Reflections on “Who Are You?” John 21: 1-14; Acts 9: 1-6

This sermon was recorded today, although it will not be seen by the congregation until this coming Sunday.  it was a full sermon, probably could have been two sermons.  I love both of the stories and had fun preaching the sermon.  I happened to be reading William Willimon's book Accidental Preacher, so he made a big impact on this sermon!

“Who Are You?”  April 26, 2020; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton; John 21: 1-14;   Acts 9: 1-6

(John 21:1-14) After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off. When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.  (NRSV)

Introduction:  Between Easter and Pentecost, we are not only making wind chimes, but we are also asking questions of the resurrected Christ.  Last week, we asked, “how will we recognize you?”

This week we ask, “Who are you?”

Move 1:  To be clear, the disciples on the beach that morning did not ask Jesus “Who are you?”

a.  Don't you find it rather odd that the story includes a  question the disciples did not ask?

1. It seems to me that it would have been much more powerful to boldly affirm, “We know you are the resurrected Christ!”

2.  Or at least, “Hey, Jesus, we know who you are.”

3. Instead, they would not ask, “who are you?”

b.  This unasked question reveals how the disciples and the early church straddle the issue of what it meant for Jesus to be raised from the dead.

  1. No easy task understanding what a resurrection is.

2. That’s probably why the story included the charcoal fire and the passing of bread and fish to be eaten.

3. Evidence for those who read the story later that Jesus' body was actually resurrected.

4.  “See, he even eats just like we do!”

5.  and yet, there are also stories of the resurrected Christ passing through doors and disciples not recognizing him.

6.  the disciples, the early church, we still struggle to know what exactly what resurrection means.

c. Or maybe it's not about what shape or form the resurrected body of Christ is when he appears.  Maybe the disciples do not ask the question because they are not sure they want the answer.

1.  When my oldest daughter was about 2 yrs. Old, her favorite game for a time was chase.  The house had a circular flow, which made it great to run around, or turn back, or even slip into one of the bathrooms that was off of the main rooms.. She would chase me around the house.  I would run around the corner, backtrack, and sneak up behind her, or run where she could not find me. 

 WE had wooden floors in the main room and linoleum tile in the kitchen, so i could hear her run.  It was fascinating to listen to the pattern of her feet pattering across the floor.  If she was sure she would find me, she would pound her little feet with authority, never slowing down.  If she were not sure where I was or what might be around the corner, there would be the staccato sound of her feet, hesitating and unsure as she turned the corner into the next room.

2. the disciples are taking staccato steps, tentatively engaging Christ and wondering what their next step might be now that Christ has been resurrected.

3. To follow Jesus when he is right there in front of them doing miraculous things and healing and teaching makes sense.  A high demand, yes. But it seems reasonable.

4. But what lies ahead for them now that Christ is resurrected.

4. The game has changed.

5. If they do not ask, maybe they can avoid having to figure out what the answer means.

6. i heard a story recently about a man who saw Jesus.  the man was coming home late from work and Jesus appeared to him on his back porch.  there was Jesus, looking for him, as if Jesus needed him to do something.

And the man never told anyone, not even his wife.   Why?  Because he decided that if it was really Jesus, and if he told anyone, they would expect him to act like he’d seen Jesus (Accidental Preacher, Will Willimon, 97)

6. Do not ask the resurrected Christ, “who are you?” unless you are ready for the answer.

Move 2:  Saul on the other hand, cries out the question:  “Who are you?”

a.  Saul, the Pharisee who wants to persecute those who follow the resurrected Christ, finds himself blinded on his knees on the road to Damascus.

1. Saul is not a follower of Christ who is struggling to figure out what the resurrection means.

2. he is a Jewish leader pursuing Christians to persecute them.

3. he runs into the resurrected Christ who is pursuing Saul.

4. Will Willimon describes this scene as the Mugging of Church Enemy Number One.” Accidental Preacher, Will Willimon, 2)

5.  A voice from the heavens asks, “Why do you persecute me.”

2.  to which Saul boldly responds with the question, “Who are you?”

