The Flaming Goat

It feels very appropriate, given recent events, that John 21:1-19 is one of today’s readings. It includes the reinstatement of Simon Peter, who became the first pope and a framework for his leadership. “Feed my lambs.”, “Tend my sheep.” And what really spoke to me this week:

“Feed my sheep. Most certainly I tell you, when you were young, you dressed yourself and walked where you wanted to. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you don’t want to go.” Now he said this, signifying by what kind of death he would glorify God. When he had said this, he said to him, “Follow me.”

What spoke to me wasn’t the dying violently for God bit, but the character growth from Simon who so readily in his panic denied Christ three times to Peter who would remain a rock even while being crucified upside down. Some accounts say he did this to make an example of how cruelty is an inversion of Christ’s love and others say it was because he felt unworthy to die in the same way as Christ. Either way it’s a transformation that can show a leader’s strength being forged in difficulty and how reputation is an eternal life granted here on Earth.

As I’m sure many of you are aware (and maybe like me you have considered testing the waterproof claims of your phone case in Holy Water), the President of the United States recently posted an AI-generated picture of himself as the pope. The post was meant to shock and offend, but to me it feels morbidly appropriate. Generative AI uses an obscene amount of resources to create an illusion of skill, so it makes sense that this regime uses it so much to create the illusion of power. Both are illusions that crumble under slight scrutiny.  

But so many people who claim to follow Christ still put Orange Julius (Caesar) before him. Why? It seems like an easy choice between leadership that would sacrifice itself for your well-being vs. leadership that treats your life and labor as disposable. Because it’s easy. And discernment is hard. There is no introspection required on the well-tread path of tyrants. No accountability for harm done in moments of fear or anger. Simon Peter may have thrice denied Christ, but he also did the work to make it right. He (literally) threw himself into it. Regrets alone are not repairs or reparations. In the story he was chosen to lead not despite his past weakness but because of how he redeemed himself. A Good Shepherd knows the difference between holding a crook and being one.

I’ll leave you now not with the words of Our Father, but of the All Father:

The miserable man and evil minded
makes of all things mockery,
and knows not that which he best should know,
that he is not free from faults.
-Hávamal 22