In the Gospel
today the disciples encounter the risen Jesus. You see, after Jesus’
resurrection, the disciples decided to go fishing. I think they were bored. I
mean, meeting the Risen Jesus is cool and everything, but they didn’t know what
to do with themselves. They didn’t know what came next. So they go out in their
own boats to work at their old jobs. They fished all night and as they put into
shore, they see Jesus cooking some fish over a fire.
Think about
it, here is their rabbi, master, and friend—who, by the way has just risen from
the dead after being hideously crucified-- cooking them breakfast!
I must admit
that when I first read this, all I could hear was my inner Homer Simpson saying
“MMMmmm. Breakfast!”
But breakfast…breakfast
cooked by Jesus… should have shaken the disciples out of their boredom! As
usual, Jesus would have to help them connect the dots.
Notice that their
encounter with the resurrected Jesus isn’t flashy or loud but is instead an
invitation. In inviting them to “Come and have breakfast,” Jesus is doing what
God always does. He is inviting them into a deeper relationship. At the start
of John’s Gospel, we hear about how Jesus is the eternal logos who spoke all
things into being and, here, at the end of the Gospel, we are shown Jesus, the
crucified and risen Savior, meeting his people face to face. And it is over
breakfast that Jesus finally gives them a job. He tells them to feed his sheep,
tend his sheep, and to follow him.
This
encounter between Jesus and his followers is many things: Jesus meets them
where they are. He restores their relationships, and their relationship with Him. He gives them an invitation. He feeds and refreshes them. And
he empowers them.
This is where
and how Christ meets us, in the movements and moments of our life. He meets us
where we eat. We encounter him where we work. We meet Jesus when we are
together; and when we are alone, there is the risen Christ among us. God chose
to live among us, and even after the miracle of the resurrection, God chose to
make us breakfast.
Today in our
collect, we prayed that the “blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in
the breaking of bread.” We also prayed that God would “open the eyes of our
faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work.” We are inviting God to
change how we see and we ask God to give us ears to hear.
God answers
this prayer all the time! The Incarnation shows us that God appears where we
would never expect it. The miracle of Incarnation is that God shows up in the
every day. Ordinary moments are transformed into holy moments whenever we see
signs and signals of the holy in the everyday.
There is a
vision of God for everyone. No matter how you see the world, no matter how you
learn, no matter what animates you or makes you suspicious, the Risen Christ
shows up. In a way people of all shapes and sizes can comprehend.
Look at
today’s lessons—Peter in the Gospel, Saul and Ananias in Acts, John the Divine in Revelation—they
show us how our experience and view of the world completely changes when we
encounter God in the every day.
Peter had witnessed the crucifixion of Jesus, he saw the empty tomb, he encountered first-hand the risen Jesus... but there was one piece of unfinished business. Remember how on the night Jesus was arrested and led into both Herod's house and into Pilate's headquarters in the run-up to Jesus' execution...? Peter was waiting outside when he was confronted by two women and a man who recognized him as one of Jesus' followers? Remember how Peter denied it three times before the crow of the morning rooster? Remember how bitterly Peter wept when he realized what he had done? Well, at this breakfast, Jesus breaks through the silence and the awkwardness, and gives Peter three chances to acknowledge his love of Jesus. This conversation marks the restoration of Jesus' and Peter's relationship so that Peter's failure will no longer hang over him. Jesus meets Peter where he needed him the most... and he forgives, he restores, and he sends.
Remember Saul of Tarsus? Saul was a fervent, observant Pharisaic Jew who wanted to stamp out this new messianic movement called "The Way." He worked to track down and arrest those first Jewish Christians... until one day on the road to Damascus to round up more "People of The Way," he heard a
voice from heaven. It was Jesus, whom he had been persecuting. After his
encounter with the light and the voice, Saul’s life was changed forever. At
first he was struck blind and soon after than he received new sight, a new vision—not
just restored eyesight, but a new vision of a church for all people and a Gospel for
everyone, everywhere!
Ananias heard
a voice from heaven, too. God tells him to go and seek out the person who had
been persecuting the church, tracking down and arresting Christians. And when
he finds Saul, Ananias prays for Saul who regains his sight and takes a new
name. God sent Ananias, and Ananias changed Saul the persecutor to Paul the
advocate. Voices from heaven change everything.
In
Revelation, John the Divine heard voices from heaven. In fact, John journeyed
into heaven and saw it all. He stood among those strange four living creatures,
among angels, elders and “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the
earth and in the sea” and he heard this great choir singing praises to God!
One of my
favorite religion writers was the late Rachel Held Evans, who died three years
ago right after Easter, as it happens, after an illness. She described the
reign of God in this way, “This is what God’s kingdom is like: a bunch of
outcasts and oddballs gathered at a table, not because they are rich or worthy
or good, but because they are hungry, because they said yes."
Another hero
of the faith to me is a person who also said “yes” and that was the Rev. Dr. Howard
Thurman, who was a Baptist preacher who died in 1981. A theology professor and
Dean at Boston University, Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of his students. Thurman
recalled a sermon that his grandmother heard as a child given by a slave
preacher before the Civil War who told his congregation that they were God’s
children and not slaves. Thurman talked about the lesson he retained as a
grandchild of a slave: “The creator of existence also created me and therefore
with that sort of backing, I could absorb all the violences of life.”
Today, we are
doing an old liturgy in an old way. And as we do this, we must be careful to
avoid the temptation of dreamy nostalgia where we wish for a fantasy past.
Because, you know, when that past was the present, we and our forbears were
just as desperate for refreshment, empowerment, and liberation as we are today.
We and they share the same desire to know God, to follow Christ, experience the
Spirit’s power, and live in peace.
Instead, think
of this and every Eucharist as Jesus’ invitation to breakfast. And in caring
for us, he is giving us all a job. He is feeding us for the journey ahead.
Jesus invites
us to breakfast. He calls us to set aside our labors for just a minute. Eat,
chat a spell, listen and learn, and catch a glimpse of heaven. And then get up
to go and do God’s work of reconciliation, healing, prophecy, invitation, and
love. Let’s eat!
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Here is a link to the bulletin for the Third Sunday of Easter at St. John's Episcopal Church, Clearwater
Here is a link to a video of the sermon.
Here is a link to a video of the liturgy.
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