1When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. ³²If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. ³³Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ ³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

-Judas has just left to betray Jesus and John tells us that Jesus is very troubled.  These are the words of a man with a heavy heart but also a sense of mission.  He is to be glorified.  That is he is to be seen as the agent of God’s love and in so doing demonstrate what it means once and for all what God as Love looks like.  How quickly this Love in Witness is lost in doctrinal conversations about the atonement.  Did the father kill the son?  Did Jesus go willingly?  Why did he die?  Was there something efficacious about his death?  These debates will rage i suppose but it is enough for us to ask how is the God that is loved glorified in the activity of Jesus death?  That is enough to occupy our time.

-Is love easy.  Elsewhere, Jesus invites people to place his yoke on their shoulders for it is light and easy to carry.  His walk doesn’t seem very easy.  It fills him with a heavy troubled heart and he will suffer.  Love as i have loved you doesn’t in the context of John’s understanding of Jesus’ glorification appear to be a yoke that most of us can handle.  If it is light then maybe only in the vacuum of outer space where the gravity of sin has no power.  Do we misunderstand love as an activity versus a non activity-or a renunciation of ego?  

After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. ²Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. ³Simon 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. ⁴Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶He said to them, “Cast the net to 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 because there were so many fish. ⁷That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. ⁸But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off. ⁹When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹²Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

¹⁵When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹(He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

-This passage is most likely an addendum to John.  However, through this text we are offered an incredible story to meditate on as we seek to live empowered lives of faith.  Jesus appears to the Jesus as they are fishing on the Sea of Galille.   Why are they fishing/   Were they not commissioned in the last chapter to be apostles?   Is fishing here a metaphor for preaching the Word and gathering together a community of faith?  It is hard to tell.  Your imagination is required in understanding John? 

-we will be using this text in our Creation Care worship.  We will cook fish and bread and share the bounty of the waters and the earth is communion.  We will be reminded by this sharing of the generosity of our Creator God and challenged to be better stewards of God’s Earth.  Presently, the earth is so unbalanced because of our choices that stewardship involves transformation of our practices and indeed, transformation of the systems and structures we have created.  We will need the power of God. 

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest ²and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. ³Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” ⁵He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” ⁷The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. ⁸Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. ⁹For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

¹⁰Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, ¹²and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; ¹⁴and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” ¹⁵But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; ¹⁶I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” ¹⁷So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, ¹⁹and after taking some food, he regained his strength. For several days he was with the disciples in Damascus, ²⁰and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

-Saul’s conversion and call occur as one of several conversion experience in this section of Acts.  That is probably why it occurs here even though Paul drops out of the narrative again for while.  It is a dramatic conversion but not necessarily more dramatic than the ethoian eunch or Cornelius and family.  They all work to describe the amazing spread of the gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth.  We enjoy Saul’s conversion more because he becomes so important to the growth of the church as we know it.  It is part of his destiny. 

-I have never had an experience like Sauls and i doubt that most people have.  SOme will remember well the moment they accepted Jesus as Lord.  they will remember what they were wearing, where they were, etc.  I do not even remember that.  However, I do not think the point of this story is to describe a normative conversion experience but rather to share with us the power of Jesus to affect conversion.

-I wonder if Paul being stopped dead in his tracks is similar to others who have been called to change direction suddenly when they have been brought face to face with what they are doing-who they are ppersecuting.  I think specifically of Ghandi and his non violent movement that purposefully called attention to the inhumanity of self righteousness expressed in britians colonization of India through suffering as a window.  That is they used their suffering as a means to express to the English their common humanity and thus the inhumanity of colonization.  Do we need to see out treatment of others the face of Jesus persecuted.