Prayer of the Day
Eternal and all-merciful God, with all the angels and all the saints we laud your majesty and might. By the resurrection of your Son, show yourself to us and inspire us to follow Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Gospel: John 21:1-19
1 After [he appeared to his followers in Jerusalem,] Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and he showed himself in this way. 2 Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. 3 Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4 Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5 Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” 6 He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7 That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he had taken it off, and jumped into the sea. 8 But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

9 When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. 10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them, and though there were so many, the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord.

13 Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead. 15 When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16 A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17 He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” 19 (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

SERMON
One hundred fifty three fish? Who counted? What if there were only 152 or maybe 159? St. Augustine and Jerome after him gave it the old college try hoping interpret the meaning of the number. Frankly it was a stretch and I don’t think adds much to John’s account of Jesus and what Jesus means to the New testament Church or to us for that matter. Hope that wasn’t a red herring and yes that’s the last fish pun in today’s sermon.

Consider though a super abundance of fish that came from casting on the other side of the boat. The trip up to that point was a complete bust—no fish after fishing all night. We go from the despair of nothing to the amazement of unimaginable abundance.

You’d be forgiven should your mind flash back to a wedding where the wine ran out and then Jesus intervenes and joy overflows (and again we get numerical data about that best of show vintage). Your mind might have drifted over to Matthew’s Gospel (John read it too, you know) to an amazing haul of fish when Jesus tells his followers that they will soon fish for people—not to trap but to liberate.

John’s love of multiple meanings likely comes to play here. God deals in abundance for the sake of humanity—people are fed, healed, and restored to community. It’s safe to assume that a great haul of fish would feed a lot of people besides Peter and those who fished along with him. From God’s abundance, lives are changed and transformed. The funeral rituals for Jesus are transformed when the tomb is found empty and messengers direct Mary and her companions to carry out Jesus’ message and his work.

You might sense deja vu as Jesus invites; just as he invited his disciples years before to come and see where he lives and what he’s about—kind of fun that at this post resurrection fish breakfast John name drops to include Nathaniel of Cana (you know where wine flows nonstop?) who wonders what good could possibly come from Nazareth!

The invitation to an abundant feast is just for openers-Jesus calls his followers too follow—as before the starting place is abundance. Now, things are different too because the disciples embody Jesus’ mission doing God’s work. On Good Friday we heard John’s version of events where Peter three times denies being a follower or disciple—Now, Jesus renews the call to Simon and to the rest of us to follow and proclaim Christ. Jesus renews the call for us to be what Mother Theresa called the hands and feet of the risen Christ in the world. The community of followers is what Dr. James Childs called a contrast society—the contrast is designed to be compelling and an invitation to join. Living as we do waiting for the other shoe to drop and pausing because we’re not sure it’s safe to put a foot forward because of the instability in the world, imagine being invited into abundance in spite of all of that. Imagine being invited to embody a word of hope even as we feel our lives and world are precarious. Jesus invites us to imagine and invites us to follow.