Third Sunday in Easter (2007): "Gone Fishin' "

Third Sunday in Easter (2007): "Gone Fishin' "
Acts 9:1-6, (7-20);
Psalm 30;
Revelation 5:11-14;
John 21:1-19
preached by the Rev. Preston Parsons

So – Jesus is crucified, and he rises again. He appears to his disciples, miraculously entering locked rooms, not as some ghost, but as a body that can be touched, a body that breathes. This Jesus is worshipped, called Lord. The world has changed, the renewal of the world has begun in the body of a crucified God.

So – you're the disciples of this God, and after all this, all these miracles, what do you do? Well, you go fishing!

We know that eventually the disciples do go all over the world, bringing the good news of God in Christ, the good news of the resurrection, to all sorts of people. They even they perform miracles. But for now? What do they do? They go fishing.

I love that, actually. I even think it's important. Not important because there is something special about fishing, but because what the disciples do is go back to the routines of life, the routines of life that includes work. And for these guys work is fishing.

Jesus doesn't appear, for this last time in the Gospel of John, in any special way. The resurrected Jesus comes while the disciples are simply going about the mundane routines of life. Kind of like Jesus showing up at the loading dock and giving some advice to the truck driver about backing up, or like showing up in the warehouse to help stack boxes, or showing up at the water cooler to tell you how to reboot your computer. Jesus said, "fishing not too good today, huh?" They said, "No." He said to them, "throw your net to the other side of the boat, and you'll catch some." So they did this, and they caught a whole lot of fish. Jesus appears to fishermen, by the sea of Galilee, and offers fishermen fishing advice, providing a working miracle.

You'd think there were far more important things for a risen Jesus to do, but I guess once you've risen from the dead you just want to hang out. "Whatcha doin?" "Going fishing." "Can I come with?" And in this miracle, through the catching of fish, the man on the beach is revealed to be Jesus, Lord and King.

***

But we know this, don't we? We know that Jesus is revealed to us especially in the mundane routines of life? Or do we look for the intervention of the divine only in the big stuff? Only in the miracles of healing, only in ecstatic moments of prayer? Surely Jesus is revealed in the big stuff, but do we believe that Jesus is revealed in the small stuff?

I'll make a confession. I've caught myself, when I'm really late, praying for a parking spot. I don't know that I should do that! But if Jesus is with us, at all times, in all the mundane aspects of our life, maybe it makes sense.

***

Whether Jesus ever helps me find a parking spot, I don't know, but as we read this passage we find that Jesus is certainly present in another of the mundane parts of the lives of the disciples. Jesus is concerned that they get something to eat.

"Jesus said to them, Come and have breakfast." "Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish."

Whether Jesus is my co-pilot and helps me find my parking spot I don't know. But Christians have been certain, throughout the centuries, that Jesus is present in at least one of the most mundane routines of life, that of eating. We are about to share a meal together, right? And celebrate the sign of Jesus' presence in the simple act of breaking of bread? We do this because of the stories that we have of Jesus breaking bread with his disciples at the last supper, on the road to Emmaus, and on the beach by the Sea of Galilee.

Jesus is present with us here, today, at the Eucharistic table, in order that he might inhabit all the mundane parts of our lives, our work, the most boring and (what seem to be) the most unproductive parts of our lives.

Jesus is present with us in the most ordinary of acts, the breaking of bread and the sharing of a meal, because by this he is revealed to be for us the risen Lord and Saviour.