Sermon: Whom Do You Love?

May. 17, 2009

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John 21:15-19

Whom Do You Love?

Opening prayer
Oh God, our hearts are prone to wander and so we pray that you would keep us stayed on you. In the morning, in the noontime, all day long, keep our focus on you. Turn our hearts toward your word. Bring our spirits into your presence this day. All this we pray in the name of Christ. Amen

Sermon and children’s message
Good morning, kids. Sorry for throwing you off about moving the children’s message. But it is good to see you guys. They are all working very hard on a little project up here that they are going to share with you in a little bit. But I want to talk to you guys for a few minutes about love. Do you guys have anybody in your life that you love?
Who do you love?
My grandma. My mom. My aunt.
My uncle. My mom. My family.
My mom. My sister. My family.
Do you guys have anybody you love?
My whole family. My whole family.
My family. My grandparents.
Do you think they love you too? Yeah.
How do you know they love you?
They act like it. Yeah, that’s right.
Now, let me ask you another question: Is it hard to love people sometimes?

Yeah, sometimes people disappoint us, right? Sometimes people get angry or they lose their tempers or they don’t meet our expectations. Sometimes people are really hard to love. And in our scripture this morning, it talks to us about a relationship of love, between Jesus and his friend, Peter. But you know what? Peter was kind of hard to love. Because in the story that Kook Hyun read for us this morning, it talks about after Jesus was resurrected, right. After Easter, after Jesus had died on the cross, he came back to visit his friends. Now Peter was one of these friends and Peter had sworn that he loved Jesus more than anybody else. And in fact, before Jesus laid down his life, Peter said, “ God wherever, you are going? Lord, wherever you are going, we will go with you and I will lay down my life for you.” But what happened to Peter, he betrayed Jesus. He turned away from Jesus. He even denied ever knowing Jesus, three times. And so, after the resurrection, when Jesus comes back and he finds his friends again, they have gone back to their old life, to their old ways, to the fishing in the village where they were before they ever met Jesus. And there is Jesus on the beach waving, “ Come on in, let’s have breakfast.” Jesus loves to eat doesn’t he? He loves to break bread with people. And after they have eaten, because they have been up all night and they were so hungry and they were so tired. So Jesus feeds them this wonderful breakfast of fish and bread. And then, Jesus says to Peter, “ Do you love me?”. But he doesn’t call him Peter, does he? He calls him Simon, son of John. Now, when you guys are in trouble, do your parents ever call you by your full name? No, Yeah.
Kayla, what do they call you? Kayla Margaret Whitley, that is when you know you are really in trouble, right. But Jesus calls Peter by the name that he had before he knew Jesus, Simon, son of John. Wow! So Peter really knows that Jesus is serious, that this conversation he is about to have with Jesus is really serious and Jesus asks him three times, “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?” Three times he asks him for the three times that Peter denied Jesus. Each time Peter responds, “ Yes, Lord, I love you,” , it is like cancelling out one of those denials and bringing Peter back into relationship with Jesus. It is Jesus’ way of saying, “ I forgive you.” Jesus brings Peter back and the question that he asks him is “Do you love me?”, because that is the most important thing. Does Peter really love Jesus? Can he stay in love with Jesus?

Now we have been talking about these three simple rules that will change the world: do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. And today we are going to talk about the last one, staying in love with God. And it is the last of these simple rules, based on John Wesley’s teaching and the teachings and life and ministry of Jesus Christ. It is the last rule, but it is not the least rule. It’s the last rule, but actually it is the first rule and it is the rule that if we live by this rule, it enables us to do the other things: to do no harm, and to do good. Staying in love with God, it is the essence of what it means to be a follower of Christ, to stay in love. Now, we all know that it is really easy to fall in love, isn’t it? It is easy in the beginning, because things seem so perfect and so romantic and so fun and full of energy, but then to stay in love takes commitment and it takes work. Now, I am not going to put Malcolm and Daphne or Bernard and Mary on the spot this morning, but maybe you want to ask them today after church what is their secret to so many years of long marriage. And I bet they might tell you as well as I bet somebody else who you know who has been married a long time might tell you, that it hasn’t always been fun or wonderful or romantic. It certainly hasn’t always been easy, but to stay in a relationship and to love someone day in and day out for 57 years, that takes work sometimes but most of all it takes a commitment, a dedication, a way of honoring that relationship day in and day out. Our relationships with one another are not a perfect example of what our relationship with God is supposed to be but there are some similarities there and we know to nurture any relationship that has meaning for us, whether it is a marriage or a friendship or a relationship with our parents or our children, we have to work at it, we have to be committed to it, we have to make time for the other person and communicate.

I was on Facebook this week talking to my other pastor friends saying, “ Does anybody have any good ideas for this sermon about staying in love with God?” and one of my pastor friends said, “ What about date nights?” Anybody have date nights with somebody that you like, somebody that you love? That regular ritual of setting everything else aside and making time for that person, that is what staying in love with God requires too. And there are some ways of doing that in our tradition, right? Coming to church is one of the ways that we stay in love with God. And what else is on that heart there? Service, did you say? Yes, serving others is a way of staying in love with God and reading the Bible and praying and taking Holy Communion. These are all ways that we can nurture our relationship with God. And maybe you have other ways too, maybe you take a prayer walk with God. Maybe you wake up early in the morning and you sit with God in the silence. Maybe you pray to God while you are behind the wheel of your car on the Beltway. Whatever way works for you, it doesn’t matter, because it is your relationship with God. We have to honor and nurture this relationship with God, just like we would any other meaningful relationship.

At the end of this Scripture reading today, Jesus tells Peter, that one day someone is going to dress him and take him where he did not want to go. And that is what it means to follow Jesus. We talk about these three simple rules as both life changing and world changing. And if they are truly are to change us and to change the world around us, then staying in love with God means sometimes that God will lead us into new places, into places that we did not expect, into places that maybe we really did not want to go. But to stay in love with God means that we will be changed by this relationship. That God’s love for us will make us different people, will give us a new name and a new purpose and a new life in Christ. But we have to stay in love. You would think that God might be the one who needs help staying in love with us, right? I mean we are the ones who are so difficult to love. But God does not need help with that. Somehow, God stays in love with us no matter how far we wander and God comes and finds us, just like God went and found Peter in that fishing village and called him back, “Follow me”, he says. “Stay in love.”

The kids have been working on a little art project up here, a little heart that reminds us what it means to stay in love with God. Are you guys done? I think you are done. They look beautiful. Would you do something for me? Would you take one of those hearts to somebody out there and remind them to stay in love with God? There’s more blank ones up here. You can come back and keep working on it, Ok. But I want you to go find somebody and take them a heart to your mom or to somebody that you don’t know. Ok and remind them to stay in love with God. Amen.


Final Blessing
I pray that you will go forward from this place and make a date night with God. That you would spend time with God this day, and tomorrow, and the next day. That you might stay in love with God who loves you. In the name of Christ. Amen

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