Introduction: A Feast for the Senses
The story we heard this morning is one to experience with all five of our senses.
Can you smell that damp, fishy odour of the seashore?
Hear the splash of the oars.
Feel the rough rope of the fishing net in your hands.
See the dawn break over the Galilean hills.
Hear the churning of the water,
the shouts of the fishermen,
the flapping and flopping of the net full of fish.
Feel the splash of cool water on your skin.
Smell the smoke and hear the crackling of fire–
feel the heat coming off the warm coals.
Can you taste the fresh fish roasted on an open fire,
and the bread warmed by the coals?
This story is indeed a feast for the senses–a story to experience with your whole body, as it was for Jesus’ disciples. It is a watery, fishy, smokey encounter with Jesus, in the ordinary stuff of life. What we experience here is an embodied gospel of incarnation. Jesus shows up in the ordinary. It is where he found his purpose, and it is where he calls us to find our purpose too. The hope and joy of resurrection is not for some bright day in a future heaven, but it means something here and now in the ordinary reality of everyday life.
Fishing For Normal
As much as this story is tactile and material, it is also a story of raw and real feelings. These disciples of Jesus have been through the horror and trauma of his arrest, torture and death. They have hidden in fear, they have been shocked by an empty tomb and resurrection encounters with Jesus. They dare to hope, and yet are filled with uncertainty, disorientation and questions about what to do next. Their reservoirs of resilience are running low.
Peter’s simple statement, “I’m going fishing,” and the other disciples’ response, “We’ll come too,” say a lot (John 21:3). They have a desire to get back to normal life again–to do something they know how to do. With Jesus’ death they lost their sense of call and purpose, and perhaps even some of their faith and trust. What else is there to do but return to what is familiar? Perhaps fishing on the calm water at night is also a way to seek some of that peace and tranquillity that has eluded them in the last few weeks. And maybe at a very practical level, they simply need a way to make a living again the only way they know how.
But they caught nothing, all night. How discouraging and frustrating that must have been! Don’t they even know how to fish anymore? It seems they can’t fish their way back to normal. They can’t force life back into its familiar rhythm, or wrestle reality back to the way it used to be.They are not the same people they once were. They have been changed by their three years with Jesus, and by the experiences of the last few weeks.
Into that strange, disorienting space, that dim time between night and day when you can’t see clearly, into that time of a slow dawning, comes a voice and an invitation–three invitations, actually.
Resurrection Encounters With Jesus
Invitation 1: Participate
“Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get [find] some (John 21:6)!”
This first invitation is to try again, to trust again. It is a second chance–a renewed call to begin again, when their resources for coping feel as porous as the nets they drag through the water. It takes all they have to trust the voice and try again. Against all their better judgement they cast the net once more, this time over the other side of the boat as if that is going to make any difference. And whether or not they feel worthy of second chances, the catch is abundant, excessive even, a risk to the integrity of their nets! So much they can’t even haul it into the boat–they have to tow it to shore.
Abundance! That’s the clue. That’s the clue that tells them the stranger on shore is Jesus. They recognize him in the abundance, in the over-the-top, overflowing grace, in the reminder that God can do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine. This was not their doing. They only had to participate with the invitation, cooperate with the call and they were part of something beyond comprehension.
The disciples find a renewed sense of purpose from within what is familiar and what they are experienced at. Their ordinary work is infused with the sacred, made holy because it is touched by God, given divine purpose because it is blessed by God, and in its abundance, meant to be shared. We need not seek for our purpose far from the ordinary things of our lives and of our work. All we are asked is to bring our ordinary lives into alignment with Jesus, and learn to trust that God will make something of our willing participation.
When they recognize Jesus, impulsive Peter jumps into the water–drawn to Jesus. But he does something strange first. He covers up to get in the water! Despite his joy at recognizing Jesus, he still feels like he has to hide something of himself. As much as you can imagine feeling the splash of the cool water on your skin, or the rough rope in your hand, perhaps you can also imagine feeling a twisting knot of guilt and shame in your gut like Peter and the other disciples might have felt. According to Matthew and Mark’s gospels, all the disciples deserted Jesus and fled in fear when he was arrested, and kept their distance when he was tried and killed.
This is a supremely awkward moment. Face-to-face with Jesus on the shore with fish cooking over a charcoal fire. The last time Peter stood around a charcoal fire was in the courtyard of the high priest while Jesus, recently arrested, was being questioned (see John 18: 17-27). Peter himself was also questioned. “You are not also one of this man’s disciples are you?” (v. 17, 25). Peter denied it three times. So I imagine Peter especially is burdened by the shame of his denial. How can he face Jesus again? What will Jesus say? Will he be justifiably angry or disappointed? Will he dismiss them for their lack of loyalty?
Invitation 2: Offer What You Have
Into this supremely awkward moment Jesus speaks a second invitation: “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught (John 21:10).” Even though he already has fish cooking over the charcoal fire, along with some bread, Jesus gives Peter something to do–a purpose. He invites the disciples to contribute fish from their morning catch.
I began by saying this story is a feast for the senses. If we follow the fishy smell back through the gospel stories we find our way to Galilee, to the shoreline of the sea of Galilee-the place where Peter and the others first heard an invitation to follow Jesus, a place of taking a risk and learning to trust, a place of taking their ordinary lives and putting them into the hands of Jesus to see what he might do with them. And here, back on that same shoreline of the Sea of Galilee, around a charcoal fire, Jesus renews the invitation, repeats the call, restores their place in the movement. “Bring some of the fish you’ve just caught.” He asks them to contribute what they have. He still wants them as partners.
