Don’t miss the “Ponderings” section below to hear about Pastor Hoffman’s book recommendation on Sunday’s gospel!

Each week so far in the season of Easter, we have learned that the resurrected Christ does not just come once and for all. He comes to each of us, speaking our name, knowing our doubts and fears, ready to respond in the way we most need.

This week, we heard the story of how Peter responds when the risen Christ shows up to him and for him. Peter has faithfully followed Jesus since he was known as Simon and called with his brother Andrew to become “fishers of people.” But on the night Jesus died, as Peter was warming himself by a charcoal fire, he found himself denying – three times, as Jesus predicted – that he even knew Jesus much less followed him.

And now, the risen Christ appears to the disciples for a third time, and all Peter wants to do is hide. Like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden after they’ve taken the bite of the apple, suddenly feeling the need to cover themselves, Peter throws on his clothes and jumps into the water.

Throughout Lent, we heard that God sent Jesus to join us in our wilderness and to save us from ourselves and all that gets in between us and God. In these days after Jesus’ resurrection, it seems that Peter was in his wilderness. A wilderness of shame and regret. And Jesus wouldn’t leave him there alone.

Jesus prepares breakfast over a charcoal fire (remember the last time Peter found himself around a charcoal fire? see above!) and invites him to share a meal. There, Jesus asks Peter no less than three times, “Peter, do you love me?” This time, Peter says, “yes.”

Peter’s story shows us that Jesus sees us – not for our failings or who we think we ought to be, but for who we are as people in need of forgiveness and love. Jesus forgives us for “all that we have done and left undone.”  Jesus comes to us, feeding and nourishing us with his very self, as he did for Peter and the others on the lakeshore with a breakfast of fish and bread and as he does for us each week around the table of Holy Communion.  Then he sends us out to “feed my sheep” because forgiveness is not the end of the story, it’s just the beginning. Restored to relationship, Jesus puts us back to the work of loving God and loving one another.

Christ is risen!

Christ is risen, indeed! Alleulia!