Yesterday I finished a sermon series called, "My Favorite Story." We asked people from Chain of Lakes to share their favorite Bible stories and then interviewed people whose stories we chose. Yesterday we looked at the story of Jesus and Peter on the beach. At the end of the sermon I talked about how this story related to the horror of what happened in Charleston. The video of the sermon can be found at: https://vimeo.com/131446277
One
of the most important questions we will ever answer is the question, “who is
Jesus?’ Our answer is important because
what we say and believe about Jesus along with the intensity of our belief
determines a lot about who we are as people.
It’s
a hard question because how do we adequately describe in language, the Son of
God.
Ever
since Jesus entered the world people have wrestled with this question, “who is
Jesus.”
We
have all sorts of titles for Jesus—Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Savior, Jesus is
Messiah, Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is Suffering Servant, Jesus is King, Jesus
is the Son of God. These titles are
true. But unless we can get underneath
the title and be clear about what they mean the title is really not that
significant.
On
occasion Jesus asked his followers, “who do you say that I am?” He wanted to know how people viewed him. He wants to know how we view him.
Today
I’m going to share an answer to the question, “who is Jesus.” By the end of this sermon I’m going to give
you two things. I’m going to give you a
one word response to the question, “who is Jesus?’ and I’m going to show how
this response can impact the world.
With
that introduction let me share that I’m completing a four week sermon series today
called, “My Favorite Story.” A while ago
I asked you to share your favorite Bible Story.
Many of you did. For the past
four weeks we’ve gone deep into each of the four stories. The AIM of this series is simple—we want
every person to have a grasp of the story and go deep into its meaning.
We
started the series by looking at the story of Mary and Martha. This was a story that Lena Truong chose
We
continued by looking at the story of Ruth.
This was a story that Paula Blair chose
Last
Sunday Pastor Kate preached about Esther.
Today
we’re going to look at the story of Jesus and Peter on the beach. This is Chris Audet’s favorite story.
To
help us go deep into the story we’re sharing video interviews of each person
who chose the story.
I’ve
written a devotion for you that revolves around the theme of friendship. I encourage you to use it this week. I think you’ll be blessed as you use it each
day. In the middle is a place to take
notes. I believe God might say something
to you in this sermon that you’ll want to write down. On the back is our congregation’s prayer
requests.
Let’s
review the story of Jesus and Peter on the beach. We only find the story in John’s gospel. The story took place a few weeks after Jesus’
resurrection. Seven disciples were
gathered together. Peter told the group
he wanted to go fishing. So the seven
got into a boat and went fishing. They
fished all night and caught nothing.
Just
after daybreak Jesus stood on a beach. As
they were in the boat the disciples didn’t know that the man who was standing
on the beach was Jesus. Jesus yelled to
the guys, “You don’t have any fish, do you?”
They yelled back, “No.” Jesus
told them to put the net on the other side of the boat. They did.
The net became full of fish.
The
disciple who was described later as the beloved disciple recognized that the
man standing on the beach was Jesus. He
told Peter. Peter was either naked or
had some undergarments on. When Peter
saw Jesus he put on some clothes and jumped in the water to swim to shore.
When
the seven disciples got to shore they saw a charcoal fire. It had fish and bread. Jesus told the disciples to bring some of the
fish that they had caught. The disciples
had caught a large amount of fish—153. Jesus
told the disciples, “come have breakfast with me.” Jesus gave them the bread,
and he gave them the fish.
A
few weeks ago I interviewed Chris Audet about the story. I started out by asking him what he liked
about the story. He shared this
clip. It’s about ninety seconds.
for me it kind of captures a sort of a poignant and
fleeting moment. Jesus has come back
from the dead. You’ve had the big
reveal. Mary Magdalene has seen him, his
mother has seen him, the disciples, Peter, and even Thomas has seen him—he’s
touched his side. There’s been a lot of
that initial interaction. This is prior
to him ascending. And leaving them and then the Holy Spirit coming down. Kind of the last moment of them having a
normal—like, the guys are out fishing.
They are excited. Peter sees
Jesus coming and says—wait a minute.
