New Life in Christ: Chosen – Blessed – Broken – Given
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Over the years that I have been a minister, I have developed this practice of checking out newsletters from other communities of faith. I like to keep an eye out for what new things other members of the body of Christ are doing to live out their faith in their church or parish or diocese or synod. It’s one way of staying connected with the movement of the Holy Spirit blowing through and working through the church today.
A couple of weeks ago, I read something in one church newsletter that caught my attention – I read that the pastor of that congregation has the practice of reading one particular book during Holy Week. The book the pastor reads every year is called The Life of the Beloved by Henri Nouwen. Nouwen (1932-1996) was a Roman Catholic priest; a professor at Harvard and Yale; a prolific spiritual writer; a theologian; and a companion of people with intellectual disabilities. He wrote The Life of the Beloved to offer a description of the spiritual life, its meaning and purpose and hope, to people living in a secular age.
I have read The Life of the Beloved several times, though not in the last 5 years. I decided to follow my colleague’s example and read the book again, in the days surrounding the Resurrection of Our Lord. I’m glad that I did.
Nouwen begins this book by reminding us that we are beloved by God. This is the core of our identity – each one of us uniquely created in God’s image; each with our own gifts and abilities and flaws; each loved fully and completely by God as we are. When we listen to the silence deep within us, we can hear the voice of God, calling us with the same words Jesus heard at his baptism – You are my Own, my Beloved. On you my favor rests.
Next Nouwen describes the life of the Holy Spirit moving through us, as God’s beloved people, with these 4 words: Taken (or chosen) – Blessed – Broken – Given. These same words flow through our gospel story today and, indeed, flow through our lives as people who follow the risen Christ.
In the gospel story this morning, the risen Jesus appears once again to some of his disciples. This time it happens at the Sea of Tiberius (also known as the Sea of Galilee), close to where the disciples live. (They are no longer in Jerusalem). The disciples had returned to this familiar setting to engage in the familiar activity of fishing. They fish all night and catch nothing. Then someone calls them from the shore – Children, you have no fish, have you? Cast the net to the right side of the boat, they are told; they do that and catch more fish than they can haul in. Now they recognize the person on the shore – it is the Lord.
I wonder if they recognize Jesus – the Lord – by his voice; through the words he spoke to them as he called them children – or if they recognized him through the abundance of fish that suddenly appeared in their net when they did what he told them to do. Somehow they know that here is the one who recognizes and calls out their belovedness before God; the one who has taken them / chosen them as his own.
The disciples come ashore and gather with Jesus around the charcoal fire. He is preparing breakfast for them – fish and bread. They add some of the fish they have just caught (153 of them!). Jesus feeds them; he blesses them with the fish.
Then he turns to speak to Peter. This is the same Peter who, on the night Jesus was arrested, publicly denied knowing Jesus three times. This happened as Peter was sitting in the courtyard of the high priest, warming himself around a charcoal fire, while Jesus was inside being questioned by the religious authority. I wonder if now Peter feels ashamed of himself, confused about how he responded; broken in spirit; as he sits having breakfast around this charcoal fire with the risen Lord.
Three times Jesus asks Peter if he loves him. Three times Peter responds Yes, Lord. You know that I love you. Three times Jesus tells Peter to take care of his flock – Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep. Out of Peter’s brokenness comes forgiveness and healing and wholeness. His relationship with Jesus is restored and he is given new life in Christ. As a beloved disciple, he is sent out by Jesus with work to do – to feed and tend and love all of God’s flock.
Did you catch that? Peter was taken/chosen – blessed – broken – given – all for the sake of the world that God so dearly loves.
This is the life of the Spirit that is revealed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This is the new life that Jesus offers to us today.
Whenever we come to the banquet table God has prepared for us, we are reminded that we are God’s beloved people.
We hear the ‘Words of Institution’ – In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his disciples….and Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink…
Here at this abundant feast we taste and see the presence of Jesus;
here we are fed and forgiven and healed; we are made whole;
here we feel the life of the Spirit flowing through us.
Here we offer ourselves before God…as God’s own; God’s beloved…
We offer ourselves for God to take us as we are…
and bless us with God’s presence;
We offer ourselves for God to receive us in our brokenness;
and to forgive our sins and heal us and make us whole
and give us new life through Jesus Christ.
Strengthened by this new life we have been given,
we are sent out from the table –
sent out with work to do;
to go where we do not wish to go;
to give up our own preferences and desire and comfort; for the sake of this broken and troubled world;
we are sent out to follow in the way of Jesus;
the way of love and forgiveness and healing;
the way of grace, given for all people.
We are sent out to feed and tend God’s lambs and sheep –
to love our neighbors…and our enemies;
to care for the least of Jesus’ sisters and brothers and siblings among us;
- the stranger; the widow; the orphan
- the immigrant; the students calling for peace in Palestine
to speak out against cruelty and hatred and tyranny wherever it exists;
to stand up for the right of all people to live fully as the person God created them to be.
Beloved by God, we are taken/chosen; blessed; broken; and given.
This is the life of the Holy Spirit flowing through us…
This is the new life in Christ that God has promised us..
As you leave this place today, may you go out knowing that you are Beloved by God.
May you go out knowing that you have received new life – forgiveness, healing, grace and love – through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
May you go out knowing that you are chosen, blessed, broken and given to go out in the world to share the love of God with all people.
Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.
May it be so.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!