Cast the net on the right side of the boat- Jn.21.6
Have you ever left a room intending to do something and forgot what you wanted to do along the way?
My favorite story about this comes from my first year in parish ministry when I went to see a beloved senior church member who was living in what today we would call assisted living (apologies to those who have already heard this). We visited and I asked, “Miss Effie, what have you been thinking about lately?” She paused and, looking very serious, she said, “I’ve been thinking a lot about the hereafter.” I leaned forward and said, “Tell me more.” She responded, “Well, I get somewhere and then I ask myself, ‘What was I here after?’” Then we both laughed. She got me.
I wonder if something like this was happening in today’s gospel reading from John. Jesus has already appeared twice to the disciples. The first time, he appeared to the ten and said peace be with you. Then, he breathed on them and said- receive the Holy Spirit – as the Father has sent me, so I send you. The next time, he appeared was when Thomas was with them (who knows where he was the first time? Gone to the grocery store? ) But this time, eight days later, Thomas was there, and Jesus came and said put your finger here and see my hands...do not be faithless but believe. Then, Jesus added, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
So, here we are some time later and the disciples have apparently packed up shop in Jerusalem and gone home to the area around the Sea of Galilee also referred to as the Sea of Tiberias. This was home base for most of them and where they had first encountered Jesus. Were they thinking –it was good while it lasted? Were they still in grief and shock over the death of Jesus? Perhaps they were just trying to do something that felt normal – like fishing – which, please notice, was initiated by Simon Peter. “I am going fishing,” he announced. “We are coming too,” they responded.
Sometimes when we try to turn back the clock to another time, it just doesn’t work. In this case, the fishing trip did not go well. They fished all night and did not catch anything until a stranger standing on the beach, said “Cast your nets on the right side of the boat.”
Archeologists tell us that the first century fishing boats which plied the Sea of Galilee were about 27 ft long and 7.5 ft wide... so, to move the nets just 7 and a half feet? It probably seemed absurd but they did it, and, and as we heard, the catch was amazing.
Then, they put it together that it was the Lord. And, I love this detail, Peter got dressed and jumped into the water and the rest came bringing the catch...and they had breakfast with Jesus on the beach.
Jesus came, I believe, to round them back up and recall them to the mission – as the father has sent me, so I send you – to declare forgiveness and reconciliation, to heal, to serve, to restore to life – to show the love of God to all persons... bringing them into for first time or restoring them into relationship with God. and then to nurture and care for each other. Jesus appeared to re-commission them. In particular, he had that quiet side conversation with Peter - the rock on which the church was founded – to remind him of who he was and that his call was to leadership.. and to care for God’s people.
Michael Green was an English theologian and evangelist with a wonderfully effective world wide ministry. In his autobiography, Adventure in Faith, he observes that the Church really only has two tasks – Catching Fish and Feeding Sheep. These are for us as individuals as well as for us as a faith community –
So, I want to ask you—how are you doing with these? How is St. Mark’s doing? How is St. Francis doing with these?
It is so easy to get distracted and to forget the “what am I here after” – to forget who and what we are by virtue of our baptism.. ministers of the gospel – sent to catch fish and to feed sheep for the kingdom. It has been especially easy to lose sight of our mission these last ten years as our diocese has waged its legal battles. And, now, it appears that it may be coming to a close - although the other side, truthfully, has some things they can do to delay along with lots of negotiations that will need to happen. So, we are looking at some time.
Even so, in the midst of all of that struggle, grief, and expense.. we are challenged to not forget what we are supposed to be about – catching fish, tending sheep – and everything we do, every decision we make as church and as members of the body needs to be considered in light of how best to support those ends.
Another thing, so often we come up with ideas about how to catch fish and feed sheep and then we usually pray to talk the Lord into blessing it and, when it doesn’t work, when there are no fish despite having fished all night, we wonder what went wrong.
