Ghost stories; crazy ideas and second
chances
Reinbeck UMC 5/8/16
If you didn’t know the back-story, you
wouldn’t realize that this is a ghost story… and you would miss the whole
point.
After Jesus appeared to Thomas, the
disciples were lost. They didn’t know what to do. To me it seems like a no
brainer. Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send
you.” … he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive
the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they
are retained.” That seems pretty clear to me.
Simon Peter thought for a minute and
said, “OK… anybody want to go fishing?”
Maybe, if I thought I had seen a ghost, or I
had imagined, I wouldn’t believe it either. Maybe I would be too dense to
understand what Jesus said too. But it doesn’t seem that hard to understand
what Jesus expected.
Seven of the disciples, therefore, end
up going fishing. We don’t know what the other four did. But seven went
fishing, including the three leaders Peter, James, and John; and good old
Thomas from last week.
Now remember that at least some of these men
are professional fishermen. Not just worm killers like me. They worked all
night long and caught nothing. They got skunked.
Some smart-aleck yelled from shore,
“Hey boys, didn’t catch anything did you?”
Steam must have rolled from their ears
and they shot back, “NO.”
• So
the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, ““But
we’ve never done it that way before…” No, that’s not right.
• So
the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “But this
is my side of the boat. I’ve been sitting on this side of the boat every Sunday
for 40 year and I’m not moving now.…” No, that’s not right.
• So
the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “No, way.
The fish over there are different. We don’t want THOSE kinds of fish in our
boat…” No, that’s not right.
• So
the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “No. We're
too busy. We're happy sitting here and watching our empty net.. …” No, that’s
not what they said either.
• So
the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “We tried
that 30 years ago and it didn’t work. I probably won’t work today.…” No, that’s
not right.
• So
the man on shore said cast the net on the other side. And they said, “But we’ve
done our part. Let someone else fish that side from now on…” No, that’s not
right.
Hmmm maybe they weren’t so much like
us. Because that’s what most of us would do. When we are confronted with a
crazy idea, we blow it off, or make up 25 excuses why it won’t work.
Jesus calls the disciples to have a crazy
faith, and unlike us, they were just crazy enough it… and it worked! They got a
boatload of fish.
But this was not the first time they
had seen crazy faith work.
• It
was crazy to try to feed 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish.
But what happened? Leftovers.
• It
was crazy to talk to a Samaritan woman. But what happened? Grace happened.
• It
was crazy for the disciples to leave their jobs to follow this rabbi. But if
they hadn’t we might not be the church today.
• It’s
crazy to say, "OK I’ve got 11 disciples now go change the world." It
is crazy to leave the kingdom of God in the hands of the church. It is crazy to
use broken and imperfect people like you and me to usher in God’s perfect will.
But Jesus calls us to have a crazy faith.
• It
was crazy for God to think, “I think I’ll become one of them. I’ll be born as a
baby, perform some miracles, teach, die, and come back to life and they’ll al
believe…” of course, that’s crazy. But that is the gospel. That is the kind of
God we serve. A God of the crazy faith
We are called to have a crazy faith.
Part of that is having crazy ideas. Jim Elenberger is one of my favorite crazy
friends who has dozens of crazy ideas… but you know what? When we follow a
crazy idea, when we take a chance… when
we get out of our rut… when we decide that we can sit in a different place, do
things differently, invite different people, do ministry in a different way…
when we deicide we can have a crazy faith, crazy things happen. Like
• LIGHT,
• Homes
for Haiti,
• GR8,
• new
people coming through the door,
• new
energy in our old bodies, and
•
New life for those who are touched by our crazy ideas.
It might seem crazy to you that we
expect every single one of you to be in ministry… but call us crazy for God. I
don’t mind. Let’s print t-shirts and start a club… wait we already have a club
for people with crazy faith… it’s called the church. It is you and it is me.
So we go on with the story. They do the
crazy thing. They get a whole net load of fish and John realizes that this is
Jesus. How did he know? Look back at Luke chapter 5 and we discover that this
had already happened once. John said, "Wait a minute this happened once
before just before we were called to follow… Jesus… it’s Jesus."
