May 5, 2019 – John 21:1-9
John 21:1-19
The World is Holy because it is Where We can Encounter God
3rd Sunday of Easter – May 5, 2019
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
The world is holy because the world is where we can encounter God.
When Jesus comes, this is the great good news:
the world is holy because the world is where we can encounter God.
In creation, certainly: in the beauty of that which was made by a beautiful creator.
In the beauty of that which human beings create in imitation of the beautiful creator:
music, poetry, art, and narrative.
Above all, though, we encounter God in each other – in this world’s relationships.
And particularly in our relationships with the vulnerable.
That is where Jesus – God incarnate – was present in his earthly ministry.
And that is where the risen Jesus is present now.
The world is holy because the world is where we can encounter God.
This is just what the disciples learn this morning.
Death cannot rid the world of God’s presence – how great is that good news!
Death cannot rid the world of God’s presence!
But this is a difficult thing to really believe.
How long after the resurrection is this story from John’s Gospel this morning?
We don’t really know.
But remember: in John’s Gospel,
Jesus has already appeared many times to his disciples since the resurrection.
First to Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday morning.
Later that evening to those gathered in a locked room – to all except Thomas, of course.
So the next week he appeared again to them when Thomas was with them.
And what did the risen Jesus do when he encountered them?
He commissioned them: he gave them a job.
To Mary Magdalene he said: go and tell that you have seen me.
To the disciples in the room he gave the holy spirit and said to them:
as the Father sent me into the world to love, bless, feed, and heal so I send you –
to love, bless, feed, and heal.
That seems pretty straightforward.
And yet. And yet. . .
Some time later – “after these things” is all that John tells – some time later what do we find?
Do we find the disciples continuing the mission Jesus entrusted them with? No.
This morning we see them back at their old jobs!
They are back in Galilee, gone fishin’.
It is as if we are back in the beginning.
Or stuck in a time loop.
As if nothing in the last 20 chapters of John’s Gospel had happened.
It is as if nothing has happened.
Well, I get that. Don’t you?
Sometimes it is hard to live your life as if the resurrection has happened.
As if the resurrection makes any difference whatsoever to your life – and the life of the world.
It’s easy criticize the disciples – but really this story simply holds up a mirror to ourselves.
And not in a critical, judgmental way – the story is meant to help us.
It’s meant to help us out of a very difficult problem:
how do we live in a way that is shaped by the resurrection?
How do we live in a way that shows the resurrection actually makes a difference in the world?
How do we live in a way that shows the resurrection actually makes a difference in our lives?
It’s the most natural thing in the world for the disciples to go back to work, to what they know.
Probably that’s the easiest thing for them to do.
Yes: they’ve gone back to where it all started – to the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
But that is precisely where a new beginning can happen – again.
Our God is a God of new beginnings – a new beginning is always possible.
Now it turns out that they are no more successful in the old occupation as they are in the
new one Jesus has called them to!
Hahahaha!
Seasoned, professional fishermen, out all night – and they catch . . . nothing!
Failures!
Surely it brings to mind for them the failure of Good Friday,
and their failure to remain faithful.
Perhaps particularly for Peter it brings back his very personal failure in denying Jesus 3 times
around that charcoal fire outside the high priest’s gate.
But our God – our God is a God of new beginnings.
Perhaps the disciples think that God can no longer be encountered in the world.
But the world is holy because the world is where we can continue always to encounter God.
Someone calls to them from the shore – and simply tells them –
perhaps a little playfully and mockingly – “Children, you have no fish, do you?”
They don’t know who it is.
But when he tells them to cast their net on the starboard side of the boat, they listen –
and are overwhelmed with their catch of fish!
Listening to Jesus brings a good result! Whoa! Maybe they shoulda done that a few weeks ago!
In any case, the beloved disciple realizes at that moment who it is, that it is Jesus –
even though – and this is interesting, right? –
even though they still don’t seem to physically recognize him.
They are afraid to confirm his identity – because they knew it was him,
even though perhaps it didn’t look like him.
The risen Jesus encounters us in many people, in many voices, all the time – if we are listening.
The world is indeed holy – because the world is where we can encounter God.
Jesus, of course, is also recognizable because Jesus already has breakfast on for them –
And that’s what Jesus does – he loves feeding people.
He’s made them fish, and bread – and he’s made it with what?
A charcoal fire – yes! A charcoal fire!
Jesus is taking them back to another place in the time loop.
He’s gonna get them unstuck from the time loop they are in.
And he begins by encountering Peter.
Now you have to wonder about this – about how Peter is feeling.
Imagine the weight of shame on him – and isn’t this charcoal fire going to bring back memories
of what happened around that charcoal fire all those weeks ago?
But our God is a God of new beginnings.
Peter denied Jesus three times at that first charcoal fire – and now
Jesus graciously gives him the opportunity to affirm his love for him three times.
And then – and then, once again, Jesus commissions him for mission.
If you love me, Peter, feed my sheep, and if you love me tend my lambs.
Show your love for me by feeding and tending the vulnerable ones of his world.
For all of us, this story is a reminder that to “love Jesus”
simply means loving those whom Jesus loves.
Loving Jesus means loving those whom Jesus identifies with:
the beat down, the hungry, the suffering, the sick, the unjustly convicted.
Peter will continue to encounter Jesus when he tends to these.
The world is holy because the world is where we can encounter God.
Jesus graciously feeds the disciples – yet again – this morning.
And then tells them to take what they have caught – take the results of their labour –
and feed his sheep.
Jesus is saying that if we want to encounter him, we need to be alert to his voice to
feed the hungry and be attentive to his presence in the vulnerable of this world.
This world is holy because this world is where we can encounter God.
The resurrection stories are strange.
But they affirm that Good Friday was not the end of God’s story.
They affirm that Jesus, now, somehow – and very mysteriously – is present . . . everywhere.
That Jesus can speak to us in forms we may not recognize.
That Jesus will not give up on us or on this world that God so loves.
Yes: we forget that Jesus has risen from the dead.
We forget that in light of that the world is changed forever.
We forget to watch for him and listen to him.
We forget that the world is holy because the world is where we can encounter God.
Like Peter, we remember and focus on our failures and let them define us –
rather than God’s grace.
Perhaps above all it is easy to forget – and even easier to ignore – that
Jesus has left the responsibility of feeding the hungry sheep to us.
But he has and he is risen.
He is risen, and this morning feeds us around this table,
asks us if we truly love him and this world God made,
and invites us in turn to feed his sheep and tend his beloved lambs.
Let us live our lives as if the resurrection has happened.
With Peter let us say, Yes, Lord: you will know that I love you when I feed your sheep,
when I tend the vulnerable, when I care for this whole holy world and all its people.
So together, let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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