3rd
Sunday of Easter __ 10
April 2016
• Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41 • Psalm 30 • Revelation 5:11-14
• John 21:1-19 •
Title:
“Follow Me.”
[__01__] Follow
me. Follow me. These are the words which Peter had been waiting to hear
throughout his interview, his interview of 3 questions with our Savior. Or, we could say, an interview of one
question three times.
If
an interviewer were to ask you or me the same question three times, we would
also be a little worried, right?
The
question is: “do you love me?”
[__02__] Follow
me. Do
you want to follow? Do I want to follow, to be one of our Savior’s disciples?
Often,
we find it more enjoyable, more pleasurable – more of a diversion – to wander
around, to experiment with different directions – NORTH, SOUTH, EAST, WEST –
before we go forward.
Whether
we are in a concert hall, a train, a bus, or anywhere, we may prefer to find our
seats rather than receive [take] the lead or direction from someone else.
“Who? Me ? Follow?”
[__03__] There is a risk here. Shall I be taken – as
Peter would be – to a place that I would rather not
go. “Follow
me.”
We
might describe this as the direction or instruction for someone less
experienced, less mature than I am.
“Who? Me ? Follow?”
I
can find my own way. Or as Sinatra sang … not as one who kneels, he did it his
way. The Good News is… we do it as those who do kneel and find a different way.
There is Good News in following.
[__04__] And, in Peter’s three denials on the night
before Good Friday, he was certainly trying to find a different direction, in
beating his own drum, rather than singing to the lead of the one new-direction
of salvation from Jerusalem.
[__05__] Follow
me?
Hey,
how long is this going to take?
During
a particularly inconvenient and extended road trip years ago, I recall this
resistance – a communal resistance – to such direction. My friends and I had been in the car for
several hours on a Friday night in the summer driving out of New York and
through New England. And, we had finally reached the New Hampshire-Maine
border. We were getting closer to our destination. And, we asked the person at
the toll booth – the toll collector this question: “How far is it to Portland?”
The
person, trying to be helpful and kind, told us the time it would take … about
an hour or so.
Driving
away, we remarked in frustration that we did not want to know the time in hours.
That is, once we wanted to know the distance. We’ll tell you how long it’s
going to take.
Follow?
I don’t think so.
[__06__] Follow
me.
Yes,
at times, this can be a consolation. If we have absolutely no knowledge about
our geography or current location, we gladly accept the help of a local expert.
At
certain places or times, we are naturally humble and docile, though not at New
Hampshire-Maine border on hot summer Friday night in July.
It
is a blessing to be taught, to follow, if we have ears to hear and eyes to see.
(cf.
Jeremiah 5:21; Mark 8:18)
[__07__] Follow me. A
life of commitment and virtue calls us to discipleship and discipline, to
follow.
For
example, marriage, matrimony.
When
the groom and the bride, the husband and the wife say “I Do” in their marriage vows and to do so, “in
sickness and in health” and “until death do us part”, they are also saying YES
to a life of discipleship, of discipline.
Following
– how?
First
of all. The choice of a direction. Going in one direction, we reject all other
directions. Naturally – and physically – we know that we cannot move in more
than one direction at a time.
And,
in their engagement and marriage vows, each spouse renounces and gives up all
others, not just the person he or she was dating just before they met, but
renounces everyone else, to lay down his or her life.
Follow
me. Saying I Do or I love you, the
spouses are also asked – as Jesus asked – do you love me, do you love me more
than these, or do you love me more than anyone else loves me?
In
other words, a husband is called to love his wife more than anyone else loves
her. A wife is called to love her husband more than anyone else loves him.
Love
is based on knowledge. So, those we know more completely, we are also called to
love more completely.
I’m
not suggesting marriage is a competition, but it still a challenge each day to
love more, to give more and to move in only one direction.
Follow
me.
[*** P A U S E ***]
[__08__] Thomas Merton observes in essay about
intentions and actions that we are called to interpret signs in our lives.
Signs,
signposts.[1]
Following
a route, we are also reading signs, up above the roadway or on the side of the
road.
GPS
– satellites – devices – while they are useful, cannot actually read a sign.
GPS
only makes calculations using geometry, algebra, velocity, distance. Following, for you and me, is not a
calculation but a commitment.
We
also are called to read signs, not only what is written above the entrance to
the Lincoln Tunnel but what is written in the faces or expressions or actions
of people we know.
We
may see signs in the world.
We
may not always rejoice at what we see.
There
is mystery here.
[__09__] Thomas Merton writes that God’s will is
mysterious. For example, it is mysterious why an illness or a tragedy should
happen to a certain person.
Often
we say, or we SUSPECT or we simply place BLAME as though we are – spiritually
speaking – the D.A. or the judge – rather than a disciple.
It
is God’s will. Case closed.
[__10__] What does this mean… it is God’s will. If I
say this, am I following? Am I running away?
Have
I lost my way?
Merton
writes that sometimes we judge God by only what we can see.
Yes,
the illness, the physical disability for a loved one, for a child, can be a
very heavy cross. But these can also be signs, directions, guideposts that
remind us of the importance and beauty of
MARRIAGE, FAMILY, COMMUNITY, LOVE.
Merton
writes, “the signpost that points to a distant city is not the city itself and
sometimes the signs that point to a great place are in themselves ….
[UNATTRACTIVE ..or they seem insignificant] …but if the sign is real, we are
called to go there, to cross the border, to reach our destination.”
And,
to answer the question, do you love me?
We
answer not only by word but also by works.
Follow
me. [__fin__]
[1]
Thomas Merton, “Ch. 4 Pure Intention” pp. 52-76. No Man Is An Island, New York: Harcourt Brace, 1955, 1983. (pp.
61-62)
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