On loving and feeding and contemporary pressures.
Easter 3: 29th April, 2001
Fr John Davis, Vicar of St Peter's, Eastern Hill
And Peter said to him, 'Lord, you know everything: you know that
I love you'. Jesus said to him, 'Feed my sheep'. Jn 21:17
At the end of this the last of John's resurrection narratives, the one in
Galilee by the lake with the cooked breakfast, the focus turns to Peter and
his response to his risen Lord.
Three times this same Peter had denied he even knew him, that Thursday night
of the arrest. Three times in this narrative, as if to balance that out and
to put it to one side, Peter is asked and responds with his declaration of
love. "Yes Lord, you know that I love you".
The disciples who had formerly been fishermen had gone back to doing what
they knew. After the shock and sadness of the events of that first Easter,
and it seems even with the resurrection experiences that they had all shared,
nonetheless, they went home to Galilee. The Lord had said that he would come
to them there. While they waited or as they tried to sort out in their minds
what had happened, they worked and fished. The huge catch they made that
morning was yet another sign. And it was only made at the Lord's direction.
Before no results; after, more than they could manage. And they all had
breakfast together on the beach. Then came the questions and answers about
love.
Out of love comes action and response; a heart full of love has that
compelling fact as its shaping force. Love of this kind is expressed in terms
of vocation, of call, of summons. It is irresistible. It is both utterly
renewing and utterly overwhelming. Not easy, but wonderful. Not always able
to be put into effect. And yet, here it is that that Simon Peter who was there
right at the beginning of this gospel according to John and followed, is here
right at the end, doing the same thing, as best he can.
But by now he has had three years of being side by side with his Lord. He
has had times of breath-taking insight, he has impulsively got things very
wrong, he has blustered his way out of arrest in an unworthy way, he has
watched the Lord he loved die most cruelly, he has several times over seen
his risen Lord. This time he was so excited he jumped out the boat in order
to get to him more quickly. He has made his peace with him. He is bursting
with the desire to show that this love is mutual.
And it becomes clear; there is more to be done by Peter. There are sheep
to be fed; there is leadership to be offered. There is a risen Lord to be
followed, to places and situations that will be unwelcome. There is a
community, a Church, to be gathered and nurtured and inspired.
That is then. That was the beginning of the exciting and extraordinary
events that the Acts of the Apostles directs us to. That was the start of
this creaking and groaning institution we call the Church which even today
against all odds exhibits some glimmers of that early first life. But if the
prime demands and needs may be summed up in words such as loving and feeding
and following, we all know and acknowledge that there is indeed much to be
recovered.
We are placed in a context of great need. Indeed, it verges on the
overwhelming. As individual people, we have needs and expectations. Some are
reasonable and understandable; others may not be. Some are able to be met;
others are not. How do we deal with that? The descriptive words that come
to mind may often be those like anger, bitterness and resentment, rather than
synonyms for love. The Church and gatherings of Church people may and do
sadly evidence these failings, just as much as any other grouping.
The social context, the community environment within which we operate, is
greatly changing. Statistically, church attenders are said to be aging and the
overall numbers shrinking. We will have some hard figures on that emerging
from the next Church Life Survey coming up on May 20th. Our buildings are
often old and in need of intensive and expensive maintenance. The institutional
structures of the Church are very often those transplanted from other places
and other centuries. They are top heavy and cumbersome and quite possibly now
inappropriate. There is not always agreement as to priorities or direction.
The place of the Church in this society and the nature of the Church as it
now is, is hugely different than what it was even just a generation ago.
A very interesting observation has been made to sum up this shift. Even 20
years ago it was reasonable to expect that the institutional Church was there
and able to be a support and strength and solid base for the individual who
was part of it. Now too often it is left for the individual to try to hold
up the whole institutional Church. This is particularly a perception of many
clergy. Where are all the supports when they are most needed?
Right across the board this is so and perhaps no more so than in the very
centre of a big city such as this. Everyone expects and demands that their
needs be met. Some are unaware or do not particularly wish to know about the
needs of others. Not unreasonably, their own perspective is the one that is
important for them. And there are some who along with their own needs and shortcomings are caught in the noisy middle of it all, expected to produce
daily miracles with calm aplomb.
There are many ways to attempt to feed sheep. And there are many sheep.
Things are not what you might call orderly. Some sheep don't recognise fellow
sheep. Some would consider that, as it were, only prize merinos are actually
sheep. Some shepherds are more gifted or capable than others. And many
shepherds are run off their feet, though that may not be necessarily apparent
or of concern to some of the sheep. Not an easy situation.
We are trying to work on these things. There are conflicting demands.
There is the fact of our location where we are and where we have always been.
There are the needs of those who worship, those who visit, those who work nearby, those who are in nearby hospitals, those who have been here forever,
those who are new. Those who are respectable. Those who are not. We are
having injecting drug users in the broad light of day on our church steps.
We have seriously ill psychiatric cases in 24-hour attendance.
It is hoped that the continuing development of our Lazarus Centre plans
will include the addressing of some of these welfare needs that we are
absolutely unable to avoid, in a much better way than we can at present.
In partnership with Anglicare Victoria, the Cathedral and the Order of St
Lazarus, we are hoping that this will be so. Our existing breakfast and emergency food program will thus get the extra help it needs. Some of the
pressures which have actually come close to being impossible, will be relieved.
We hope to focus this physically on the ground floor part of Maynard House,
at the north end of the parish hall. This will be refurbished, if our plans
come to fruition, by the St Peter's Charitable Foundation, with some of the
interest from the Federal Government grant given for this purpose. A new
kitchen, a large freezer, adequate storage space for groceries and blankets:
the whole thing being a small part, limited to two or three hours each morning
Monday to Saturday, of a larger and more comprehensive service based at the
Cathedral.
This is the sort of process that needs to continue. This is part of our
response to the imperative that the sheep - all of them - be fed. And it is
a task of our whole community, aware and sensitive to the complexity of the
challenge, using, living, showing the qualities of that love which the Lord
sought and offered.
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