Note: This day was the establishing of a new Daughters of the King Chapter, and the initiation of the new members.
Have you ever done something that you were ashamed of? Something you personally felt was so egregious that your very being felt broken inside of you? And then, living with the remorse of what you’ve done, have you encountered an opportunity to right that wrong, to make amends, to clear your heart and soul of the pain of regret? What did you do when you felt that? When you saw the opportunity, did you jump on it immediately?
In today’s Gospel, the disciples are fishing, and they have caught nothing all night long. And then Jesus tells them to throw the net out on the other side of the boat, and suddenly they had so many fish that they couldn’t pull in the net. And one of the disciples says to Peter, “It is the Lord!” Peter had been naked while fishing – I’m assuming because he wanted to keep his clothes dry. But at hearing that this was Jesus on the beach, he puts his clothes on … and then immediately jumps into the water fully clothed! Does this sound like someone who is thinking clearly?
Is he happy to see Jesus? Probably. This is, however, the third time Jesus showed himself to the disciples, and yet Peter, out of all of them, feels the need to jump out of a boat into the water, and get to Jesus before all of the others. Did he see an opportunity to make things right? To make amends for what he had done? To talk to Jesus alone without the other disciples around, and unload what’s been eating at him? Maybe. We may never know for sure.
This isn’t the only story we encounter in the scripture readings today. We have another story of another young man, this one called Saul. And Saul, we are told, was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” Saul, also known as Paul, described himself as “according to zeal, a persecutor of the church, and as to the righteousness that comes from the Law, blameless.” That is, Saul, saw himself as blameless in the sight of the Law – even though he had been “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.”
He went to the high priest, and asked him for letters for the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found anyone who was following Jesus, he would be able to put them in chains and bring them to Jerusalem. He had every legal right to do what he did, because the High Priest had given him the legal authority to do it.
And so Paul was, according to the Law, blameless.
After World War II, at the trials of Nazi officers in Nuremberg, most of the officers attempted to use the defense that they “were just following orders.” That is, in this massive destruction of human life, these men said that what they were doing was legal, that under the Law, they were blameless. Naturally, the tribunal told them that this defense would not be acceptable, that they were just trying to save their own skin. Or, to put the words of the tribunal more clearly: just because what they did was legal, did not mean that it was right, ethical, or even moral. In other words, “You cannot claim you were just following orders. You should have known better.”
According to the Law, blameless. Just like Saul. Saul, who says that according to zeal, he was a persecutor of the church of God.
Until Christ himself confronted Saul on the road to Damascus, where Saul intended to arrest those who followed Jesus, and bring them to the High Priest, or worse, to kill them.
And Saul, falling to the ground, heard the voice ask, “Why are you persecuting me?” And Saul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” And the voice from heaven said, “I am Jesus, the one that you are persecuting. Get up and enter the city, and I will tell you what to do.” And Saul did so, because in this interaction between Saul and the risen Jesus, what Jesus is really saying is, “Paul, you are persecuting the God that you claim to follow. You really should have known better.”
And in Damascus there was a disciple of Jesus called Ananias, who, knowing what Saul had been doing, was at first afraid to go and talk to Saul. But Jesus told him to go to Saul anyway. And Ananias went. And he prayed for Saul, and immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and suddenly, Saul was able to truly see for the first time. His eyes were opened, not just physically, but spiritually. And he recognized that while he might have been blameless according to the Law, Christ had made him blameless in the eyes of God. Christ had given him the Holy Spirit, and the ability to see life with the eyes and mind of Christ.
This man who had been breathing threats and murder against the disciples of Jesus went from seeking death and destruction to proclaiming life and freedom from sin. He went from hatred – to proclaiming the love and mercy of the God he once persecuted. And in the majority of what we now call the New Testament, Saul wrote to the believers, telling them that we might all have once been slaves to sin, beholden to the Law of death, but that we can find freedom in the Truth of Christ, who has written his law upon our minds, upon our lips, and in our hearts.
This man was forgiven of his sins, and brought into union – into a relationship – with the risen Christ.
And so… we return from this story back to a dripping wet Peter, who was standing on the beach next to the Risen Jesus. The other disciples are still dealing with a huge net full of fish, and we do not know if Peter talked to Jesus while they waited for the others to come ashore. But what we do know is that when all the other disciples were present, and after Jesus had spent time eating breakfast with them all, Jesus turned to Peter and asked him, “Do you love me more than these things?” Jesus was referring to Peter’s fishing supplies – that is, his livelihood. Jesus is saying, “Peter, do you love me enough to give up all these things and follow me, even unto death?” And Peter responds, saying, “Lord, you know I do.” To which Jesus says, “Feed my lambs.” And then, Jesus asks a second time, and Peter responds the same way a second time, and Jesus again tells him, “Tend my sheep.” And then, to Peter’s horror, Jesus asks him a third time, “Simon, do you love me?” And Peter, starting to get his feelings hurt, says yes for a third time, and Jesus once again says, “Feed my sheep.”