7.  Perhaps Jesus should have replied, “I am the one who mugged you.  I am the one who knocked you down.  i am the one who blinded you.  I am the one who is calling you to change your life. I am the one entrusting you with the work of my church.”

b.  Instead, a simple answer:  “I am Jesus,”

1. With that answer comes the truth Saul cannot squelch; the truth Saul cannot beat out of the followers of Christ;  the truth Saul can no longer deny - Christ is resurrected.

2.  And the resurrected Christ has things to get done in the world.

3. The resurrected Christ is calling Saul to join with him in that work.

4. Saul will change his life, his name (he becomes as we know Paul), and his career trajectory. Instead of persecuting Christians for their crazy stories about resurrection, he becomes a leader of those who give their lives over to the resurrected one.

5.  If you ask the resurrected Christ, “who are you?”  you better be ready for a life-changing answer.

Move 3: Back to the beach – maybe the disciples do not ask Jesus who he is because they are afraid that he might ask them:  “Who are you?  are you people of the resurrection?”

a.  Are the disciples on the beach ready for the transition from their pre-resurrection belief in Jesus to a post-resurrection transformation by the power of God to resurrect?

1.   there are signs along the way, of course, to help them make that commitment.

2.  Remember how the story from the beach plays out.

The disciples are going fishing, back to their pre-Jesus ways of doing things; back to their pre-resurrection ways of living their lives.  

They have caught no fish.  Maybe just a bad night on the water. 

Some guy on the beach they do not recognize tells them to cast their nets again.  And they do.  I suspect some part of them must have known who the guy on the beach was.  Why else would they cut their nets again.

They do. their net overflows.

Now peter knows for sure who the guy on the beach is.  Who else could fill their empty nets to overflowing?

4. Their nets are overflowing with not just a lot of fish.

 But 153.  Sort of odd that we are told exactly how many fish were in the nets.  Not 154; not 152; 153 large fish exactly.

How many people who fish do you know who tell you exactly how many fish they catch?

They talk about how big the fish are in grand terms.  

Or they talk about how huge the catch was. But no specific number.

Fish stories do not need the facts to get in the way of the story.

But we are told exactly how many fish the disciples caught because this is not a typical fish story, not an exaggeration, not some fairy tale.

This story reveals the resurrected Christ and his power to bring the disciples 153 fish from waters they had already fished and caught none.

 A real sign in the real world.

c.  A sign of abundance.  

1. Takes us back to the first miracle Jesus performs in the Gospel of John.   Remember, the wedding at Cana.  they run out of wine, so Jesus turns the water into wine.  Wine overflowing.  More than they will need to finish the party.  Better wine than they had to start the party.

2.  Abundance The resurrected Christ is not asking the disciples to imagine what the future could hold and stop there.

3.  The resurrected Christ is inviting them into the future as people of the resurrection, people whose lives are changed in real ways, and who bring hope for real change to others in the world.

4.   a world where the empty nets can be filled with abundance, even 153 fish.

5.   A world where the headlines can read of coronavirus and death and we can still hope and trust in the God of abundance - all because we follow the Risen Christ.

b.  William Willimon tells a story about a heroin addict approaching him in the weeks after Easter and asking for help.

In the conversation the person asks, “Preacher, do you really think that I can get a  grip on my addiction to heroin?”  

You know that question.  It's the question that hangs in the air at Our Daily Bread – do you really think that feeding me can help me change my life?

Or the question on the sidewalk outside the Rec center as Narcotics Anonymous gathers - can I really overcome my addiction?

Or it's the question we ask ourselves when we continually repeat the cycle of tearing down our relationships  – can I really change who I am in this relationship?

Or the question we ask as we face the uncertainty in our lives and wonder, can I really handle what the future has for me?

Willimon notes that his immediate response was to say, “No, It's almost impossible to change.”  But he caught himself, he says, because the resurrection was fresh in his mind.

Instead, he said something to the effect, “if it were only about what you could do or what I could do, then no, but God is a God of resurrection, so yes, we can dare to hope that you can change.” (Journal for Preachers, William Willimon,”Preaching As Demonstration of Resurrection,” Volume XXXVII, Number 3, Easter, 2014, 15)

conclusion:  You can be like the disciples and dare not ask the resurrected Christ, “who are you?’

or you can be like Saul and boldly ask, “Who are you?”

