Easter 3C Go Fish!

Easter 3C - John 21:1-19

Go fish!

Disciples...

One minute you want to hug them and the next you want to strangle them!

Less than a week ago they were locked in a room, expecting the worst

and the Lord came to them,

reassured them that everything would be alright and gave them a mission:

As the Father sent me, I send you.

You are not to sit here secluded in a locked room.

You are to go out and be the Church.

I am bringing you peace, peace of mind and peace of heart.

Bring others the same peace – the same absence of fear –

that I am bringing to you, Jesus commanded,

And here, take the Holy Spirit, to protect and empower you.

I guess the commissioning didn't really register,

since barely a week later we find the disciples back home.

Can you believe these guys?

They went home to their life “before Christ”.

After all that had happened, after all they had learned and shared.

After the resurrection!

They went home.

They went home and back to their usual pattern, the daily routines.

I guess they needed more time to wrap their minds around the new deal.

And Peter took them all fishing...

Well, if you are a fisherman after all that’s what you do.

I guess it was comforting to be back on the boat, back on the water.

Flowing back into the usual pattern of pushing the boat out into the lake, lowering the nets and raising them up again...

counting on muscle memory for a while.

It is restful to do what you can do without thinking,

as we say ‘with your eyes closed’.

And it provides a space where, while your hands are busy, your soul has time for reflection.

Some people garden, some fold the laundry

(and if you belong in that category, you are welcome to my house any time!)

After all what would you do if you were given so little detail about your mission:

as the Father sent me, I send you...where? to whom? to do what?

So the boys went home.

But it was not business as usual. It couldn’t be.

Jesus had told them that they were not fishermen any longer.

Jesus had made them fishers of people.

They were destined to a very different catch.

So the nets stay empty.

I wonder what was going through their minds,

whether they felt they had lost their touch.

See, in those three years with the Lord they were transformed.

Their identity, their very core was different.

They were incapable of going back to life before Christ.

But they didn't know it yet.

So Jesus, once again comes to the rescue.

Do not do what you used to do, my friends.

Listen to me: I am showing a different way to use those nets.

And it works.

The miraculous catch is Peter’s clue to the identity of the man on the beach.

After all Jesus has been showing them

a different way to do things for a few years now.

And it always worked.

They have been fishing for people together

and their metaphorical nets were always filled to capacity and more.

I believe that the miraculous catch can be the Church’s clue too.

We often lament the fact that our communities are shrinking.

Not true here at All Saints’, but definitely true denomination-wise.

So we feel we have to come up with new and exciting plans

to “lure people through the doors” and to keep them here.

And we often go overboard, trying to control the outcomes,

taking our cues from the ways of the world.

(We all want our Church to function like big corporations...

we all want to be more like Google, bless our hearts)

Brothers and Sisters, I believe this story has a better message for us today.

Let us just do what Jesus told the disciples to do:

let us go and and be fishers of people.

As the Father sent me, he said, I send you.

Jesus came to us and fed our need for peace, for forgiveness, for love in action.

He showed us mercy, understanding, compassion.

And we were hooked!

Now it’s up to us:

Let us find the ones who are hungry for Christ, for the love of God, for the story of redemption and resurrection and feed them - physically and metaphorically.

Let us feed their bodies at shelters and soup kitchens.

Let us feed their heart with comforting words of hope and welcome.

Let us feed their souls by sharing the story of our spiritual journey,

by telling them how God takes us back every time we mess up,

how Jesus is present in our pain and in our sorrow.

We are not aquarium keepers, my friends, we are fishers of men and women,

called to be out there on the water.

Now of course that may not be a very comfortable place, I know.

The water can be a place of discomfort, distress, even pain.

The water is often a place where we find ourselves naked, like Peter, disarmed,

dependent on something larger, more powerful than we are.

But the good news is that we don’t have to go alone.

No one has to. Jesus sends in pairs, in small groups, in communities.

And we don’t have to do anything that he hasn't done first.

Even dear old Peter,

who after everything has happened is being forgiven,

taken back into the fold, and can barely believe his luck.

Even Peter is told that although the journey will be hard

he doesn't have to go about it alone.

Yes, Jesus sends us out, in a boat, on the water but here’s the catch

Follow me - he says.

Follow me.

Amen