Equipped

John 21:1-19

How do you begin again after you lose someone? Jesus has shown himself to the disciples, but they don't know what to do now. Whose the leader? How will they operate? Jesus gives Peter the clues. Three clues to be exact: Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.

Feed is in here twice. One is for the youngest and most vulnerable. Feed my lambs. The ones who can't feed themselves. Or maybe the ones who when we tend to feed, feed us also. The young are vulnerable, they need the support they lack. At the Big Provincial Gathering we talked about tending to ones who have started college and are in the foster system. Most of these have no support and need the support of others. This is feeding the lambs.

In another group we had talked about how bullying can lead to desperate actions in young people. We were taught to ask the question about their safety this way: "Some people who experience what you experience think of suicide. Are you thinking about suicide?" Then leave the space for them to unpack their bag about how they got to this point and then asking how we can help them be safe. This is feeding the lambs.

Tend the sheep. Now this is an action verb, tend. It means to direct or manage or wait on as a servant. This sounds familiar, it is what Jesus did with the foot washing in John. Here at the seaside Jesus emphasizes this again. Tend the sheep. Yesterday we had a group of lay leaders in congregations who spoke about not feeling tended to. Or the feelings they had on tending a congregation without a priest.

The best presenter had four congregations she attended to but it was to support them in finding their own ministry. We have found in churches that the ones which thrive are those who engage their people in discipleship. In finding their own gifts and using them to serve the whole. This not only tends to them, but also leads to the second part where they feel fed.

Feeding the sheep is making sure they don't eat something which will kill them. I found this out on a trip to a sheep farm with one of my children. Sheep eat everything in the pasture. So the shepherd has to regularly check the fields for the bad plants which will kill them because they eat them. 

There are many things we all do which don't lead to life. Sometimes its in thinking our group needs to believe all the same things. Yet this doesn't lead to life. Studies have been done and it has been shown that the more diverse a community is the more it thrives.

Jesus went to the Samaritans. A group of people the Jews thought had wrong beliefs, different than their own and shouldn't be included in with them. They had it right and those people had it wrong. Separate groups. Then Jesus comes along and mixes it up. Not only with healing them or talking to them, but giving us stories of their example. Stories which point to them being able to teach us something. 

Feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep. It is the last thing Jesus says to Peter and one of the last things we get from John. It is a direction for us to follow in. Because when we are lost and wondering if we will be able to go on this is our direction forward. It may lead us to talk with others whom we haven't met before. It may help us attain the diversity we need to go forward. It can help us fish for people.

Jesus didn't leave us directionless. He leaves us a set of instructions. How can we now go and feed and tend the sheep in our communities? This is now our way forward.