The following sermon was presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia, on April 17, 1983. The title is, Feed My Sheep, and the scripture references are Acts, chapter 9, verses 1 through 19a, and the Gospel of John, chapter 21, verses 1 through 14. 

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John. I'm reading from chapter 21 beginning at the first verse. After this, Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he revealed himself in this way.

Simon Peter, Thomas called the twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing. They said to him, we will go with you.

They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, children, have you any fish?

They answered him, no. He said to them, cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find some. So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, it is the Lord.

When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off. When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish lying on it and bread.

Jesus said to them, Bring some of the fish that you have just caught. So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, 153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.

Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast. Now none of the disciples dared ask him, Who are you? For they knew it was the Lord.

Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. The Gospel of the Lord.

I need to tell you that I really feel as if I've been set up this morning. For the last three years, as responsibilities for our church school and for ministry to children generally have devolved more and more onto Neil's shoulders, he's been asking me to preach a recruitment sermon to appeal to as many of you as possible to consider giving yourselves to church school teaching or to, in other ways, supporting this very important ministry. And every time he's asked me that, I have adamantly refused.

And it seemed to me that I had some good reasons for refusing. First of all, I'm interested in service generally, but I'm just a little bit uneasy about appealing for a particular ministry. Underscore the word particular.

This is not only a growing parish, continues to be a growing parish, but it's also a parish in which people are transient. They move in and three years later they move on again. And so we have a continual need for people in all kinds of areas of ministry and service.

And I really get nervous about focusing in on one of them. Rather, I'd have you just be responsive to the fact that God calls us to ministry. And ask Him, Lord, where would you have me serve?

And let Him direct. One can think of the choir or the altar guild. Tremendous burden on the altar guild this year, especially with services up here and downstairs.

Liz Moran came in this weekend. She said, it's never the same twice, which is really true. The tape ministry continues to be just exploding.

I'm not even up to date. I think there's something like 18 or 20 people who are working every week to make the tape ministry happen. And they need more.

you can think of the bookstore you can think of the volunteer receptionists who come in I shudder to think where we'd be if it weren't for the ladies who come in faithfully morning and afternoon and answer phone and free up the secretaries to do secretarial things you can think of other kinds of ministry we have a significant program of meals on wheels and we have other helps ministries you can think of the evangelists who go out on Thursday evenings and call on people in their homes and in their neighborhoods. You can think of the shepherds. And on and on and on.

Folks to work with the acolytes. It seemed to me that it was more important that I, from time to time, hold before all of us the challenge that we ask the question, Lord, what would You have me do? And let it go at that.

And then secondly, because in all honesty, I really have given this whole area of ministry to Neil, and he's responsible for it. If recruiting is necessary, Neil should do the recruiting. And I don't want it to appear that Neil needs me to come along and sort of prop it up.

He doesn't. He's doing an absolutely fantastic job, and I'm very thrilled to have him do it. So, for those reasons and perhaps others, I've said no. I'm not going to preach a recruiting sermon two years ago the subject came up I said no, no special sermon but here's what we'll do Neil we'll have a short sermon and an extended announcement period and you give the appeal in the announcement period then a year ago came up again I said tell you what I'm going to do we'll have a special sermon but you preach it and I'll be away that weekend. This year, Neil came to me and he said, the whole church school faculty has agreed.

And I said, here's what we'll do. I'll preach a sermon on service, and then you follow that up with an appeal for church school faculty. Let me make the general claim upon all of our lives, and then you hit this particular appeal.

That's what I put in my little notebook. It's been there for a couple of months. April 17th, JWH preaching on service, Neil recruiting for church school.

So that's what was supposed to happen. That was my game plan. Palm Sunday weekend, we had a joint vestry retreat with Church of the Apostles.

Some of you know about that. It was a marvelous day together. And during one of the coffee breaks, Neil and I were standing and chatting together.

And one of the members of the vestry of Church of the Apostles came up to me and she said, I've been looking forward for the opportunity to thank you. She said, when you came and preached at Apostles a few months ago, it was wonderful. And after the service, eight people came up and volunteered to teach church school.

Neil kind of shook his head sadly, walked off into the corner, beat his head against the wall. Well, a couple of weeks ago, I turned to the lectionary to check out what are the scriptures assigned for April 17th. How do we tie into that the general theme of service?

I could hardly believe what I was reading. I don't know if you checked out the whole lectionary before you asked me for April 17th. Let's recapitulate.

