WEBVTT

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In the name of Jesus.

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Amen.

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They gathered

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the disciples that is they gather

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in our text for today.

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They are fed.

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They feed.

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Dear brothers and sisters of our Lord

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Jesus Christ.

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Intriguing, is it not the sequence of things?

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The final focus of the final chapter of the last of the gospels,

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authored, by the last of the Apostles.

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The Last of a dying breed, is he?

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Intriguing, informing

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in fact, it is.

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For first Jesus instructs his disciples to gather into the net.

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From now on, I will cause you to be Fishers of Men suggest Jesus.

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Then on the shore from his very own hand

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Jesus feeds them

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with a meal that he has prepared. A meal of bread

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and flesh. And the bread that I shall give for the life of the world is

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my flesh, says he elsewhere.

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And finally, the risen

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Jesus gives his disciples charge to Pastor the sheep of the Good

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Shepherd.

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Feed my sheep declares Jesus.

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Feed my sheep for the Sheep to must be fed fed with the same bread,

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which is that of the bread of life.

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They gather, they are fed.

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They feed.

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But why exactly?

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Why here, at the end of John's gospel?

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Why now?

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What's the point to it all?

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From the school of Jesus and his disciples from the time and place of

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their preparation.

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To the later time and place of the school of John and his

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contemporaries in the last days of the first century.

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To this time.

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To this place.

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To yet another school.

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Why the sequence?

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Why the focus

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Answer.

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In each previous case it was even now it is once more

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time to leave.

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Time for a parting

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of the ways.

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First Jesus.

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Then John.

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And even now it is, it seen

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it seems a time for a parting of the ways. For even now

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so many of you are about to leave me, aren't you?

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Was it something I said?

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How many days is it

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now till Call Day, you know.

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You have been counting the days, haven't you?

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Because sooner or later, some are given to leave.

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Some are given to stay.

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Some are given to rest from their labors.

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Some are given a labor that still exists for them to do.

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For the work of Jesus is both done and undone.

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Both complete

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and incomplete.

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So there's was so ours

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is this day.

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This sort of a focus not only on that which has been done.

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But also on that which still exists for us to be and to do until he

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comes again.

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So they gather they are fed and they themselves feed for

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this is who Jesus is.

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This is what Jesus has himself come to be

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and to do has done does and will do.

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Therefore, this is what he means, even now to do through you.

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Both the how and the why.

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For as challenging as

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the labor has been and still is for all who dwell in this place,

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right?

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In preparation for the labor to be done out there.

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All the more challenging is the life and labor,

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out there.

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Here, there everywhere.

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Where neither the devil, nor our own sinful nature want us to hallow

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God's name or let his kingdom come.

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It's a tough world out there.

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So what is our focus?

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What is the nature of our hope?

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What is our soul reason for existing?

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How does John say it?

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Early in the morning with its first light and the dawning of a

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decidedly new day, the risen Son, the light of the world appears on

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the shore.

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But because there is more that the teacher must teach them to see

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because the lingering influence of the darkness clings to them still.

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They do what they have done before they see, but they do not see in

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that boat.

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They see Jesus standing on the shore, but they do not know

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that it is Jesus.

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Addressing them as the children of God that they now are in communion

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with their brother

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who is God's Son.

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The teacher asks,

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another one of those pedagogically motivated leading questions.

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You know how those kinds of questions go around here, don't you?

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He who is the bread of life who gives bread

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that is his very own flesh and his own blood for all the world's to

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eat and drink.

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There's sort of a Jesus tests, his disciples there in the boat, as he

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has before. Asking them,

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If thus far their experience of fishing all night long and catching

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nothing.

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Has left them with anything at all to eat.

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Children enquires

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Jesus. Children implies

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Jesus has my work

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that is now your work

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come to naught, have you know, food for the table?

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Sadly, ironically their answer is no.

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That is not the right answer.

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So Jesus instructs them to try again, but this time differently. Cast

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again, but now at my behests declares Jesus. Cast and you will find

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what's missing. Cast again

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and you will see.

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At his word at the word of the word made flesh

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they do so.

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And this is what they are given to know.

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This is what

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they are given to see. Gathering, fed, feeding

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for this is what church is.

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This is what church does.

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Now, Jesus did many other things.

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If every one of them were written down

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I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books

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that would be written.

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Even so,

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you know.

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Even so you have been given to see these things are written so that

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you may believe.

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These things are written so that you may have life in his name,

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Beloved of God,

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whether abiding or departing, make this your focus.

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Make this your hope. The trustworthy earnest of both your present and

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your future for a new day has indeed dawned.

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As our hymn for the day

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so aptly, just stated the matter in this, its final stanza.

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Where the hymn

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we just sang reads as follows. Morning breaks

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and Jesus meets us feeds and comforts, pardons still. As his faithful

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friends

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He greets us partners

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of his work and will. All our days on every shore

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Christ is ours forever

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more. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.