St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD
May 1, 2022
Year C: The Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 9:1-20
Psalm 30
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19
Epilogue: The Ongoing Redemption of the World
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Happy Easter!
So, have you heard about Easter here at St. Thomas’? It was one of the most beautiful celebrations that I can remember.
On Easter morning, the church was full of people – familiar faces, people we may not have seen for a while, newcomers – all gathered here to receive the best news of all time:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
But, you know how it is, right?
While it’s still Easter, let’s face it, a couple of weeks after the big day, our “Alleluias!” may not sound quite as joyful as they did when the church was packed with people, and ringed with all those beautiful flowers.
And, while the best news of Easter changes everything, at the same time life also goes on pretty much as it always has.
I mean, just look at the news, filled with all too familiar cruelty and heartbreak, from Ukraine to Baltimore.
And our own lives go on more or less as usual, with some ups and some downs and lots of in-between times when it feels like we’re just muddling through, just trying our best to get through the day.
Personally, right now I’m having the time of my life here with all of you. But, like everybody else I’ve faced challenges and setbacks along the way.
For example, back in the early 90s, as a young adult who had only recently moved out of my childhood home, I found myself in one of the lowest down times of my life.
I was having trouble finding a job.
My money was running out and it was looking like I might have to ask my parents for help, or just give up my apartment and move back home.
Now, many of you have met my parents and have discovered that they are wonderful people, and that’s true, but as a young person just starting to make my way in the world, the idea of moving back home felt like an embarrassing retreat, like a defeat.
Fortunately, at just about the last minute, I learned that St. Vincent Academy in Newark needed a midyear replacement to teach history.
Established in 1869, St. Vincent’s was and still is a remarkable all-girls Catholic high school in the middle of a city that, back then, was still a long way from recovering after decades of systemic racism, the loss of industry, the uprising in 1967, and, if they could afford it, the departure of many Newarkers to greener suburban pastures.
Many businesses and other institutions had either fled or closed up.
But at St. Vincent’s, a determined and courageous band of Sisters of Charity and other teachers stood their ground, insisting that they would stay and continue to offer a high quality education to the girls of Newark and surrounding towns.
And that’s exactly what they did – and continue to do.
So, one day near the start of 1992, I took the bus to my interview, riding past rubble-strewn lots and abandoned houses, really hoping to get this job, but also wondering just what I’d be getting myself into.
Finally, the bus rounded the corner and there was St. Vincent’s, standing on a prominent hill, a monument of love and hope in a very hard place.
I was nervous during my interviews, and over the years my memory has faded, but I do remember that at one point Sister June, one of the administrators, described the school’s mission in theological terms.
She said something like, ”We are called to be part of the ongoing redemption of the world.”
Before that, I’m not sure I had ever ever given the redemption of the world any thought, but if I had I’m sure that I figured it was done once and for all two thousand years ago – but Sister June understood, and continues to live out, the truth that the redemption of the world is ongoing.
I thought of Sister June’s long ago insight when I began to reflect on today’s lessons, which describe the post-Easter redemption of two of the pillars of the early church, Peter and Paul.
If you were here last week, you’ll remember that we heard the story of Doubting Thomas.
The evangelist concludes that memorable story with these words:
“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”
That certainly sounds like the end of the gospel, doesn’t it?
But, in fact, the story continues – it continues with the passage we heard today.
It’s an epilogue – an epilogue about the ongoing redemption of the world.
The setting is sometime after the first Easter Day, so Peter and the others have already seen the Risen Lord – Thomas has already been invited to touch Jesus’ wounds – they all know the best news of all time:
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
And yet, for the disciples, life seems to have very quickly gone back to normal.
Peter has gone back to fishing, though he doesn’t sound very enthused about it.
And, as we heard, Peter and the others don’t have much luck, coming up empty – that is, until, the Risen Christ appears and tells them to cast their nets on the other side.
Then there is so much abundance.
Once the disciples realize that it is the Risen Lord, we’re given the strange detail that a naked Peter quickly gets dressed and plunges into the water to get to Jesus.
As you’d guess, Peter’s nakedness has gotten a lot of scholarly attention, with some saying that he wasn’t fully naked but was only wearing an outer cloak - not properly dressed, apparently, to meet the Lord!
I don’t know about you, but Peter’s nakedness reminds me of back in the garden, back when the first people disobeyed God and were so ashamed and frightened that they tried to hide from God.
Of course, Peter has something to be ashamed of, too.
During Jesus’ moments of greatest suffering, Peter abandoned the Lord, like just about everybody else.
But, worse than running away, Peter denied even knowing Jesus – denied his Lord not once or twice but three times.
Now, although surely feeling quite a bit of shame because of his actions, Peter doesn’t hide like Adam and Eve did but, instead, he swims directly to the Lord.
And, just as Peter had denied Jesus three times, now Jesus asks three times for Peter’s love, giving the fallible fisherman a chance for redemption, blessing him as he begins his life’s work of sharing the Good News, a journey that will end with him giving away his life in service to the Lord.
Peter’s life was part of the ongoing redemption of the world – the ongoing redemption that we also heard in today’s first lesson: Saul who persecuted the early Christians is powerfully converted, his life now heading in a wildly different direction, on his way to becoming Paul, the apostle to the gentiles – Paul who spent the rest of his life sharing the Good News far and wide, a journey that will end with him giving away his life in service to the Lord.
And now, for us, life goes on with all its ups and downs and in-betweens.
But, just like the Apostles Peter and Paul, just like the teachers at St. Vincent’s in Newark, just like our friends at Paul’s Place and Viva House in Baltimore, like so many others, with God's help, you and I are invited to add our lives of love and sacrifice to the long epilogue - the ongoing redemption of the world.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, I did get the job at St. Vincent Academy and was able to keep my apartment.
Those years in Newark changed just about everything for me – setting in motion a chain of events that eventually led me to the most beautiful Easter, right here with all of you!
Alleluia! Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Amen.
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