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How many of you remember the movie “The Breakfast Club?” It’s hard to believe, But this year, the film will celebrate its 25th anniversary!, It is a classic coming of age movie, and you can rent it or watch it on cable television. Based in the fictional town Shermer, Illinois, the film begins on a ordinary Saturday morning, when five high school students come together for detention in their school library. The five students – Brian, Andrew, Allison, Claire and John – come from different economic and social backgrounds, and different cliques in the school. As you meet each character early in the film, You see what group they represent: The smart boy is the “brain” and the lonely and outcast girl is called a “basket case.” The rich and privileged girl is definitely a “princess,” The boy who pushes the rules is the “rebel,” and the physically gifted young man is the “athlete.” The principal, Mr. Vernon, orders all the students to be silent and stationary for the eight hour day – no talking, no moving around! But before heading off and going about his own business for the day, he leaves them with an assignment: “Write a 1000 word essay about who you think you are.” It’s high school, And it’s detention, So you have an idea from the beginning that the students won’t be silent and stationary for long! And that’s exactly what happens. One student – John, known by his last name, Bender – is particularly vocal, and starts harassing and mocking the other students. Emotions are stirred up; experiences are revealed; Stories are told; and alliances are formed, And as the day unfolds, The five students - the breakfast club - discover new truths about themselves and about each other. This morning’s gospel lesson tells about a breakfast club, too. John records that eight disciples are gathered at the beach on an ordinary evening that turns into an extraordinary morning. We are told who they are: Peter, Thomas, Nathaniel, the beloved disciple, the brothers Zebedee and two other unnamed disciples. When we “flash back” to the gospel stories of these followers of Jesus, We can imagine what group they represent. Peter is the impulsive leader and the denier; Thomas is the doubter, Nathaneal is the skeptic. We don’t know his story as the others, But Nathaneal is the one who utters the famous line, “Can anything good ever come out of Nazareth?” The beloved disciple, the “one whom Jesus loved,” is clearly the “favorite.” The brothers Zebedee, as John calls them here, are named James and John in other parts of the gospel; they are the “glory seekers,” the ones who wanted to sit at Jesus’ left and right side when he comes into power. These disciples, this breakfast club isn’t in detention, They are not even in a locked room as they had been twice before when Jesus appears to them. But they are huddled together, a bit out of sorts, silent and stationary, listless and unfocused. Remember, these disciples have already seen Jesus – They know he is alive, That he has been raised from the dead. They have touched his hands and side, They have heard his words of peace. They’ve experienced a life-changing event, They have been blessed with the breath of the Risen Christ And so they are NOW READY TO …. Return back to their old lives?! For that is just what Peter says when he breaks the silence: Let’s go fishing, Let’s go back to what we were doing before this already began. Remember that Peter and the brothers Zebedee were fishermen on water before Jesus called them to fish for people. Let’s go fishing, Peter tells the others. Let’s go back to business as usual. Oh! and we can understand that, can’t we? It’s easy to return to something comfortable when life gets challenging and confusing. You know those times we’re invited by Christ and by others to take a step forward, and we resist and then go back to our usual routine. We go back to fishing or being afraid or refusing to forgive someone or whatever the safe and secure patterns are in our lives. It happens in our personal lives, in our faith lives, in our political lives. And it’s what happened to the disciples after the resurrection. And yet, it is to this group of disciples – The impulsive, the doubter, the skeptic, the favorite, the glory seeker – That Jesus appears. He shows up – Or shows out as one preacher says – And miracles happen! Jesus shows out and brings them out their “detention,” out of their confinement and comfort. For when Jesus shows up, fear is transformed into freedom, Scarcity is transformed into abundance, And love is transformed into commitment and service. He feeds their deepest hungers, serves them a morning meal, reminds that that resurrection in real, and makes them into a breakfast club. We’re a breakfast club of sorts, too, this morning, aren’t we? Alan, Sue, Grace, Eric, Bob, Lynne, Simon Peter - each and all of us are gathered here in this sanctuary, coming together this morning to be reminded of the truth of who we are and whose we are. Oh, there are athletes and rebels among us, and some doubters and skeptics, too. And we are also believers and seekers, Strugglers and survivors, Conservative and liberals, Faithful and fallible, Weak and strong, Long time disciples and new Christians. Friends, just as Jesus came to the first disciples, Jesus desires to come to us, To feed us, to nourish us, To remind us that we can’t go back to business as usual. Jesus invites us into a new way of being and living, A new way of being and living the church. He invites us to know the miracle of freedom and abundance in all the ways we are the church: In our worship, In our hospitality, In our stewardship and the sharing of our time, talent, and treasure. In the film The Breakfast Club, the students spend the day together and discover they have much in common: they all struggle in relationships with their parents; they all are a bit afraid of the future; they all desire to become more than they are, more than how they have been defined by parents and principals and other students. So, you remember that assignment they were given to write an essay about who they are? They compose a letter that goes something like this: Dear Mr. Vernon, We accept the fact that we had to be in detention. You see as you want to see us, in the simplest terms and the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, and a princess and a rebel. They discovered a powerful truth: that their identities, lives, and stories are interconnected and they are not alone. Sisters and brothers, with the power of the Risen Christ within and among us, We, too, discover the same truth: We are interconnected and bound together. There is a little bit of skeptic and glory seeker, A little bit of doubter and denier in each of us. However, also because of the resurrection, we discover a more powerful truth: status or stereotypes cannot define us; neither can possessions or abilities or disabilities. Our age, our past mistakes, not even our politics can define us. What does define us as an Easter people is love, and how we share the love of Christ with all. It’s the kind of love that Peter professes to Jesus on the beach, The kind of love that tends and cares for others. But let’s not be fooled friends, this is not a sentimental, warm and fuzzy kind of love, or a business-as-usual kind of love. What Meghan said this morning is true: this love with God and God’s people is simple: God loves us, we love God, and our brothers and sisters. However, simple doesn’t always mean easy. The kind of love that Christ invites us to share is the kind of love he lived. This is love that will irritate and inconvenience us. This is love that takes risks to include all others; This is love that passionately seeks justice; This is love that requires that something die in us; This is love that will take us to places that we don’t really want to go. In the final scene in The Breakfast Club, the students are being picked up from school by their parents. They make final connections and promises: I’ll call you, I’ll see you at school. The answered question lingers: What will happen on Monday? Will their experience together make any difference? Will they change their ways because o their encounter with one another? Did you know that today’s gospel lesson is the final scene in John’s gospel? The first breakfast, this post-Resurrection feast, is the last appearance of Jesus, and we are left with a question: What happens with the disciples? What do they do after their breakfast club experience? How will their lives change? Friends, the same question is ours today: We have had our breakfast club this morning, We met the risen Christ in worship and in the Word. What will our lives be like as we move into the days ahead. How will we love when Jesus calls to each of us “follow me?” Amen and alleluia. |