Sunday Homily, June 29, 2014, Peter & Paul
Readings:
Acts 12, 1-11, The chains fell from his wrists.
Psalm 34, The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.
2 Timothy 4, 6-8, 17-18, The Lord stood by me and gave me strength.
John 21, 15-19, Simon, son of John, do you love me.
Acts, a quick review–
Luke wrote this and his gospel, around 65, covering the time after the resurrection and onto Rome.
Our selection describes Peter's imaginative escape from jail.
John: I want to use the gospel passage from the Vigil Mass, the story about Jesus asking Peter, "Do you love me?" Watch how this story can be unpacked from something fairly simple to something with more finesse.
Do you love me?
I want to talk this morning about the little dialogue between Jesus and Peter. It looks pretty simple and straight forward. Jesus says, “Do you love me?” Peter responds, “You know I love you.”
You have probably heard the simple explication that it is a triple statement of love after a triple denial. It ain’t so simple. You may have heard me talk about this in the past, but it bears repeating.
By way of an introduction, let me tell a little story.
Last Monday I am at the “J” for the 6:00 A.M. spin class, the Jewish Community Center near our house. There are about 20 people there, all ages, males and females, some in pretty good shape, some not. The instructor or coach or whatever he is, is a tall slender, in shape black guy. He knows everybody’s name, calls you out during the class, like, “Come on, John, you can do better than that,” when I am already putting out so much I am about to faint.
Most of all he has the mouth, the language. He’s beautiful. He says a lot of crazy things to get us going, and if I was not going so flat out, I could enjoy him even more. So, I love to tease him. He asks everyone how they’re doing 5 minutes before the end of the session and after all the others have said they are doing great, I say I am dying and I say I know that makes him happy.
So after dying in Monday’s class and while I am cleaning up the stationary bike, I say to him, “Hey, Ben, if you really love me like you profess (he’s never told me he loves me, rather the contrary), in three weeks you would come with me to ride across Iowa in the Ragbrai bike tour.”
You can imagine what he says. He does not deny that he loves me. But he says that he is not the stud biker like I am. Pretty slippery. Of course, I make some smart response like, “So much for your love for me.”
This story exemplifies a bit how the dialogue between Jesus and Peter can be seen.
There is play on the word love here that is totally lost in the English. Two Greek words are used for love, agapo and phileo. Let’s say that agapo means love, but phileo means, say, care for. Watch what happens with the 3 back and forths.
The first time, Jesus says, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?”, he uses agapo, do you love me?
Peter responds, “You know that I love you.” Guess what. He uses the word phileo. I care for you. Does that not make a significant difference?
The second time, Jesus only says, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Again he uses agapo.
Peter responds exactly the same, “You know that I love you.” Guess which word he uses. Phileo. I care for you.
Third time, Jesus says, “Simon, son of John, do you care for me?” Jesus switches word. This time he uses phileo, care for.
Peter responds, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I care for you.”
So what is the author John trying to convey by crafting this little vignette? Who knows really? Apparently Peter has become a more humble, less braggadocio person. Look at where it begins with Jesus asking about loving more than the others. What would the old Peter have said? And look at where it ends, Jesus lowering his expectations and Peter sticking to his first statement. Beyond that, who can say?
Question this week: how do you deal with the mystery that is this bible?