After Easter: Fishing with Jesus

from my message on 4/14/13, from John 21:1-14

Fishing.  Who here likes to go fishing?  I have several quotes about fishing in this message.  Here's the first one:  A bad day of fishing is better than any good day at work.  Can I get an "Amen?" 

Peter said, "I'm going fishing."  Six other disciples, Jesus' closest friends, said, "We will go with you."  They had all seen the resurrected Jesus.  More than once.  Why are they going back?  Hadn't Easter happened for them?  We look around us today in the sanctuary.  Where are all the Easter lilies, the trumpets, the crowds?  I am glad that you are here.  But how easily we fall back into old patterns, as if Easter had never happened.  We never do this, right?  We don't say, "I'll never take another drink," and then find ourselves addicted to alcohol again.  We don't say, "I'll never be part of an abusive relationship," and then find ourselves trying to rescue someone who only hurts us.  Ah, we can understand how these disciples can easily slip back to their former ways.  Those ways are comfortable, no, familiar.  We have grown used to them, in spite of Easter.

They fished all night and caught nothing.  Frustration.  I found a lot of good quotes when it comes to experiencing frustration while fishing.  "Fishing is the sport of drowning worms."  "All the romance of trout fishing is solely in the mind of the angler and is in no way shared by the fish."  "The fishing was good; it was the catching that was bad."  And this last one is not quite on the subject, but is too good to miss, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day."  Frustration.  No results after hard work.

Jesus is there on the shore.  They don't know that it is Jesus.  He is incognito.  He doesn't say classic lines like, "Any luck?  Caught anything?  They bitin'?"  No, he asks a question expecting a negative answer.  "Lads, you haven't caught anything, have you?"  "No," they say.

"Cast the net on the right side," the stranger says.  Don't we just love to get unsolicited advice.  "Let me show you where you are going wrong in your marriage."  "Here's how you should raise your kids."  "This is the way you should run your business."  Here are professional fisherman, and some yahoo on the shore is saying, "You should try the bassmaster 3000, set at a depth of 2 feet, and reeled in with a jerking motion."  Don't we just love unsolicited advice?

We preachers get a lot of unsolicited advice.  Especially in the area of evangelism.  That's what this passage is about, witnessing, sharing the Christian faith, telling the good news in Christ.  "You should follow the Willow Creek model."  "You ought to go through the Purpose-Driven Church." 

I am in a continuing education course where 12 of us pastors read a book a month and then get together to talk about it.  Last month the book was Breaking the Missional Code.  It was about evangelism.  The premise was that we needed to exeget the culture, in other words, we needed to find out what was going on in people's lives and hearts around us.  In the fishing language, we needed to find out what the fish were biting, and use that kind of bait.  In the book, there was a report on studies of church that had training programs on evangelism.  They would present courses on witnessing.  The report showed that such churches had poorer results than churches that did nothing at all!  Why, because it was not genuine.  It was rote, a cookie cutter approach.  What people want is a credible Christian, a person who genuinely cares about them. 

The disciples cast the net on the right side.  They are not able to haul it up.  I know you love it when I do the Greek, so here goes.  The word "haul" is the same word that Jesus uses when he says that when he is lifted up he will "draw" all person to himself.  This story is not just about fishing for fish.  It is about fishing for people.  Jesus wants to haul, to draw all persons to himself.

There are so many fish in the nets now.  It is interesting in reading the commentaries on this passage.  Never once in the gospel stories do the disciples, these professional fishermen, ever catch any fish except at the direction of Jesus.  It is never a technique, a program, 4 spiritual laws, or Roman road of salvation.  It is always about Jesus.  Our relationship with him, our following his directions is the most important thing.

At this point, the disciple whom Jesus loved (I can preach a whole sermon just on this character), says, "It is the Lord!"  Peter, ever impetuous, swims to shore.  Now the Greek can help us here.  It says he was naked.  Another translation of that word is "poorly dressed."  Most likely Peter was in a simple smock, lightly dressed for hard work.  When he heard the news, he tucked his smock in and swam ashore.  He couldn't wait for the boat to row in.

The other disciples bring the boat in with the nets full of fish.  Peter at the instruction of Jesus brings the net upon shore.  It has 153 fish in it.  People over the years have tried to understand what the number 153 stands for.  Is it the number of varieties of fish known at that time?  Is is the number of countries known at that time?  Augustine back in the 4th century, said, "It is a great mystery."  Here's what I think the point is:  Jesus wants all people to come to him; he doesn't want to lose a single one. 

The passage says the net was not torn.  The word for torn in Greek is "schizo," from which we get schism.  How we in the church can tear each other down.  Doesn't that make a great witness?  Don't people say, "I would just love to be part of a conflict where I can get further bruised by life?  That is so attractive to me."  We can hurt each other in this congregation, in this denomination, in the many denominations that make up the Church.  We hurl out theologies at each other.  We tear each other down.  Jesus doesn't want any holes in the nets.  There are many congregations, many denominations who are working to catch as many people as possbile.

After Easter, Jesus provides for His Church, a mission, to catch as many fish as possible, at his direction.  Who is on your heart?  Friends, relatives, associates, neighbors.  With whom do you have a relationship that Jesus might move within to bring good news. Isn't the world dying to hear good news? 

You have some ways to go fishing with Jesus in 2 weeks. Invite someone to the Gospel Accordin' To Texas.  Invite someone to join on ReThink Church on April 28.  Go to our website, www.westlake-umc.org, to find out more information or to sign up. 

I want to close with one more quote, an Irish blessing:  May the holes in your nets be no larger than the fish in it.  May it be so.  That's the good news I have to share.