April 26, 1998

Last Sunday, everybody was concerned about the lake.

According to the police officer who surprised us all by walking down the aisle after the sermon at the 10 o'clock service, Tellico Lake was rising faster than the dam could spill water. With somewhere between five and nine inches of rain having fallen since the previous Thursday, there was fear that the already-swollen lake could rise another five feet.

After church, our family took a ride through several of the neighborhoods bordering the lake and saw lots of flooded docks and backyards. Then we drove over to the Fort Loudon Dam and met just about half the congregation in the parking lot there. Some were being interviewed by Channel 10 News as they watched the powerful columns of water shooting through the gates of the dam and into the turbulent Tennessee River below. It was quite a sight!

So there we were, a great many of us, concerned about the lake. And as I watched this compelling drama taking place along its shores, I found myself asking the question, "Where is God in all of this?"

For you know as well as I do that life is full of moments when we become alarmed and anxious. Things don't turn out the way we intend them to. Our parades are rained upon by hard and confusing times. The days seem very dark and gray. And the lakes of our lives become flooded with sadness, or loss, or sickness, or trouble.

"Where is God in all of this?"

A long time ago, a small band of people looked out over another lake and asked much the same question. They were followers of Jesus, and their hopes that he was the Messiah had been all but crushed on Good Friday. They were brokenhearted people. Grief-stricken. Wondering what in the world they would do now. Knowing they had nothing to go back to. Except maybe to the fishing boats on the Sea of Galilee.

As you picture of this small group of people described in the Gospel of John, I wonder if you can see yourself and others you know among them. Many of us also face broken and troubling times, and today I want to ask you, "Where is Jesus in all of this?"

Well, St. John provides an absolutely amazing answer to this question.

Take a close look at the story and you'll see that he's frying some fish! And baking some bread! Where is Jesus at this critical moment in their lives? Why he's right there, standing smack dab on the shoreline of their troubled lives. Cooking breakfast!

Now, I'm not sure I saw Jesus last Sunday along our lake. Did you?

Did anyone here take a peek through the foggy mist of their problem and spy him nearby working away with a cast iron frying pan and a spatula? Did anyone here peer through the darkness of their illness or their difficulty at home, and spot Jesus whistling away as he dipped catfish in a light batter? Did anyone here put their ear to the confusion of the moment and hear the sizzling sound of frying fish in the distance? Did anyone here stick their nose in the air in the face of the immense pain of a broken relationship or a tragic loss and catch the scent of breakfast cooking along the shore of our lake?

Probably not. It may be that it never even occurred to us that the risen Christ would be anywhere near the shoreline of our lives. We probably didn't even bother to look. Sort of like the disciples who didn't recognize him on that morning long ago.

That's a powerfully provocative question to ask yourself each day as you go about the business of living your life as a Christian. And this wonderful story in the twenty-first chapter of John offers us some fascinating possibilities in response to that question.

Well, first of all, John shows us that Jesus is not in yesterday's experience, but in today's reality.

Oh, its so easy to become entangled in the web of yesterday. That's where the disciples were as they sat in the boat that day, thinking back over their times with Jesus.

I was in a small group once and the leader asked us to share a little about our journey with God. As we went around the circle, every last one of us found it very easy to talk about the yesterday of our faith. One person shared how she had grown up in a Christian home and always had a sense of closeness with God. Someone else talked about how he had been deeply moved at a Billy Graham Crusade and had gone forward to commit his life to Christ. Someone else told a story about how God had answered a prayer at just the right time. And another brave soul confessed that, since experiencing some tragedies at an earlier point in his life, he was no longer sure there was a God. And so it went, all the way around the circle.

We all talked about the yesterdays of our faith. But when the group leader asked us "Where is Jesus in THIS moment?" we found ourselves fumbling for answers.

Let me ask you that same question. "Where is Jesus in THIS moment of your life?"

Well, according to John, Jesus is not up there, or over there, or under there. Jesus is in the moment itself, cooking breakfast!

I think this is one of the greatest truths you can ever discover about God! That God is not the God of yesterday's experience, but of today's reality - no matter how dark or ugly it may be.

So there they are, frightened and bewildered people who've run away from the tragedy of Jerusalem. And even as they think back on yesterday's sadness, Jesus is standing right there alongside them!

I believe that part of being a Christian is asking God for grace to become aware of his presence in the situation where you are right now.

In the past day or so as a nation, we have once again been rocked by the unbelievable epidemic of teenage violence. How are we as people and as a nation going to respond to this? As we try to figure out what we can do to curb this trend, I wonder if it is possible that we could believe that Jesus is somewhere nearby that experience? Is it possible that, instead of remembering how it was yesterday in our land and wringing our hands over how bad it is now, we might be fed by him with a kind of faith food that will help us take hold of this present challenge and begin to learn ways to bring healing to our young people?

In more personal ways, some of us are wrestling with great problems as we worship today. Do you think it might be possible that Jesus is standing right there on the shoreline of your painful situation? And if Jesus is there, then perhaps he will feed you with fish and bread and whatever other spiritual nourishment you need to persevere, and to be faithful, and to make it through safely and victoriously.

You see, many of us are so stuck in the experiences of the past, or so anxious for the arrival of tomorrow, that we never get around to discovering the spirituality of today!

But Jesus is here! Cooking breakfast along the shore! And you and I can find him if we will take the time to look, and to listen.

