Canceled: Recovering from Failure

Intro/Scripture/Hook

John 21:15–19 NIV

When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”

Pray.

In December of 2013 Justine Sacco was boarding an 11-hour flight to South Africa. Not long before take-off she tweeted “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding I’m white!” She turned off her phone after boarding, went to sleep, and had no idea she had just piloted her reputation into a flaming ball of wreckage.

Within hours she was a worldwide trending topic online. As the reactions to her tweet grew people recognized that she was unreachable mid-flight and that she would discover the firestorm once she landed. One user remarked: “All I want for Christmas is to see @JustineSacco’s face when her plane lands and she checks her inbox/voicemail.” A hashtag is a way to organize information quickly on social media. #hasjustinelandedyet was trending around the world. This has a life of its own online. Weeks later another user said “Man, remember Justine Sacco? #HasJustineLandedYet. God that was awesome. MILLIONS of people waiting for her to land.”

Justine’s trip was cut short- people threatened to boycott hotels she was staying at. She was concerned for her safety. She lost her job at the PR firm as you may have guessed. Even today, almost 10 years later when you google Justine Sacco the first result is a New York Times story “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life.”In his book “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” author Jon Ronson interviewed Justine Sacco. He also interviewed Gawker journalist Sam Biddle who initially brought attention to Justine’s tweet. Biddle told Ronson “The fact that she was a PR chief made it delicious” and that while he didn’t mean to ruin anyone’s life, he would do it again. Biddle said that Justine would be “fine eventually, if not already. Everyone’s attention span is so short. They’ll be mad about something new today.”

Last week, I made the case that cancelled seems to be almost antithetical to Christianity. At least when it comes to cancelling a person. But we also started with accountability. There are consequences.

Two things can be true: But listen, two things can be true at the same time....this is wrong and terrible and should be condemned appropriately. However, it is wrong for people to pull out their popcorn to watch and participate in her public stoning.

Remember Cancel culture goes beyond accountability in two ways.

Cancel Culture - Beyond accountability in two ways:

When used as a form of social control and/or...

When accompanied as a sense of glee or entertainment

One liner: Christians shouldn’t see shame as a sport

Beginning place last week was:

We want accountability for others and amnesty for ourselves

This week we want to talk about coming back from failure.

Hey guess what church… there is a lot of failure in the bible.

Which is ironic, because as we pretend to hold it all together, our VBS heroes are all a hot mess. And we feel like we better cover up that fact. Another sermon.

The apostle Peter’s story is one of failure and redemption.

Peter the failure

Peter has a prominent role in the gospels narrative. He is a follower of Jesus that we are invited in to see in an intimate way. We know more about the struggles and the ups and downs of Peter than really any of the other disciples.

• Peter is one of the three that spend time very closely with Jesus. Resurrection of a child, the transfiguration, invitations to time of prayer with Jesus.

• He is the one in the synoptics that makes the messiah claim early on.

• Peter is confident, he often boasts of his reliability, but rightfully so. He is the leader of the group.

Throughout John’ gospel, Peter is trying to lead and be faithful to Jesus. He is constantly trying to show his devotion. Let me show you three examples.

First when Jesus is washing feet.

John 13:8 NIV

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

Later he makes a strong claim of his faithfulness....

John 13:37 NIV

Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

The he shows his physical courage to defend Jesus...

John 18:10 NIV

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

These are all in the final week. All leading up to the moments where he would lose all his courage.

Jesus knew he would lose it too. He predicts his walking away. At the moment Peter thinks this is incredulous at the time, he does the very thing.

John 18:15–18 NIV

Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the servant girl on duty there and brought Peter in. “You aren’t one of this man’s disciples too, are you?” she asked Peter. He replied, “I am not.” It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

His second and third denial are the same. And right in the middle of it is the beginning of Jesus’ trail and beating.

Peter, the best friend. The one given full access. The one who Jesus has even healed one from his family. The one who has seen the transfiguration and a taste of heaven. This is the one standing around a fire to warm himself as he denies Jesus. The complete reversal of his messiah declaration not long before this moment.

Matthew 26:75 NIV

Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Guilt versus shame:

Guilt is a feeling of remorse or responsibility for something you’ve done.

Shame is about how you perceive yourself or how others perceive you because of something you’ve done or something done to you.

