“In Service of Love”
John 21:1-19
Every once in a while when I’m offering Blessings to Go at Hampshire Pride, as I did yesterday, or at the Amherst Block Party every September, or in Jerusalem or Washington, D.C., or down the street in front of the Black Sheep, as I have done in years past, I have something like an out of body experience.
Oh, I’m still present to the person I’m blessing, but I’m also listening to the words I’m saying and hearing how truly radical and, I hope, life-changing they can be. In those fleeting moments I realize that an earlier version of myself might have been scandalized by my words. Any number of earlier versions of myself might have written off my words as cheap grace or bad theology or even license to do whatever we want, not even thinking about God or goodness or following Jesus.
Sometimes, in what yesterday were the brief moments between one person or three or four people asking me for a blessing and the next group or individual wanting a blessing, I wondered if what I was saying was a perversion or the gospel or, instead, what I hope is a disregard for the trappings of religion in favor of a distillation of the gospel to its most scandalizing essence.
And then I remember the story of the Risen Christ-slash-grill chef Jesus and shamefaced Peter sitting on the beach after breakfast as dawn breaks over the Sea of Galilee. And in that moment I hope that I am in good company in boiling everything down to love. In that moment I remember that Jesus was more than willing to offend religious authorities and break religious rules in the service of love and healing. In that moment I remember that Jesus calls us to follow his way of love not to control us, but to lead us to healing, wholeness, and the fullness of life for ourselves, all people, and all creation.
It all boils down to love.
If you’ve never received a Blessing to Go from me, the current version of my blessing goes like this:
Blessed are you, (and here I say the person’s name,) beloved child of God. May you always remember that is who you are. God created you in love, and God loves you exactly as you are. There’s nothing you have to do to earn God’s love, and nothing you could do to lose it. It’s a free gift poured out on you new and fresh every morning—and it never ends. May you know this so deeply that it feels your heart with love and joy that flows out to all the world. Amen.
Sometimes, as I am speaking, I watch tears roll down the face of the person I am blessing. Sometimes I see the beginning of a smile. Often, the person I have blessed thanks me profusely, asks to hug me, or tells me they feel different inside. Sometimes, before I give a blessing, someone approaches and asks if it would be okay for them to receive a blessing—because they’re Catholic or Baptist or atheist or Jewish. Yesterday I was able to tell the several Jews I blessed that I was quite sure it was okay for them to be blessed by me because the first Jew I had blessed yesterday was a rabbi.
Sometimes the person I am blessing will tell me a little bit about something going on in their life or why they want a blessing, but usually not.
Jesus, the Risen Christ, knew exactly what was going on for Peter.
Peter, as you may remember, was the most brazen and impulsive of the disciples. It was Peter, up there on the mountaintop with Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, who proposed building shelters for them. It was Peter who first blurted out that Jesus was the Messiah. It was Peter who had the nerve to rebuke Jesus when Jesus said he would be killed, prompting Jesus to say, “Get behind me, Satan!” It was Peter who, on the evening of the last supper, first refused to let Jesus wash his feet and then, when Jesus insisted, told him to wash all of him. And it was Peter who, later that night, after having promised Jesus to stand by him til the end, denied even knowing him—not once, not twice, but three different times.
And so it is that Jesus, after feeding his disciples, gives Peter—who was, most likely, drowning in shame—not one, not two, but three different opportunities to redeem himself.
In asking Peter if he loves him, Jesus is paving the way for healing and wholeness. This bringing everything back to love is how we heal from shame, failure, confusion, and unfaithfulness. This centering of love is how we remember who we are. This grounding ourselves in love and allowing ourselves to be motivated and empowered by love is how we follow the way of Christ, how we become who we’re meant to be, how we become a gift to others, and how we change the world.
It’s not about beating ourselves up. It’s not about following some rules, proving ourselves good enough, or burning ourselves out in an attempt to earn God’s love or someone else’s respect.
It’s not about fixating on all that is wrong in ourselves or in the world and devoting ourselves to changing it. It’s not about reacting to all that we’re against or letting our lives be shaped by what we’re afraid of.
It’s about love.
It’s about letting ourselves be healed by the love of God. It’s about nurturing our love for God, ourselves, our neighbors, and all creation. It’s about making space to let our healing hearts get in touch with what it is that we love, and then choosing to let that love guide and shape our lives.
It’s about living in the service of love.
It’s that simple, and it’s that confounding. It is the labor of a lifetime, and it the one truth that we have to keep coming back to again and again and again, because there is so much in our lives and in the world that draws us away from it.
In asking Peter if he loves him, in asking Peter three different times and each time giving Peter a charge to put that love into action, Jesus is telling Peter and us that none of us is defined by the worst thing we ever did or didn’t do. We all have the opportunity to come back to love. We all have the opportunity to create a Spirit-filled life defined, motivated, and transformed by the love we have received, the love we have given, the love we have shared, and the love we have followed.
In telling Peter how to live out his love for Jesus, Jesus also reminds us that love requires courage. Peter had denied Jesus not because he didn’t love him, but because he was afraid. But true, godly love sees the risks and loves anyway, trusting that love is its own reward.
In telling Peter how to put his love into action, Jesus speaks not of tearing things down but of building people up.
Do you love me? Then, feed my lambs.
Do you love me? Then, tend my sheep.
Do you love me? Then, feed my sheep.
Take care of people. Nurture them. Protect them. Sustain them. Show them how to follow my ways. Give them the keys to healing. Make sure they know that God loves them with an everlasting, forgiving, merciful, and gracious love.
Friends, may all that we do be motivated by love. And may we always remember that that love is a free gift, poured out upon us new and fresh every morning. May we remember that that love never ends.
And may knowing this fill our hearts with so much love and joy that it can’t help but flow out to all the world.
