Care for My People by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

In the Broadway show, Fiddler on the Roof, the world is changing around Tevye, his wife Golde and their daughters. There are political changes and family changes to be sure.  None of his daughters want to submit to the arranged marriages of the local match-maker. Tevye pauses to reflect on love and asks Golde, his wife of twenty-five years, “Do you love me?” She calls him a fool. She talks about how for twenty-five years “I've washed your clothes
Cooked your meals, cleaned your house, given you children, milked the cow.” Then she says, “After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?”

But Tevye wants to know, “Golde, do you love me.” He sings about their wedding day and how nervous and shy they both were. He asks her again, “Golde, do you love me?” And she says, “I suppose I do.” And he says that he loves her too. You see, Tevye and Golde are going through difficult times, and he needs to know that she loves him. He needs the reassurance. He needs her commitment. They need one another. 

Today’s scripture takes us to the days following the resurrection of Jesus. (John 21: 1-19  from The Message paraphrase for those following along from the internet) Jesus asks one of his disciples the same question over and over again: “Peter, do you love me?” Jesus needs to be sure of Peter’s love because the road ahead is going to be an arduous one for the disciples. Jesus needs to be sure Peter has the commitment and the drive that will carry him through. 

You see, the disciples are feeling lost. The world is falling apart around them. Do you ever feel like that? Jesus may have risen from the dead, but they are still left behind without him. They are feeling lost and alone. They don’t quite know what to do with themselves. So they do the only thing they know how to do. They go back home and start fishing again. Everything in their lives has just been turned upside down by Jesus, but they just go back to their old familiar lives. Do you ever return to your comfort zone when things get scary?

That’s where we pick up our story for today  . Peter announces: “I’m going fishing,” and the others say, “We’re going with you.” They go out and fish all night, casting their nets out the side of the boat and they catch nothing. Not one fish. They are discouraged, to say the least. 

When the sun came up, Jesus was standing on the beach but they did not recognize him at first. ⁵ Jesus spoke to them: “Good morning! Did you catch anything for breakfast?” They answered, “No.” ⁶ He said, “Throw the net off the right side of the boat and see what happens.”  They did what he said. All of a sudden there were so many fish in it, they weren’t strong enough to pull it in.  ^7-9 Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Master!”  ^10-11 Jesus said, “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” Simon Peter joined them and pulled the net to shore—153 big fish! And even with all those fish, the net didn’t rip.

The number 153 is significant but that is the number of known nations at the time. The disciples were about to be called to all the nations. ¹² Jesus said, “Breakfast is ready.” Not one of the disciples dared ask, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Master.  Then the most important conversation of this passage begins. It’s a bit like the conversation between Tevye and Golde as the Jesus asks the same question over and over for emphasis. 

¹⁵ After breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (meaning the other disciples).  “Yes, Master, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶ Jesus then asked a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you.” Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.”^17-19 Then Jesus said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was upset that he asked for the third time, “Do you love me?” so he answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. . . And then he commanded, “Follow me.”

Why does Jesus ask the same question three times, over and over again, and instruct Simon Peter three times to feed his sheep? He wants to be sure that Peter gets the message. The disciples are not meant to go back to their lives of fishing. When Jesus first called them he said, “We’re going to go fishing for people.” And he meant it. 

He tells Peter this time, “Feed my sheep and follow me” because he expects Peter to go out into the world and care for the people and to spread the good news of God’s love. He expects Peter and the other disciples to change the world, which they do eventually. We are here because Peter and the disciples were faithful. They answered the call to change the world.   We are here today because Peter & disciples did do just that.

Let me tell you about some other disciples that are changing the world. You know there is a civil war in Syria. The war has displaced more than 12 million people since it began in 2011. About 2000 Syrians have come to the US and eight of those families are in Toledo. Omar Al-Awad, his wife Hiyam and their three children are one of the newest families to arrive in Toledo. They live at Kenwood Gardens. Awad is a carpenter from the Syrian city of Homs. The war destroyed his home and his business. His family spent two years at a refugee camp in Jordan but there was no future for them there. So they came to Toledo. A local group called Water for Ishmael offers free language lessons for new arrivals and day care for the younger kids at a small local church. As the children head off to a classroom, Omar begins the long road to learning English. Omar and his family will come to the church a few times a week for these lessons.

Language training is just one small piece of this resettlement puzzle. A network of volunteers helps provide everything these new refugees need to get started. Epworth United Methodist Church, one of our sister United Methodist Churches, has a furniture ministry and they are providing furniture for these refugee families. One woman in Toledo ties all these threads together— English lessons, housing, and furniture. 

Her name it Corine Dehabey, coordinator of Us Together. Dehabey is the only paid staffer at her organization; everyone else is a volunteer. She's constantly being pulled in 12 directions. She met the Awads at the airport and she drives them to English lessons. She does this for all the Syrian refugees in Toledo. Her group is funded by an organization called HIAS — which used to stand for "Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society," because it was founded to resettle Jews fleeing persecution more than a century ago.  She says: "That's real humanity. ... You want to help everybody, you put religion on the side. That's it, we're human before religion was formed" That’s what she says about this historically Jewish group taking mostly donations from Christian churches to help mostly Muslim immigrants. She says: "So that's what makes the United States unique because everybody comes together to help this person."

Last month, President Obama announced that the U.S. will increase the number of Syrian refugees it takes in to 10,000 over the coming year. But by comparison, 20,000 migrants arrived in Munich, Germany, in a single weekend recently. So we are only doing a small part compared to some other countries. 

Several churches in Toledo are helping these refugee families. These church members are disciples living out Jesus’ commandment to feed his sheep and to follow him. They are caring for people who have nothing and who are trying to make a new life after leaving a country that is torn apart by war. Helping these families is one way to follow Jesus and change the world. 

I wonder what more our church might do to care for people. How could we come together to follow Jesus and change the world? Last month I asked the Lead Team to pray about this question: “How has God called us to make a difference in the next 1 to 3 years?” We are going to meet today to discuss our responses to that question. If you have any ideas I invite you to give them to someone on the Lead Team after the service. 

We each do things individually to feed Jesus’ sheep. Any time we care for people by doing an act of love or compassion for another, we are feeding Jesus’ sheep. We are following Jesus. 

I wonder what we can do together. We can make a bigger impact when we come together to do something. We can probably make an even bigger impact if we partner with an existing project to feed Jesus’ sheep. I have some ideas and I’ll bet you do too. 

The point is this: if we say we love Jesus then our actions must match up with our words. We must do something to show that we care for Jesus’ people. Those first disciples had the opportunity to live and walk with Jesus first hand. They did some amazing things while Jesus was alive and then when he was gone, they almost blew it. They almost just went back to life as it was before, fishing on the Sea of Galilee. But Jesus came back to them one last time and said, “No, you can’t stay here fishing. You have to go out and feed my sheep. You have to care for my people. You have to continue the mission.”   And that is what they did.

This is what Jesus is saying to us today. We are called to go out into the world and feed his sheep – making a difference in the world. So let’s answer Jesus’ call. Let’s follow Jesus and truly change the world.