Bishop’s News - May 2022
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” “No,” they answered. He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. John 21: 4-6 (NIV)
This weekend at the new Castlecliff church plant Rev. Chelsea Kirby shared some really interesting reflections around John 21, which was our lectionary passage over the weekend.
In this scene, a group of the disciples have gone ‘back to normal.’ Back to their livelihoods; likely back to the communities and people they initially left when they responded to Jesus’ first call. We too, post the high of the Easter season, can often feel like things are ‘back to normal.’
When Jesus meets them again in John 21, one can only imagine how they’re feeling: they’ve had some encounters with the risen Jesus, but they’re not sure how real they are and have trouble recognising him. Things are not how they expected them to be. The adrenaline of Jesus’ trial, death and resurrection has worn off, and they’re not sure what their next options are. Maybe they returned bearing a sense of failure, shame and experienced the judgement of the communities they had left behind. They go back to what they know; to what is normal: waking up early, taking out the boats, hauling in fish, processing the catch, mending nets... over and over again.
We all have our fishing boats – the things we return to again and again – our normal activities, habits, patterns of behaviour. Maybe we experienced that Easter ‘high’ – the festival, the gathering. Maybe we encountered God’s Spirit at work and spent time in awe-filled wonder. Maybe we are wondering if it was real at all. Maybe we hoped for real release from our ‘fishing boats’ and it hasn’t happened in the way we longed for.
In John 21, mirroring that first call we see most fully in Luke 5, in the post-resurrection reality Jesus steps in to affirm the disciples identity in him. With another miraculous catch of fish, but perhaps more profoundly, with the intimate and personal reconciliation offered to Simon Peter. This reconciliation, open to us all, could not have happened without the journey of death and resurrection.
Jesus invites us to remember that things are profoundly different, thanks to Easter. We are reconciled, come what may. We are invited not to forget this, and to re-hear our call to follow which is intimate and personal. And from that covenant place, Jesus invites us to move forward, and on, in step with his call of discipling mission. I wonder what your invitation forward from Jesus looks like? Because in light of Easter, things are no longer normal, and we are no longer the same.
In Christ,
+Justin
