Smoke in his Nostrils
Preached on May 2, 2010 by Susan Scott (John 21:1-25)
I want you to smell some things with me, in your imaginations. Warm chocolate
chip cookies. A chlorinated swimming pool. Dirty, sweaty socks. Lilacs. And last
of all, fire. In fact, let’s gather around that fire Jesus built on the beach. Get right
up close and feel the warmth. Breath in the smoke and smell it. One way our
memories are triggered is through odor. I smell chocolate chip cookies, and I
think of coming home from grade school to discover than my mom had been
baking. I smell chlorine, my eyes string, and I am reminded of those humiliatingly
awful bathing suits – color coded by size, no less! — which we were required to
wear during gym class on swim days. Dirty, sweaty socks? Being in the car with
teenaged boys. Lilacs? That’s spring for sure. And a fire? Fires remind me of
sitting around the fire pit in the patio of my childhood home. Many summer
evenings, when I was a teenager, I’d sit around that fire with my family and talk
late into the evening. Odors evoke memories and emotions, for good and for bad.
No doubt this fire on the beach is evocative for Peter. At least John is intending
for us to understand that. John, the writer of this account, is careful with his
words. His gospel is highly structured and continuously functions on multiple
levels. Twice in his gospel he uses a particular word for fire, ανθρακια,. What
English word comes from this term? (Anthracite). An ανθρακια is a coal fire.
There are only two times when John chooses to use this technical term, rather
than the generic πυρ and, knowing John, we know that’s not an accident. It was
a coal fire which Peter stood around in the high priest’s courtyard when he
denied even knowing Jesus three times. And it is a coal fire which Jesus builds
on the beach and whose smell is in Peter’s nostrils when Jesus asks him three
times if he loves him.
What does that fire smell like for Peter? Disloyalty, cowardice, fear, failure,
betrayal, humiliation …. With that smell in his nostrils, three times Peter tells
Jesus that he does indeed love him. What is Jesus doing here? He is healing
Peter’s memory. Jesus is rewriting the memory the smell of a coal fire will trigger
for Peter in the future. “Peter, do you love me?” And three times Peter tells him
yes, I do love you.
I’ve heard the Rev. Dr. Russ Parker (Director of the Acorn Foundation) talk about
the importance of healing our memories of places, smells, and sights. He will
intentionally hold healing services at accident sites, not services about the
accident, but general services of healing, so that a location becomes less
associated with tragedy, and more associated with God at work. God can heal
our memories so that we can move ahead with our lives. And Jesus has
important things for Peter to do; Peter must be set free from his shame and
humiliation.
Peter was opposed to Jesus going to Jerusalem with all its risk of death. Peter
was full of enthusiasm for Jesus, but had also been confused about Jesus’ real
purpose. In effect, Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love me as I am, not as you’d
hoped I be?” It’s a question for us, as well. Are we enthusiastic for the real Jesus,
or just the one we want him to be? Do we love God, or only our ideas about God,
the God of our imaginations, the God who will further our own agendas?
Do you love me? It is the ultimate question God has for each of us. Love of God
is the basis for the life of discipleship. Anything else, as a basis for discipleship,
leads to a distorted Christianity. Without love for Jesus, Peter won’t be able to
face what is ahead. He won’t be able to tend the lambs and he won’t be able to
face the death that will be his. Here on the beach Jesus tells Peter that a time will
come when he will be taken where he does not want to go. Church history tells
us that Peter eventually dies by crucifixion during Nero’s reign for the
entertainment of the crowds in the Coliseum in Rome.
Do you love me? Then follow me. Keep your eyes on me. Don’t run off on your
own, thinking you know better. This isn’t about you and your ideas about my
reign, it’s about me and my ideas. It’s about following me.
Often we’ve seen Peter full of enthusiasm — he’s the one who dares to get out of
the boat and walk on the water toward Jesus, he’s the one who swims to shore in
today’s lesson when he spies Jesus on the beach, he’s the one who offers to
build shelters for Moses and Elijah at the Tranfiguration, and he’s the one who
cuts off the ear of one of Jesus’ captors. Sometimes his enthusiasm has born
wonderful results and sometimes it has left Jesus shaking his head. If Peter is
going to go where following Jesus will take him, he needs all of his enthusiasm,
and he needs to rivet his eyes to Jesus and not run off like an independent
agent.
Do you love me? Then follow me. Keep your eyes on me. Don’t run off on your
own, thinking you know better. This isn’t about you and your ideas about my
reign, it’s about me and my ideas. It’s about following me.
Do you love me? Then don’t get distracted by others. Jesus has warned Peter
that he has some suffering ahead of him and Peter responds like many of us
would respond. He wants to know what will happen to John. Is he going to suffer,
too? Will things be fair?
Jesus completely blows him off. “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what
is that to you? Follow me!” What it that to you? For some of us, it may be nearly
everything. Why am I the one stuck with the suffering? How come he gets to
avoid martyrdom? When we see someone who is better off than we are, who has
more income, more recognition, better-behaved children, better health, bigger
house, or a happier family, a sharper careet — and especially if they don’t seem
to deserve or appreciate it — we wonder how come we don’t have that. This isn’t
fair. Only occasionally do we wonder why we have it so good — why we have
three meals a day, access to health care, and a safe community, when so many
people around the world lack those things. We may forget that that isn’t fair
either.
But this isn’t about fair. It’s about love. The love of God which compels us to
follow Jesus wherever he lead us. We don’t get to learn anyone else’s story. Why
is it that Peter is martyred and John dies in old age? We don’t know. That’s none
of our business. We’re to follow Jesus where he leads us.
Do you love me? As I am, not as you want me to be? Do you love me even when
things don’t seem fair? Do you love me enough to follow where I lead you?
That’s a real question for anyone who claims to be a Christian. So let’s sit with
that question for a moment.
Close your eyes if that will help you stay focused. Turn or return your attention to
Jesus. Just look at him on the beach healing and commissioning Peter. (pause)
What does it smell like? What are the sounds? Look at Jesus’ face; look at
Peter’s face. Enter into the scene.
Now imagine that you are holding your love for Jesus as a gift in your hands.
Look at the gift. Is your love hot or cold? Is it fresh or stale? Is it big or small?
(pause)
No matter its size or heat, if you offer it to Jesus, he can set it on fire. Let’s do
that now. See yourself offering this gift to him.
Pray: Come, Holy Spirit, come fire of God, and set these gifts on fire, set our lives
on fire. Come and have your way with us. (pause) Amen