Oak Hills Church, Folsom

“This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” – John 21:24-25 In the last two verses of John's gospel that I just read, John says in effect, I saw all of what I just wrote happen, and I wrote some of it down, and if every one of the things that Jesus did were written down there would not be enough room for all the books that would be written…Just think about what he's saying, my testimony is true, I saw it, I witnessed a lot of this, and if all that had been witnessed, or all that Jesus has ever done, would have been recorded in a book there aren't enough books in the world to record it all. See, he is pointing to Jesus not only as the rabbi he walked and talked with for three years. As a disciple, he's pointing to the Jesus of John 1:1 who, as it says, “In the beginning, the very beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He's pointing to Jesus as the One.

Inhale the victory of the cross and exhale the power of the resurrection. Maybe that gives us something in the thick of the suffering, down deep in the valley of suffering. Inhale the victory of the cross. Exhale the power of the resurrection. This is the way of the Christ follower. And you know what strikes me in all this, as we reflect on this. What strikes me is that this is another one of those occasions where we begin to realize, or we realize again, the business of following Jesus or of living Christian is not some nice idea. It's not a paper transaction to avoid hell. It's not a religious distraction to pretend things are better than they are. Rather, the business of following Jesus and living Christian touches our real lives in every way. It is intensely and immensely practical. It's actually, the center of our lives. It reshapes us. It reorients us and reframes everything around us, including, believe it or not, the valley of suffering.

See, back in the beginning, when this whole thing started, Peter had gotten into this Jesus thing with the idea, with the dream of changing the world. Jesus comes and calls Peter with the promise, “Follow me, I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus had called him to serve, and for a while, Peter had been at the very center of the action. Life change was happening all around him. Miracles were happening. He was right there. Then he screwed up. Then he failed. And it is the question that haunts everyone who has ever failed. Is this the one? Is this the one that gets me benched? Is this the one that takes me out of the game, that relegates me to a spectator in the Kingdom of God, that sends me to the sidelines?

Friendships can be hard; that's just the simple point, they can be hard. We let each other down, we disappoint, we don't come through, we don't show up, we fail as friends, and some of our friends have failed us. And so, friendships in the real world will usually be a mixture of the good and the beautiful and the hard and the painful, but the resurrected Jesus, just by way of vision, models friendship that perseveres through the failure with grace and with the desire to reconcile.

Every person that professes to be a follower of Jesus Christ has a vocation and that vocation is bigger, more important, and more of a priority than our jobs or our careers. This vocation actually encompasses any job or career or trade or roll. This vocation is essentially the same for every single person who follows Jesus. Whether our work is to pick up trash at the park, lead a fortune 100 company, raise our children, or study chemistry. The word vocation comes from the Latin word, vocare, which means call. In the Christian context it means this, what has God called me to be and do?