This sermon was preached yesterday after many false starts.
I have a confession to make and that is I hate fishing! Or
perhaps I should reframe that and say that I really hate the messiness of
fishing. I don’t mind sitting on some little jetty somewhere while the water
laps at my feet looking out on beautiful scenery not thinking about much. Just
so long as I don’t have to bait a hook or catch a fish for that matter. I can’t
stand watching the poor things flapping around in a bucket with the flaps
getting slower and slower. And cleaning them is disgusting and finding bait is
such a waste of time. The commercial stuff just falls off the hook. The only
thing I can manage is a lure and fish are smart enough not to fall for that. The
whole thing requires a great deal more patients then I ever have. I would much
rather be surfing any day! I guess my inability to catch fish - the real reason
for loathing fishing – had to do with the fact that none of my mates when I was
young were into fishing – or if they were they certainly didn’t share their
secrets with me.
There was one dream I had or perhaps still have and that is
to go out fishing at dawn on a summer morning. I would just like to catch a
couple of fish, bring them home and cook them for breakfast. I don’t think that
this dream has anything to do with the image of John 21. Perhaps the notion of
cooking something fresh from the sea is somehow an innate desire. Anyway I have
never been able to get up at dawn on a summer morning so the idea of fresh fish
for breakfast will probably never be realised.
Now the story of this fishing expedition in John 21 is, if
you will excuse the pun, just a little bit fishy. I think it is not about
fishing at all but is rather about redemption through encounter with the risen
Lord. Chapter 21 is in itself problematical. You remember that the Gospel
reading last week ended with the words ‘Now Jesus did many other signs in the
presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are
written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of God,
and that through believing you may have life in his name.” Now that sounds like the conclusion to the
Gospel doesn’t it. There really isn’t any need to add anything else. The Gospel
is done, at that point. But instead of ending at that point the Gospel writer
goes on to add a whole new chapter. It reminds me a lot of when I am writing a
sermon and am not sure how to bring it to an end. It is then that the sermon
writing dictum comes into my brain FINNISH WHEN YOU ARE FINNISHED. Maybe we think that the Gospel writer should
have stuck to that principal here.
What we recall, however, is that there was probably not just
one writer at work on this Gospel but a whole school of authors each bringing
their different perspectives over time. We see this not just here but also in
the fact that there are probably two farewell discourses in the upper room side
by side. If you look at the very end of chapter 14 you will see that clearly.
But whatever the case may be Chapter 21 does stand on its
merits. There is nothing like it as a post resurrection story anywhere else in
the gospels. It is a brilliant vibrant story that has a place in the whole It works
so well as a post resurrection story bringing everything to a conclusion. So it
is not just a case of the Gospel writer not knowing where to stop.
So this is the story of an encounter, or perhaps a number of
encounters with the risen Lord. Let’s just take a look at these and see what we
can make of them. The first and most obvious is the story of the redemption and
rehabilitation of Peter. It is a beautiful story with its threefold questioning
and admonition of Peter:- feed my lambs; tend my sheep; feed my sheep. It is a
bit funny that this little story should come at this point. The Gospel was
written at the very end of the 1st century maybe 45 years after the martyrdom
of Peter, probably in Rome. It is a strange thing. We would have expected,
following the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, that Peter, the designated leader
of the disciples would have become the natural leader of the early church in
Jerusalem. But no. The leadership of the Jerusalem church, the first Bishop of
Jerusalem was James, Jesus brother. Perhaps Peter went on to become the first
Bishop of Antioch and according to tradition the first Bishop of Rome. We
really don’t know why any of these events occurred. But I do wonder whether
Peter’s denial of Jesus on three occasions during the trial was such a heinous
sin that it put him out of the leadership of the early church for a time. That
is of course speculation. But clearly the writer of John’s Gospel saw it as
necessary for Peter to be rehabilitated to his position of leadership through
this encounter with the risen Lord. Three denials, three declarations of love,
three admonitions to pastor the flock. It is pretty neat really. But it is more
than that. For it tells us that no sin, no sinner, cannot be redeemed through
encounter with the risen Lord – no matter how heinous the sin.
The second is the strange story of the disciples going
fishing. They were singularly unsuccessful until they encountered the risen
Lord. This story has a parallel in Luke’s Gospel but there it is a story of the
calling of the disciples and it is certainly nowhere else told in this
interesting post-resurrection context. The disciples have worked hard all night
and have failed to catch anything. Following the encounter with the Lord the
net is full to overflowing. Some commentators comment that the disciples never
have any success fishing without the intervention of Jesus. Perhaps there is a
lesson there for me somewhere. The really interesting aspect of this little
story though is that before they encounter the Lord they are fishing in the
wrong place. After the intervention of the risen Lord they change direction and
fish in the right place with amazing results. One wonders whether this is a
story of the missionary initiatives of the early church – perhaps even the
Johannine community. The Gospel is, after all, a history of that community as
well as being the story of Jesus. Perhaps their early missionary initiatives
were fruitless. Perhaps they were seeking converts from the gentile community
at Ephesus when they should have worked with the Jewish community or the other
way round It was only through encounter with the risen Lord that they got it
right.
The third story is the story of that breakfast of fish and
bread. There is a huge amount to unpack in this story contained in verses 9 to
14 but I just want to touch on the pre-resurrection, post-resurrection
contrast. The pre-resurrection meal, the Last Supper, is in a secluded upstairs
room and it is night. The post resurrection meal is in the light of morning in
a public place. The Gospel for today is certainly underlining the impact of the
disciples encounter with the risen Lord.
But we are not done yet. In fact the whole story of Chapter
21 verses 1 to 19 is a very moving account of what happens for the disciples
and by abstraction what happens for us when we encounter the risen Christ. For
this scene we are back, somewhat incongruously, by the Sea of Galilee where it
all began. It is incongruous because all of the action until now over the
recent Chapters has been taking place in Jerusalem many Kilometres away. Peter
and 6 other disciples most of whom are named are there. Peter decided to go
fishing and persuades his friends to go with him. Now this is really strange
because, as far as we know, none of the disciples have been fishing at any time
during the past three years. Why would they want to go fishing at this point in
the story? It looks pretty much as if they want to go back to the beginning to,
get back to normal – whatever normal may be – to pretend that the whole Jesus thing didn’t
happen.
It is like that great song from “Jesus Christ Superstar”
“Could we start again, Please”. I don’t know whether Tim Rice had this scene in
mind when he wrote the words – probably not. But it fits into this story so
well:
I’ve been living to see you
Dying to see you, but it shouldn’t be like this
This is unexpected, what do I do now?
Could we start again please?
I’ve been very hopeful so far
Now for the first time I think we’re going wrong
Hurry up and tell me this is just a dream
Oh could we start again please?
I think you’ve made your point now
You’ve even gone a bit too far to get your message home
Before it gets too frightening we ought to call a halt
So could we start again please?
Could we start again? The disciples hope so. So back they go
to Galilee to their boats and their nets, hoping that this Jesus thing had just
been a dream - this shot at heaven.
But it is too late for them and it is too late for us. The
risen Christ confronts them on the beach just where they are and their whole
world changes for ever. And the risen Christ confronts us too just where we are
and our lives are changed for ever, every day. We leave our boats and our nets
behind and obey his command, “Follow me”. Amen
