April 26, 2026
• Rev. Mindie Moore
Rise Week 3: What to do with Forgiveness
John 21:15-17
I am a big musical theater person. I love a showtune, I will weep right on cue at the power ballad in the final few scenes, my favorite movie ever and forever is Sound of Music. Give me all the singing, the dancing, I don’t care how corny or ridiculous it is, I love it.
And one of the first big musicals I ever saw was Les Mis. I’m guessing many of you have also seen it, because according to Matt Rawle’s book “The Grace of Les Miserables” (SLIDE) over 70 million people in 42 countries have seen this musical. It’s been in London at the West End since 1980...longer than I’ve been alive...and it’s been an academy award-winning film.
There are several different storylines in Les Mis, but one of the central ones revolves around a man named Jean Valjean. He’s a peasant who goes to jail for stealing bread but eventually finds redemption and spends his life trying to help others. This character and the redemption arc in his story is one of the most collectively beloved redemption stories ever. There’s something compelling about watching someone come from the lowest moment of their life and get a new start and a new place to live from.
And. As much as we might love WITNESSING this in someone else’s story, what I think is also true...is that it can be really hard to LIVE this in our own stories. But that’s what I want to invite us to consider today, as we look at Peter’s story and the redemption he experiences.
Now, if you know much about Peter’s story, there’s this one part of it that gets an awful lot of attention. We talked about it at length during our Lent series. Peter is a bit infamous for comments he makes about his relationship with Jesus in a pretty critical moment. While Jesus is enduring public punishment and trial that leads up to his crucifixion, Peter is approached and questioned about his association with Jesus. And Peter, probably from a place of fear and self-preservation, denies knowing Jesus. And he does this, not once, not twice, but three times.
He says, passionately, with conviction, that he does not know Jesus more than once. It’s enough times to think about it a bit. Enough times for it to be more than a flippant slip of the tongue. Enough times to be conscious of what he’s saying and what he’s doing. It’s enough times for this denial to become something that has the potential to haunt Peter for an awfully long time.
So this is a pretty terrible moment for Peter. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am not one who moves on from the terrible moments in my life super quickly. I mean, I am that person who has an awkward social interaction and is cringing about it hours later, even when I am confident that the other person has no memory of what happened. And that doesn’t even matter!
In Peter’s story, this moment of denial MATTERS. It matters a lot. And so if I’m Peter, even as we fast forward in his story, to this scene that happens after Jesus’ resurrection, it seems hard to believe that he’s just moved on. I wonder if this was the moment that kept replaying in his head before he went to bed at night. I wonder if sometimes he’d get a pit in his stomach when this incident randomly would pop into his mind. I just wonder how he was carrying around with him, even as he witnesses the death and resurrection of Jesus.
I don’t know if it was on his mind when this group of disciples found themselves on that beach, but it’s going to be soon enough.
Now, to give you a little bit more of the setting here, this takes place AFTER the story we looked at last week, where the disciples are all huddled together, hiding out in a locked room afraid of so much. And when John 21 begins, it kind of feels like they’re inching their way back to a “normal” life. They’ve left the safety of their locked doors, they’re out by the sea, and they decide it’s time to go fish.
Unfortunately for them, the fish are not interested in being caught that evening, and so they come up empty-netted. Nothing to show from their time out on the water...and then all of a sudden, there’s a man standing on shore. They don’t immediately know it’s Jesus, it’s just a guy looking out at them. A guy who asks them how the fishing is going, which is probably kind of frustrating given their present circumstances.
But then...this stranger makes the suggestion that they switch which side of the boat their nets are on...and when they do, they are INNUNDATED with fish. Like so many fish they can’t pull the net up. And that’s when they realize—oh. This ISN’T some random guy who happens to be really good at giving advice on fishing. It’s Jesus.
And I want us to notice the different reactions the disciples have to this sudden appearance and understanding that it’s Jesus they’re talking to. One of the disciples makes the statement that, “Oh. It’s Jesus.” The rest of the disciples get ready to row back to shore.
And Peter...Peter with the big feels and the impulsive energy...Peter just jumps in the lake and swims himself to shore. He can’t wait on the others. He MUST get himself to Jesus.
And this moment, I just love it. Because it is SO PETER! Peter who is just so all in all the time on everything, even when it gets him in trouble. I mean, the man is committed to whatever it is that he has the opportunity to be committed to. Even in his worst moments, like his denial, he is ADAMENT about it. There’s no question where Peter stands, pretty much ever.
Sometimes I look at the things that Peter does and I think, “I don’t know that you had to go QUITE that hard for that. I don’t know that all of these gestures needed to be THAT dramatic.”
But...maybe this one really does. Maybe this was the most honest way Peter could show up in this moment. Maybe there’s a lot of freedom in the fact that he has absolutely no restraint when it comes to getting himself to Jesus, even though there’s this really hard thing that’s happened. And maybe it is a really powerful testament to the way Jesus loves and forgives that Jesus receives Peter sprint-swimming, now soaking wet, and has this moment of restoration and forgiveness with him.
