FALLING IN LOVE WITH JESUS

April 20, 1986, 11:00 a.m. Worship Service
John M. Buchanan
Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

"We said to him...'Do you love me?' Peter...said, ‘Lord, you know
everything; you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my
sheep.'" --John 21:17 (RSV)

Scripture
_dohn 21:1-17

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people in history, he has laid a claim on‘us. “It may have been an ven ie 4 ©
individual emotional upheaval, and it may have been an intellectual itch we...
tried to scratch for two decades. It may have been a. fire in our viscera” - --
~ about human-rights .and:the dignity of all human beings, and it-may have == e4
been a sense of -inadequacy:or guilt or disgust at personal. weakness. that .

_ resisted resolution, or it may have been.a profound desire to affirm the.:
beauty of the world and the goodness of life and the love deep within us.

Somehow, he was and is in the middle of it. Somehow he is getting to us.

_. It comes down to. the man, doesn't it? At some point, out of ‘all the."¢2-

‘The religious book which garnered most of the attention-this«season:,. 2.
was Jesus Through the Genturies, His Place in the History of Culture, by ,
Jaroslav Pelikan, a Theologian at Yale. It isa strenuous book which |
traces the enormous impact Jesus of Nazareth has had on culture. Even when
the institutions of religion seem to sag, the man continues to compel.
Pelikan begins his work with this provocative thought: = = om

“If it were possible, with some sort of super-magnet, to pull up out
of history every scrap of metal bearing at least a trace of his name, how
much would be left? It is from his birth that most of the human race dates
its calendars, it is by his name that mitlions curse and in his name that
millions pray." [p.1]

It all comes down to this man, doesn't it?

Across the centuries people have been fascinated, almost compelled,
sometimes obsessed with him - believers and unbetievers. Art, literature,
music have celebrated him. He has been a friend of counter culture: has
offered a “hand to put your hand into"...has been a Superstar on Broadway,
a Bridge over troubled waters, and has continued to speak to high culture
in Magnificat, Passion, Mass and Messiah. He has gathered up aspirations,
expressed deep love, and been the rallying point for the anger of
communities as diverse as the human race. He is at the center of

liberation movements from solidarity in Poland to Bishop Tutu's Council of
Churches in South Africa. He was in Chinese House Churches for several
decades and he is at the center of base communities in Central America
today. He has comforted the pious and somehow managed to speak to the
irreverent as well.

There are choices to be made about how best to express it: from J.
S. Bach to the simplest Sunday School song; from the elegance of the
Cathedral on Sunday, to taking the Sacrament to the patients in the
geriatric wing; from the breathtaking selflessness of Mother Teresa, to the
decision not to cheat on a final exam. But at the center is the man. And
those of us who prefer our Gospel in complex sentences, encased in words
like “empirical" and “existential" need the occasional reminder.

I was reminded of that at’a seminar on-the relationship of the Gospel
to the life of the nation. I found myself deeply troubled by the .
complexity of our economic situation, pulted’- as we'all are - between
concern for the poor and the need for a viable and responsible national
economy. The topic invites passion and the Teadership of the workshop was
understandably partisan and sometimes angry. It was not easy going for
-anyone and it certainly wasn't pietistic in the.usual sense of that word.

The name “Jesus. Christ" was invoked a lot_and not always in prayer. “-On the _

last evening the leadership team assembled as a panel to discuss the matter-
of how individuals who care about justice and rights and also about an
‘effective and and productive economy in this complex énvironment -find that
their:.own souls are fed. I was startled to hear one of the leaders - a
strong, creative woman from New York City, deeply committed te social —
_justice and social change - answer “I am fed by my ‘personal relationship
with Jesus Christ." It was a magnificent reminder that. regardless’ of where
we are ecclesiastically: - High Church Anglican to Free Will Baptist and.

_ all points between;’- or politically -‘Ttiberal to conservative; regardless
of anything else, at“the center is the man, and our coming to terms with
him. ; 7 7 -

. I found another reminder ina Seminary Commericement ‘Address Chicago
' Theologian Joseph Sittler. delivered - under the title: The Haunting Altur

- of Jesus. Now Joe Sittler is°a wonderful human being anda great™ oe

Theologian and his language.skills are legendary. I read whatever he

- writes. So I read eagerly. what Sittler had to say. to new seminary ©. °
yraduates... Hé posed the question of how Christianity gets transmitted from
_one person to another one generation to the next. Listen to how he-put it”
“. “As I tried to discern the tangled history of my own coming to.Christian
' faith...My whole Tife has been haunted-by the reality of Jesus...I find
that, despite.all the scholarship which has taken place between my seminary
days and this moment, there is no abatement in the power of this haunting

allure of: the figure of Jesus." [Trinity-Review, Fail 1982, p- 34].

