FISH FOR BREAKFAST JOHN 21:1-19<\/p>\n\n\n\n
by Rev. James Rausch<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! How do we know it\u2019s real? How do we know that Jesus\u2019 resurrection isn\u2019t just some wild story dreamed up by some fanatic disciples trying to make a name for themselves?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Well, I\u2019d like us to think for a moment, if the earliest followers of Jesus were simply making up stories trying to convince the world that Jesus was raised up from the dead, how do you think they would they have presented his resurrection and their own response to it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we might have expected would have been a grand presentation of God\u2019s triumph, with trumpet blasts and angel choirs and the crowning of the loyal followers, each being installed in a position of authority and respect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we have instead in these holy writings is the disciples\u2019 admission that they themselves didn\u2019t even recognize him at first. Over and over again it happens. At the tomb, Mary Magdalene mistook the risen Christ for the gardener. Luke presents two followers walking several miles with him on Easter day – on their way to a place called Emmaus. They talked as they went, and finally this stranger was invited to stay with them. Yet only later did they realize it was Jesus, after he broke bread with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And again, on Easter day, the disciples were not fully convinced that the one standing among them was the risen Jesus until they saw the very wounds from his crucifixion. Thomas famously refused to believe until he saw for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, Thomas Troeger, a preaching professor whom I was privileged to meet at a Synod School event, wrote a beautiful hymn about his namesake, Thomas, the doubting disciple. It\u2019s number 256 in our hymnal. I just learned that Professor Troeger passed away earlier this month. So, I guess it\u2019s especially fitting that I had already planned to include his poetic lyrics in my sermon today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These things did Thomas count as real:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the warmth of blood, the chill of steel,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the grain of wood, the heft of stone,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the last frail twitch of blood and bone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vision of his skeptic mind<\/p>\n\n\n\n
was keen enough to make him blind<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to any unexpected act<\/p>\n\n\n\n
too large for his small world of fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His reasoned certainties denied<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that one could live when one had died,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
until his fingers read like Braille<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the markings of the spear and nail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May we, O God, by grace believe<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and thus, the risen Christ receive,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
whose raw imprinted hands reached out<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and beckoned Thomas from his doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, the gospels and Acts report to us that Jesus\u2019 closest followers were anything but triumphant, perceptive, and heroic. Thomas would be forever known as \u201cDoubting Thomas,\u201d hardly the kind of legacy one would choose if one were making up a story to pass on for posterity. The starkly honest portrayal admits that Jesus\u2019 followers were all slow to perceive and even slower to believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No flattering self-portrait from the disciples on their discernment, and no spectacular portrayals of Jesus as the triumphant returning hero. Instead, we have a risen Christ who looked like a gardener, a dusty traveler on a country road, and a man asking for fish, cooking breakfast on a charcoal fire on the beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The disciples had learned that there was nothing to be gained by pretending that they were ultra-competent, worthy of authority, highly successful and in control. Many times, during their lives prior to Jesus\u2019 resurrection, flattering self-portrayals were precisely the kinds of images they fought to present to the world, just as we often do. Heaven forbid it in this day and age that we risk honestly showing anything of ourselves that isn\u2019t part of an image of having it all together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Surely you have noticed that it seems no salesperson can admit their product has weaknesses, or isn\u2019t performing up to the level of its competition the way it should. They have a way to spin everything into reasons that we must buy what they\u2019re selling It seems no one can risk accepting responsibility for accidents they cause or crimes they commit. It seems no student could ever admit that there are many ways to cover, by grades or by achievements, the things that are really lacking in their lives. It seems that those who are trained and even experienced in their professions can never let on that there are times of great uncertainty and moments of utter incompetence that cause shame and fear and great doubt. That\u2019s the way of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If our lives were to be portrayed in anything like the Bible, which is the best-selling, most-read collection of writings in history, we would all hope to be shown in a favorable light, I think. No one would relish having their errors and flaws placed before billions of eyes. So, it\u2019s human to want to tell our story in ways that flatter us, while we almost automatically cover our failings. However, the masks that we hold up to hide behind do grow to be very heavy indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The honest, self-portrayal of the early followers of Jesus as scared, confused, lost, doubting, and ready to give up and go back to their old jobs, is but one of many reasons we can point to which show that the gospel accounts of Jesus\u2019 resurrection appearances are trustworthy. The accounts do nothing to portray the disciples and the early church in a flattering way. They ring true because of their utter honesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fortunately for us, and everyone who\u2019s willing to pay attention, today\u2019s reading confirms that the gospel is for those who don\u2019t have it all together all the time. It\u2019s for those who stumble and fall, and are, at times, aghast at their own inability or lack of will to even give it their best shot. The gospel is for those who were supposed to know better, who