Sermon for June 29th

God asks you the same question today as he asked Peter so long ago, “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?” For those of you familiar with this gospel story, it is usually mentioned that Jesus asks Peter this question, “Do you love me?” three times in order to negate Peter’s threefold denial of Jesus previous to the crucifixion. Unfortunately, Peter doesn’t seem to get the symbolism, does he. Instead, by the end, he gets offended. Perhaps you feel the same way when God asks you this question, “Do you love me?” You are at church after all. Doesn’t that count for something?

At seminary, I remember taking a class my second semester with a wonderful teacher for whom I have a lot of respect. It was a history class on the Reformation. I loved this class because this professor really knew how to lay out God’s promises in front of me so that I knew God’s forgiveness was for me, a big sinner. The only problem I had was that he kept telling me that God had forgiven my sins. Again and again he would say this. Class after class. Week after week. Now that was fine, I thought, but what was I supposed to do? I mean, now that my sins were forgiven. What was I in charge of? What was my part to play. I had heard all the rest of that before! Yes! I get it! I’m forgiven already! I didn’t need to hear it again and again and again!

Usually, there are two ways that we respond to God, when the forgiveness of sins is announced. We either say, “That’s nice, but no thanks. I don’t need it.” Or we say, “Yes. I know. I’ve already heard that.” When Jesus is presented before us we either decide that we can live without him or else we wonder why he’s back when we already are Christians. When it comes to love, or forgiveness, or faith, we either don’t want it or think we’ve already got enough of it. The apostle Peter gives us an example of both responses in the gospel of John.

Peter is most famous, of course, for his denial of Jesus before the crucifixion. He explains to Jesus how all the rest of the disciples might run away and abandon you, but not I. Not Peter! But Jesus tells him, “Very truly, I tell you, before the cock crows you will deny me three times.” Peter thinks that he is above all of that. Peter thinks that he has got this disciple thing down pat! Peter says that he will lay down his life for Jesus, not the other way around. Peter doesn’t need Jesus to tell him how to be faithful, Peter can do it all on his own . . . that is, until he realizes he can’t, or even more interestingly, he won’t.

Peter did deny Jesus three times, not because he didn’t have the opportunity to confess his faith, but because he chose not to. We never think we need something like the forgiveness of sins until we actually need forgiven. Until we’ve done something so horrible, our egos have to take a nosedive back into reality. We have such high regard for ourselves that we figure we are doing just fine on our own. Forgiveness? Who needs it? Not us! Not yet.

We either think we don’t need it or we think we’ve already got it. The second example Peter provides for our edification is in today’s gospel lesson. “When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” he said to him, “Yes Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him. “Feed my sheep.” By the third time, Peter must have wondered whether Jesus’ eardrums didn’t get resurrected properly or else that, maybe, Jesus just didn’t believe the answer. Peter figured that his first answer was good enough. Making him confess this over and over seemed a little over the top. A bit redundant. A bit rude.

One of my favorite musicals is Fiddler on the Roof. In this musical, there is a wonderful song that I would like to present for you as an illustration of what is going on here with Peter and Jesus. It’s a bit quiet at the beginning, so I’ll let you know the question the man, Tevya keeps asking: he asks his wife, “Do you love me?”





“Do you love me?” “Do I what?” I love that. At first, Golde, Tevya’s wife thinks this whole, “Do you love me?” question is completely pointless doesn’t she. She doesn’t care! She doesn’t need this interruption into her daily life. As I’ve said before, this is the first way we respond to love.

But, in the movie, her husband, Tevya keeps at her. Asking her and asking her. Then, that second response comes barreling down the road, “I do this for you. I do this for you. I do this for you. I do this for you!” In other words, “Haven’t I already told you I love you! Why are asking me again!?” When it comes to love, or forgiveness, or faith, we always seem to think we either don’t need it or that we’ve already got enough of it.

You can see these two responses to love over and over again in our lives. We either think we don’t need it or think we’ve already got it. And we don’t have to look at dead apostles or movie clips to understand what is going on here.

“I can be just as spiritual in my garden.” I worship God when I go hiking.” “I don’t believe in organized religion.” “I don’t go to church, but I’m very spiritual.” These are variations on the theme of, “I don’t need Jesus.” Maybe you respect Jesus, or think church people are nice, or maybe even you’d like to “just be friends” with Jesus, but when it comes down to the nitty gritty, you think you can live without him.

However, for many of us, the problem isn’t that we think we don’t need God. Our problem is that we think God is a little too annoying. A little too insistent. A little too touchy feely when it comes to loving us. He says it a few too many times for our comfort. He’s always asking us, “Do you love me?” Doesn’t he already know?

One of my favorite stories from the Bible is from the book of Exodus, where the Israelites eat manna in the wilderness. God, through Moses, tells his people that they are to gather enough of this bread from heaven to feed themselves for each day. However, if they take more than they need, the leftovers become rotten. In other words, they must rely on God each and every day for their physical needs. They can’t ever have too much of what he has given them.

This story, from Exodus, gives us a good view of how God works in our lives. You can never have enough faith. You can never have enough forgiveness. You can never have enough love from God. As soon as you think you have received all you need, you’ll find that your faith isn’t strong enough, or you do something wrong again, or you feel depressed and in despair. God asks you again and again, day in and day out, “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” “Do you love me?” Why? Well, because he loves you again and again. He loves you day in and day out. He loves you no matter what. Whether you think you need his love or think you already have it, God wants you to confess your faith in him over and over. God never gets tired of telling you that he loves you and he never gets tired of hearing that you love him. So that you never forget that you are his child. So that you never forget that he is your heavenly Father. Even when you sin. Even when you deny him. Even when you come to church.

God asks you this question, “Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? Follow me for I love you. I love you. I love you. ” Amen.