Sermon at First Presbyterian
Church Lockhart
by James Greene
In this Third of Easter we continue to contemplate and to celebrate that Christ has risen from the dead. He continues to show us The Way to the Father, through Him.
It
is Christ who is The Way, and The One we
must follow. He is the one who calls to us across the
ages and across time to follow
Him.
I remember when I was a kid and we lived on the Air
Force Base, they use to have a
small yellow truck with two orange and white checkered flags. It
had a large sign on the back that said “Follow Me”. It was used at the end of the runway to lead the airplanes to the hanger or to
the place where the plane was to be parked. It was a system that brought order to the flight line with so many different types of air
craft that did different jobs.
I
also remember making
a small plaque of
plywood in
It
was all about trust.
The planes had to trust the little truck.
It
was all about purpose.
It was about bringing
order out of chaos.
It
was all about a Call.
It was a seed, - planted when I was young, -and only
learned the real message of The Call through the years.
In the reading
from Acts we see Saul’s conversion experience on the road to
Saul is shown and realizes that he has been persecuting Jesus, the Messiah, and the followers of Jesus’ teachings. God has changed his focus and direction. He is called to use all of his education to explain and to teach not only the Gentiles, but also the Jews about the message of the Good News of the coming of the Christ. He has heard the call to follow Christ.
In
the reading from Psalm 30, is David’s dedication
of the palace. It also illuminates
for us how we must be willing
to exalt and to call upon God for our salvation, because
of that “willingness”, -- it
gives us another view of God’s healing
and salvation through His Grace.
Through
the light of the New Testament,
we see the outline of the Resurrection
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and a view
of what it will be like with the Second
Coming and the bringing in of the
Isn’t this the way it will be in The Kingdom? Our weeping and loss will only last the night, but we will rejoice in the morning with The Resurrection. The sackcloth will be removed, and we will be clothed with joy. It is in, and because of God’s salvation that we will sing, and give thanks -- forever. What could be more descriptive of The Resurrection and the joy of the resurrection, than this text that outlines and describes the healing and restoring work of God? Isn’t this what the Great Harvest is all about? Isn’t this the final goal of Christ’s call in our lives to Follow Me?
In the brief reading from Revelation, we see all of the legions
of angels singing of The Lamb who is worthy, and we see all of creation singing the praise of The
Lamb.
It is a picture of the bringing in
of God’s Kingdom. It is a picture of all, - angels,
all creatures (in heaven,
and on earth), all the elders, and
the four creatures that guard the throne of God.
They are singing to The Lamb, The
Christ, who at the end of
time has redeemed all of creation.
In the reading from John we see the seven of the disciples,
after the resurrection, after
a fruitless night of fishing on the
If they had bumper stickers (back then) they would have had one that said: “When the going gets tough, The Tough go fishing.”
In
the daily do’s and
don’ts - wills and won’ts
– in the business that fills our days we push back the sorrows, the realities, the
unknowns that give
us no answers and
fill it with the routine of the familiar. They were in that period where they were to wait
for the time when the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon all people. They were working
while they were
waiting. They were processing while
they were doing the routine of something
familiar. How many times do we go work on a hobby
when we are processing the information on a major event or decision we have to make.
This is what they were doing.
I
had an operator who was in the midst of a personal
crisis. I asked them to
work on equipment that was routine, and
simple. It wasn’t the
technical machine that
they normally worked on, because I did not want them
to scrap material, and in their condition
they were not focused.
The reason was to keep them out of
harms way, and keep
them busy with work.
Jesus is
training Peter and the disciples to be shepherds
of the people. They are to be the example to the people, just as Jesus is the example to them. He is feeding
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them when they are tired, and after a long
night of fishing. He is their servant leader. In his conversation
of questions with Peter, he is asking
Peter if he “loves him” unconditionally “Agape”. Peter’s answers are – as a friend “Filio”.
Finally he asks Peter if he loves him
“as a friend”. He is letting Peter know that he is
restored to fellowship with Jesus even with his denial that he ever knew
him. He is
demonstrating God’s
Grace to Peter.
What does Christ’s call of Follow Me mean to us
today?
In the rush
and noise of life, we loose touch with God,
and get separated from Him in the pressure of everyday living. It
has been said, that an active life is better than a contemplative
life. It is during our times of
being active, that we are processing things. Sometimes, it is our best
mentally productive state when we are
busy doing manual work.
(Busy hands are happy hands)
But in today’s world and work place, there doesn’t seem to be
any time to pause and reflect while we work. We
are forced into a compressed work week, with 12 hour shifts and no more holidays.
It is an unending
tread mill of eat, sleep and work.
It drains our energy and kills our creativity. There
is no room
for God’s Spirit or for God. It is a time like that of the Dark Ages, where there is no Quality in the work
we see today. Machines are more
important than the people who run them, and we spend a lot of our time at work fighting off fatigue.
As the people of God, our work is consecrated to God. We are a priesthood of believers, and our
preaching is in the workplace,
the market place, and in the
business of our duties. We forget that the best sermons don’t require words. We are to be the examples that Christ has showed us
where ever we are in this
world. It is in our actions that we
follow Christ. We are
(like Christ) to lead by
example.
The Protestant Work Ethic changed
the Middle Ages, because with
the Reformation the whole world became
God’s
Out of the abundance that
God has provided
for us, we as followers of Jesus are called to
share what we have been provide. Just as Jesus asked Peter, to bring some of the
catch, to feed the crew of
the Disciples, we are to share our time and our
caring for those in the fellowship, as well as in the
community, in which we live and work.
The call to Peter – to
“Follow Me” – is the call to us to Follow Christ. It
is a call to restoration of
our relationship with God, and the restoration of the Kingdom,- here,
in
the midst of
our daily work and preaching
that is done …
In the Name of … the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen
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