Sittler told how he had been on a program with Krister Stendahl, one
of the leading New Testament scholars in the world, now a Scandanavian
Bishop, and how a layman from Iowa had gotten up during the question and -
answer period and asked‘very simply, “Professor Stendahl, how did you get
‘hooked’ on this stuff2"" Sittler said: “Now we all leaned back and
expected from Stendal a fairly long-haired description of the historical,
conceptual, philosophical path by which many of us came, and it was’ a great

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moment when Stendahl said, 'My family and I were not church people at all

and the only way I could rebel against the mores of my family was to go to
church! And when I got to church, within six months, I fell in love with

Jesus.'" [p.p. 33, 34]

Even those intellectuals who perceive and discern and comprehend so
much more than the rest of us begin here, with the elemental simplicity of
the man. Or perhaps it is because they discern so much that they can see
the centrality of Jesus, the man from Nazareth... "I fell in love with
Jesus."

The question is posed first by Jesus himself. “Do you love me
Peter?" It is found in the Gospel lesson for the day.

On the night Jesus was arrested and subjected to the humiliation of a
phony religious trial before Caiaphas, Peter had followed at a safe
distance into the courtyard of the high priest's residence. It was there,
warming himself at the fire, that Peter had been challenged. "You are one
of them!" a young woman had said. And Peter, startled, friehtened, had
denied it. Three times it happened that night and each time Peter denied
knowing Jesus, punctuating his third denial with an obscenity. It is one
of the more poignantly human stories in the Gospel narrative, and:it.... .
concludes powerfully with the cock- crowing and’ Jesus' eyes meeting Peter's.
and Peter weeping bitterly, devastated by his own humanness.

. What occurred next, for Peter, is unclear. Jesus was crucified on a
Friday.. If the disciples were around, most of them at least, kept a.)
discreet distance. On the first day of the week, Peter was one of: the:
first to discover the empty tomb. And then there occurred a series of.
mysterious resurrection appearances. Some time later Peter and the others ©
are fishing in the early morning when the risen Christ appears on. the
shore. They eat breakfast together and the stage is set.for the conclusion
of the matter of Peter's denial.

As Peter denied knowing Jesus three times, now Jesus asks him three

_ times, “Simon Peter, do you love me? And as he denied Jesus three times

now Peter professes his love, with thé same increasing intensity. And
three times Jesus adds the admonition: “Feed my lJambs...tend my.
- sheep...feed my sheep..." a

There are at least two dynamics happening in this intense
interchange. The first has to do with the power of Jesus’ love for Peter.
The second is about the demand, the response. Surely, after the
crucifixion, following his own terrible cowardice, Peter was virtually a
prisoner of his own guilt. We know a little bit about our vulnerability
and culpability here. We know what it means to set high goals and espouse
noble ideals, to plan to be brave and courageous and strong, and then head
for cover as soon as the going gets tough. We know what it feels like to
fail to live up to our own expectations of ourselves and the guilt which
results. We can, that is to say, sense more than a little of the sel f-
inflicted remorse Peter was experiencing after the crucifixion.

"Do you love me, Peter?” What was he supposed to say to that? The
truth of the matter was that he had not behaved in a way which expressed

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love for anyone or anything but his own life. Yet, he did love Jesus. How
very human this internal polarity is. He knew what he had done and he knew
the intensity of his own soul. He loved Jesus as he had never loved
anything before. And so the first dynamic here has to do with Peter, even
in the midst of the pain and guilt and remorse of the moment, hearing and
experiencing the steady love of Jesus for him. Jesus somehow could love
people who don't appear to have done much to deserve that love. Jesus
somehow. could discern that which is lovable in even the most unlovable
characters. Because Jesus stayed with him, even as he was backing down;

- because Jesus was faithful, even when he wasn't, Peter could begin to see
something of value in himself, could - in the words of one commentator -.
"love what Jesus loved in him." ~ ot

That's the first ‘dynamic. And when it- happens - when in the midst of
our Sense of our humanity at.its most human ~ our failures, foibles, our
self serving posturing, we. know ourselves loved by:another, it is like the -
‘salvation the prophét compared to the gentle, refreshing rain of God
- pouring out of the heavens. ‘It's no wonder Peter was in. ldve with Jesus. .. ©
- -- The second dynamic.also is: about-.falling ‘th love. It, too; is __

