Easter 3 2007

Jn 21:1-19

Recently, I asked my freshman honors students to briefly describe where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing 10 years from now. Answers were of course varied. Once said, teaching, another said, doing something to curtail the tragic AIDS situation in our world, another said, make a lot of money to get out of the US – to live somewhere less violent, less consumer driven, and more respectful of community, especially diverse community. I suspect we too can remember when our dreams were of doing something important, or at least useful.

I don’t know but I suspect that Peter had great plans too. When Jesus first called Peter, he was fishing for a living. Hard work in good weather and bad, dirty work, long hours for adequate but not abundant pay. Peter, Andrew, James and John by biblical account left their occupation and followed Jesus. Along the way they saw some amazing things: like the time when Jesus came walking to them on the water and Peter stepped out of the boat, took his eyes off Jesus and began to sink like a rock, but was rescued by Jesus. On another occasion, the disciples went into town for supplies and returned to find Jesus talking with some strange foreign woman by a well in Samaria. Horrified, they complained that Jesus was breaking with custom, culture, civil code of society, but Jesus was unconcerned about their worries. They saw the crowd fed with bread and fish and had basketfuls left over. They saw women healed of demonic spirits, a dead child raised to life again, Lazarus called out of his tomb, and dangerous conflicts between Jesus and some of the Jewish leaders. The blind man received his sight – not because he or his parents had sinned – but that God could be glorified. On a mountaintop Jesus was observed speaking with Moses and Elijah and that was enough to prompt Peter understand that Jesus was the Messiah, the son of the living God. Quickly thereafter, Peter rebuked Jesus for the prophesy of his death and was called Satan. After the last supper when Jesus began to wash the disciples feet, Peter argued again, wanting not to be part of the role reversal Jesus was displaying. Peter promised to defend Jesus against any and all trouble and did cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest during the arrest scene. Then having promised to stay no matter what the cost, Peter denied Jesus three times – I do not know the man – and heard the rooster report his betrayal. No doubt Peter was deeply distressed not only by his lack of faithfulness but also by the horrific events of the crucifixion. Peter was aware that if the powers of church and state had conspired to kill Jesus, he, Peter would fair no better and so by one account we have Peter with the others hiding behind locked doors when Jesus appeared to them. Why then was Peter back on the boat fishing?

There may be several answers to this question – maybe the oral tradition had more than one resurrection story in which each of the disciples experienced the risen Lord – maybe it took more than one dose of resurrection encounter to convert Peter from cynic to apostle – maybe it was a process that took place over time that led Peter to accept the responsibility and role in the development of the early church.

The episode in today’s gospel has Peter and other disciples back home fishing just as they were when first called. They have in a manner of speaking returned to their roots. It is helpful to go back to that place where you first had a dream in order to start again. Peter was a professional fisherman and yet after fishing all night he had caught nothing. A stranger on the shore called out, “Children have you any fish?” They said, “No.” Then the stranger said, “Try the other side of the boat.” When they let down the nets there were so many fish they could not haul them aboard but had to call for help. One of the disciples recognized that it was the lord and Peter jumped overboard and swam ashore leaving the heavy work to the rest of the crew. By team effort the fish, all 153, were harvested. We ought to see the symbol of abundance in this catch. I think the huge net of fish included every species in the sea that day.

Once on shore, the exchange between Peter and Jesus is poignant! Peter, do you love me? Yes, Lord ----then feed my sheep. This exchange occurs three times and commentators have suggested this is a threefold confession to cancel the threefold denial but I am not persuaded by that explanation. I think Jesus is calling Peter to more service than Peter has already given. It would be enough for most of us to have gone the distance with Jesus without having to become a church planter too.

I think it is important that the group fishing are together for this new commissioning because doing the work of mission is a community effort. The one and true missionary is Jesus and the disciples can extend this work only corporately. Jesus said, “as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” The questions to Peter are priority questions: do you love me – do you love me more than fishing – do you love me more than others do? If so, in each case, you will feed my sheep.

Feeding sheep is difficult, tiring, dirty work. It requires commitment to all types of weather, a willingness to guard against any and all dangerous predators, and consistency. Our Christian heritage goes back to the first apostles who were willing to preach the good news, tell the story of God revealed in Jesus, and encourage others to believe. Not only did these apostles believe but they persuaded others to believe too. They lived in community, in solidarity, spoke against injustice in church and state, were political advocates, and leaders within the faith community. They were willing to put everything else aside to do this work. Finally they died for the cause.

What would it be like to be that much in love with Jesus as the risen Lord of new life today? Would the sheep and lambs include the 5.5 million who are hungry in the US, the 100,000 homeless, the 2.5 million abused? One in four teens drop out of high school. In the last thirty years suicide rates among teens has increased threefold. I am not talking about the injustices in our global community – only in the flock of sheep we call our home country. My students have dreams and their dreams are possible – if we can create a more just society.

It would be well for each of us to encounter the living Lord again as if for the first time and hear those questions directed to ourselves: _________(fill in your name) do you love me? ____________do you love me more than what you are doing professionally? And _____________________do you love me enough to carry the good news of abundant forgiving love to all my lambs?