That’s Jesus. I’m going to jump
off the boat and go up to him
Paul: Kind
of like this poignant moment
Chris: and
then. Just the fact of them coming
together and. Jesus made breakfast for
them on the beach. Kind of like. it’s such a beautiful picture of just their
relationship as friends. Yes--he’ll
ascend to heaven. They’ll go out and be
persecuted. All of these things that
will happen afterwards. They even hinted
at that. At what might be coming or
what to expect. That moment. It’s such a beautiful moment of
friendship
I
loved what Chris said. It’s a beautiful
picture of their relationship as friends.
It’s such a beautiful moment of friendship.
I
think the story helps us with the question, “who is Jesus.” Jesus is our friend.
I
would encourage you to write this down. Jesus
is our friend.
This
idea that Jesus is our friend is certainly not a new idea and on the surface it
might not seem that significant of an idea.
But if we push into it, I think we can see it’s a powerful idea.
It
wouldn’t surprise me if many of us question, “how can I be a friend with
God?”
How
can we be friends with something as big and awesome and impersonal as the
Creator of the Universe. How can we be
friends with perfection? the holy?
If
you’re like me you know that we haven’t led a life that is perfect. We’ve made mistakes and sins. We’ve done things that we’re not proud
of.
Perhaps
some of us feel we’ve been casual or even apathetic about God. For some of us perhaps coming to worship depends
on how we feel when we wake up on a Sunday morning. Or
perhaps when we come to church and if we’re honest we have to admit that the
importance of Jesus isn’t that high.
What’s
so cool about God is even though we’ve made mistakes, even though sometimes
we’re apathetic, and even though we don’t value Jesus as much as we could—Jesus
still wants to be our friend.
What’s
so beautiful about this story is how Jesus embraced Peter. Rember Peter denied knowing Jesus three
times. The night before Jesus was
crucified Peter denied knowing Jesus. He
denied that Jesus was his friend, he denied that Jesus was his Lord, he denied
even knowing Jesus.
Jesus
was still willing to say to Peter, “come have breakfast with me.”
The
point is we don’t have to wonder whether we can be a friend with God. Our friendship starts with God’s desire to be
friends with us. Even if we’ve messed
up, or we’re at a point where we’re casual about our faith, or we know our
motivations are not quite right, Jesus still wants to be our friend
When
I interviewed Chris I discovered that he understood this dynamic of
friendship. I asked him how this story has
inspired him. This is what he said:
I had a really interesting experience about a year ago
that involved that story. I was really
struggling with, you know, where I was in my relationship with God and what was
going on with my life at the time. One
of the things that always bothered me about the story at the same time that I
liked it so well is that it was something that seemed so fleeting. It was going to end so soon. The word I got or the impression I got is it
doesn’t have to end. We can be in that
intimate relationship with Jesus and have breakfast with him. It’s a quiet moment among friends. Not this (you know) ongoing burden or
pressure to fit an expectation. It’s
just, “come have breakfast with me.”
That was really precious to me.
Jesus
wants to be our friend. It’s as if he
asks us all the time, “come have breakfast with me.”
Having
breakfast with friends is so much fun. I
remember last month I had breakfast with a friend—David Maghakian. David just retired as pastor at New Life
Presbyterian Church. We hadn’t seen each
other in a while, so we set up breakfast at Keys. This breakfast was on a weekday. And I had so much work to do that I wasn’t
sure that I had time. But when I got to
Keys it became clear to me that this is where I needed to be. David and I got caught up on our lives, we
laughed a lot, we had fun with our waitress.
It was a beautiful moment of joy and fun and friendship. Both of us were in the presence of something
special. When I reflect on that
breakfast now I think, “I’d like to have a breakfast like that every day.” We can have that breakfast every day.
In the interview I asked Chris about
this invitation of “come have breakfast with me.” I asked him if this was a constant
invitation from Jesus to us. Chris was
definitive in his answer.
Yes. It’s that he
is Emmanuel. He is God with us. So in the midst of whatever we’re going
through—the good, the bad, the busy, the frenetic—all the things that we’re
dealing with on a day to day basis or even the extreme tragedies that
happen. He’s saying, “come away with
me.” And have this time even in the midst of all this. We can still sit down. I’m not here to—I am here to change the
world, but I’m not here to fix you. I’m
here to be with you.
I
love what Chris said about Jesus. Jesus
is not here to fix us. He’s here to be
present with us. By experiencing that
presence we can be inspired to become who we want to be and who God wants us to
be.
