"Reinstatement"

John 21:1-19

So baseball season has begun, albeit a few weeks later than usual, due to a labor dispute with the owners. If you have ever been in my office, you know I am a baseball fan and a fan of the Oakland A's. If you happen to follow baseball, you likely know that the A's decided to have a fire sale, getting rid of all of their talent and starting over again. I watched the A's Giants game last week on television, and Oakland is actually fielding at least one player who has yet to get a hit this season. He is batting zero, and many of the others aren't much better. I feel like I should call them the AAAs (since they are more like a minor league team in Triple-A baseball than a major league team.) The storyline for Oakland this season is, for the most part, about wondering how many games they will lose.

I found a baseball story from a few years ago that fits today's scripture passage pretty well. It just so happens that this baseball story is about a guy named Pete, which connects to today's story about a disciple named Peter.

December 15, 2015, was the day things were decided for one of the greatest players ever in Major League baseball. After 26 years of waiting for baseball to change its mind, Pete Rose, the all-time career leader with 4,256 base hits in his career, found out his fate. He became dead to the game of baseball. You might still see him on TV as baseball analyst or hawking memorabilia at a Las Vegas casino and showing up on Main Street in Cooperstown, N.Y., selling autographs in July during the Hall of Fame weekend.

Yet he'll never be employed by a major league or minor league organization again. Nor will he ever be enshrined in the baseball hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, despite having more hits than anyone in the game's history. Why? Because he bet on baseball, both while he was playing and when he was a manager. He can walk into Baseball's Hall of Fame Museum as long as he lives, and, although Pete can see his memorabilia- the bat that hit his 4000th base hit as well as the ball, etc., he'll never see a plaque on the wall honoring him as one of the greatest ever to play the game. He will never be reinstated to the game of baseball.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred made it clear to Rose that his status will never change as long as Rose is alive. "Really, there is no other decision," No one has more career hits than Pete Rose. It doesn't matter. He will never be reinstated because he bet on baseball, which is an unforgivable sin in the eyes of the major leagues.

However, another Peter was reinstated, despite failing his team and his coach miserably - Peter, the disciple of Jesus. Today's passage ends with this somewhat awkward exchange between the Risen Lord and Peter, which eventually leads to him being reinstated as a full-fledged disciple and the rock upon who Jesus built his church. But we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves here. Before the beautiful reinstatement of Peter by Jesus, we find the disciples, surprisingly, going back to their old lives.

According to John's gospel, it is surprising because the disciples have seen the Risen Christ TWICE. Not only that, but Jesus said to them in John 20:21, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Then Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit upon them and told them to go out and spread the good news. So, they were on fire, excited, and went out to spread the good news of Christ's resurrection and change the world, right?

Apparently not. For reasons not explained in John's gospel, seven of the original disciples went back to doing what they did before they ever met Jesus: they were fishing at night on the sea of Galilee (also known as the Sea of Tiberias). Why did they revert to being fishermen? Perhaps they weren't sure exactly what Jesus meant when he said he sent them. Maybe the Holy Spirit had not yet inspired them to their mission. Perhaps they were afraid to venture out and share their Risen Lord's message to a hostile world. We don't know why, but they returned to what they knew. However, their night of fishing did not go so well - They got "skunked" - caught absolutely nothing. I remember salmon fishing with my wife and son, Sam, a few years ago while we lived in Fort Bragg. We were on a salmon fishing boat for a good 4 hours, and none of us even got a nibble. Sam ALMOST caught a salmon right as we were about to give up, but it wriggled off the line just at the last moment. Getting skunked is not a good feeling, especially if you fish for your livelihood as the disciples did.

On their way to shore, a stranger called out to them in a term of endearment, "Children, have you nothing to eat?" "No," they said, probably a bit gruffly. Perhaps their fishing technique had gotten rusty. The stranger suggested they try casting their net on the right side of the boat, which they did, and the results were miraculous. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved who some believe was the same John who wrote the gospel of John, knew it was Jesus and told Peter, “It is the Lord!"