Three times Jesus asked this question, and three times Peter responded with a yes. Why three times? Well, we know that before Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, Jesus had told Peter that Peter would deny even knowing Jesus. And, just as Jesus had said, Peter had stood in the courtyard of the High Priest, and every time someone confronted him that they recognized him as a disciple of Jesus, Peter would vehemently tell them that “No, I am not one of them.” Except that the third time he said this to his accusers, not only did the rooster crow, but Jesus turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered what Jesus had said to him about his denial.
And he went away, and wept bitterly.
Remorse. Regret. Pain and anguish at having denied Jesus three times, because Peter knew that he was trying to appear blameless according to the law, in order to save his own skin.
I wonder about this bit of story in Peter’s life. After the rooster crowed, did Peter tell the other disciples about his betrayal of Jesus? We know he eventually did, because we hear about his betrayal in the Gospels. But did he do it before – or after – this interaction with Jesus on the beach? If the other disciples did not know about the betrayals then this urgency to get off the boat would make sense. It would show us that Peter desired to be restored to Christ, to tell him about it, to deal with that moment of regret and remorse, by jumping into the water fully clothed and swimming to shore before the others came by boat, just so that he could talk to Jesus. We may never know the answer to this thought. But we do know that in the presence of Peter’s friends and family, Jesus spoke to him.
This entire conversation is essentially Jesus saying, “Yes, Peter, you denied me three times – and you really should have known better – but it’s okay.” Not only is Jesus forgiving Peter, but Jesus is reconciling Peter to his community, by allowing Peter the opportunity to counter his public denials of Jesus with public professions of his love. And in this act of mercy and love, Jesus has opened not only Peter’s eyes to the truth of Christ’s resurrection, but has opened the eyes of the other disciples to what it means that Jesus conquered death and rose to New Life, and what it means for people like them and like Peter.
These stories of Peter and of Paul are two stories of two very different men. One man, in his pride, considered himself blameless according to the law, and thereby denied Jesus. The other was frightened, and denied Jesus in order to look blameless according to the law, so that he could save his own skin.
And both of these men are forgiven by Jesus, and made truly blameless – blameless in the eyes of God – by the blood that the resurrected Jesus shed on the cross. He opened their eyes to the truth, and one went from being full of pride, to learning humility, and the other went from being scared to living courageously. And both men came to know what it is like to live in union with Christ, to have a relationship with the risen Jesus. And because of this their lives were transformed from being slaves to the law of death, and living instead in the glorious power of New and Abundant Life, joyful at being blameless in the eyes of God.
This is the beautiful story of Easter, and the hope of our resurrection.
No matter what you have done,
No matter what I have done,
No matter what any of us has done,
We too can enter into this New Life of Abundance that Peter and Paul both experienced.
This, of course, brings us to the question of the day. If we have been forgiven, and reconciled, and given the ability to live in union with Christ and others, how do we enter into this path of relationship with God?
If you’re wearing Blue today, you already know one specific way. For the rest of us, the simple answer is this: a life of daily and continuous prayer. It is through prayer that we too, like Peter and Paul, can speak, and interact with the Risen Christ, and form a relationship. A relationship that changes us, and opens our eyes to spiritual truths; clears our hearts of anger and malice, and renews them with love and mercy; renews our minds, casting out doubts and fears, and replaces them with conviction and courage.
And these women that are here today, whom we will be admitting into the Order of the Daughters of the King, know that this is the pathway to Christ. The vision of each member of the Daughters of the King is “to know Jesus Christ, to make Him known to others, and to become reflections of God’s love throughout the world.”
Peter and Paul became reflections of God’s love throughout the world, because they had a personal interaction with Christ – a relationship that allowed them to know Christ and make him known.
These women have taken a vow to commit their lives to service, and evangelism, built on the foundation of prayer – which is a relationship with Christ.
As we move into the service of installation and admission of members, I will make you aware that these women will – every day – pray for you. They will pray for me. They will pray for all of God’s children – and for the spread of God’s kingdom on earth. And so I ask that as we enter into this blessed moment, you recognize the importance of the task they have committed themselves to – a blessing for them – as well as for us.
Amen.
[This sermon was delivered at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Wickenburg, AZ on May 4, 2025.]