Acts chapter 9, the recounting of the conversion and the call of Saul, who was previously the great persecutor of the church, the murderer of Christians. And God got a hold of him and turned him around and he became the great apostle to the church, the teacher, the instructor, the encourager of Christians. and then we turn to John 21 and we have the story of Jesus meeting His disciples on the seashore one day and if you read on beyond this passage the very next paragraph tells about the reinstatement of Peter after he had denied that he even knew Jesus you remember that story I don't even know the man and Jesus said the night before that happened He said I have prayed for you you're going to deny me before breakfast but I have prayed for you and after you are converted again don't you love that phrase?

after you are converted again you're going to strengthen your brethren and we read about Jesus reinstating Peter into his service in both cases in both these passages the structure, the overall picture is identical In both cases, we begin with a revelation of the Lord Jesus. He comes and makes Himself known. I'm interested that He does so in quite different ways.

He comes to Saul, who previously had no direct experience of Jesus at all. He comes to Saul in a blinding flash of light. And Saul, in fact, is struck blind for the next three days.

It comes to Peter, who had three years of experience with him in a very ordinary breakfast meeting. In both cases, it's a sovereign act of God. You need to see that.

In both cases, something begins with the Lord Jesus taking the initiative and he makes himself known. but aren't you glad that He does it in such imaginatively different ways? My experience doesn't have to be a duplicate of yours and yours doesn't have to be a duplicate of mine.

God will make Himself known to us individually, personally. Terry Fulham loves to tell the story about the fellow who was wandering around one afternoon, wasn't paying any attention to where he was going, and he fell into a well. And it was very slippery and very deep and he couldn't get out.

and a couple of hours go by and he can't get out. And so he prays, Lord, if you will rescue me from this well, I'll give my life to you. I'll go into the ministry.

And sure enough, somebody comes along and hauls him out and the guy keeps his promise. Most people don't under those circumstances. He keeps his promise and he goes to seminary and he gets himself ordained, goes into the ministry and spends the rest of his life pushing people down wells so that they'll discover God.

because he assumes the way it happened to me is the way it has to happen to you aren't you glad that isn't so God will meet you right where you are perhaps with a blinding flash perhaps in a very ordinary meal we prayed a few minutes ago O Lord whose blessed Son revealed Himself to His disciples in the breaking of bread. May the Lord Jesus will reveal Himself to you in this very common and yet extraordinary meal. But it begins with Jesus making Himself known to us.

And I would press the point that service begins with Jesus Christ making Himself known to us. And so I ask you the question, has that begun to happen to you? Has Jesus begun to make Himself known to you?

The answer is yes, look out, because there are some inevitable consequences. Saul says, Who are you, Lord? Most important question anybody can ever ask.

Who are you? Who are you? John tells us that on the seaside that day, none of the disciples dared ask, Who are you?

Because they all knew that it was the Lord. Has Jesus begun to make Himself known to you? To Saul, Jesus says this, Rise, go into the street called straight, And after you've been empowered by the Holy Spirit, I'm calling you to be a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel.

It's quite interesting to see how Saul himself, Paul, recalls the episode as he recounts it later. As he stands on trial before King Agrippa, this is how he remembers the incident. He says, Jesus appeared to me and He said, rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose.

Do you hear that? I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you to serve and bear witness to the things which you've already seen and the things which you will see, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles to whom I send you to open their eyes. I've appeared to you, not just for your sake, as important as that is, not just that you would come to know Me, as important as that is, not just that your sins might be forgiven, as important as that is, not even just in order to change you from being a persecutor to someone who stops persecuting.

As important as that is. I have appeared to you for this purpose that you might bear witness to Me. And I've opened your eyes that you might open the eyes of others.

Do you understand that? God doesn't come to us just for our own private blessing. Jesus doesn't make Himself known to us just so that we'd enjoy salvation, as important as that is.

I've appeared to you for this purpose that you might make me known to others. In Peter's case, Jesus first feeds him breakfast and then He asks him three times in a row, Peter, Peter, do you love me? three times in a row.

First time Peter says, yes Lord, you know that I love you. Peter, do you really love me? Lord, I just answered the question.

You know that I love you. Peter, are you sure you love me and says Peter begins to be troubled begins to become irritated at that Lord you know all things you know that I love you why do you keep asking me mind you three times he denied that he even knew Jesus three times Jesus asks him do you love me as if to say each one is an opportunity to overturn the denial. Aren't you glad?