During the Great Depression, when jobs were scarce, a position opened up at the local telegraph office. Dozens of applicants came, crowding into a little waiting room that quickly filled with loud conversation. The people waited and waited, and nerves became frayed as each person anticipated their turn for an interview. After an hour or so, the outside door suddenly opened and one more applicant entered the room. After standing quietly for a moment, looking about the crowded room, the man walked to a door marked "Private" and knocked. The personnel director opened the door. Then he announced to all the others, "Thank you for coming. You may all go now. This applicant has the job."

Well, the other people were furious and frustrated by what seemed to be an unfair preference given to the latecomer. They demanded an explanation. So, the personnel director said, "Listen!"

When the room became still, everyone heard it. As they tuned in to the faint sound, they heard the dots and dashes of a telegraph, repeating over and over again the same words: "If you hear this message, come knock on the door. The job is yours."

Closer than you think. Would you ask God today to help you tune in to his presence in the present. Open your eyes. Sharpen your ears. Become attentive to the spirituality of the moment in which you live. You see, the Lord is not in yesterday's experience, but in today's reality.

Second, John teaches that Jesus is not in yesterday's failure, but in today's forgiveness.

Did you notice poor old Peter in the story? Why, you remember how, on Maundy Thursday, he swore up and down that, even if everybody else denied Jesus, he would never deny the Lord! Yeah, right! Later that very night, after Jesus was arrested, Peter denied the Lord not once, not twice, but three times. And the rooster crowed.

And now, on this early morning some days after the resurrection, an ashamed Peter and a risen Jesus are meeting fact to face for the first time since it happened.

"Peter, do you love me?" Jesus asks. "Lord, you know I love you," Peter answers. And Jesus says, "Feed my sheep."

What's very interesting here is how the word love is used. Some commentators point out that two different Greek words for love are employed in this passage. There's agape, which is the word for God's perfect love. And there's phileos, which is a much more humble, human, brotherly kind of love.

And this is how the conversation goes in the original text. Jesus asks, "Peter, do you AGAPE me?" And Peter responds, obviously aware of his own failures, "Lord, you know I PHILEOS you." And Jesus says, "Feed my sheep."

Again, Jesus asks, "Peter, do you AGAPE me? And once more, this man whose love had failed to live up to its claims answers, "Lord, you know I PHILEOS you." And Jesus replies, "Tend my lambs."

And just as Peter denied Jesus three times, Jesus asks this question a third time. But now, Jesus changes a word. "Peter, do you PHILEOS me?" And Peter, in tears, answers, "Yes, Lord, I PHILEOS you." And one final time, Jesus says, "Feed my sheep."

This is a beautiful story about forgiveness and redemption. Is there anyone here whose love is always what it should be? Is there anyone here who has not let others down when they really needed you? Is there anyone here whose faith never wavers? Is there anyone here who has not, at various times in your life, simply decided to do things you shouldn't do? Is there anyone here who has never denied Jesus?

How important for us to see that Jesus does not demand God's perfect agape love from Peter. Jesus knows exactly how human he is. So he accepts what Peter can give him - which his best effort at human - PHILEOS - love. And in the process, Jesus sets Peter free from the guilt of his terrible denial. Jesus shows Peter that he doesn't have to be perfect to be loved and used by God.

Theologian L. Gregory Jones believes that forgiveness is an innovative gesture: one that offers us hope that we do not have to be defined by the sins of our past. So Jesus forgives Peter not only to free him from his cowardly denials and make him feel better about himself, but so that Peter will be able to now go and do something!

Garrison Keillor of Lake Wobegon fame writes about Larry Sorenson, a resident of that fictional town. According to Keillor, Larry was saved no less than 12 times at the Lake Wobegon Lutheran Church, an all-time record for a church that never gave altar calls. According to Keillor, between 1953 and 1961, Larry Sorenson came forward no fewer than 12 times, weeping buckets of tears and falling into a crumpled heap at the communion rail, much to the shock of the minister, who usually had just delivered a very dry sermon on stewardship. But now he needed to put his arm around this person, pray with him and be certain he had a way to get home. Keillor writes, "Even we fundamentalists got tired of Larry after a while."

Then he adds with great wisdom, "God didn't mean for you to feel guilty all your life. There comes a time when you should dry your tears and join the building committee and grapple with the problems of the church furnace and the church roof. But Larry just kept repenting and repenting and repenting."

Another way to say it is that Jesus forgives us for the purpose of setting us free to do something spiritually creative with our lives.

Not in yesterday's experience, but in today's reality.

Not in yesterday's failure, but in today's forgiveness and new purpose..

And at the end of the story, Jesus simply says, "Follow me!"

It seems to me that, when we discover Jesus in the present realities of our own lives, and when we experience the wonder of his redeeming love, what he most wants to teach us is not how to preach, or to be theologians, or to get religious.

Rather, I think Jesus wants us to learn how to cook breakfast for others! And to step onto the shores of other peoples' lives and be present with them, and shower them with forgiveness, and feed them with the food of faith.

For there are people you know who are hungry for God to touch the reality of their lives. And there are people you know who yearn for a taste of a love that can accept them as they are, forgive them for what they are not, and lead them to a higher purpose.

Why, Jesus is present in this moment. Jesus is present in forgiveness. And Jesus is present wherever his disciples are cooking breakfast along the shores of peoples' lives!