Peter jumped in headfirst as usual and
went to meet Jesus. The rest followed with the boast almost tipping over from
all the fish they caught because they were willing to take a crazy chance and
have a crazy faith.
When they get to the beach, Jesus had already
made a fire and invite them all to breakfast. The Bible is very specific in
using a word that mean charcoal fire. There are only two places in the Bible
where this word charcoal is used. Here on the beach and at the high priest’s
house on the night Jesus was arrested. Remember that story… where Simon Peter
denied Jesus three times. “I tell you I don’t know the man.”
You can imagine as he walked up to the
fire and smelled the charcoal that it must have brought back all those memories
of that night and the agony he felt when the rooster crowed.
I don’t want you to think of Peter as a
failure today. 3 years earlier, Peter had made a decision to have a crazy faith
in Jesus. He left everything he owned,
including his livelihood and his family, and followed Jesus
It didn’t turn out the way Peter
imagined. And the worst of it was that night when he denied Jesus. Three times.
He couldn’t shake that. It was as if he had fallen and he couldn’t get up.
So all this is going through Peter’s
mind, and Jesus takes him aside. He says, “Peter do you love me?” Peter says
once, “Of course I love you.”
Jesus says a second time, “Peter do you
love me?” Peter says a second time, “Of course I love you.”
Jesus says Peter a third time, “Do you
love me?” Peter says a third time, “Of course I love you.”
How many times did Peter deny Jesus?
How many times did Jesus give him the
opportunity to profess his love?
After giving him a chance not to reject
Jesus three times, what are Jesus final words to Peter? “Follow me.” The very
same words Jesus spoke to Peter, by the very same lake 3 years earlier. Jesus
wipes the slate clean and is telling Peter, Let’s forget that, and just start
over again.
God doesn’t call us to be perfect. God doesn’t
call us to be successful. God calls us to have a crazy faith and to do
something because of Jesus.
Wade Hughes, Sr. tells the story of a
weak and sickly man who lived in the deep back woods in an old log cabin. Out in
front of his cabin was a huge boulder.
One night he had a vision. God told him
to go out and push the massive rock in front of his home all day long, day
after day, until he told him to stop. The man got up early in the morning,
started to push on the rock.
Each day he pushed a little harder and
a little longer. Days rolled into weeks, and weeks into months, as he
faithfully pushed against the rock. After 8 months, he started to doubt his
dream. He measured from his porch to the rock, and after pushing the rock, he
would measure to see how much he had moved the rock. He finally realized that
in all this time he had not moved the boulder a fraction of an inch.
The man was so disappointed, he sat on
his porch and cried, because he had invested so much time in such a crazy
endeavor… and all for nothing.
Jesus came and sat down next to the man
on his porch. He said, “Son, why are you so sad?” The man replied, “Lord, You
know how sick and weak I am, you gave me a vision and I have pushed with all
that was within me for many months, and it hasn’t moved an inch.” Jesus said to
him, “I told you to push against the rock. I never told you to move the rock.”
God doesn’t call us to be perfect. God
doesn’t call us to be successful. God calls us to have a crazy faith and to do
something because of Jesus.
Was it crazy to try to move that
boulder? Sure. Is it crazy to think that we might change the world? Sure. Is it
crazy to think that we might change someone’s life by having a pancake
breakfast? Absolutely. Is it crazy to think that our little old church could
build a church in Africa by helping to train pastors at Banyam seminary? Yes.
Is it crazy to think that our change in a pot each week, or our donation of a
curious George book might change the life of one of our children, who might
change the world for God. Absolutely.
Will it all happen? Will the world be
different because of what we do today? Will everyone’s life be better? Will we
end racism and hatred? Will we build a church in Africa? Will we change a
child’s life? I don’t know. That is in God’s hands. Having a crazy faith means
taking the risk and letting God care for the success.
The only way to fail... is not to try. When we get to heaven Jesus will
not ask, “Did you succeed?” …But just like Peter, he will ask “do you love
me?... Did you do it because of me?” If
we can answer, “Yes lord we did it because we love you” …and that will be
enough.
When the leadership team set the goal
of “Every person in ministry.” That is exactly what we mean. Every person
taking a chance…
Every person trying something new…even
if it seems crazy
Every person in ministry … because of
Jesus.
Now go and get crazy for God.
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