As we go through the Gospels in the Daily Office and the
Eucharistic services of the year, we run into the same passages again and again
so that even though we may not know exactly where we found them, we know we
have heard them. The Eucharistic reading for today, the feast of Saints Peter
and Paul, offer us a familiar story that seems so applicable this go-around.
To begin with, it
seems to start as an ordinary day, with Jesus and the disciples having
breakfast. Funny, I never really thought about Jesus having breakfast. It
certainly wasn’t raisin bran or Cap’n Crunch out-of-the-box, but I wonder what
he did have? That’s just an idle question; there’s more serious stuff to be
thought about.
Jesus begins to question Peter with the words, “Do you love
me…”. Of course, Peter is going to affirm that yes, indeed he does love Jesus
more than than the others in the group. Then Jesus tells him to tend his sheep.
I wonder if Peter caught the real meaning of that statement. He knew that there
weren’t any actual sheep around to be herded, but did he understand that Jesus
meant those who were still learning about him and his message.
Jesus asked Peter again if he loved him, and Peter, of
course, said a bit more forcefully that of course, he did. Then Jesus said,
“Tend my sheep.”
Then Jesus does it a third time, asking again if Peter
really loved him. The rating tells us that Peter was hurt. He had told Jesus
twice that he loved him, so why did he ask a third time? This time he was a
little testier when he replied to Jesus, “Lord, you know everything; you know
that I love you.” After that, Jesus told Peter to feed his sheep. Jesus then
went on to talk about how Peter and the other disciples had passed their youth
where they could put on their belts and go where they pleased. The time would
come where someone else would put a strap on them and force them to go where
they had no desire to be. Of course, Jesus was talking about how the disciples
would end up just as he would soon be, in death, probably very painfully. He
also wanted to make sure that Peter and the others knew that their mission now
was to tend to, feed, and teach as many as possible, both young and old. Death
was coming for all of them, and they needed to realize that and be ready.
I think the phrases “Feed/tend my sheep/lambs” are probably
as relevant now as they ever have been. We see daily pictures of children
forcibly separated from their parents by human jailers rather than armies and
rebel groups. We see those children packed into detention centers, many of them
mere tents, far from their parents, lost, alone, frightened, dirty, sometimes
sickly, and probably hungry. These are lambs, and lambs are supposed to be
tended, fed, and cared for because they don’t know how to fight for
themselves. They have been denied soap,
toothbrushes, clean clothes and diapers, blankets, warm places to sleep, and so
many other things that our own children take for granted. It’s enough to break
anyone’s heart, especially those who take the words of Jesus very seriously.
These lambs have not been fed and tended. They are lost sheep, lost lambs, who
don’t know where they are, or what’s going to happen to them.
Their parents are probably not much better off than their
children, although the parents have many more coping skills than someone
between the ages of a few months and ten years. Again Jesus has told us to
feed/tend those people who have sought green pastures and safety in a land far
from their own troubled homelands. We don’t seem to be doing a very good job of
following Jesus’s words, and this is not an isolated case. Victims of famine
and starvation, warfare and mistreatment around the world face the same
problems. Even though the children may not be separated from their parents, the
families still have to fight to exist in lands where plenty is a word no one
knows.
I wonder what Jesus would say if he came back right now.
There would be many who would rush to touch him or to speak to him or to even
worship him, but yet who have ignored many of the lessons that he taught us
through the Gospels. They may have good excuses, or so people will think, but I
don’t imagine Jesus would approve of those excuses. He would recall to them
stories of how the Israelites were mistreated in several exiles and to have, in
essence, returned the favor with the Palestinians. I think there are a lot of
things Jesus would take exception to, especially proclaiming oneself to be
Christian but ignoring all the lessons that deal with relations with Gentiles,
children, women, aliens, weak, or sick, but especially those who claim to
follow Jesus but who do so by mouth only with no heart in it.
Please, God, could we have a week where the children are
taken care of in the way they should be, no matter whose children they are? Can
they not be warehouse like cattle, or treated like enemies instead of as lambs.
Can we feed and tend the sheep and the lambs as we should? Once we try it, we
might find our hearts are a little more open, our vision a little more acute,
and our brains more filled with thoughts of love and not suspicion and hatred.
Please God, help us to tend the sheep and lambs, in Jesus’ name.
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