Rick Warren, pastor and author of The Purpose Driven Life, uses the story of Moses and his encounter with the burning bush, as a key story about call and purpose. In that story, as Moses protests his call to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, and explains why he is not suitable for the task God has in mind for him, God asks Moses, “What is that in your hand?” (Exodus 4:2). It is, of course, a shepherd’s staff, symbolising Moses’ identity, purpose, skill and livelihood. God does many wondrous signs through that shepherd’s staff as the Exodus story unfolds. Moses simply has to be willing to show up and offer what he has in his hand.
This also reminds me of the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 in John 6. This is the only version of the story that identifies a boy who offers the fish and bread he is carrying (John 6:9). He offers what he has–the very ordinary stuff of his ordinary life, and trusts that it is what Jesus needs in that moment. For the disciples in our story this morning, their purpose is renewed and restored with Jesus’ invitation to bring some of the fish they just caught. This is also an invitation for us. What do you have in your hands? What are you good at? What do you have to offer? How can you cooperate with what God needs at this moment?
Invitation 3: Come and Have Some Breakfast
We followed the smell of fish, and found ourselves on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, beside a charcoal fire, where there is fish cooking over the fire. But there is another smell here too–there is also bread warming on the fire. If we follow the breadcrumbs through the gospel stories, there is quite a trail: the kingdom of God is like yeast that a woman worked into a measure of flour to leaven her bread; “give us this day our daily bread;” Jesus eating with sinners and tax collectors; Jesus feeding large crowds of people with bread and fish; Jesus sharing a final meal with his disciples. These bread stories always point us to Jesus, the bread of life. When we follow the breadcrumbs we come here to a charcoal fire on the shore–and the third invitation from Jesus: “Now come and have some breakfast (John 21: 12)!” This simple meal is a place of welcome, hospitality and nurture, a place of love and mercy, a circle of acceptance and forgiveness. Despite their failures, whether or not they feel worthy of second chances, the disciples are invited to share another meal with Jesus.
This meal on the beach echoes with powerful memories of that last meal they shared together with him. They know now what he meant when he said, “This is my body, broken for you.” It reminds them of how deep was their betrayal, and how great was his act of love. And in the gesture of serving them with the very ordinary stuff of their life and work, Jesus fully embraces and welcomes them back–forgives them, restores them to himself and to each other, and to the gifts they have to share with others.
Researcher and writer Brené Brown, in her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, writes about finding a life of meaning and purpose–she calls it “wholehearted living.” She says that in order to live with purpose, first we have to address what gets in the way, and here she names three things: fear, shame and vulnerability. She says, “shame is basically the fear of being unlovable” (39), and it thrives on secrecy, silence and judgement. We are afraid to talk about shame, and we tend to hide it. By inviting the disciples to share breakfast on the beach, Jesus helps them to untangle from their fear and shame, and be restored as beloved and worthy.
Application
After more than 2 years of this covid pandemic, we would all like to fish for our normal lives again. But we cannot go back to the way things were. There is no going back –in our families, communities or in our congregation. We do need to address the hurt and pain that have been unveiled through this pandemic. Kevin named that last week. But how do we find a sense of purpose and meaning again? Let me reflect on the three things that we hear in the three invitations from Jesus.
Cooperate With What God is Doing
First, Jesus meets us where we are, in the ordinary places of our lives. We find our meaning and purpose when we participate, when we cooperate with the invitation to put our net into the water on the other side of the boat. The question is not so much what will you be when you grow up, but what kind of person will you be in that role? Will you cooperate with what God is already doing? Will you participate in what Jesus is inviting you to do with what you already have? We find meaning and purpose when we bring what we have, when we offer what we have in our hands. Whether it is your fishing net, or your sewing machine, your stethoscope or your microscope, your carpenter’s apron on your toolbox, your piano, your paintbrush, your classroom, your research lab, your voice–what do you have in your hands?
Let Go of What Gets in the Way
Second, we find meaning and purpose when we can accept the hospitality and mercy of Christ. When we are healed from our own shame, then we can begin to claim our belovedness.
A number of years back there was an award winning movie called, Akeelah and the Bee. It tells the story of Akeelah Anderson, a Black, 11-year-old girl living in a low-income community in South Los Angeles. Her talent for spelling leads her to compete in the National Spelling Bee.
She often feels that she does not belong in the competitive world of spelling bees, with mostly privileged kids from wealthy backgrounds, who can afford private tutors. In one scene, Akeelah’s coach, Dr. Larabee tries to inspire pride in her intelligence, and gets her to reach beyond her doubts. He gets her to read this quote:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?…You are a child of God…We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
Marianne Williamson, fromA Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles(Harper Collins, 1992; from Chapter 7, Section 3).
Note: I have also seen this quote attributed to Web Dubois, a Black sociologist, historian and civil rights activist.
Akeelah had to move beyond a feeling of shame for who she was, and claim her belovedness. We do too.
Share the Blessing
Third,when we claim our belovedness we can see it in others. When we accept Jesus’ invitation to come and have breakfast, to come and join the circle, we are blessed to discover that there is more than enough, an abundance in fact, and plenty to share. Barbara Brown Taylor puts it this way in a sermon entitled Follow the Bread, reflecting on this story from John 21:
When you break bread, the bread opens up. When the bread opens up, so does the table. When the table opens up, so does your heart. When your heart opens up, so do your hands–reaching out for some of what you have to hand it to someone else–only to discover that you have more instead of less. This is how the miracle goes on happening, again and again. You follow the bread, and the bread leads you to life–not only for you, and not only for your flock, but for every lamb of God. (Barbara Brown Taylor, from Always a Guest(Westminster John Knox Press, 2020, 161-162).
Most of all we find our meaning and purpose when we share what we have, and know that in the surprising abundance, we recognize God at work. Follow the breadcrumbs. Follow the fishy smell and you find God calling, equipping, and sending ordinary people like you and me.