Notice in our passage, the tradition tells us that many of the disciples were professional fishermen. These were not novices out there fishing that night. They really knew how to fish but came up empty-handed UNTIL they listened to Jesus who told them where to cast their nets..
If we are trying to catch fish and feed sheep, and carry out the mission which has been entrusted to us, we need to ask Jesus where to cast the net! We need to do this first before we go charging off...doing what we think is the right thing to do.. Let Jesus lead and we need to follow. And, the best way to follow is to listen for his guidance.
How can we do this? We listen in prayer, we listen for God speaking to us through others, through Word and Sacrament...and, we listen for the movements of the Spirit both within and outside of ourselves.
One of my favorite undergrad teachers was a brilliant man- a hard core atheist who insisted we call him by his first name. – Harry. He was firmly convinced that God was a fiction because he had never heard from God...consequently, God did not exist.. One day it struck me that perhaps a reason he had never heard God was that he (Harry) never stopped talking. It was almost impossible to get a word in edgewise or even to ask a question. Harry was brilliant but he did not have a listening heart.
It's not an accident that when St. Benedict, who lived late fifth and early sixth centuries, was writing his guidelines for how his monastic community was to live that the very first word he wrote in his Rule was Listen—and he encourages us to listen with the ear of our heart.
Because, we cannot follow, we cannot effectively catch fish or feed sheep, if we can’t hear the voice of our living, resurrected Lord or receive his guidance...
So, is there something for which we need God’s guidance? Here’s a suggestion:
1. Come to God with your request for guidance. Lay it out. Speak it to God. i.e. Lord, what’s the best way to deal with this situation?
2. Then, be quiet, still your heart and mind (easy for me to say, often hard to do) and wait in silence for God to respond for 10-12 minutes. ...sometimes longer...but start the process. Start the conversation.
3. God can speak by bringing to mind words – often from Scripture - music, impressions, or images. God can speak through the imagination and our emotions – warming or cooling our hearts in certain directions.
4. Then, if you believe you have gotten a response, share it with someone. We are called together as a faith community for a reason. Sometimes when I think I have heard God and then shared it, the other person has said.. I’m not sure that’s right – please pray again. This is important because we humans seem to have an endless capacity for justifying what we want to do.
This also can work in groups – in vestries or small gatherings .. putting a concern before God and then taking the time to listen – often the answer will come in a most unlikely form. We tend to get wrapped up in a business model for our church meetings and somehow forget to pray beyond a brief opening and closing prayer.
Do you know the story about how the Kairos prison ministry solved a serious problem they were having?
Kairos is a weekend spiritual retreat for those who are in prison. It’s modeled on Cursillo and is a national movement. When the ministry began, they discovered a serious problem. Inmates who had signed up to come to the talks and meals were regularly beaten up when they returned to their cell block. The organizers realized that could shut down the whole enterprise, and so they called a day long retreat-meeting to try to problem solve. They talked about it and then had an extended period of silence for prayerful listening – I thin theirs was several hours.. Afterwards, people were asked to share what they had heard. One older lady said, “This is crazy, and I don’t know if its because I am hungry, but I keep getting the image of a cookie.” They listened, talked, prayed and then decided that, after a session, they would send each participant back to their block with a dozen home made cookies which they could share. It worked..
Sometimes when we are trying to follow Jesus and listening for his guidance, it comes to us in an unexpected way.. but it does come if we listen faithfully and patiently.
In closing here is some good news...when the disciples came ashore bringing their nets with the amazing catch, they saw a fire with fish and bread already cooking on it.. Jesus said, bring some of the fish you’ve just caught... He invites us to add to what he is already doing. If we are following, then he is already ahead of us and invites us to add our efforts to his.
So, beloved, we have a mission – may you embrace catching fish and feeding sheep..and, above all, listen with the ear of your heart for the voice of our risen, living Lord Jesus and follow where he leads. AMEN.
jtco
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