. compelling; but in a very different’ way... What. Jesus.,was asking of Peter

now was strength, ‘courage, loyalty. _Jesus!.-love. was:not an abstraction. . -
His love - and this isso difficult for-us- ‘to undefstand. - was not an
emotion. It was a lifestyle of hetping,. serving, healing, feeding, - .
liberating. The dialogue between Peter. and Jesus does not -conciudée with a
mushy verbal ‘affirmation .of..affectionate. love, but with the behavioral-.
admonition, “Feed my sheep." Which is to say that the way-one goes about |
‘loving Jesus is by helping with the sheep. be oo

‘Hans Kung somewhere’ quips that ‘the list of -great people who love:

. désus but want nothing ‘to do with the church woutd.be Jong-and = = 7 8
-. distinguished indeed. And everyone-on it has°missed the-point.” You can't ~~

love- Jesus without feeding the sheep, arid that gets you mixed up with other -

fotk and before .you. know it you're in churche-- 0° 2.

_ *_- Now no one possessed of common sense,-or even-a bit of sanity, is —
going to defénd the perfection or purity of. thé .church. “In. fact, on the”
topic of the church I've always thought the statemént was adequate, albeit
a little earthly,. that = like the ark. - -the conditions inside aré =

intolérable ‘until you consider what's going. on outside.. ... "s

Everyone -possessed of an ounce of thoughtfuliess.knows the frailities
and human failings of the church. Reflective church people - al} - havea ~
lovers: quarrel with their own church..- In-an excellent new book, William
Willimon, at Duke University,. rehearses al] the judgments peoplé make about
the church, along the. way quoting the romantic poet Southey to the effect
that "I.could believe in. Christ if he did-not drag behind him his leprous |
bride, the Church." Ep. .3]. But then Willimon comes. to an insight: which I-
believe is the nub of the matter. .Theologically, we have always been —
troubled by the incarnation - ‘the worldliness of God's Tove revealed in the
life of a man like us. It is a "scandal of particularity" compared, say,

_to the safe and otherworldly abstractions. of Greek religion. So, Willimon
says, with the church. . It is .“scandalously visibte." It is full of
people. Worse yet, it is. full of people we might not necessarily chose to

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like. In C. S. Lewis' Screwtape Letters, Satan counsets his lieutenant on
the matter of fighting for the soul of a new Christian. “You want to lean
pretty heavily on those neighbors," he says. "Make his mind flit to and
fro between an expression like ‘The Body of Christ’ and the actual faces in
the next pew."

You can't love Jesus without loving the sheep. Even as Jesus was
pulling it out of him I believe Peter was recalling all those instances
when love became visible, tangible, physical: -when Jesus, moved by
compassion had healed his own mother-in-law; when he gently touched little
children; and ate with unclean street people; and in hot anger overturned
tables and drove moneychangers from the temple; and when in awful majesty -
at the end knelt in front of each of them and washed their feet.

I see in Peter my own attraction to the power of that kindof love.
The allure has always been. a love which has integrity and authenticity and
strength about it. But there is a sense in which that strength also
repels. . ct,

After all, falling in love is very risky.business. To.be in love’.
with one person is to love humanity more: it is to experience more, sense
- more, care more and hurt more. If you do not wait that, if you do not want
your life changed, to love and feel and live more, it is better not to get -
close to Jesus. . Se Poe
He defines our humanity better than anybody else. Better than anyone ©
he shows us what human life can be and therefore what our own potential is.

The allure of Jesus is that ‘to think’ about it much is ‘to know that
his life is how God planned human life to-be lived. Is there really any
question any longer that he is the only person in history -who understands -
‘how to live in peace? Is: there any real question -that until we learn. of

“him to Tive together as brothers and‘sisters’.across all the lines: of —
nation, class, race, and religion - there will be no peace? is there any
question but that-he weeps again - over Jerusalem - and Tripoii and . .

Washington and that hé would have his followers at least be able to da-
that? Is there any question about his position when our frustration. and
rage at terrorism erupt in new terrorism? ‘Is there any question about . ,

where he would be in our world and where his strong love would take him and --

‘ how he would respond to the irony of a culture in’which we who-aré 2

“comfortable are enjoying tax cuts and the enorjious generosity of thé
market, and those who have nothing experiénce reductions in public
assistance for food, shelter, health care; education? Can we; without a
very creative denial, stay close to him as money is literally. taken away

. from the poor to purchase a new generation of nuclear technology?

. The dangerous allure of Jesus is that he said the truth.and had the
courage to tell the truth and live the, truth. And in so doing he got
himself crucified but also became a model of human life lived so fully that
anyone who takes the time to learn about it and think about it will be
forever haunted by it. .

He was, Hans Kung wrote, the “true revolutionary." “What could be

more. revolutionary," the great theologian asks, than “love of enemies
instead of destruction: unconditional forgiveness instead of retaliation;

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