To
say Jesus is our friend isn’t quite enough.
Let’s push into what an impact this can have on us and on the
world.
How
does saying Jesus is our friend make an impact on the world? I’ve thought about this as I’ve thought about
the horrible tragedy that took place in South Carolina
This
has been a really hard week for our country.
On Wednesday night Dylan Roof attended a Bible Study at Emmanuel African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. A hour into the Bible Study he started
shooting people. Nine people died and
all of the victims were black.
This
was a hate crime. Certainly Dylan Roof
was targeting African-Americans.
Emmanuel AME Church is known in Charleston has a history of standing up
for the African-American community.
Dylan Roof was intentional about the race of the people he murdered.
I’d like for us to reflect on this
tragedy for a moment through the lens of friendship. I’ve done a lot of reading since Wednesday
about Dylan Roof. He didn’t have a lot
of friends. One article said that he had
African-American friends, but it’s hard for me to imagine that he had many deep
conversations about race with them. Over
the past few months he’s become a loner—he’s discarded his friends. Dylan Roof didn’t have the type of friends
who steered him in a better direction.
What’s so amazing about this story
is how many of the families of the victims responded to Dylan Roof. Did you see what many of them said to Dylan
Roof at a pre-trial hearing on Friday?
They forgave him. It’s as if they
said, “I’m willing to be your friend—you who murdered my family.”
When
I first read about this I have to admit there is a part of me that thought,
“they didn’t really mean that. They are
just saying that.” I think it was
authentic because of their faith. These
angels—and at that moment these people were messengers of God. These people couldn’t have said something
like that unless they knew at a very deep level that Jesus was their
friend.
What
they did was a supernatural act. People
just don’t naturally forgive the murderer of their family. People can’t do that unless at the core of
their being they can say that Jesus is my friend.
One
final point. Our friends reveal a lot
about us.
I
want to encourage us to do something. I
have a challenge. Make a list of your
closest friends. Put five people on the
list. After you have the list ask yourself,
“How many have a different skin color than you; how many will vote for a
different Presidential candidate in the next election; how many don’t believe
in God.” Do these people look like me
and act like me and think like me? Or do
I have some diversity in my friends.
In
the age of Social Media it seems that we live in an Echo Chamber. We make comments and then many people just
echo our comments. If our friends are
only an extension of our own identity, then we need some more friends.
I
love the people of Chain of Lakes. One
reason I love you is I come into contact with people who are very different than
me. We’re not trying to create an echo
chamber at Chain of Lakes. Let me give
an example.
Two
weeks ago Jonathan and Judith Tse celebrated the high school graduation of
their son, Fon. It was a really busy day
for my family. Amy and Hannah were going
one direction and I was going another direction. I decided to drive to Forest Lake for Fon’s
graduation party.
SLIDE Here’s a picture of Jonathan and
Judith and Fon.
I
got there a bit early. Fon and his
friends were celebrating in the lower level of his home. They were dancing and playing loud
music. Jonathan was sitting in the
garage. I hadn’t had the opportunity to
talk to Jonathan for a while. I went to
the garage and we talked.
We
had a wonderful conversation. Jonathan
is one of the smartest people that I know.
He has a passion for the people Cameroon, his native country. And he has ideas about how to help them. The evening before he and many other
Cameroonians had partcicipated in a fundraiser in St. Paul for a school in
Cameroon. It was fascinating to listen
to Jonathan talk about this school and what a difference it was making in the
lives of children.
That
45 minute conversation was one of the best conversations of my week.
I
thanked Jonathan for the conversation.
But I want to thank you—the people of Chain of Lakes for the
conversation. I would have never had
that conversation if Chain of Lakes Church didn’t exist. Our faith community has led Jonathan and me
to be in relationship with each other.
We’re
not always going to be a small church.
But today we’re a small church.
But even in our small church we have people from many different
countries—Cameroon, Mexico, Ghana, Haiti.
We
need this diversity. We need communities
where people will cross lines—whether it’s racial or political or class
lines—to develop friendships. The church
is not called to be an echo chamber. We
are a community where strangers become friends.
Friends,
our friendships have resulted because Jesus was willing to say on a beach—come
have breakfast with me. That invitation
has changed everything.
