Sermon preached to the Seth
Mokitimi Methodist Seminary
16 September 2015
John 21:15 – 22
“Truly, truly, I say to you, when you
were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when
you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and
carry you where you do not want to go." (John 21:18)
Every
Methodist Minister is asked this one question: “Will you go where you are
sent?” This question is asked when a candidate offers for the ministry, this is
again posed as one of the conditions of ordination, and this is an implied
question every year when the Bishops meet in a stationing committee. The tradition
of being willing to go wherever the Methodist Conference sends you is drawn
from the ancient monastic vow of obedience – a vow rooted in the Biblical
conversation between Jesus and Peter at the lakeside in John 21.
The
story of John 21 takes place after the resurrection of Jesus, and therefore
after the appearance of Jesus at the tomb and later in the upper room. This is
no longer a conversation about the good news of resurrection, and about
reassuring frightened disciples. Instead this is a conversation about what
comes next……
Jesus
speaks to Peter:
Peter do you
love me?
Yes Lord.
Then feed my
sheep
Here
is a threefold repletion: “If you love
me, then feed my sheep”
Here
is the commandment to become a servant of God. In essence, the commandment is
to show love through caring and service. And then to make his point, Jesus says
these words to Peter: “Will you go where you are sent?”
Well
– not exactly those words, but close enough:
Joh 21:18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were
young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you
are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry
you where you do not want to go."
To
paraphrase this –
“Peter:
when you were young you went wherever you decided was best: but as you mature
into a Christian leader, you will need to be willing to go wherever you are
needed – even if this means going where you do not want to go! Now - will you
go where you are sent?”
It
sounds really heroic to stand on the floor of a church Synod and commit oneself
to going where you are sent: but as time passes we all begin to think we know
best. We become important and powerful
in the church. We become Senior Ministers, and Superintendents, and Bishops. And
with this comes the temptation to become powerful:
-
We
are consulted by business leaders and politicians
-
We
are invited to conduct state funerals and very important weddings
-
We
exercise power over who can come to Holy Communion and who cannot
-
We
exercise power over who can be baptised and who cannot
Most
frightening of all: we even think we have the power to decide who God loves,
and who God does not love!
It
is at this point that the health of our souls demands that we surrender our
power ….. before we use this power to become destructive!
The
best way to surrender our power is to remember that we are under the discipline
of those who have been placed in leadership over us: In fact nobody should have
spiritual authority unless they are under authority. The tool the church uses
to remind us that we are under authority is this question: “Will you go where
you are sent?” And more importantly – will you do the work that is asked of you
by your local leadership, or Superintendent / Bishop / Presiding Bishop?
Just
when I think I am a person of status and power, I meet a poor, struggling
outcast on the margins of society who asks me to kneel down and care for her.
“Will you go where you are
sent?”
Just
when I think that I am an important and powerful preacher – the Superintendent
phones me and asks me to take a service in a very unimportant little community.
“Will you go where you are
sent?”
Just
when I think I am an important and powerful Superintendent – the Bishop phones
and asks me to go into another circuit and chair a very difficult meeting.
“Will you go where you are
sent?”
Just
when I think that I am a very important Chaplain at a Seminary – the Presiding
Bishop phones me and tells me that he is moving me out of the seminary...
Will you go where you are
sent?
The
Apostle Peter’s reaction to this question reflects his human frailty: He looks
over his shoulder and sees John sitting next to Jesus and says “But Lord what
about him?” Is this not true of all of us? When we are asked to be obedient –
we look around to see if anyone else is being asked to make the same sacrifice.
And we might say something like “Lord this is unfair – what about him / what
about her? They are getting a better deal than me!!”
Will you go where you are
sent?
The
way we test whether we are willing to surrender our power to God’s plans is by
asking this one simple question:
“Will you go where you are
sent?”