Have you ever denied Jesus? I have. Do you know that He gives you a chance to overturn the denial?

And each time, yes, Lord, you know that I love you, Jesus follows it with a command, then Peter, feed my sheep. you do get the implication don't you he opens Saul's eyes so that Saul might open the eyes of others he feeds Peter so that Peter might feed his sheep he appears to them so that they might bear witness to him there was a little chorus that I used to sing when I was a kid I don't know if you've ever heard it said to know, know, know Him is to love, love, love Him. And I do.

I don't even know the man. He really didn't. He'd spent three years of his life with Him, but he really didn't know Him. Didn't know what He was about.

Didn't understand. Over and over and over, Jesus had said, this is why I've come. I'm going to pour out my life.

no Lord that will never happen to you I don't even know the man and that was true and then after the resurrection Jesus begins all over again to reveal himself to Peter and Peter begins to understand begins to know him and to know, know, know him is to love, love, love him and to love love love him is to serve serve serve him and to serve serve serve him is to feed his sheep and it doesn't appear all that clearly in English but the language is very specifically feed my little sheep feed my little lambs that's what it really says check out any good commentary feed my little sheep and now you see why I said I was set up let me be very clear about this I do not believe I don't think the scripture teaches that everybody is called to be a church school teacher I don't think everybody is called to be a teacher that's a gift and a ministry of the Holy Spirit we're not all called to be teachers but I'd like to put it to you this way that everyone who loves Jesus is called to be intensely concerned about the business of sheep feeding intensely concerned and I suspect that the burden of proof is really on us why we shouldn't do this rather than somebody else why we should. Can you think of something more important to do with your life? Jesus said, suffer the little children to come to Me.

Of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. They were bringing children for Him to bless and His disciples elbowed them aside and it says Jesus was indignant. Let the children come to Me.

He said if anyone creates a stumbling block for a little child, it would be better for that man to have a millstone hung around his neck and he'd be cast into the sea. I truly believe that there's probably no more radical thing we can do to change society for the Lord Jesus Christ than to bring up the next generation of Christians stronger than ourselves. Do you believe that?

Look at the children that God has given us. What an incredible opportunity to build an army for Jesus among these little ones. there are secondary reasons anybody who's ever taught anything to anybody will bear witness to the fact that you never owned it so much as when you tried to give it away you never understood it so well as when you tried to explain it to somebody else it never was so real to you as when you tried to make it real to others let me add this zinger from C.S. Lewis just in case none of the rest has gotten to you he was one time addressing a group of seminarians and their professors and he said my friends you really do not understand the gospel unless you can explain it to children how many have retreated into the world of adults because they really don't understand it how many are teaching in seminary for that reason so whether it's Sunday morning or Wednesday evening or Friday evening whether it's teaching or being an aide whether it's helping in an auxiliary fashion whether it's children or youth ministry, whether it's children's music ministry, if you've got the time, we've got the opportunity.

We'll find a ministry just for you. I guarantee it. It could be during the year.

It could be during the summer. It could be for a weekend. It could be chaperoning a party.

It could be helping with the juice and cookies. It could be chauffeuring. What an opportunity we've got to invest our lives.

And I would challenge you in this fashion. Consider giving one year of your life to these kids of whom Jesus said, of such is the kingdom of heaven. I guarantee that if you do that, some of you will never be able to stop again.

And others will quickly discover this is not my ministry, but now I can begin to pray more intelligently and maybe there are some ways that I can help sort of on the sidelines. We've got excellent materials. There's an ongoing teacher training program.

And I really believe that God has orchestrated things for this responsibility to fall to me today on the day when these Scriptures are assigned and for us to consider that together. What would God have you do in relationship to our kids. Neil will add just a word at the announcement time.

Could we bow our heads together and ask God to speak to us personally? I wonder if there's been some church school teacher or youth leader or some adult who, as you were a youngster, was particularly used by God in your life to help you to come to know Jesus. Do we just pause and give thanks for that person?

thank you Lord Lord we would be available to you this isn't your call to every single one of us but all of us would pray together that none for whom it is your call would miss that today that you'd give us the willingness to follow you even sacrificially in terms of time and effort and rearranging our schedules to be available to you if you would call us to minister among children. Thank You that before You became a man, You became a child. Thank You for Your special love for children.

Lord, we ask You to put that same love into our minds and hearts as we would make ourselves available to You for Your great name's sake. Amen. Amen.