Either way, the Resurrected Christ is asking you: “Are you a person of the resurrection?”

Reflections on "How Do We Recognize You?" Luke 24: 13-15; Psalm 16

Still trying to get into the rhythm of recording worship on Friday, which shortens the sermon preparation time.  The road to Emmaus story has lots of preachable moments. I do not think I had taken this approach before, so it was fun to view the text from a different vantage point.  It felt a little bit like an Easter sermon, which may or may not be a good thing!

“How Do We Recognize You?” SAPC, April 19, 2020; Luke 24: 13-35; Psalm 16; Questions of the Resurrected Christ series, 2020

Luke 24: 13-35 Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[f] from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.[g] 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth,[h] who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel.[i] Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah[j] should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us[k] while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

Introduction:  We are asking lots of questions these days. 

when will they find a medicine that cures coronavirus?

How long until there is a vaccine?

how long will “shelter in place” last?

What criteria must be met for things to get back to normal?

Lots of questions, most for which we cannot find easy answers.  

We have to live into the answers.

I imagine the time after the women discovered the empty tomb was also a time of questions.

did it really happen?

Did someone steal the body or was Jesus really resurrected?

What is a resurrection?

Where did Jesus go?

Lots of questions for which there were no easy answers, 

they had to live into the answers.

Between now and Pentecost we are going to spend our sermon time reflecting on questions we might have asked the risen Christ.

the questions in the sermons may not be your questions, so I invite you to use the sermon time to expand your reflections beyond the question of the week to your own questions.

No easy answers, but some thoughts on how we live into the answers.

Move 1:  Our first question to ask the risen Christ:  how do we recognize you?

a.  From Jesus’ perspective, how hard it must have been to make yourself recognizable to people who knew for certain you had died.  they had seen it with their own eyes.

1.  Case and point - the followers of Christ who meet him on the road to Emmaus walk with him and talk with him, but do not recognize him.

2.  A couple of years ago I read a story about a man named Charles Hubbard of Austin, Texas. This Vietnam vet received a letter from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs informing him that he was dead and that his family needed to return thousands of dollars in benefits. A victim of stolen identity, Hubbard found his checking account closed by the VA. After he made an extensive case for being alive, the VA informed him that it would take eight months for him to be officially brought back to life. That’s when they would restore his pension benefit (by Peter W. Marty March 16, 2018, Christian Century, https://www.christiancentury.org/article/living-word/april-15-easter-3b-luke-2436b-48)

3.  Of course, Jesus had an even bigger challenge since he had really died!

b.  From the perspective of those who knew Jesus, how hard it must have been to recalibrate their understanding of what had taken place, what was taking place, so they recognize him.

1.  Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis reflected this week on the story of Emmaus and on our current global reality. She said, “It’s unsurprising that the disciples don’t immediately recognize Jesus on the road to Emmaus. Trauma does that; it can make what was once familiar feel strange. This experience is traumatic. So, lend yourself grace: We’ll learn to see anew, together” (As found in Calvary Baptist church email newsletter)

2. We are living in a time of trauma, which makes it difficult to recognize the risen Christ.

3. part of our task is to open ourselves up to how the Risen Christ is alive in our new, unfamiliar circumstances.

b.  Of course, for the disciples who first asked the Risen Christ, “how do we recognize you?”  the answer they received might have been a little more concrete:  “you can recognize me because here I am, the same body that walked among you; the same body you saw hanging from the cross; the body you now see with you in this moment.”

1.  The empty tomb signifies a bodily resurrection.

2. We may not understand resurrection completely, but it is not some mystical god thing that took place outside of our humanity.

3.  God did come in flesh to be with us.

4.  God did die on the cross in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.

5. God did raise Jesus from the dead.

6. he had the same body, with the addition of some scars, to prove it.

7.    As Presbyterian writer and theologian, Tom Currie notes: “ An empty cross lets us have an image of a successful resurrection;  The Risen Christ with his hands and scars shows the messiness of the resurrection” (APTS, Currie lectures, 2010)

the first disciples recognize the risen Christ in his bodily person.

