Jarrett McLaughlin
Permanent Vacation
April 27, 2025
John 21:1-19
Cold Open:
When I say the word ‘beach’ – what are the next words you think about?
Is it…
Sand, sun, seashell.
Beach chair, bathing suit, boogie board
Palm trees and pina coladas with umbrellas in them.
Our reading this morning takes place on a beach – let’s see if these associations hold up.
A reading from John, chapter 21.
Scripture:
After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas the twin, Nathanael of Cana, the sons of Zebedee, and two others. 3Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.”
He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish.
That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he jumped into the sea. 8But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish.
When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.”
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Jesus took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish.
When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.”
(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”
Sermon:
It’s the week after Easter – they’re sitting on the beach after a good meal. The crusts from the broken bread are scattered on the blanket – the sun is warm on their drying skin. How easy it must have been to drift off into a post-breakfast nap.
Surely Peter and the others could afford to do that now. They had followed Jesus from the very beginning. And last week was so intense. Arrests, Trials, Crucifixion – they’d seen it all. And now that Jesus was miraculously alive again, couldn’t they afford to take a little “R & R” on the beach – a permanent post-Resurrection vacation.
Does anybody remember that Beach Boys song, Kokomo? If they had transistor radios back then – the disciples would have written that one way before Brian Wilson.
On the Sea of Galilee – You’ll find the sons of Zebedee
That’s where you want to be, where it’s so fun and free…
Nathanaiel of Cana, oh I want to take ya
And Thomas The Twin, let’s go take a swim.
Capernaum, Meggido – baby why don’t we go
Down to Jericho – we’ll get there faster, and we’ll take it slow.
That’s where we want to go…way down to Jericho.
It’s not as if I can blame him. If you think there isn’t mandatory nap time in the McLaughlin house after Easter services you can think again – and last Sunday celebrating Easter was nothing compared to actually living the Easter story.
But just as he’s settling down to relax, Jesus holds his hand out and lifts Peter to his feet. “Let’s take a walk” he says.
“Uuuuhhhhhh,” Peter thinks, “can’t I just close my eyes for a minute. I fished all night long. It’s a beautiful morning in Paradise – can’t we just enjoy this for a second.”
They walk a little ways off from the others. Jesus jerks a thumb over his shoulder in their direction as he asks one last question: “Simon, do you love me more than these?”
We just read it so I won’t repeat the whole thing again.
Three times he asks the question “do you love me?”
Each time Peter answers “yes Lord, you know I do.”
Some interpretations make a big deal out of the fact that Jesus and Peter are by a campfire and that Jesus asks that question three times – once for every time Peter denied him by a campfire during Jesus’ trial.
It is striking how the scene set on the beach does echo the setting of Peter’s denial – so that is a perfectly appropriate interpretation of this story.
I do question it slightly, though, because Jesus doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who rakes you over the coals for your past mistakes.
So allow me to offer this as an alternative – what if this three-fold question “Simon, Do You Love Me?” and the three-fold reminder to “feed my sheep” isn’t about Peter’s past but rather about his present.
What if – instead of transporting Peter back to the glowing campfire of yesterday’s denial – what if Jesus is yanking Peter out of his post-Easter permanent vacation. What if Jesus is bringing him back to the pressing needs of now.
When Jesus invites him to “Feed My Sheep” for the third time – maybe Peter finally gets it. Maybe Peter realizes just what kind of beach he is on.
This isn’t Kokomo – where you can go to get it away from it all.
The beach he’s standing on looks more like Normandy in ’44.
He’s on the beach where the deep hurt and hunger of the world washes up with the tide – confronting him with everything that still longs for resurrection.
Jesus is telling Peter and all the rest of us to get ready. Death and pain and brokenness – they’re not calling it quits just because it’s Easter. They’re not taking a permanent vacation – and so neither can we.
Which means this isn’t the beach of rest and relaxation.
This is the beach of re-deployment.
And on that beach, a very risen Jesus is asking “Do you love me? If the answer is yes, then feed my sheep.”
This week the world lost a remarkable man in Pope Francis.
I listened to “The Daily” podcast this week which did an episode on the meaning of Pope Francis’ Papacy.
While I always admired him from afar, I had not recognized how divisive a figure he was among the Roman Catholic establishment.
Jason Horowitz has covered Rome for the New York Times for 7 years, and he described Pope Francis as a dividing line in the Catholic Church.
Those who hold a more progressive vision for the Church saw him as a breath of fresh air for a Church in desperate need of reform.
The more traditional Cardinals and Bishops initially thought of him as “being on their side” but came to be frightened of the way he was over-riding centuries of Church doctrine.
Horowitz then explained that his entire papacy was marked by ambiguity – in a divided Church, everyone was trying to figure out whose side is Francis on. But in the end, Francis never thought of himself as a Pope navigating the partisan sides of the Church. He saw himself as a Priest to a more global flock.
He was elected during the 2013 conclave. Thanks to the recent film, many of us have more insight into what all goes into a conclave and the election of a Pope. While campaigning is frowned upon, it is not unusual for Cardinals to offer speeches – called Interventions – about the state of the Church and what it needs. These speeches do shape the conversations that eventually lead to the white smoke signal announcing a new Pope.
Francis offered a brief, four minute Intervention in which he said the Church had closed the doors in on itself and become far too self-referential. It is time, he said, not just to open the doors and let fresh air in – but it is time for us all to walk outside those door – to go out to the peripheries.
As it turns out, he meant it quite literally. He encouraged Priests to leave the confines of their churches and talk to people – to meet them in the lives they are actually living out there – to tend the flock.
Along with many of you, news also came out about how Francis called that Church in Gaza every single evening at the same time – just to offer words of encouragement to this suffering parish. That is one way he tended the flock.
Horowitz concludes that, for Pope Francis,
[The Church had become] so obsessed with how we dressed and which way we faced when we said this prayer…that we forgot what we were here for. And so I think what his entire pontificate was really about was reminding people why the church exists.
And why does the Church exist?
Jesus put it quite plainly to Peter on the beach – feed my sheep.
If you love me, feed my sheep.
If you love me, show it by taking care of them.
Do you know who Roman Catholics regard as the very first Pope?
Peter….SAINT Peter.
Peter who did prove himself to be both coward and denier.
Peter who did reaffirm his love for Jesus three times.
Peter who did stand on a Galilean beach with Jesus – not enjoying a permanent vacation, but receiving a permanent vocation.
“Feed my Sheep.”