Year C

John 21:1-19

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Come! Come, Eat, and Follow

I can’t answer for you but for me, everyday, I continue to discover in my limited understanding the meaning of the resurrection and to experience it’s call on my life. Today, all our texts speak to the dawning awareness of disciples who, in the power of the Holy Spirit, discover the meaning of the resurrection for their lives and the new vocation that comes to them, and to anyone who encounters the risen Jesus. Paul, on the Damascus road and the disciples on the beach discover what it is that the risen Lord would have them do. In both cases, their vocation is grounded in what amounts to a new identity and mission. The revelation text today provides us with an example for how we can discover this new identity and vocation for our lives because the resurrection changed everything.

The resurrection was a spectacular event, but the aftermath was not so easy. The disciples were still a bit lost even after the risen Jesus had appeared to them twice. The reality of what happened, while bringing great joy, was still mixed with uncertainty. Simon Peter and his friends have been waiting there in Galilee, waiting for some direction from God, but nothing seemed to happen. They were so uncertain about how to move forward that they decided to go back to their old jobs, fishing. They fish all night, but catch nothing. Then as dawn breaks, they see someone standing on the shore. He calls to them, it’s the risen Lord, but they don’t recognize him at this point. He tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. They do and they bring in a huge catch of fish, a variety of 153 fish.

In this story, we are reminded of the parallel story found in chapter 5 of the gospel of Luke. The disciples had been fishing all night with no luck. Jesus tells Peter to put down the net into the deep water, they do and they catch so many fish the nets began to break. Luke’s story leads to the calling of the disciples. In John’ account today after the resurrection, it leads to a new recognition as Peter jumps into the water and rushes to the shore to greet the risen Lord.  As the rest come ashore they see the Lord cooking breakfast over a charcoal fire. After he serves them a breakfast of fish and bread, a post-resurrection Eucharist perhaps, he takes Simon off to the side and three times the risen Lord asks him the same question: Simon, do you love me? And Simon Peter who had denied him three times before the crucifixion, affirms his love and devotion for Jesus.

Three times then the risen Lord commissions Peter to be a shepherd with responsibility for the flock. His new vocation is to expand the Easter community in size and diversity, and we like Peter and the disciples, are given still another way to recognize and encounter him in the day to day, as the disciples are told three times to feed his sheep. They were reminded that we show our true love for Jesus by feeding others, that is, by working to meet  needs, whatever those may be. Peter’s “yes Lord,” marks the shift in his understanding of his mission and the restoration of his relationship. He hears his commission as he receives forgiveness. The story ends exactly the way it started months before with Christ saying to Peter and the others at the seashore these words, “Follow me!” Follow me to this new way of life and they did.

No one understood more clearly as had Saul of Tarsus that in Jesus’ mission and in the witness of his disciples a new thing was happening. But what Paul had failed to understand before his Damascus road experience was how this new thing, this new way, fit into the pattern of obedience to a law that he had worked his whole life to master. The rousing success of the church’s mission beyond Jerusalem prompts him to want to stamp it out wherever it might be found. This new way threatened cultural stability, tradition, the moral code, and the whole social order. But, on his way to destroy “the disciples of the Lord,” he encounters the living risen Jesus and becomes one of his disciples instead.

His life and the cause of Christianity are forever changed because he surrenders his limited understanding to become one who follows and proclaims Jesus as “the Son of God.” Paul does not just discover his vocation, he becomes, “a new creation.” The scales that needed to be removed from his eyes helped him see the world from God’s perspective and he discovers Jesus was not only alive but active and present in the lives of people everywhere and this changes everything for him and for the future church. A future church whose new vocation is a call to love, and to true worship of Christ the Lamb.       John’s vision of heaven presents Christ as “the Lamb that was slaughtered,” to emphasize his sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. A Lamb that is worshiped by the grand angelic choir of “myriads of myriads” and “thousands of thousands.” All creatures in heaven and on earth are gathered to sing this beautiful love hymn and to worship the Lamb. Every form of life declares him worthy of blessing and honor, glory and praise.

The risen Lord is worthy of our honor and praise, worthy of our love and worship. John’s witness is the confession of a changed people over time by what they have heard proclaimed and then have demonstrated in their new vocations as children of the risen Lord. We are all at the beach together and there is a man in the distance grilling fish over a fire. He is waving and calling. “Come. Come and have breakfast.” And, no one will have to tell us. Even with our limited understanding, we’ll know as the disciples knew in their limited understanding when the risen Lord called them and they responded to the call to serve and love people whatever the cost, as Paul discovered on the Damascus road. It is the risen Lord and as we follow him, we can’t help but sing a hymn of love to the Lamb who is worthy of blessing and honor, glory and praise.