LIFE INTERRUPTED
April 22, 2007
Al Hocutt
We are two Sundays past Easter
and the world does not look the same. We have gone from rejoicing and
“Hallelujahs” to asking questions of how something so horrible could
happen. We might even be pushed to ask where is God in the midst of this
tragedy, where is the grace of Christ, where do we find hope in the
resurrection? Our spirits and minds are numb and our hearts ache over the
loss. We ask the simple question of “Why?”
I will confess to all
of you that my attention has been pulled in many directions this past
week. First there were the winds that brought down trees and caused power
outages. Then my sister fell and broke two bones in her lower leg, she had
to have surgery on Wednesday. I also received a call of a death from a
former church and was asked to do the service this past Saturday. But the
one thing that has laid heavy on my heart are the deaths on the Virginia
Tech campus. We have church members here this morning with family members
who attend V.T. We grieve as the nation grieves this loss. Since Monday
we have had three other incidents of guns on a high school campus in North
Carolina, bomb threats in Minnesota and other places around the United
States.
John’s gospel comes to us in the
midst of all these tragedies. The disciples had returned to their everyday
lives. They went fishing. It had only been a few days that had passed, and
it would seem that the resurrection of Jesus had already lost its awe and
excitement. The greatest event in the history of the world, the death and
resurrection of Jesus, had interrupted the normal lives of the people of
the world. This one event that continues to mold, shape, and changes the
lives of people all over the world seems to have been cast aside like the
nets of the disciples. But in the midst of their everyday lives Jesus
again appears to them. In the mundane event of a breakfast cooked on an
open fire the disciples gathered in fear because they knew it was the
Lord. Jesus again fulfilled their needs. As they had caught no fish, Jesus
instructed them to cast their nets on the right side, and they caught 153
to be exact-so many that the nets almost broke from the strain. They were
fed with bread and fish, to fill their physical bodies, and the
conversation between Jesus and Peter to fill their spiritual bodies.
The busyness of the day had
consumed the disciples. Their only concern was how many or how few fish
they would catch in their nets. They were not expecting to encounter the
risen Lord that day. In this encounter they were not expecting the lesson
of love and the cost of discipleship that would be shared with them. Let’s
look at this wonderful passage because we too are not expecting to
encounter the risen Lord.
Most of us have compassion for
Peter as Jesus asks him three times, “Do you love me more than these?” We
see Peter almost speechless and we are very thankful Jesus does not
confront us in the same manner. After each question and answer session
there is a command to either feed or tend his sheep or lambs. Jesus begins
with the image of a lamb to be fed. All people are lambs in the beginning.
We are helpless, in need of someone else to protect and care for us,
someone to allow us to grow from an infant spiritually to a mature adult
in the faith. Once we have become an adult in the faith we still need to
be tended to and grow spiritually stronger in our faith. And as an adult
we should never become satisfied or complacent in our faith, we still have
to be fed to bear fruit in our Christian walk.
Jesus’ final words are “Follow
me.” In the Book of Acts is the story of the conversion of Paul. Paul
hated Christians and enjoyed the pleasure of wiping Christians from the
face of the earth. Jesus interrupted his life and blinded him to his past
life. Ananias, at the calling of the Lord, went to Paul and opened his
eyes to the true life he was to live. Paul’s life would be filled with
beatings, shipwrecks, prison, stoning, and even death to live the gospel
of the resurrected Jesus. The world was changed when God came to this
earth, gave his life, rose from the dead, and interrupted the lives of
others so the gospel would continue to be proclaimed.
The world sometimes seems
unworthy to be redeemed, especially after the events of this week. The
human mind and the evil that dwells within is a mystery to all of us. We
ask how someone could be so evil to commit such a heinous crime. Do we
allow these types of event to destroy our faith in a God that offers only
love? We can become angry at the young man who shattered our sense of
security, or blame his parents, or the system, or the school, but that
will not heal our wounds. Jesus asked Peter “Do you love me more than
these?” and that question rings in our ears this morning. Do we continue
to love and follow Jesus in the difficult times of our lives? When our
lives are interrupted from mundane everyday events and we have to search
our hearts to forgive even those who try and destroy our faith in Jesus,
as well as each other, do we respond by feeding Jesus’ sheep? Do we reach
out and tend to each others’ needs?
The world in which we live is
filled with war, hate, crime, violence, destruction, and the list could go
on and on. The world is also filled with peace, justice, hope, kindness,
joy, love, and the very living presence of Jesus raised from the dead.
Which world will we follow? With which world will we chose to glorify God?
We can give in to the negative and harden our hearts to each other, or we
can be guided by the words of Christ “Follow me” knowing that it will be
difficult. Ananias did not want to go to Paul because of the death and
destruction that he had caused. The life of Jesus interrupted the lives of
Paul and Ananias and brought together two lives that were drastically far
apart. The life of Jesus interrupted the lives of the disciples to let
them know that their everyday lives could never be the same anymore. On
Monday morning our lives were interrupted with death and violence. Jesus
would have us remember “Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the
world.” Will we follow Jesus and love and forgive? Will we pray for those
who lost their lives, those injured, the families and friends, and even
the one who held the guns? The resurrection of Jesus has prepared us to
look to the day that Jesus shall come in glory and all will fall down at
his feet and there will be a final “Amen!” and perfect peace will come to
the new heaven and the new earth.
Our lives are filled with
interruptions every day. How we handle those interruptions demonstrates
our faith and Christian walk with Christ. As we follow Jesus, may we be
brought together as a closer family of faith, a connection that will not
be broken because of the world’s interruptions.
In the name of the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Amen