What we see happen between Peter and Jesus on that beach is one of the most authentic, tender, honest examples of reconciliation I can think of. Nothing is sugarcoated here, but also nothing is used as collateral to put Peter in his place. When I think about what it’s like to be in relationship with people in a complicated world, where we DO harm each other and we DO need to be forgiven and restored to each other, I so often see us default to one of those extremes. We either want to pretend the hard thing didn’t happen (or we hope someone will pretend with us and let us off the hook) and then we end up walking on eggshells all the time, just waiting for the thing we don’t want to address to come up OR we take that hard thing, the pain that’s happened, and we just tend to it in a way that it eventually becomes a sword and it’s the thing that can never be moved past. Always waiting, always available to be used in a way that layers harm upon harm.
Both of those ways can serve us in the short term...but I’ve never seen, in my own life, either of those paths lead to true restoration, healing, or forgiveness.
When Jesus and Peter sit around that fire together, Jesus doesn’t accuse. He doesn’t make weird small talk that isn’t about anything important. He metaphorically returns to the scene of Peter’s worst moment, and he asks him a question 3 times.
Peter, do you love me?
Peter, do you love me?
Peter, do you love me?
And here’s what’s kind of interesting about the way this conversation has been recorded for us to read centuries later. The first two times Jesus asks, he uses this word “agape” for love. The highest form of love, one that carries with it a sense of deep commitment and almost obligation to another person. It’s a beautiful, selfless sort of love, and Peter saying, “yes, I love you like this” is an extremely powerful way for Peter to say, “this is who I really am. I made a mistake, yes, but this is what is true in my heart.”
The third time Jesus asks, he uses the word “philia” for love. This form of love is about deep friendship. Not just an unconditional, dutiful love, but a CHOSEN love. Peter, you’re my friend. You matter. You’re more than what you do or don’t do, you’re forgiven and known and loved.
The way that Jesus takes the time to specifically tend to this part of Peter’s story...I just think if that isn’t a picture of the way God loves us, then I don’t know what is. Jesus reminds him that not only is he forgiven, but that his story is going to be about SO much more than this one failure. He tells Peter to “feed and tend his sheep,” and to live out the call that he has on his life.
Peter’s story reminds us that (SLIDE) forgiveness and restoration are more than things we feel. They are experiences that shape how we live.
Sometimes it’s really easy to accept that we’re forgiven, and sometimes, if we’re honest, our shame can get really loud and even though we KNOW, logically that forgiveness is for us...we don’t feel it at all. And maybe part of living into the truth of how Jesus DOES forgive us is letting ourselves live a better story even when it’s really hard to feel like it’s true. Maybe we can still keep moving forward to create goodness and hope.
Rev. Ryan Canady leads a ministry called Free Recovery Community in the Denver suburbs (SLIDE). In 2013, Ryan went to an AA meeting and said the words he wasn’t sure he could bring himself to share out loud with anyone: “My name is Ryan, and I’m an alcoholic.” He felt so much fear as he took that first step towards sobriety. He was a pastor...what would people think? What would this do to his ministry and what he knew of his life?
It turned out that this first brave step toward his own personal healing and restoration would lead to healing for so many other people. He and his wife started hosting gatherings in their backyard for others who were exploring recovery in 2018. From there, Free Recovery Community has grown into a thriving ministry that creates space for people who are seeking recovery from so many different forms of addiction. There are meetings or gatherings every single day of the week—some days there are three meetings in their building, some days there are as many as seven! They also have a cafe that creates a safe space for people to spend time, while giving back to organizations that support women in recovery from alcoholism.
One of the key tenants of Free Recovery Community’s mission is the term NO SHAME. I saw Ryan speak at a conference earlier this year, and this was what he based his talk on. That there is no need for and no room for shame in a God-shaped community. Their website actually has a section about shame and it says: “We don’t do it. God doesn’t do it. We honor our own journey when we accept where others are in theirs.”
This sounds a lot like how Jesus meets Peter on that beach. No shame. Just honesty, and forgiveness, and an invitation to move beyond his worst moment and live in a way that lets others experience the love of Jesus that has changed his life. Peter gets to do what we ALL are invited to do: to let faith and love go beyond our personal experience and let it shape the world around us.
Peter’s not going to spend the rest of his life trying to make up for a thing he did and words he said. He’s going to spend the rest of his life loving people well and creating communities that can continue to multiply the love of Jesus.
To live like that is one of the most faithful things we could ever do. It’s what I believe the church is supposed to be about...people discovering the love and healing that comes from Jesus and then getting out into the world and showing that love to other people as often and as generously as we possibly can. I saw us do that through I Love My City this weekend, and I see us do it in the ways we show up in our community, our families, our advocacy, even just in our time with each other.
I guess I just want you to know, before we go to the Communion table together, that that kind of life...that kind of living, hopeful, forgiveness-shaped faith...that’s for you. That’s for each and every one of us. Jesus’ forgiveness doesn’t run out, the invitation to live that kind of life isn’t dependent on never making a mistake. We have a Jesus who meets us where we are, who loves us with truth and kindness, and who invites us into good and beautiful things.
Let’s receive that invitation, and the love and grace of Jesus as we share communion together today.