In typical Peter fashion, he dressed quickly and jumped enthusiastically into the water, not waiting for the boat to take him to shore, swimming to be with his Rabbonai once again. The rest of the disciples followed in the boat with their massive catch of 153 fish in tow.

What came next was the first Easter breakfast - not hot cross buns, scrambled eggs, and a slice of ham. They ate bread and barbecued fish on the beach with their Rabbi, the Risen Messiah. Interestingly, this story was significant to early Christians. In early traditions of the Eucharist, or what we today call communion, rather than bread and wine, Christians often shared bread and fish and called these meals agape feasts. These meals commemorated today's story and the feeding of thousands on the hillside.

There are two things from this section to ponder. First, we hear that there were precisely 153 fish, claiming that gospel writer John was an eyewitness to the event. The number could be significant to the early church, but we have no solid clues. Also noteworthy was the fact that Jesus made and then ate fish with the others. He wasn't some wispy spirit. He was Jesus in the flesh, raised in body and in Spirit, who ate solid food like the rest of them.

Then comes the climactic scene when Jesus reinstates Peter. As it says in Psalm 139:23, "Search me, O God and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts." Jesus did precisely that. He searched Peter's heart and tested his loyalty.

Jesus asked a variation of the same question three times to reinstate Peter from his three denials. The first time Jesus asked, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?" It was a comparative question. Most scholars conclude that the "these" are the other disciples rather than the fishing gear. So in effect, Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me more than these other disciples do?" or "Do you love me more than you love these disciples? The word Jesus uses for love is "Agape"- Unfailing, never-ending, unconditional love. Peter could not answer that he loved Jesus in that way because he had recently denied he even knew him three times, obviously worried about his own safety as he warmed his hands around a fire in the high priest's courtyard.

And so he Responded- "I fileo you" (I love you like a brother). This response left room for the kind of well-intentioned love that makes bold claims one moment and fails bitterly the next. Jesus responded, "Feed my lambs."

So a second time, Jesus asked, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you agape me?" Again, remembering how he denied Jesus, Peter could only respond, "Yes Lord, I fileo you." Jesus' words cut to the very core of Peter. Surely, he was beginning to understand that Jesus was dealing specifically with his three-fold denial, and it hurt. As it says in Hebrews 4:12, "The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit…." Here the living Word of God was piercing Peter's soul. Again, Jesus responded, "Shepherd my sheep!"

And so, a third time, Jesus asked him the same question but changed the word for love from Agape to fileo. Perhaps he knew Peter fully understood his love was not as it needed to be, at least not yet. "Simon, son of John, do you fileo me?" By this time, Peter's soul was troubled and grieved. He answered, "Lord, you know everything. You know that I fileo you." Again Jesus responded, "Feed my sheep." Jesus, in effect, reinstated Peter.

One thing to consider from this exchange: What is the one question Jesus might ask us repeatedly over breakfast? What question might cut to our very core like a sharp-edged sword? Do you agape me? Do you fileo me? "Have you fed my lambs, the hungry, the poor?" "Are you taking the needed steps to grow in my likeness, to fulfill my mission?"

Time of silence, imagining Jesus before you.

What does he ask you? Jesus can still ask us questions today just as he did Peter, reinstate us, help us follow, and heal us from love that fails. How will you answer him today?

The second thing to consider is this: Major league baseball's love for Pete Rose was conditional. On the condition of his cheating, he will never be reinstated, ever. Baseball fileo loved Pete Rose. It did not Agape love him. Jesus, however, agape loved the disciple, Peter, as a reflection of God's never-ending, unconditional love.

That same God agape loves us, and through that love and grace, reinstates us again and again, each time we recognize our failures, those times when we too have denied we ever knew him. As followers of the God of unconditional love, we are called to extend that love to others- our friends, neighbors, and family. Who needs to be reinstated in your life?

So give thanks that God agapes us and reinstates us when we ask, restoring us to be his disciples, imperfect though we are, just as Peter was. Give thanks that the Spirit of the living Christ still asks, challenges, pokes, and prods us to grow in discipleship. And go from this place today, feeding people, loving Jesus, and reinstating those you love. Alleluia! Amen.