The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Lord of the Streets, Houston
May 4, 2025
3 Easter, C
Acts 9:1-6, (7-20)
Psalm 30
John 21:1-19
Imagine if Christians overall were far less concerned with saving people from Hell, and far more concerned with helping people from living through Hell on earth. The Church might be a bit different than it is right now. The world might be too.
I think about some of the things the Church has done over the centuries in the name of saving people’s souls. We’ve fought wars and killed those we called heathens. We’ve burned people alive. Churches have ostracized people because they sinned or backslid, shaming them into leaving their church. Churches have joined with the U.S. government to take native American children from their homes and putting them in boarding schools to Christianize them and basically turn them into white people.
The government just didn’t want Indians around anymore. The Churches wanted to save people’s souls, seemingly oblivious to damage they did in the process. Gotta get people saved, right? If bad things happen here in the process, well, you’re doing good because you’re saving them eternally, keeping them from Hell, right?
Mph, I don’t think so.
Just looking at the church’s role in trying to Christianize native American children, lovely that they were trying to save souls, but many of the children forced to go to these school end up living through Hell on earth. They were separated from their families and made to forget and forsake their own culture and language, just so the government would have an easier time dealing with them. We don’t want those pesky natives around, so let’s make them like us…I mean, not too much like us, not enough to have them truly be a part of us, but just enough so they’re not a problem. Then there’s the abuse many of the children suffered, and various churches ran over half of these schools.
If only the Church hadn’t been so focused on saving souls, perhaps they wouldn’t have partnered with the government to harm children. If only the Church hadn’t been so focused on saving souls, perhaps they wouldn’t have spent so much time ostracizing people who sinned or backslid. Perhaps they wouldn’t have fought wars and murdered people in order to save souls.
Besides, when it comes to saving souls, I’m pretty sure Jesus already took care of that.
What if instead of, “we gotta get people saved,” what if it was, “we might should help people out. We oughta strive for justice and peace, forgiveness, healing, and, mercy?” What if, instead of worrying about getting people saved (which again, Jesus already took care of), what if we worked to live in such a way that we don’t create hell on earth? What if that’s what we chose to mean by saving people, trying to keep from creating hell on earth?
That’s what Jesus was doing when he met Peter and the disciples on the beach. See, Peter was going through his own hell on earth. He’d been with Jesus for three years, trusted in, believed in, and loved him. Then, when things started to go badly for Jesus, Peter immediately denied that he even knew him. Three times he denied knowing Jesus, and hours later, Jesus was killed.
Peter had to be going through some guilt and some shame over that. Even after Jesus was raised from the dead, it seems like Peter was wracked with guilt. Peter and the disciples heard from Mary Magdalene that Jesus had been raised from the dead. Then Jesus appeared before them and said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
Jesus sent Peter and the other disciples as apostles of forgiveness. He sent them, just as he had been sent, to grant forgiveness and healing and to teach others forgiveness and healing as a way of life. Peter was sent, the same as the rest of the disciples.
After that, however, Peter decided to go fishing. Ok, so, it seems that Peter and the others still needed to make a living, so fishing made sense, but it also seems like Peter was stuck. Peter seems to have been unable to live as the apostle of forgiveness Jesus had sent him to be.
Even though Jesus had said, “Peace be with you,” even though Jesus sent him as an apostle, Peter seemed to think that his life as Jesus’ disciple was over. He thought his life as Jesus’ apostle of forgiveness was over. It wasn’t. It never had been, but wracked with guilt, Peter couldn’t get past his denial of Jesus. He seems to have been living in his own self-imposed hell.
So, when Jesus met Peter and the other disciples on the beach, he helped heal Peter’s broken heart by forgiving him. To be clear, he had already forgiven Peter, again, that was taken care of on the cross, but when he met Peter on the beach, he spoke that forgiveness out loud. Now, he didn’t say the words, “I forgive you.” Instead, he gave Peter three opportunities to claim his love for Jesus, once for each time he had denied Jesus. He let Peter repent, out loud, for his own sake, to heal the guilt and shame he felt. Jesus saved Peter from his own self-imposed hell on earth.
As far as big S salvation goes, “getting Peter saved,” as some folks would say nowadays, that was already done. Jesus had done that a few days earlier on the cross on Friday afternoon. Jesus was saving Peter from hell on earth. In doing so, Jesus told Peter to do the same for others.
“Do you love me?” Jesus asked Peter. “You know I love you,” Peter replied. Then, “feed my sheep,” Jesus said. That was Jesus’ declaration of forgiveness. You are already forgiven. You are already restored. Now go, and be an apostle of forgiveness, healing others as you have been healed. Go and save others from hell on earth, just as you have been saved from hell on earth.
The big S salvation, our unity with God in all of our lives, including our sins, that’s already done. What Jesus has given us to do is to live and share his teachings and way of life. Cause harm to no one, and when you do, work to put things right. Forgive others when they harm you, and help heal the world through your forgiveness. Don’t worry so much about saving people from Hell (that’s already done). Instead focus on keeping people from living through hell on earth, and help release people from those hells, in Jesus’ name.
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