“The Seven Next Words of Christ: Have You Caught Any Fish?” John 21: 1-23

We’ve been traveling together through the texts that appear in the Gospels following Jesus’s resurrection. We have heard how Mary didn’t recognize Jesus at the empty tomb, mistaking him for the gardener. We have explored how the disciples walking along the road to Emmaus, actually told Jesus all about his own death, until they recognized him as he blessed and broke the bread around their dinner table. Is it surprising then, that in today’s scripture, the disciples did not recognize Jesus on the shoreline until he preformed a miracle?

The disciples were in overload mode. We’ve all been there - so overwhelmed by life that we don’t know where to turn. They had witnessed the death of their beloved teacher and friend. They were plagued by their own demons about abandoning him in his hour of need. They hid in fear - not knowing what was going to come in their lives. So they returned to the life they had before they knew Jesus - fishing. 

Simon Peter was the one who called them back to the boats - Thomas, Nathan, James and John and two other disciples. They went out, but caught nothing. Just after daybreak, they heard a voice calling to them from the shoreline - maybe they recognized a tinge of familiarity in it, maybe they didn’t. The voice asked them if they had caught any fish. Looking down at their empty nets, they acknowledged that they hadn’t caught anything all night. The voice instructed them to try the other side. 

Suddenly, their nets were filled with so many fish that they seemed to be busting at the seems as they were being pulled up onto the deck of the boat. John recognized him first, recognized him in the miracle that had just taken place (hadn’t Jesus helped them see his power before why they were fishing?). He recognized the Lord’s voice and his presence among them. When Simon Peter heard it was Jesus he jumped right into the sea, swimming to shore - always a man of action. 

Friends, I have heard a lot of talk about how the Church (with a capitol C) is in need of revival. How we need more people to come into our churches and hear about Jesus. And that is true. But what if, we need more people who are already here to be John’s and Peter’s? What if we need more of us, gathered here today, to recognize the Lord and respond with action. 

The beautiful thing about the Church is that we have both Johns and Peters amongst us. We have Nathan’s and Thomas’s and James’s and the other disciples as well. God has blessed us with a variety of gifts that are needed to be the church. But we have to let people use their gifts. We have to encourage one another to actually use our giftedness. We are all needed in order to respond to the call of Christ.

We need people who recognize the voice of Christ calling us to do something different. We need people who are willing to test out the waters by putting the nets on the other side of the boat. We need people of action. We need people to tend to those who become new members. We need people to rejoice in the harvest. Do you get the picture, friends? We are all needed.

A church cannot run with only three or four people living out of their giftedness. We cannot leave the bulk of the heavy lifting, to only a few. We all need to be listening to the voice of God and be willing to respond, even if what is being suggested seems odd. 

The question was posed in my last parish of what it would look like for five different churches to come together to serve Christ in our community. It seemed like a crazy idea - why would we come together when we each worship in different places on Sunday morning. But the crazy idea evolved as we listened to the call of Christ, and one Sunday all five churches did something even crazier - they hung signs on their door that said “The church has left the building” and they went out into the community they shared and they served. They cleaned. Sang. Cooked. Mended. Raked. They visited. Listened. Made cards. Delivered signs of encouragement to those who had to work on Sunday mornings. And when it was all said and done, many people in the church asked when can we do that again? When can we go out into the community and share the love and grace of Jesus Christ? Every single day, brothers and sisters. We just needed a little push to respond to what Christ was calling us to do to get there. 

The disciples could have refused to listen to Christ. They could continue to insist to keep the net on the side of the boat where they chose to put it. And aren’t there a lot of us, brothers and sisters, who do the same thing today? We keep trying to do things our own way, by our own power, instead of listening to Christ who is trying to steer us a different direction. When we stop listening to Christ, we stop being the Church. We’ve become a group of people where it is all about us instead of all about bringing honor and glory to God. 

When the disciples got to the shore, after they finished their breakfast of fish, Jesus looked Simon Peter in the eye and asked some hard questions. He asked “Do you love me more then these?” And with an affirmative reply, Jesus told him to feed his lambs. Again, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”  Yes, Lord you know I do! Then tend my sheep. Again, “Do you love me?”

Peter was probably heartbroken by this point - thinking that he had fallen so far away that night that he denied Christ that Jesus doubts his loyalty and love. But really, Jesus was offering him a gift. The gift of redemption. The gift of laying down the shame he felt because of what had happened that night. The gift of restoration that comes with the command to feed my sheep.

Here’s the thing, brothers and sisters. We all have a little bit of Peter in us. The shame that comes from feeling like we haven’t done enough for the Lord. The shame that makes us feel like we could never be the people to be part of God’s Kingdom plan. The shame that shuts us down as people of God. But it is to Peter, and to us, that Christ comes and gives us the command to use our gifts to feed God’s sheep. To care after, not just those of us who are present here, but those who aren’t, and those who do not yet know the Lord. God liberates us, so we can serve Christ is ways beyond our wildest imaginations, if only we listen and respond.

And that, my friends, is what this passage boils down to us for us today, listening and responding. Recognizing that by the grace of God, broken people like you and I are called into ministry to serve Christ. Listening to the voice of Christ who is telling us to try something new, do something big, all for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Responding in such a way, that we devote our very lives to the message of the cross and the empty tomb. So, let us listen and respond, church, to what Christ is calling us to today, and always. Amen.