Carrying the Second Bulb 4-22-07
John 21:1-19
We all know from history class that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879. He wasn’t the first person to come up with the idea, some guy in England actually made a working light bulb the year before. But Edison was the first person to make a bulb that would last more than just a few hours. Edison worked on his invention for years and it took him hundreds of attempts to finally get it right. And, he finally did find the answer and then set about the task of making light bulbs. But, since there was no such thing as mass production at the time, each bulb had to be made by hand and it took his whole team 24 straight hours of meticulous, painstaking work to make just one bulb. James Newton tells a story about a time when Edison’s team had just completed the fabrication of one of these bulbs. Edison himself gave it to a young boy, who was helping in the lab, to carry up the stairs to another part of the facility. Needless to say, each bulb was very precious and the boy knew it. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. You’ve probably guessed what happened— the boy was concentrating so hard on making sure that the bulb didn’t slip from his hands that he forgot to watch his feet. He tripped at the top of the stairs and dropped the bulb and it shattered. It took the entire team twenty-four more hours to make another bulb. Finally, exhausted from so much work and ready for a break, Edison was ready to have his bulb carried up the stairs. So who did he give it to? You might think that, after the last disaster, he wouldn’t trust anyone but himself to carry the precious item. But instead, Edison gave it to the same young boy who dropped the first one. Edison knew that the boy was probably devastated by the first incident. So he decided to give the boy a second chance. (http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/s/second_chance.htm)
Think of a time when you were given a second chance— when you really screwed up— when you let somebody down who was really counting on you. But then, you were given the opportunity to make things right. It may not have been such a costly mistake as made by the boy in the story, but it may have been an incident that was just as devastating to you— to your confidence and self esteem. Some of us may be having trouble coming up with just one incident— the list of our missteps is long and not so distinguished. But sometimes, even though we screwed up royally, someone notices how badly we want to make things right, and they give us another chance. I started thinking about second chances when I read today’s scripture. But, it wasn’t so much the scripture itself as it was the heading for verses 15 through 19 as found in the NIV Bible. The title of this passage reads, “Jesus Reinstates Peter.” And I started thinking of some of the things Peter had done and how he may have wanted a second chance to make things right.
Before Jesus’ death and resurrection, Peter had done some things that he might have thought made him unworthy of even being called a disciple. Jesus often had some harsh words for his disciples because sometimes, they just didn’t get it. But, in Peter’s case, there are two incidents that really stand out. The first incident is recorded in Mark 8. Peter had just admitted to Jesus that he believed Jesus was the Christ, the Anointed one of God. Then Jesus begins to tell the disciples about his own death—what will happen and how God will be glorified in it. Peter takes Jesus to the side and questions him about what he said. You can imagine what Peter said, “Hey Jesus, what do you mean you’re going to die. You still have a lot of work to do. You know that little problem we have here with the Romans?” And, Jesus’ response to Peter? “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mark 8:33) Pretty harsh words from your rabbi, don’t you think?
If Peter wasn’t devastated by that little incident, his reaction to what happened later definitely shows regret over his reluctance to follow his master. We all know what happened. Jesus said Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed// and that’s exactly what Peter did— he not only denied being a disciple of Jesus, three times he denied that he even knew the man. Then the rooster crowed. Peter heard the sound, remembered the words of Jesus, and went off and wept. This wasn’t Peter simply going off to have a good cry. This was an anguish that tormented him to the very depths of his soul. He had denied knowing the Son of God. How could he ever live with himself again? If he only had a second chance.
In the scene from today’s scripture, it is apparent that Jesus is giving Peter a second chance. Not only is he giving Peter a second chance to follow, but Jesus is telling him that, one day, Peter will do exactly what Jesus did— give up his life for the glory of God. Peter is being commissioned to carry the message of Jesus, the light of the world, the message of hope to a waiting world. And, as a reward for his efforts, tradition says that, just like Jesus, Peter was crucified by the Romans. But right now, in this scene, Peter is being given a second chance to proudly tell the world that he does know Jesus the Christ and loves him. Peter is getting a second chance to serve. He is getting a chance to carry the second bulb.
We are all given second chances. Actually, we are given third, fourth, fifth, infinity chances to tell Jesus that we love him. But the chances we are given are not just to tell Jesus that we love him. We can do that simply by faithfully coming to worship every Sunday. But, it is not enough to simply say that we love Jesus, we must actually show it. It wasn’t enough that Peter just tell Jesus, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus gave Peter a way to show it. Jesus tells Peter that, if he loves him, he will feed his lambs. If he truly loves Jesus, Peter will take care of his sheep. If he truly loves Jesus, Peter will serve. Though he is speaking directly to Peter in this scene, Jesus is actually talking to everyone. However, I don’t think Jesus is telling us that we need to die like he did, or like Peter did, to prove our love for him. But he is telling us that we need to reach out to the spiritually hungry and feed them with the bread of life. We need to take care of the children of God who have lost the ability to care for themselves. We need to show compassion to those who the world has beaten down so that they may have hope in the promises of God and they will see that, within each of us, Jesus lives. Jesus is telling us to feed his lambs and take care of his sheep. In this church, or even as individuals, we have ample opportunities to do just that— by serving at the SAMM shelter for just a couple of hours every six weeks, we can show Jesus how much we love him. By going to read to and play with the kids at St. PJs just once a month we can show Jesus how much we care about the least of these. By serving in the Outreach or Evangelism ministries we can show Jesus that we truly want to follow. These, and many others, are opportunities to get out from behind the four walls of this church building and serve God and God’s creation. That is what Jesus is telling Peter to do and that is what Jesus is telling us to do.
How many of us, when given the opportunity to serve, dropped that first bulb? We had the best of intentions, but we were tripped up by some outside influence or, maybe, we placed our own desires above the needs of others. Maybe we were devastated that we failed at the first opportunity— maybe we weren’t. But, whatever the case may be, we are given many more opportunities to show Jesus just how much we love him. We serve a compassionate God who always gives us another chance to serve— to carry that second bulb. Our past mistakes, or missed opportunities, are not held against us just as Peter’s past mistakes were not held against him. And, we all know that Peter made the best of his second chance. So the question is, will we?
