Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard Sunday, June 24, 2018 Brotherly Kindness Peter Fitch, St. Croix Vineyard Sunday, June 24, 2018

2 Peter 1: 5-7 5 Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, 6 and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness,7 and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 

4 Words for Love in Ancient Greek Eros (sexual love) Storge (family affection) Philia (brotherly kindness) Agape (the kind of Love demonstrated by God toward everyone—not as much about feeling as an unswerving commitment to do the best thing possible for the other)

The Great Passage—John 21 1 After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and He manifested Himself in this way. 2 Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will also come with you.” They went out and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing.

John 21 15 So when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” 16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.” 

John 21 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

The trick . . . Time 1 and 2, Jesus asks if Peter has agape for Him Both times Peter refuses to answer that he has agape but instead says that he has philia Time 3 is the most interesting: Jesus asks Peter if he has philia for Him; this breaks Peter’s heart and he insists that he does have philia

What it means . . . Jesus provides a model for all time of what true religion and true brotherly kindness ought to be—He reaches to where Peter actually lives and embraces him there He does not insist that Peter change, grow, or be converted to something, before showering him with affection and affirmation

Great example: Alcoholics Anonymous When Ebby Thacher visited Wilson at his New York apartment and told him "he had got religion," Wilson's heart sank. Until then, Wilson had struggled with the existence of God, but of his meeting with Thacher he wrote: "My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, 'Why don't you choose your own conception of God?' That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.” Bill Wilson, referring to an event in 1934 that eventually led to his freedom from alcoholism (Wikipedia)

City of Philadelphia Founded in the 17th century by William Penn, a British aristocrat who had become a Quaker Dealt fairly with local Indigenous people, welcomed Jews and Catholics and non-comformists and other rejected minorities, wrote about tolerance and freedom from religious persecution We live near Pennfield, New Brunswick, named after Penn, and the first community in North America to refuse to allow slavery when it was founded by Quakers who were forced away from America in 1783 after the Civil War

Jackie Robinson . . . The Irony

Branch Rickey

Lesson 1: not everything that calls itself “brotherly love” can actually live up to that standard Lesson 2: “brotherly love” is less about a feeling and more about how people are actually treated Lesson 3: there are still battles to win in the fight for just and compassionate treatment of all peoples

Wisdom from various sources Pirke Avoth (p. 39, Learning to Interpret toward Love) Kahlil Gibran (p. 58 and 59; 78 and 79, The Prophet)