The Rev. Dr. Pamela Dolan
Sermon for Easter 3, May 1, 2022: Loving the World
Gospel text: John 21:1-19
I myself have never fed sheep, or tended to them, but (as many of you know already) I am very fond of baby goats. So fond, in fact, that for Mother’s Day one year my family gave me an excursion to a goat ranch where you could cuddle and feed the newly-weaned kids. These babies were beyond adorable and I can still recall how happy they were to be bottle-fed and played with, how eager for human companionship and interaction they seemed to be. Other goat-related gifts have followed, including the goat that visited us during Zoom Coffee Hour back in 2020 and every one has been a source of joy for me.
I have been thinking about this, of course, because the Gospel of John uses the metaphor of tending to a flock to describe what it means to be one of his disciples. During his lifetime, Jesus calls himself the good shepherd, promising to love the people he serves, even to the point of giving away his life for them. Now, in this conversation with Peter, having had a simple breakfast of bread and fish cooked on a charcoal fire, Jesus hands on his ministry to others with the same metaphor: feed my lambs, tend my sheep. He is saying to Peter, in effect, “I took care of them, I gave my all for them, now it is time for you to do the same. Follow me.”
It is tempting, always, to interpret a passage like this in highly individualistic, personal, and spiritual terms, but to do so misses much of the richness and relevance of this Gospel to our lives. Yes, it’s true that at the time of the crucifixion Peter had betrayed Jesus, denying him three time and yes, now Peter does get to affirm three times that of course he loves Jesus. This is a moving and memorable encounter, a moment of healing and reconciliation. But following in the footsteps of Jesus means more than experiencing personal healing or taking care of those closest to us. It means loving the world—the whole world, friend and enemy, neighbor and stranger, human and non-human—because God loved it first, loved it enough to become a part of it, joining in the cycle of life and death that shapes the reality of all creation.
Why is it important that we begin to see that when Jesus says “love your neighbor” or “feed my sheep,” he is talking about all creation, not just our human siblings but the whole world that God made? There are many reasons, but the primary one is because we are all connected and in a very real way what harms one of us harms all of us. So we can’t really compartmentalize our love or concern. To take just one example, let’s think about the effect of climate change on youth. In 2021, a survey of 10,000 young people (defined by the study as being between the ages of 16 and 25) concluded that concern about climate change is directly affecting the mental health of an entire generation. According to an NPR story about the research:
Of those surveyed, nearly 60% reported that they felt either “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change, and more than half said climate change made them feel “afraid, sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless, and/or guilty.” […] In fact, 77% said that they considered the future to be frightening, and 56% agreed with the viewpoint that humanity is doomed, according to the study.[i]
I promise I won’t share any more scary statistics with you this morning. You get the point—climate change is hurting people, physically and mentally, right now. It is not just a matter of habitat destruction for plants and animals, or some future damage that might occur as sea levels rise. It is an actively harmful force menacing our world at this present moment.
That is where the church comes in, or can come in. What the response to that 2021 survey tells us is that young people have lost faith in institutions because institutions have failed them. Governments have certainly failed them—failed all of us, really. The church needs to do something different, to be something different, and we need to start now. For more and more of us, facing the immediate threat that climate change poses to all of creation may be exactly what following Jesus looks like in the 21st century.
When Jesus gave us, the church, the responsibility to tend to his flock, he was demonstrating tremendous faith in us. At a moment like the one we live in, it might well feel like more than we can handle. But remember, this invitation, this call to discipleship, came at a moment when those who loved him had every reason to think that the movement was over, all hope was lost, and there was no choice left except to return to their old way of life and muddle through as best they could.
Jesus had something else in mind—not defeat, not despair, not helplessness, but hope and new life. And he didn’t leave us to figure it out alone, abandoned to our own devices. We’re not being asked to do anything by our own power or to go anywhere that Jesus has not already gone. We are being called to follow, even into treacherous and frightening places, but to follow in community—as a flock, if you will—and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We have to demonstrate our faith through our actions if we want the church to have a meaningful role to play in the world, if we want people to believe that we are a place where they can find God’s presence active and alive, find God’s love nourishing and empowering them—a place, in other words, where they can find hope and companions for the journey.
When Jesus tells Peter to tend to his sheep, we may hear in his words a reminder of our first vocation as human beings, the charge that was given to us all the way back in Genesis to tend and keep the garden, to care for creation as a good farmer cares for her fields. By repeatedly asking Peter to demonstrate his love by tending and feeding his flock, Jesus is reminding us that love is an action, a verb, something that is tangible and embodied. And furthermore, no matter how many times we fail at that responsibility or fall down on the job, we will be forgiven and our call will be renewed. As Professor Joy J Moore puts it, understanding the story this way can lead us “to recognize that God hasn’t given up on us and that’s good news.”[ii]
Maybe things like playing with baby goats or starting a garden feel like tiny steps, too small to make any difference to the enormous challenges we face. But the truth is, even these tiny steps have the power to change the world. How? Through love. The more we know creation, in its specific and local particulars, the more we will love it and recognize in it all of God’s redeeming work. For me, it is love for goats and gardening, my family and my faith community, not to mention books and food and dogs and so much more! For you, it might be your love of children, or camping, or a particular landscape. We have to turn our love into action.
Do you love me? Feed the soil so that plants can thrive.
Do you love me? Tend to the oceans, the coral reefs, the rivers and watersheds, so that our children have clean water to drink and can trust the land beneath their feet.
Do you love me? Feed the bees and other pollinators with wildflowers and native plants, with crops free from pesticides and herbicides, so that we can continue to be fruitful and multiply.[iii]
Jesus is clear that love is the answer, the way forward, the thing the world needs most, then and now and always. Love God. Love one another. Love the world. Amen.
[i] https://www.npr.org/2021/09/14/1037023551/climate-change-children-young-adults-anxious-worried-study
[ii] https://www.workingpreacher.org/podcasts/842-third-sunday-of-easter-c-may-1-2022
[iii] This final “Do you love me?” section was inspired by a similar reflection in the wonderful book Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred (Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2021) by Victoria Loorz.
