“Do We Need Another Appearance?” 
Acts and John 21: 1-19  

            I confess that most mornings I switch between listening to NPR and sports talk radio. My explanation is that one can only listen to NPR through one news cycle and then it repeats itself -- so what else am I to do. That’s my story and I am sticking to it.

            This week Mike and Mike on ESPN  (I confess they are among my favorites radio hosts right up there with NPR’s Robert Siegel and Liane Hanson) spent much of their airtime discussing comments made by the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones.  Apparently, while in a bar with friends Jones was caught by on a cell phone video making disparaging remarks – ones he would clearly not have made publically, particularly what he said about his former coach Bill Parcels. The video, of course, was instantly available on the Internet. The sports pundits endlessly discussed this surreptitious recording. Was it was an intrusion into Jones’ privacy? Or was he naïve to ever expect to have privacy in a quasi-public place in this age of handheld recording devices.  The sports commentators also explored at length whether it was appropriate for the mainstream media, including themselves, to play the video and to discuss it – which, of course, they were already doing! They concluded that this was just the way things were. Maybe it was underhanded and in poor taste to make this kind of video, but such acts where here to stay and Jones and everyone else should get used to it. And, of course, it was appropriate to devote airtime to the incident because it was news and they would lose audience share to those who did show and discuss the film footage.

            Why does this relatively unimportant story find its way into today’s sermon? This week Mike and Mike put into words what seems to be the prevailing thinking in our world, when they said “we have to accept what is -- whether we like it or not.” Why didn’t they and why don’t we sound off – take a stand – when we see or hear something that is wrong or distasteful.

Hope for a better tomorrow seems to have become rare today. We may, indeed, not be able to stop all surreptitious filming and other intrusions into people’s private lives.  Yet the owners of responsible media can make decisions about what to run and not run based upon a sense of decency and a commitment to higher values -- even if they might lose a rating point. Such action might reduce such intrusions. Do we have to accept and be swept along by events or by new inventions and discoveries without trying to shape them and control them?  

Today’s scriptures focus on Paul and Peter -- the two principal founders of the church and the major reason that Christianity is alive and vital in our world today. Think of the trajectory of their lives. There was Paul -- the pious Jew and the itinerant tent maker. He was a formidable personality, a towering intellect and throughout his early life the principal enforcer of the existing orthodox religious practices and beliefs. We are told, “Breathing threats and murder against the disciples, … Paul went to the high priest and asked for letters [of introduction] to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way [that is those who followed the Way of Jesus] he might bring them bound to Jerusalem” … for punishment, if they did not recant. Then at the height of his power and zeal something extraordinary happens to this zealot on the road to Damascus. He is blinded when the voice of Christ comes out of a heavenly light to chastise him for his persecution of the Christians and directs him to Damascus to learn his fate.

And then there is Peter-- Jesus’ closest disciple – who, nonetheless, is the one who denies Jesus rather than risk arrest and punishment himself. As the writer of the gospel of John reports, after the crucifixion on Good Friday, Peter and some of the other disciples flee Jerusalem. They have been swept along by the events of the day. The authorities have prevailed; Jesus was gone. The movement is over. So Peter, James and John -- the three fishermen -- return home to their nets and fishing boats. I can hear them saying “We have to accept that it’s over. Jesus is dead. It would be foolish to try and continue.  The Romans and the religious authorities are too powerful.” And then after a futile night of fishing, they have an extraordinary catch when a stranger tells them where to fish. The stranger, of course, is the Risen Lord.  And like Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus this appearance changes everything for Peter.

  The transformation of Paul required that the cataracts fall from his eyes.  Quite clearly the first step for Paul was to see the world through the eyes of faith. What began Paul’s transformation from persecutor to the ultimate disciple of the faith was the courage to accept Jesus and his message of love and inclusiveness. And for Peter too the first step was to accept Jesus -- to truly see him and then to affirm his devotion to him. “Simon Peter son of John, do you love me more than these? … Yes Lord, you know that I love you.”

And that is often the place we find ourselves after Easter. Moving beyond our doubts about the details, we come to a moment when courageously we take a leap of faith. We accept the message of Easter that divine love defeated power and death and lives on offering us hope for the future.  Paul and Peter clearly each go through the same post Easter struggle and eventually place their faith in the Christ. But the story does not end there for either of them.

The appearances of Jesus are not alone sufficient to transform Paul or Peter.  In Paul’s case -- sight restored -- he must move from faith to action. He goes into the synagogues to proclaim that ‘[Jesus] is the Son of God.” Even more dramatically Peter three times – perhaps to atone for his three denials – affirms his love of Jesus – acceptance of him and his message of enduring love.  But what is crucial is what Jesus says in response. He doesn’t say – well finally you got it Peter!  No, he says if you love me there is work to be done -- “Feed my lambs” … “tend my sheep”, “feed my sheep,” “follow me.” Jesus tells Peter to fully embrace the Easter faith requires acting on it. And Peter does act -- gathering the followers around him – thereby keeping the faith alive.

 Faith is not a passive matter – it cannot grow or sustain us without active effort. The fulfillment of the hope for the future embodied in the story Easter is in our hands and in our actions.  In the long run, if not in the short, we get back all that we pour into our life of faith.

What do I mean? Let me return to my mundane example of the filming of Jerry Jones -- in and of itself a pretty unimportant event and a pretty trivial issue. But to the extent it reflects the loss of the belief   that we can change things for the better it is troublesome. If it reflects a loss of hope then our faith potentially becomes a mere pious mental exercise. But we shouldn’t lose hope or an active faith. History offers examples of our ability to respond to negative events.  Quite clearly, the atomic genie could not be put back into the bottle after the Manhattan project created the atomic bomb. Yet after Hiroshima and Nagasaki the world quite clearly saw that such devastating power had to be controlled.   And we are safer and better for such efforts. Slavery at one time in this country was the norm – it was woven into our founding documents. Yet -- though too long delayed and too slowly undertaken – we have made real progress toward racial equality. Enough people – many of faith – were unwilling to accept that it was just the way things were and were going to be.

When I was listening to this radio discussion of the videoing of Jerry Jones, wishing that I could interject my pearls of wisdom, I suddenly looked out my window at the duck pond. Now many of you who live on that side of town know that a large, majestic maple snapped during that major late winter snowstorm and fell -- all 100 plus feet -- into the duck pond where it still rests. What you may not know is that when it fell it took a healthy young maple with it. When I looked out this week to my surprise I saw that the young maple despite being uprooted, was budding with the new life of spring. What an example of why hope should be alive for events need not overwhelm us or sweep us along for the ride.

Our faith tells us that we can and must make a difference. We must not let the world slip to the lowest common moral denominator because the tide seems so strong in that direction. We must speak up, respond and take action when we see something we believe is wrong or when we become aware that one of God’s sheep needs tending or feeding. Paul and Peter weren’t only changed by their faith but they also changed the world through that faith.  We can choose to live out our faith or we can choose to leave things, as they are. Both, however, will have consequences. We don’t need to await another appearance by Jesus. We just need to get up and to feed and tend the lambs of the world.  Amen