Today is the third Sunday in the season of Easter. The season of Easter
is important, as it reminds us that the resurrection isn’t just about one day
in the Christian
Our readings for this Sunday have this at their hearts. In the gospel,
there are two stories – a miraculous catch of fish leading to a breakfast by
the Sea of Galilee, and the commissioning of Peter.
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Peter, not knowing what else to do after the miraculous appearance of
Jesus after his crucifixion, has gone fishing. Maybe Peter was yearning for a
time when his world was simpler, a time before Jesus called him out of his
ordinary life and to a journey he could not have imagined for himself. After
all, in times of trouble, we tend to default to old habits and ways. He and the
other disciples have been fishing through the night, but as the dawn breaks,
they have nothing to show for their efforts. An apparent stranger appears on
the shore. He shouts at them to fish differently, to throw their nets on the other,
unconventional side of the boat. Despite the fact they do not recognise this
stranger, they do as he suggests, and that's when they find what they are
looking for.
There are two things to note here. The first is the disciples, the
close companions of the earthly Jesus, do not recognise him. This is theme
common to all the gospels in regard to the resurrection. Earlier in John, we
find Mary mistaking Jesus for the gardener. In Luke, the two disciples on the
Emmaus road fail to recognise their companion. In what is known as the longer
ending of Mark, Jesus appears in different forms to various disciples. In
Matthew, some of the disciples doubt it is the risen Jesus before them. There
is actually a lot of doubting going on in all the gospels, and Thomas is not
alone in his refusal to believe.
The questions this raises for me are: do we recognise the risen Jesus
when he is front of us, or beckoning to us from a place nearby? Or are we
like the disciples, and fail to discern his presence? Are we more inclined to
doubt than we are to believe that God is calling us to do something? What is
it we need to do to be more receptive, more discerning, to the call of God on
our lives?
Perhaps the first thing we need to do is actually be actively looking
for where new life is happening in our communities. Like Mary, we need to go
searching for the Lord, and be prepared to be surprised where and in what
form we find him. Secondly, John’s gospel is suggesting that we need to make
adjustments to our practices in order to be the disciples we are called to
be.
When Jesus called to his disciples to “cast your net to the right side
of the boat,” he is calling them to try something that on the face of it, has
little prospect of success. It would have been a risk, and not the normal and
accepted way of fishing.
Have we become accustomed to fishing in accepted ways that no longer result in us catching much? Do we keep doing the same things because we think they work best, even if they no longer serve us well, because we believe they are the accepted normality?
So maybe the next thing we need to consider when we are seeking the
risen Christ is making some small adjustments in the way we do things, which
can then lead to a different way of seeing. The act of pulling up the net, then
moving it a few feet across the boat, and throwing it back in the same
waters, on the other side not only made a difference to the catch of fish, it
opened the eyes of the beloved disciple and Peter to see who the figure
standing on the shore really was.
What are the small adjustments that we can make to our lives, our
thinking, our worship, our spiritual practices, our relating to family,
friends, neighbours and the world, that might change an empty ‘catch’ to one
that overflows? Can we accept Jesus’ call to keep fishing, even in ways that seem
odd for us, in order to discover new growth and new life?
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The characters in the story have learnt that Jesus will be found in unexpected places and in unexpected people, and that changing their normal routine leads to abundance of life lived out by serving and working in community.
God’s love, set loose in the world through the resurrection, needs our
hands, our feet, our voices and our hearts to make it known and understood and
transformative in our place and time. Like Peter, God is issuing us an
invitation to change our perspective and cast our nets in different and
unexpected places in order to feed the flock.
Are we are willing to have our lives changed, transformed, especially if
it means disrupting familiar and comfortable patterns?
Can we embrace the resurrected way of life, and discover that
our lives are not random, but that how we live and what we do matters? Do our
actions, our attitude, words, and thoughts contribute to revealing God’s Reign
in our world? Or do they keep God’s Reign hidden?
How are we to continue to encounter the risen Jesus?
When we make resurrection nothing more than a past miracle, or
mythological story, or a hope for a future life after death, we take from it
its power to impact our lives, and the lives of others, now. When
we embrace resurrection as a calling to live daily in the power of God’s life, we discover
that everything we do is filled with a sense of meaning, purpose and life. That is
where we can begin to transform ourselves, our churches, our communities
and our world.
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