Guilt = Responsibility. I’ve done something bad. Shame= Perception. I am a bad person, or these people view me as bad. They can work in combination. In this instance, Peter is asked:

John 18:25 NIV

Meanwhile, Simon Peter was still standing there warming himself. So they asked him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?” He denied it, saying, “I am not.”

(This is the shaming mechanism… and induces shame because of his cowardice response.

Being perceived as following a heretic and fake = shame

feeling like he missed it = shame

Denies Jesus = guilt

All lead to the most desperate place he has been.

Fast forward to John 21. The risen Lord comes to the disciples on the beach. You know where Peter is? He is fishing. This is all he knows and all that is left.

John 21:8–14 NIV

The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Jesus makes them breakfast. Hold that in your mind.

After feeding them breakfast, he pulls Peter aside and they begin in the conversation we started with:

1.Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?

Yes, Lord… you know that I love you

Feed my lambs

2.Simon son of John, do you love me?

Yes, Lord

Take care of my sheep

3.Simon son of John, do you love me

Three fold: do you love me.

Too match his threefold denial....

I love what Biblical Scholar William Barclay said:

“Jesus asked this question three times; and there was a reason for that. It was three times that Peter denied his Lord, and it was three times that his Lord gave him the chance to affirm his love. Jesus, in his gracious forgiveness, gave Peter the chance to wipe out the memory of the threefold denial by a threefold declaration of love.”

No one names their child Judas

Have you ever noticed that no one names their child Judas? We dont even want to be associated with a traitor. We hate traitors. Everytime Lebron leaves a city, they are burning jerseys in the streets.

Think about this though, what is the difference between Judas and Peter?

Both chose their own agendas at the expense of their master. Both had regrets, guilt, and shame. Scripture tells us that Judas’ sin of betrayal led him to succumb to suicide. Imagine if he would’ve waited three days?

That day by the sea, Peter was no different than Judas. He stood on that beach a deserter, a defector, one who had professed allegiance to the death but acted like a coward when a little girl asked if he was with Jesus.

The difference between Peter and Judas is that Judas underestimated Jesus’ forgiveness.

So let me just preach here for a second.....

Peter had to go through those death days. Days where he was faced with his own darkness. Faced with the reality that emotional, mental, physical commitment to Jesus would not cut it because his soul was sick and could be compromised. He had to go through the day of the cross where death and evil is defeated.

But on the other side was a blood stained Jesus. A nail scarred Jesus. A Jesus who faced betrayal and abandonment. A Jesus that did not show up on the beach to heap more shame, or say I told you so, or to wag a finger, or give you the 5 point rational argument of why you were wrong!

HE MADE THEM BREAKFAST.

THIS IS YOUR SAVIOR.

Preach this out....

Now....

Jesus might forgive you, but that does not mean people will

How do we come back from failure in view of others.

But how do we recover from failure with regular folks, who aren’t Jesus? How do we reconcile our guilt and shame?

This is John Baker. After attending college at Mizzou, being an officer in the air force, and having some success in business he found his life in ruins by the time he reached his 30’s. He was alienated from his children, his marriage was failing, and he was an alcoholic. When he hit rock bottom, he began attending Alcoholics Anonymous. As part of their 12-step program John made efforts to make amends with the people who he had hurt. Step 8 of AA’s program is to make a list of people that you’ve harmed and be willing to make amends with them all. Step 9 says to “make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.” As a part of this process, he began attending church with his wife Cheryl. It was there he rekindled his faith an eventually merged Christian Principles with AA’s 12 Steps and created Celebrate Recovery, a biblical 12-step program utilized today by over 7 million people. John did the hard work of accepting accountability and seeking restoration with the people he hurt. But he wasn’t reduced to the worst decisions he had made. As a result of his recovery from failure innumerable people have found healing, hope, and a path to restoration.

Christian, if we reduce people to their worst mistake then we will suffocate what God wants to do in and through them.

Now what do you do if people will not forgive?

1. Cling tightly to the Jesus that forgives you.

2. Acknowledge the harm you have caused, offering apology without justification

3. Repentance

4. Suffering and Humility

Jesus forgives, people need some time.

Some of us needed to know that Jesus would have breakfast with them.

Some of us will be challenged to see another’s through the eyes of Christ.... and find that offering forgiveness for failure is not about saying “what you did was alright.” But it is the mature release the chains that the wrongdoing has on you. It is about seeing that your failure and their failure…Jesus took it all on.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.