Co-missioners, 

Back in 2022 the Rev. Dr. Steve Albertin, serving that year as interim pastor at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in Carmel, Indiana, sent us a sermon he had just preached on the texts for the Third Sunday of Easter, Year C (Revised Common Lectionary). Three days from now a lot of us will hear those texts again. With this in mind we pass along Steve’s sermon as something to read and reflect on with thanks to God this week 

Peace and Joy, 
The Crossings Community 

__________________________________________________________________ 

 

The Other Charcoal Fire 

A Sermon on John 21:1-19 
by Steven E. Albertin 

Scott Norwood made one mistake and the world will never let him forget it. In Super Bowl XXV on January 27, 1991, he missed a 47-yard last-second field goal. TV sportscaster Al Michaels exclaimed “wide right.” His team. the Buffalo Bills. lost to the New York Giants by one point 20-19. Scott Norwood’s football career petered out after that. Football historians will always remember Scott Norwood for his historic muff. In 2004, 13 years after it happened Sports Illustrated featured him in an article called “Life After Wide Right.” The world won’t forget the mistake he made.  

The same could also be said for St. Peter were it not for the incident recorded in today’s Gospel. Peter may have been the foremost of Jesus’ twelve disciples but when his moment came to shine, he blew it. He committed an error of historic proportions. Remember when he stood before a charcoal fire outside the courtroom the night when Jesus was on trial? A servant girl recognized him as one of Jesus’ followers. It would have been just the right time for Peter to stand up and speak out. He could have shined like he did that day at Caesarea Philippi when he boldly confessed that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. He could have stepped forward and defended his master. Instead Peter denied knowing Jesus. In fact, he denied knowing Jesus three times. Then when he heard the cock crow, he went out and wept. It was the biggest failure of his life. He could have been a hero and won the game, but he blew it.  

That is where Peter’s life would have ended if Jesus had not shown up alive that day on the shore of the Sea of Tiberius. Even though Peter had seen the empty tomb, even though he had been there in that locked room in Jerusalem when Jesus twice showed up alive to reveal that he had risen from the dead, he had failed to connect the dots. He failed to see how it had changed the world and could change his life. Instead, he went back to his former occupation as a fisherman at the Sea of Tiberius. It was back to business as usual. He announced to his friends, “I am going fishing.” 

Peter sounds like a small businessman whose dreams of success had failed. It was time to turn off the lights, lock the doors and go back to his old job as a fisherman. However, even the attempt to get his old job back seemed doomed. He and his buddies had been out all night fishing and had caught nothing. Now he had failed twice. He had blown it both as a disciple and as a fisherman.  

Then just as the sun was rising, a stranger stood on the beach and instructed the tired and defeated fishermen to cast their net on the right side of the boat. It was Jesus alive, risen from the dead, but Peter and his friends did not know it was Jesus. This time they struck gold. They did not drop the ball or miss the free throw. The field goal did not drift wide right. They made the play and won the game. They caught so many fish in their net that they could not pull it in.  

Jesus had been resurrected from the dead and was again calling out to Peter. This time, when Peter recognized that the man on the shore as Jesus, he tried to cover himself up, just as Adam and Eve had tried to hide their nakedness from God after they had blown it in the Garden of Eden. The face of Jesus and the sound of his voice calling out in the early dawn light stuck a knife in his heart. Peter could not forget that night when he had blown it, not just once but three times. When Peter got to the shore, again he must have felt as though he was being punched in the stomach. He saw another charcoal fire that was just like the first charcoal fire he saw that shameful night in the courtyard when he blew it and denied his Lord three times. What was Jesus doing to him? Was he just trying to rub his failure in his nose? Was Jesus going to make him pay again for his failure? 

It is then that Jesus must have utterly surprised Peter. Jesus makes it clear that he has not come to confront Peter with his historic error . . . but to undo the error and correct the mistake! At that first charcoal fire in the courtyard, three times Peter had blown it. But this charcoal fire is different. The first charcoal fire haunted Peter with memories of his failure. At this charcoal fire, Jesus forgives Peter of his failure. Three times Jesus assures Peter that he no longer needs to hide in shame. Three times Jesus assures Peter that his call to “feed/tend my sheep” still is his, despite his failure at that first charcoal fire. 

Jesus was not going to give up on Peter even though he had lost the equivalent of the Super Bowl. For Peter, there would no longer be the shameful memory that he could not flee. “The field goal that drifted wide right” against the Giants was forgiven. There would be no more boos, jeers and bad memories. There in the early dawn at another, a different, charcoal fire Peter was forgiven and resurrected. 

Jesus is determined to handle errors this way: to lift them and their suffocating shame with His grace and mercy. He forgave the errors of the notorious tax collector, Zaccheus, and transformed his life with forgiveness. He repelled the attacks on the woman caught in adultery and forgave her. He removed the shame of lepers, cripples, thieves and other such outcasts and forgave them. Even though they lost the game, even though they would be numbered with the Scott Norwoods in eternity, Jesus was determined to assure them that God had not given up on them even if the rest of the world had.  

Today’s First Reading is another example of Jesus undoing an unforgettable error. Saul- about-to-become-Paul had been a vicious persecutor of the followers of Jesus. He had been there cheering on the bloodthirsty crowd when they stoned Stephen to death. He is on his way to Damascus to carry out a Gestapo-like purge of Jesus’ followers in that city. Saul was “still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” But Jesus abruptly interrupts Saul’s life. Saul falls to the ground. A light flashes around him. Jesus speaks to him. Jesus confronts him but then does what no one would have expected. Jesus halts Saul’s assault on Jesus’ followers not to make Saul pay for his sins, not to expose his historic errors, but to forgive Saul, to undo the shame  and change his life. That’s exactly what Jesus did. Saul became St. Paul—the greatest missionary in the history of the Christian Church.  

The early Christians could not forget what happened between Peter and Jesus that early morning on the shore of the Sea of Tiberius because they saw themselves in it. Peter’s story is our story. Just like Peter, we commit our errors. The field goal has repeatedly drifted wide right. We deny our Lord Jesus with our all too often faithless and cowardly lives. We blow it at the charcoal fire, and not just three times but too many times to count. All too often, we have lost the game. The crowd boos and we want to run and hide. Our projects fail. Our dreams disappoint. We decide to chuck it all and go back to fishing. Then Jesus suddenly appears on the beach. He calls out our name. He invites us to come ashore. He shows us a charcoal fire, but this charcoal fire is different. At this charcoal fire, he says to us: “Remember your Baptism.” As we gather around his table, he says, “This is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you—for the forgiveness of your sins!” 

Jesus comes not to shame us for our historic errors and to torture us with forever with their embarrassing memory, but to forgive them and to give us a new ball game. Just as He never gave up on Peter, just as He never gave up on Saul, He will never give up on us. 

Therefore, we can follow Him just as Paul did even to his death in Rome, just as Peter did to his death on a cross in Rome, just as all the saints have done in that long line of believers who have walked this way before us. As portrayed in today’s Second Reading from the Book of Revelation, we can join them in singing a glorious hymn praising God accompanied by the angels, “the living creatures and elders numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands” (vs.11) all surrounding the throne of Lamb who was slain, the risen and triumphant Christ.  

We can do that boldly, confidently and joyfully because Jesus Christ has forgiven our vacillations, our denials and our resignation to go back to fishing. He has given us a fresh start, a new life and an opportunity to follow Him as we feed his sheep and invite others to join us at that other charcoal fire, where all is forgiven. 

Did you hear that, Scott Norwood?