Loving Little Lambs

Sunday, February 15, 2004

Rev. Bib Riggert

Typed from audio transcript

February 15, 2004

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

One of the more interesting dialogs in the musical, Fiddler on the Roof, has Tevye asking his wife, "Do you love me?" Her response is, "What do you mean? I feed your children. I provide for your family and on and on and on." And his question again is, "But do you love me?" The dialog suggests that love is certainly more than living in a role or a list of duties.

One of the compelling dialogs in Holy Scripture is found in John 21, the verses we read just a few moments ago, a dialog that takes place shortly after Jesus' resurrection, and it involves disciple Peter. "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was one of the first disciples called by Jesus. Fishing with brother Andrew, Jesus had appeared one day and said, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men and Peter had." Peter had followed impulsively, willing to step out of boats to follow Him. Peter had followed boldly. "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Peter had followed convincingly. Others may deny you, but I never will. Peter had followed Jesus to the majestic top of the Mount of Transfiguration. He had followed Jesus to the quiet solitude of the Garden of Gethsemane. There seemed to be little doubt that Peter loved Jesus until that time in Caiaphas' courtyard where a few people came up to Peter and said, "This Jesus, you know about him?" And not once, not twice, but three times, Peter says, "I don't know who you're talking about." Peter is not with Jesus as disciple John on Calvary's mountain watching his Lord die. Peter is not there with Joseph of Arimathea taking the body down. Peter is not progressing to the garden with the women preparing His burial. Peter shows up again on an Easter Sunday morning rushing out to the tomb, responding to the rumors of a few women who have come back saying that He wasn't there. Peter is in the upper room on Easter evening seeing Jesus alive again. Peter's with Him several times following that but, in the context, that relationship has to be pretty tenuous. Where does he stand with Jesus, and where does Jesus stand with him? Peter probably could not forget the disappointed look of Jesus as he glanced to the side on His way to the cross remembering the words, "I don't know Him."

Now, several days after that resurrection on the shores of the Sea of Tiberius, Jesus approaches Peter and asked, "Do you love me?" An intense conversation always takes two participants, and Peter might have interrupted and said, "But what do you mean? What about your love for me, Lord?" But there was no question about Peter's love for Jesus, for that had been demonstrated time and time again in the three years of their relationship and that certainly had been demonstrated in the time of Jesus' passion. A love described for us by the apostle, John, the apostle of love who described what Jesus did and what Jesus was about, God so loved the world that He gave His only son. Greater love than this is no man that He lay down His life for His friend, this is love, not that we love God but that God loves us, God is love.

The fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, tells of a seemingly unlikely loving relationship. The beast, after all, is unlovable. In the real world, in the ugliness of sin, there is a beast in all of us that is often unlovable in the context of the relationships in which we find ourselves but that is certainly as unlovable as God looked at us. How could He possibly love us? But the good news is that, while we were yet sinners, He loved us.

We're in the last days of the Epiphany season progressing quickly to that season of Lent, a time where we journey once again to the cross of Calvary and hear and see week after week His love. We mentioned before the encouragement to the movie, The Passion of Christ. The reviews tell about the brutality of the crucifixion. The reviews tell us about the intensity of the story. It's a love story, not in the classic Hollywood sense where good?looking guy meets good-looking girl and they happily live ever after. It's a love story only as God could tell it. God is compelled to send His only Son and send Him to the cross.

Perhaps like Charlie Brown, you failed to get a Valentine in the mail yesterday. Rejoice this day after Valentine's because God has one for you. It's signed in the blood of Jesus. God's message to Peter was, "Peter, I love you. I have paid for your denial. I have paid for your coward-ness through the death of my cross. The empty tomb is for you, Peter." And so Jesus gives to Peter a message of hope and life and love and the question, "But, Peter, do you love me?" The answer is one of words, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you." But Jesus asked for more than words. "Feed my lambs." Love is action. For Peter, it was to mean that he would be called on a Pentecost event to feed the thousands of lambs gathered in Jerusalem as the Holy Spirit descended. It meant feeding the lambs on the streets of Jerusalem the paralytics and those that came to Him. It meant feeding Cornelius and the Gentiles, feeding the world a banquet at the feast of the love of Christ.

Imagine Jesus asking us today, "Do you love me?" Our response hopefully is one of words, "Lord, I believe. I believe that you loved me from the cross. I believe that, in the waters of my baptism, you claimed me to be your own. I believe that you love me through your cross even when I am unlovable to everybody else."

Harry and Ethel had been married for decades, and it was a relationship of few words, especially of few intimate words. And usually that was okay for Ethel, but she was yearning for a little bit more affection and affirmation and so she asked, "Harry, do you love me?" "Why do you ask?" he inquired. "Well, you never tell me anymore that you love me." Harry responded, "When I married you 40 years ago, I told you I loved you and, if I change my mind, you'll be the first to know." Love needs to be words, but it needs to be more than words.

And in Jesus' interaction with Peter, He says, "Feed my lambs." That invites us today to look at the flocks in our lives, to feed the lambs in our own families, to feed the lambs in the congregations that we gather, and to feed the lost lambs in the world. I invite you this morning especially to think with me for a moment, though, about a particular group of lambs. I mentioned to you that my ministry with you in Iowa District West is especially in the area of Children and Youth Ministry. Part of my concern and part of my advocacy with you is that we feed the lambs of little children that God places in our homes and in our congregations, that we feed those who often cannot speak for themselves, who often have very little influence or power, that we feed those who Jesus might call the least of these. The sad reality is that in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, we have a lot of starving lambs. The statistics indicate that 50% of the children we baptize in our congregation are lost from our fellowship by the time they're 5 years old. Another sad statistic is that 50% of the youth that we confirm in our congregation, by the time they're 20?21 years of age, in a sense, are lost from our congregational fellowship. Jesus says to us again today, "Feed my lambs."

Parents, feed your little lambs. Certainly, we take most seriously the physical and emotional care, the safety of our care. We'd do anything to make sure our children get a good education and that they have a roof over their head. Just as vital as that, we feed their souls in our homes, we teach them to fold their hands, to pray to their friend, Jesus, and we bring them to God's house, that Jesus is in our homes so they might love Him there.

We feed His lambs in our church family. It's a joy to work with Gloria Dei Lutheran Church and a joy to work with those whom you call and whom you employ in a sense to be partners with you in children's, youth, and young adults ministry. By staffing and by your facilities and in lots of ways you say children and youth are important here. I commend you for that, and I encourage you to continue with that, to continue to look around your fellowship to see the children among you and to say, "What can we do together to make sure those lambs are always in the lap of Jesus?"

Jesus invites us to feed the lambs not only among us, but also to look around our communities, to look down the streets, to look at the house next door, to say, "Are there any lambs lost without Jesus?"

In the days before Valentine's Day, there were numerous encouragements for ways to say I love you. Florists suggested we say it with flowers. Hallmark suggested we say it with just the right card. Candy makers suggested we say it with chocolate. Jewelry stores suggested we say it with gems and gold. Restaurants suggested we say it with a candlelight dinner. Jesus has a suggestion for us today and always, "Do you love me? Feed my lambs." In His name, Amen.

Copyright 2004 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church