Lessons From Fishing: The Third Sunday of Easter
The Third Sunday of Easter.
Third Sunday of Easter… We are in the south, and I’m proud to be a southerner. However, I’ve learned something about us; fishing is serious. Sometimes we even have a way of
As the old question goes: What is the difference between a hunter and a fisherman?
A hunter lies in wait, and a fisherman, he waits and lies. There‘s a reason people look suspiciously on a fisherman’s tales. Something about the sport lends itself to a certain amount of, well, exaggeration.
In the Gospel passage, we have a fish story. The disciples of Jesus returned to their previous vocations as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. I can sense the confusion in the passage; Peter doesn’t know what to do after the resurrection. The other disciples did not understand either.
So Peter returned to the one thing he knew. “I guess I will fish again.” He said. The others followed him, “Well we don’t know what to do either, we’ll go back to the boats too.” They didn’t know what to do after the resurrection.
Sometimes profound moments confuses us as much as they enlighten us.
Peter was clueless, the best he could say was, “We saw Jesus… but he’s not here anymore.” This sounds like another fish story; there’s no proof or picture. The people in town shook their heads and said, “Fishermen, you can’t believe a word they say.”
But
God finds us when we’re confused.
The disciples were not ready for Jesus to appear. Quite the opposite actually, they returned to fishing and didn’t preach the message of Jesus as instructed. The purpose of their fishing trip was to pretend things were as they were before.
I heard a story of an old man from south Alabama who loved to fish. He became a local legend in his small town. Every day, all day, the old man sat on his 5-gallon bucket and fished with his cane pole. Finally, some boys decided they wanted to ask him why he was there everyday the sun was shining.
One boy finally asked the old man, “Why do you fish here every day, we never see you catch anything. There are no fish here. The old man said, “Nope, there ain’t.” “Then what’s the purpose of fishing here?”
The old man said, “Son, the purposeof fishing here is to show my mean old wife that I don’t have time to fix her sink.”
He had a purpose for fishing… the disciples did too. The purpose of their fishing trip was to pretend that life was back to normal, as it was before Jesus. However, one thing I have learned in my spiritual life is that when we experience Christ, there is no “going back to normal.”
Peter, James, and John tried to return to normality. They launched their boats but caught nothing all night. They must have been irritable. I would have been. It’s easy when work doesn’t turn out as we expected.
But after a night of hard labor, Jesus appeared on the shore. God showed up in the moment of their discouragement and found them when they were exhausted. God finds us when we work night in vain too.
I understand that feeling. God usually changes my soul when I least expect it. You’ve been there too; we move along through life not expecting a spiritual moment. Then we see God standing on the shores of our lives.
God finds us when we’re confused.
God also feeds us when we’re confused.
The story teaches me that God will find me even when I run away, and feed me when I’m confused.
Consider the emotions: The disciples followed Jesus for three years. It must have been hard to invest three years of their lives into JEsus, only to watch him die on the cross. The disappointment and the grief must have been overwhelming
Then he rose from the dead, yet they still didn’t know what it meant or how they should live their lives.
When chaos strikes, it’s easy to be like the disciples and return to the familiar. Our first, and natural reaction is to retreat into our comfort zones. They needed sea water and the sound of a net hitting the water.
The disciples had a mission, and they had a ministry. They couldn’t just returnto their old occupation of fishing after their experience with Jesus. He knew how to find them, but he also knew that they were hungry.
Picture the scene, day breaks. The disciples were sweaty and tired. They worked all night and caught nothing. They had no callouses on their hands anymore because they traveled with Jesus. In their place, blisters from not fishing.
Then a voice calls from the shore, “throw the net one more time” he says.
“But it bruises our hands.” It’s hard to listen to God when we’re in pain. But the man on the beach convinced them to try again. Then something different happened. Their net was full, so full that the boat was in danger of sinking.
When the disciples reached the shore, breakfast was ready. Jesus found them and even cooked a meal. Jesus was, again, known through the breaking of bread. Christ meets us and feeds us when we come to the altar rail.
And then another lesson unfolds, Jesus sent Peter out in the world with a mission. God teaches, then sends us out.
Jesus found his disciples, prepared his disciples, and sent his disciples into the world with a mission. He told Peter, “Feed my sheep.” Care for others.
God finds us, feeds our souls, and then God sends us into the world with a mission.
Bishop Curry continues to challenge Episcopalians to be evangelists.
He says he wants The Episcopal Church to experience a revival where people are passionate about the Jesus message.
Third Sunday of Easter
We are more than a club. We’re called by God, sustained by God, and then sent into the world by God. How do we do that? I think Jesus’s lesson to Peter is the key, care for people. Care for God’s sheep enough to help them, tell them about Christ, and invite them to God’s altar.
That is the dream we need. Bishop Curry was right when he said, “We don’t need another program or another committee. We need people to go into the world and share the message of Jesus.”
If we dream about our future, we should dream big.
Recently I heard a story about David Pryor who worked in Washington D.C. when he was a teenager as an aid. He had a dream and vowed to return as a member of Congress.
David hid a dime behind a statue in the Capitol building. He
His dream came true. He said people need to chase their dreams! He also said that his dime is proof they don’t clean the capitol very well.
Let’s dream about fish stories. Let’s dream about becoming what Jesus called, “fishers of men.” Dream big, big enough it sounds like a fish story.
Amen.
Sermon, The Third Sunday of Easter: Fish Stories
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