We recognize the risen Christ as he moves among us in the reality of our lives.

Move 2:  The Risen Christ might also answer our question by pointing to hope and saying, “You will recognize me in the hope you have.”

a.  Lots of interesting things going on in this story of Jesus meeting two of his followers on the road to Emmaus.

1.  Disciples having a bad, confusing day:  bad because they had seen Jesus dead on the cross; confusing because they have heard word that the tomb was empty.

2. Now the meet this guy on the road to Emmaus who has apparently not heard about what has happened.

2.   So they start telling him.  When they get to the part about the tomb being empty, we might expect Jesus to mention that he is the resurrected one.

3.  Sort of an “aha” moment - “ta da, I am really alive.  See me!”

b.  Instead, Jesus sends them back to the stories of their faith..

1. he teaches them (again, presumably) about Moses and the prophets.

2.  Christian educators must love this passage - how can you learn about the risen Christ?  Study the Bible.

2. Why?  Why return to the story of Moses and the prophets?

3.  because they are stories of the God who saves; the God who hears the people’s cries and acts;  the God who rescues the Israelites from slavery in Egypt;  the God who returns the exiles to Jerusalem;  the God who again and again saves God’s people

4.   Jesus reminds these two guys that God’s people are a people of hope, who hope in a God who is true to that hope.

c.  I read an article this week in which the author described scenes from an ICU in  New York City at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. They spoke to nurses and doctors covered from head to toe in protective gear. I was struck by the tenacity of these health professionals, overwhelmed, stressed, but stalwart and committed. One nurse said despite the number of deaths, she always, always assumed, and therefore acted as if, the patient would recover and live. She noted that without that hope and expectation she could not do her job in the way she needs to do it. The end of the video showed a circle of masked men and women huddled in prayer. That same nurse shared with the reporter that they prayed before each shift, Christian prayers, Muslim prayers, Jewish prayers, every kind of prayer, displaying faith and a belief in healing and hope and life, in the face of deadly, overwhelming, desperate circumstances. 

As the author notes:  “Seeing and hearing their courage, their calm in the eye of the storm, their hope in the face of fear, bore witness to resurrection, to the presence of our wounded and living Lord present in the heart of suffering whose Word is trustworthy and promises are true.“ (“Looking into the lectionary, jill Duffield, presbyterian Outlook,  4/13/2020).

How do we recognize the Risen Christ?  You will find him as you hope in the God who saves.

Move 3:  A final thought on how we recognize the risen Christ  - we recognize him when our hearts are burning.

a. Did you notice what happened after After Jesus broke bread with the gathering in Emmaus and their eyes were opened, after Jesus had disappeared from their midst, they took time to reflect on what had just happened.

1.  “We should have recognized him because our hearts were burning.”

2.  Not, “I saw him with my own eyes,” but “i felt him in my own heart.”

3.  Recognition from the heart.

4. As the Psalmist described in the psalm we read this morning: "In the night, my heart instructs me.”

b.  Our hearts can reveal the Risen Christ in ways that even 20/20 vision cannot.

1. our hearts that trust in God to be present reveal the presence of the Risen Christ.

2. Our hearts that fill with hope reveal the risen Christ.

3. William Willimon note that the most frustrating thing about the Risen Christ is that he just appears and disappears as he pleases (William Willimon, Journal for Preachers, Volume XXXVI, Number 3, Easter, 2011, 40)

4. We cannot contain the Risen Christ.

5. We cannot control the Risen Christ.

6.  But we can give our hearts over to the Risen Christ.

7.  How do you recognize the Risen Christ?  Trust you heart to tell you.

Conclusion:   "I myself believe passionately in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, because in my own life I have experienced Christ not as a memory, but as a  presence. that is why on Easter we do not gather to close the show by singing “Thanks for the Memory,' but rather to reopen the show with the hymn 'Jesus Christ Is Risen  Today.' “William Sloan Coffin

Christ is Risen.  Look for him with your hearts as you hope in the God who saves.