The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning

Week 10: Chapter 9 — The Second Call

Read Chapter 9 of The Ragamuffin Gospel. Key passage: John 21:15-19 (Jesus reinstates Peter).

In this penultimate chapter, Manning offers hope to everyone who has failed spectacularly — people who have denied, betrayed, or walked away from their faith — by turning to the story of Peter's restoration on the beach.

Discussion Questions

7 questions

1.Read John 21:15-19. Jesus asks Peter three times, 'Do you love me?' — mirroring Peter's three denials. Why does Jesus not simply announce forgiveness and move on? What does this tender, repetitive exchange tell us about how grace works in us over time?

2.Manning calls this 'the second call' — the moment of recommissioning after failure. He argues that many Christians have never fully received their second call because they cannot believe they deserve it. Have you experienced a 'second call' moment in your own life — a sense of being restored after a significant failure?

3.Peter had not merely stumbled — he had denied knowing Jesus, three times, on the night Jesus needed him most. Manning uses this to argue that no failure is too great for grace to cover. Do you believe that? What failures in your own life still feel beyond grace's reach?

a.What would it mean to hear Jesus ask you — three times, tenderly — 'Do you love me?' How would you answer?

b.What 'feed my sheep' commission might be waiting on the other side of your receiving that restoration?

4.Manning writes movingly about people who have abandoned the church, abandoned their faith, or abandoned themselves — and he insists that Jesus is already on the beach, already cooking breakfast, already waiting. How does that image speak to someone in your life who has walked away?

5.The breakfast on the beach is achingly ordinary — charcoal fire, fish, bread. Manning sees in this ordinariness the grace that meets us in the everyday. Where have you experienced God's grace in ordinary, unremarkable moments rather than dramatic spiritual encounters?

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Closing Prayer

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Jesus, You stood on the beach when Peter had every reason to believe You would not. You cooked breakfast. You asked the question again. Thank You that You do not abandon the people who have failed You — that You are already at the shore, already waiting, already ready to recommission. For those of us who have denied You in our own ways, speak our name this week. Ask us Your question. And when we answer — haltingly, honestly — send us back out to feed Your sheep. Amen.

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