Easter 3C 2025

by Rev. Dr. Molly Scherm

​On my day spent with my grandson Elliot this week, we played several rounds of his current favorite board game, “Race to the Roof”.  Like the old game Chutes and Ladders, each player tries to get to the end first, by rolling dice.  In Race to the Roof, if you roll a six, you pick a card that has a picture of an object found somewhere in the house – the teddy bear in the baby’s room, the turkey on the dining room table, the first aid kit in the bathroom, and the like – and when you’ve found the pictured object you then move to that room, either gaining or losing ground in your journey to the roof.

Elliot desperately wants to roll sixes: it’s the basic thrill of gambling, but I’ll give him credit that when a card sends him back to the basement, he’s good humored about it.  At four years old, he’s inclined to roll the die off the table and, when I can’t see it, tell me he rolled a six.  Sometimes when he rolls a one or two, he simply asks “Can I roll again?”.

It's Elliot’s desire for “do-overs” that was surfacing in my mind as I sat with this morning’s gospel lesson this week.  We all want and long for do-overs, for second chances when the dice have not given us what we wanted.  But often enough, the do-overs we want are the chance to rectify the mistakes that result from our own actions

Many of our errors in life result from hurrying, or from not paying enough attention.  My colleagues in St. Andrew’s Guild know that we need lots of do-overs in knitting and stitching – when you find that you dropped a stitch several rows back, or sewed a seam with the fabric facing the wrong way.

These are trivial do-overs.  Some of our more serious life errors are also results of not paying enough attention, or from rushing or carelessness.

But many of the choices we make that we’d like a second chance at are from acts that we knew at the time were problematic – when we tried doing something the easy way rather than the hard-but-right way, or when we are acting out of fear, or selfishness.

Sometimes we’re fortunate and we get do-overs, but in the more serious mistakes, the do-overs are usually not as easy as re-rolling the die in a board game or picking up a dropped stitch. 

Anyone familiar with 12-Step Programs used by Alcoholics Anonymous and other addiction-recovery programs is aware that among the important steps practiced in recovering from addiction and moving toward wholeness is the work of acknowledging harm that one actions have caused, and making amends.

We can begin to move on when the person we have hurt chooses to forgive us, in time, or when we are able to rebuild what we lost. 

The wisdom behind this practice in 12-Step programs is that our errors - when we don’t do the work of taking responsibility and making amends – can become toxic in our lives.  They DO US spiritual harm.  The regret, guilt and shame of our wrongdoings - or, perhaps, the delusional self justification we engage in as a means of escaping our guilt – can cause us to become the secondary casualties of our own mistakes.

Doing the work of fixing things we did wrong the first time is deeply important.

And tragically important is the fact that some mistakes can’t be undone, or made amends for, and the consequences can last a lifetime.  I still think about a wonderful young man I worked with as a Student Leader in the dorm when I was on the faculty at Northfield Mount Hermon School.  Not too long after his graduation he made the terrible mistake of driving under the influence and caused an accident that resulted in a death.  I’m very sure that even having served a period of incarceration, he will never get over that mistake.


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What does this have to do with this 3rd Sunday of Easter?

Today’s gospel from John is a wonderful, interesting story with lots of implications, but one of its themes is that it’s a do-over story, a story of Jesus’ providing the second chance that Simon Peter quite desperately needs.

But first, a comment about historical context –

Today’s gospel from John 21 is the third and final post resurrection appearance of Christ in John’s gospel.  It immediately follows last week’s story of Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on the day of the resurrection, his gift of the Holy Spirit, and his appearance a week later to Thomas.  Today’s breakfast on the beach is the ending of John’s Gospel.

Do you remember how last week’s gospel ended?  Here’s what we heard:

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Sounds like the ending, doesn’t it?

But then in the following chapter, today’s gospel, we hear that 

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way, 

And we hear about a disappointing fishing trip, a stranger on the shore giving advice, a miraculous catch, a breakfast cooked on a fire, and then an intimate and powerful exchange between the resurrected Christ and the disciple Peter.

Scholars conclude that this 21st chapter of John, like the ending of Mark, is a later add-on to the gospel’s original form.  It’s believed that what sounds like an ending after the Thomas story WAS the original ending.  But the Johannine community, later, felt a need to tack on one more story (and at its end we get a second summary conclusion.)

We can speculate on why this additional story was important – and many have – but one of the most compelling theories is that the community needed to account for Peter’s prominence in the leadership of the early church, especially in the light of the damning story of Peter’s denial of Jesus after Jesus’ arrest.

Peter is the one who initiates the nighttime fishing expedition that brings up nothing but empty nets.  When the stranger on the shore suggests where to drop the net that is then filled with fish, John exclaims to Peter, “It is the Lord!”

Peter’s response  - not unlike Adam and Eve in the Garden hiding themselves when God appears after they have eaten the fruit – is to cover himself and to jump out of the boat.

Peter is frightened.  Peter is ashamed.  He is does not want to face the Master who predicted that Peter would deny him, and who Peter did, in fact, deny three times.

Somehow, the return to shore and the need to haul in the net with its enormous catch enables Peter to get beyond his own distress and withdrawal, and he rejoins the group, now being fed the meal Jesus had prepared - a breakfast of fish and bread.

It is after the meal has ended that the important moment comes:

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”

Jesus asked Peter the question not the once, but three times.  Did Peter notice the details that John wants us, as readers, to notice – that the triplicate question giving Peter the opportunity to affirm his relationship with Jesus is a parallel to that earlier moment when Peter did it wrong, both exchanges taking place around a charcoal fire?

In the first instance Peter’s fear prevented him from owning his relationship.  Finally, he is able to affirm that his bond with Jesus is that of love.

Jesus is not only giving Peter a do-over, but he gives him the blessing of a purpose, as well:  Feed my lambs.  Feed my sheep.  Jesus gives Peter the gift of forgiveness, but he also gives him the reason to move forward beyond the fear and shame that have paralyzed him, and he gives him the work that will fill up his moving beyond.

And the story ends as it began, with Jesus’ invitation to Peter, to disciples, to us, to Follow me.

Jesus’ final gift to disciples (in John) is gift of encouragement, of nourishment, of reminding them who they are, who they are called to follow and who they are called to be.  

Likewise, this is Jesus’ gift to us.

In baptism we are commissioned to share life and ministry of Jesus, but remembering how to do it is hard.  
We fall short. 
Get sidetracked.
We compromise.
We fail to follow through.
We get discouraged.
We fall back to old ways, failing to bear witness to faith in living Christ.
So WE need lots of do-overs.

Jesus stands on shore saying “Try again”.  “Put your net on the other side.”

God looks beyond our failures.  
She not only accepts our shortcomings and invites us to try again, 
He not only feeds us, but 
God also invites us to give what we have  - to bring ourselves, our skills & resources, our love – to the feast.

As Jesus did with Peter, God gives us do-overs.  God calls us to follow, to live in Christ, to feed God’s sheep.

Alleluia, Christ is risen.

The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia.

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