could have done better, and who don\u2019t understand where their motivation, enthusiasm and courage have gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fishing on the sea of Galilee is best at night, I am told. And those who fish for a hobby know that to return from a whole night\u2019s efforts with no fish is terribly disappointing. Those who fish for a living, however, know that it is utterly demoralizing. Expert fishermen who spend the whole night with nothing to show for it might not be such experts after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By our standards, a fisherman who brings in no fish after working all night, a salesperson who brings in no sales after a hard week pounding the pavement, a farmer who brings in no crops after a tough season of fighting the weather, a doctor who loses a patient, a teacher who can\u2019t reach a child, a waiter who forgets an order, a runner who drops the baton, a soloist who blows a note \u2026 these are listed as failures among humans. Effort or no effort \u2013 what humans demand are results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what the disciples learned – and admitted wholeheartedly – is that the results are really not in our control at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I say count me in with the \u201cexpert\u201d fishermen who here admitted that all their efforts and knowledge led them to a big zero on their own – when the nets kept coming back empty. A night spent dreaming of fish for breakfast, and not only dreaming but working diligently for it, was looking like a hungry and tired morning instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then there was this stranger on the beach who called out, and the next thing you knew he had fish on the grill, cooking up the very thing they had wanted so desperately to provide for themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They say this story is also meant as a metaphor for God\u2019s Kingdom. And those of us who dream of the day when evil and death and mourning are no more \u2013 feeling frustrated and discouraged when our best efforts to move us closer to that day seem ineffective at best, and sometimes even contributing to the very things we are fighting against \u2013 this story is the assurance that when we stop relying on ourselves and start relying on God, then the dream will be realized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The net full of fish represents the church and the multitudes who will be brought together, and yet the net is not torn. It means that God\u2019s church will hold together even with a catch of people so abundant and so diverse that no human imagination can fathom it, and no human effort can achieve it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, if we don\u2019t have it all together \u2013 if we are not in control, what are we to do? Like Peter and the other disciples, we can be honest about ourselves and tell the story of how Jesus came back for us, for everyone who hungers for God\u2019s presence and God\u2019s peace. We can tell our story truthfully and gratefully to anyone who will listen, and let the results be up to God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am guilty of being repetitive with certain things I have learned about the Bible and wish to pass along. Today\u2019s passage contains one of those lessons you will hear me repeat over and over again. This story we have read today takes on an extra dimension of meaning when you discover that the English language is not capable of conveying an important feature of the original Greek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Jesus asks Peter, \u201cDo you love me?\u201d and Peter answers, we only have the English word \u201clove\u201d to translate two different Greek words in the story. Jesus asks, \u201cDo you agape-love me?\u201d But Peter\u2019s answer, which in English is, \u201cYou know I love you,\u201d is actually different in the Greek. \u201cYou know I phileo-love you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You see, in Greek, agape-love is the kind of love God gives, selfless and eternally steadfast. Phileo-love is strong, brotherly or sisterly affection; high love, indeed, but still short of agape-love commitment. A second time, Jesus asks Peter, \u201cDo you agape me?\u201d And Peter again answers, \u201cYou know I phileo you.\u201d Then, in a third question, Jesus changes the word he uses: \u201cPeter, do you Phileo me?\u201d Peter, saddened, but honest and humble, gave his answer again. \u201cJesus, I phileo you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Each time, Jesus charged Peter to \u201cFeed my sheep.\u201d In this threefold exchange, Jesus forgave Peter\u2019s three-fold denial of knowing him when Jesus was arrested and tried. And, in forgiving him, they both acknowledged that Peter had grown tremendously in self-awareness. He no longer was brazenly over-confident in himself and his abilities. He was no longer willing to promise more than he could deliver. With this hard-won wisdom, Peter had grown into readiness for leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you willing to grow through trials and challenges and hardship? Are you willing to walk with Jesus into an awakening of self-awareness? What it requires is a determination to hang in there, and keep showing up. A mentor of mine once encouraged me after he had listened to me on many occasions confess my worst failures \u2013 failures that I thought absolutely disqualified me from being a Christian, let alone a pastor. He said, \u201cYou\u2019re like Peter, then.\u201d He had every reason to condemn himself over his failures, yet he hung in there and kept showing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLook at the end of Matthew\u2019s gospel, chapter 28, verse 16,\u201d he said, \u201cWhat does it say?\u201d So, I read it: \u201cNow the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.\u201d \u201cHow many disciples showed up?\u201d he asked. Eleven. \u201cThat\u2019s right. Eleven. Not ten. We know that, tragically, Judas couldn\u2019t bring himself to believe that grace was big enough to redeem him. But though Peter\u2019s failure was also devastating, for some reason he again showed up, and that\u2019s why there were eleven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t guess there are many of us who typically eat fish for breakfast, but perhaps we can at least remember this account of our risen Lord who greets those who have come through a long night of sadness and struggle with just what they were searching for, and then some! Go. Be on the lookout for the risen Jesus in those around you. Show them in love how the story of redemption continues in you and everyone else who tries, fails, and falls \u2013 but always keeps showing up for what\u2019s next. I pray Jesus blesses you with growing faith, deepening trust, and tenacious persistence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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