotta go. Don’t forget what I taught you.” When he’s gone the disciples talk among themselves: “So what have we learned?” “Pretty much it’s love God and love your neighbor.” “Well, that seems pretty simple – I don’t see how we can mess that up.” And then one of them turns round, sees a group approaching made up of a monk, a bishop and two people looking like Luther and Calvin: “Uh – oh,” he says, “Here come the theologians!”
Both Francis and Justin Welby were very practical leaders. Francis focused on the marginalized, he wanted a church for and with the poor. His great encyclical “Laudato si,” subtitled "on care for our common home," was a very practical document about how we should care for creation out of our love for the Creator. He often made some wonderfully inclusive statements about those the church had excluded but often failed to follow through with structural and doctrinal changes to underpin those words. Justin Welby made reconciliation a focus of his ministry, he enabled the ordination of women as bishops in the Church of England, and he took (small) steps towards the full inclusion of LGBT siblings in the church but failed by his own admission to properly attend to those who had been harmed by the church and to prevent abuse.
What do I hope for in their successors? Humility! They need to be aware of their own failings and weaknesses. They should not be sure that only they and only their church is right. They must need and know love and need and know forgiveness. When Jesus commissioned the disciples last week in John’s Gospel, it was with the words: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:22-23) Showing love, promising forgiveness, and facilitating reconciliation are all key roles of Christian leaders, and I believe that only those who know love, can share love. Only those who have been forgiven can truly forgive. Only those who have experienced reconciliation can bring reconciliation to their church, and to the world. And as each of us here is a minister and, according to our catechism, all of us, not just popes and patriarchs, are called to represent Christ and his Church; to bear witness to him … , to carry on Christ's work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church, that is my hope for us all.[1]
Amen.
