3 Easter C 2010

April 18, 2010
The Rev. Susan J. Latimer

Some of us are drawn to the sea.

Its majesty and mystery – its awesome power and fecundity draws us.
The sea nourishes, inspires, cleanses, and sometimes destroys.
Many people go to the sea for spiritual inspiration.
For some, it is where the line between heaven and earth is thin –
a “thin place” – in the language of the celtic church.
For all of these reasons, for many people,
the sea is a place to encounter God.

From my earliest memories, the Pacific Ocean drew me like a magnet.
The minute the car door opened I would run to the shore and wade in as far as my parents would allow. My extended family spent a week at the beach each year, and I spent as much time in the water as possible.
As I grew older, the hunger did not weaken.
I remember one day in my late teens or early twenties, when a friend and I had gone for a long winter walk on Moonlight Beach, when we couldn’t stand it any more – we both jumped in the ocean with our jeans on, just so we could be immersed in the cool salty waves.

When we moved to Maine, I asked to go to the beach on my birthday
in the middle of February. It was, as you might expect, frigid
in the twenties with a strong wind.
We bundled up in our warmest winter clothes and boots – and I brought extra clothes for the kids, who were in their snowsuits, jackets, and snow boots. Sure enough, they could not resist the call of the sea. Both of them were soon soaked from their play in the wintry waves.

If you are one of these folks who is drawn to the sea,
you know what it is
to hunger for the first taste of salt on your tongue,
the first sight of sea birds soaring,
the first glimpse of a thin line of blue-grey on the horizon
the first feel of sand between your toes,
the tang of salt water as it hits your skin.

The hunger for the sea, for the ocean, for some of us, is a physical force that pervades our bodies and souls.
It still catches me by surprise, sometimes, with its power and force.

So I always smile when I hear the story of Peter jumping into the water, fully clothed,
because he can’t wait another second to be with Jesus -

because his whole body is so hungry for God…..

Of all the disciples, Peter is the impetuous one – he throws himself headlong into life, body and soul.
Peter reminds me of something a college friend of mine once said,
“I’d rather be wrong than boring”. ( Victoria Clark )

Peter often gets it wrong, but he is never boring.

At the Last Supper, Peter does the dramatic reversal at the footwashing –
First he tells Jesus he can’t possibly let him wash his feet
– and then,
realizing why Jesus needs to do this, says,
“Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

During that long night of betrayal, Peter denies Christ 3 times –
after he has denied that he was capable of such a thing.

Peter often gets it wrong.
But he loves Jesus, and he keeps trying, and the Risen Christ forgives him.

After their breakfast of fish and bread, Jesus asks Peter the same question 3 times.
Their exchange is like a litany, a liturgy of forgiveness and reconciliation – and a commissioning – all in one:

“Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
“Yes, Lord, you know that I love you”
“Feed my sheep”

Three times Peter denied Jesus
and now three times he professes his love for Jesus.
Three times Christ questions Peter –
And three times Christ gives him a mission:
“Feed those who belong to me”

Peter lived with a burning hunger for God. Christ recognized that hunger.
He knew that many others had the same hunger, and that Peter’s life could be given so that multitudes were fed.

And so Peter, whose name means Rock, became the Rock upon which the entire Church is founded. He continued on, forgiven, but still flawed, still getting it wrong much of the time, very much like we do.

The story of Peter and Jesus tells us that despite our failings,
despite our doubts and denials, “The Risen Christ still calls, still feeds, still empowers us” all for ministry in his Holy name.” ( T Troeger )
I just started reading a wonderful book that tells another story of
calling, feeding, and empowering.

“Take this Bread” by Sara Miles, is a story of a modern woman’s hunger for God – a hunger that takes her completely by surprise.
The surprise for her began one day when she, a self-described
“blue-state, secular intellectual, a lesbian;
a left-wing journalist with a habit of skepticism”

walked into a church and took communion for the first time.
This was St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church in San Francisco, a church known for its elaborate liturgies and its open table – open communion.
And so Sara was able to take communion with no prior preparation.

“Eating Jesus, as I did that day to my great astonishment, led me against all my expectations to a faith I’d scorned, and work I’d never imagined. (xi)
“I still can’t explain my first communion,” she said. “It made no sense.
I was in tears and physically unbalanced… ( 58 )

Although her grandparents on both sides had been missionaries, her parents had shunned institutional religion completely.
Sara had been raised with a contempt towards the church.
So to say that her reaction took her completely by surprise is a stunning understatement.

I couldn’t reconcile the experience with anything I knew or had been told. But neither could I go away. For some inexplicable reason, I wanted that bread again. I wanted it all the next day after my first communion, and the next week, and the next. It was a sensation as urgent as physical hunger, pulling me back to the table at St. Gregory’s through my fear and confusion. ( 60 )

Through her hunger for communion, for God and community, Sara began to feed Jesus’ sheep. She “started a food pantry and gave away literally tons of fruit and vegetables and cereal around the same altar where she’d first received the body of Christ.” She organized new food pantries all over the city of San Francisco in order to provide hundreds of hungry families with free groceries every week.

Peter and Sara – thousands of years apart - both hungry for God,
both deeply flawed, both unlikely people to be God’s messengers –
both feeding others in miraculous ways through the love of God.

Both Peter and Sara show us that when we listen to our hunger for God, when we let it direct our life, anything is possible.

Where will our hunger for God lead us?