Scripture: Acts 9:1-20; John 21:1-19

“And in the synagogues immediately he proclaimed Jesus, saying, ‘He is the Son of God.’”

-- Acts 9:20

Today we have two readings that tell us about the founding, and hence the foundation, of the church. It seems good to me at this time for this congregation to try to be clear about the nature of the church for which it is now seeking new pastoral leadership. We might be asking questions like, “How is a church different from a club, and especially a community church, how is it different from the other institutions of the community, the recreation department of the city, the civil government, the county department of social welfare?” “What does the church offer that no other institution offers, and how far are we willing to be the church rather than a club, or a compromising ‘all things to all people’ affair?” It is impossible to achieve a pure identity in this imperfect world, nevertheless, it is worth being clear about the ideal. At the very least this will help us stay on the same page in the long discussions that lie ahead. I hope that those discussions will not absorb so much of your energy that the active and successful outreach of this congregation withers on the vine.  

The Bible is very clear about the nature of the church: it is the community of those called and commissioned by the risen Jesus. This means that it is not the school of those who try to follow the moral teaching of the historical Jesus – whoever that might have been. (I should tell you here that I was a founding member of the ‘Jesus Seminar’ who split from them quite early on over methodological questions, that is, I do not think the evidence is there for a reliable reconstruction of the Jesus of history). The church is founded on the resurrected Jesus and its most precious treasure is the most precious treasure that there is in any case, namely eternal life. AYSO can provide healthy competitive sport, the Boy Scouts can provide outdoors experience and group education, schools provide knowledge, bazaars and sales provide community solidarity and a little money, dances introduce kids to the opposite sex in a semi-controlled way, yoga classes give exercise etc, etc, but only the church gives access to eternal life. The church of Christ offers the utterly stupendous possibility of eternal life. The church is the place and the people where the risen Jesus meets with forlorn sinners doomed to death and transforms their misery into radiant hope. So as you look for a new pastor, look for a competent professional who knows what the church is and not just a nice guy. You would not want a surgeon whose grasp of human anatomy is faulty to operate on you just because he or she is a nice guy, so you do not want clergy who do not know or worse, know and do not believe, that the church is the company of those who believe and receive eternal life from the risen Jesus just because he or she is a nice guy.

For this reason the lectionary on the third Sunday of Easter points us to the two greatest church founding passage in the Bible, the recommissioning of Peter and the conversion of Paul. In the history of the church Peter might be taken to stand for the Roman Catholic tradition and Paul for the Protestant tradition, and John, who actually narrates the Peter story, might stand for the Orthodox tradition. Peter, Paul and John, are the three great founding Apostles, and for that reason I’m sure the last two Popes, representatives of Peter have named themselves John Paul. So let us look at the two passages and see what we learn:  and as we do, I remind you again that they are both accounts of what the resurrected Jesus does to found his church, that is, the church is the creation of the resurrected one, it is part of the new creation, an instance of the new birth from above.

Seven disciples go back to their old jobs as fisherman. The are Peter, James and John the sons of Zebedee, Thomas our heroic doubter of last week, Nathanael and two unnamed others. Peter felt terrible; he had lied in public three times that he did not know Jesus, and so at breakfast on the shore Jesus makes him undo his lies, makes him confess three times that he loves Jesus. “Simon son of John do you love me more than these? Yes lord you know I love you (Not at all Peter, last time I heard from you, you were swearing loudly that you didn’t even know me).” Three times Peter must remake his confession, and three times he must accept the task of pastor, “Feed my Lambs; Tend my sheep; Feed my sheep.” There are several points one might make if one were to spend a week on this text - Jesus feeds the Apostle first before he asks him to feed others, Jesus’ identity is elusive like it was to Mary in the garden, showing that he is transformed and not merely resuscitated, and why are there precisely 153 fish? I am going to leave all that aside and go to the heart of the message. Peter was a traitor, he had denied his Lord; he had been ashamed of Jesus; he failed. Nevertheless, on such a one Jesus founds his church, and for what reason? Well, the real answer lies deep in the heart of God, but as far as we can see, this situation makes it absolutely clear that the power of the church, the gift of eternal life, comes from Jesus alone and not from any virtue and fortitude in us. If Peter the first Apostle is a lying coward and Jesus wants him to feed his lambs, then the rest of us lying cowards must get on over to Jesus right away and hang very close. The rest of us lying cowards must get out of the way so that Jesus risen and victorious can build his church through us, and can give the precious gift of grace to those who want it. We don’t need to be pillars of society here, or super sweet, or real nice guys. After all, the first Christian Apostle was a lying coward.

The second Apostle in rank if not order was a murderous zealot. Saul of Tarsus was on his way to arrest Christians in Damascus when the risen Jesus confronted him in a blinding vision and asked, “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?” You know the rest of the story well; it is the paradigm of what came in Protestant circles to be called conversion, and it has been a powerful cultural dynamic in the West. Let me just mention in passing, that the paradigmatic narrative of someone changing his religion is startlingly out of tune with culture as usual. To this day Jews who convert to Christ are considered mentally unbalanced by many of their fellow Jews, and Muslims who try it are killed. Anthropologically speaking human culture is constructed for continuity not conversion. Ancient Egypt endured for 3500 year through 20 plus dynasties hardly changing a thing. My colleague Jonathan Z Smith points out how anthropology has been distorted, because it was pioneered by Christian missionaries, whose interest was in change rather than in continuity. So, for instance, the literature used to be full of information about how one becomes a shaman etc, not telling us that 90% of shamans did not go through an ordeal of initiation but merely inherited the status. Missionaries look for change, culture looks for continuity. I think the accounts of Paul’s conversion in the NT, (Acts 9, 22, 26; Galatians 1: 11-24) may be the most powerful cultural documents in the formation of the western sensibility. We are for change, progress and conquest. The dark side of this of course is the goofy imperialism of the Christian Right and the Neoconservative Jews currently guiding the ship of fools (I mean ship of state) in Washington. Our President thinks that because Jesus changed his heart the US military can change the Middle East, that because he was once a drunk and now is, well what - a dry drunk? the Muslims of the Middle East who once wanted to rule themselves according to their indigenous political culture will now allow US Christians to democratize them. This is the dark side of the Pauline influence, rampant because of a persistent incompetence in interpreting the Bible by some woefully inept Protestant clergy.

Amen.