Hear good news this day church family.  Jesus shows himself to us.  Jesus appears to us.  John 21 is considered an epilogue to John’s Gospel.  In John’s prologue, he writes that the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, lived among us, to describe how God is revealed in the person of Christ.  In John’s epilogue, we hear that Jesus will continue to be revealed to his followers through His Word, through meals, and through good shepherding. 

Do you need this?  Do you need Jesus to be appearing as he appeared one day on a beach with a fire going?  Do you need to be called or re-called constantly with those words which we heard at the beginning of our “Sharing a Table” series?  Follow me.  This is what Jesus is saying in our story and it’s still our invitation.  “How’s it going?” asks Jesus.  “Try this,” says Jesus.  “You have a part to play in my kingdom,” says Jesus.  “Let’s have breakfast!”  “Follow me.” This is a good message for this time of year, I think.  The “dog days of winter” as I like to say.  The time that for some feels like the longest most dreary part of the season.  We live in times that for many mean that the phrase “lives of quiet desperation” has taken on a whole new meaning.  God is with us, and we’ve been pointedly celebrating God meeting us at tables. The Gospel of John was written so that people may come or continue to believe.  It says so right in the book.  We come back to it time and time again so that we may continue to believe.  When it comes to faith, the concern for ourselves and/or those closest to us is not if we believe that Jesus has risen, but that it doesn’t seem to be making much of a difference in our or their lives.  This story that we’re looking at this morning is about what happens when the dog days set in.  When routine futility sets in.  What does this news that Christ appears to us and re-calls us mean for us?  What does it mean in terms of who we are called and enabled to be?  Let us look at this passage from John 21 and see what God may have to say to our hearts.

I want to start by saying what this message is about.  It’s a call to discipleship.  I read an article recently in which the author talked about seeing the church’s role as one of calling people to discipleship.  The author called it rigorous discipleship.  I like the term radical discipleship.  I want this for myself.  I want this for our faith family here at Blythwood, no matter our number.  Imagine if we had x number of people committed to radical discipleship here.  X number of people committed to being learners of Christ and committed to being formed into the image of Christ.  X number of people who were like this and who gathered here and went out from here and represented Christ in their homes, in the workplaces, and their schools.  If people who knew us knew there was something different about us and heard from us why this is and knew they could ask us about matters of faith and doubt and that we wouldn’t judge them or condemn them but would simply love and accept them.  If all the things we were doing together – hearing the word, praying singing, gathering around tables, studying the Bible… if all the things we did alone – praying, reading, resting in Christ, waiting on the Lord, longing to know God and to make God known… being filled with the Holy Spirit to the point that it was like a stream gushing up in us to eternal life – pointing to life eternal, life from above, life that is from God and in God… if we did all those things for however long God calls us to do them here then I would consider this church a success.  I would consider my service to God here a success.  The fact that you’re here this morning says that you believe the same thing. At least to some extent. There’s at least some sort of the same yearning in you.  

The disciples have gone back to Galilee in our story. “After these things…” is how our story starts. There are seven of them.  Peter says “I’m going fishing.”  They go out with him at night.  There’s a certain resignation here I believe. The post-resurrection excitement has died down.  What else is there to do?  Let’s get on with our lives.  Is this all there is to being disciples?  Getting back to our lives?  It doesn’t go well for Peter and the others.  They’re out all night and haven’t caught any fish.

Jesus doesn’t leave them alone though. Isn’t that good?  Jesus is always searching for us.  He’s standing on the beach.  They don’t know who it is.  He’s watching them and he calls out “Children, you have no fish, have you?”  As in our story last week of the two on the road to Emmaus, Jesus starts with a question.  How’s it going?  Doesn’t seem to be going too well!  They have the courage to answer honestly.  “No,” they say.  “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.”  Listen to me, in other words. They do and the net’s so full of fish they can’t haul it in.  The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”  Ever impetuous Peter puts his clothes on, jumps in the water and heads to shore (leaving the rest of his friends to do the heavy lifting- literally).  He wants to meet with Jesus.

He wants to meet with Jesus.  He wants to spend time with Jesus. Jesus is waiting on the beach with a charcoal fire going and fish and bread.  What do we think of when we smell charcoal?  I know what I think of – backyard BBQ or grill time!  Why is this detail even in here?  Because Peter could not have smelled charcoal without thinking of the night Jesus was arrested. Peter had stood warming himself by a charcoal fire in the high priest’s courtyard.  Three times Peter is questioned.  “You’re not one of his disciples are you?” “Did I not see you in the garden with him?”  “No I am not,” answered Peter.  “That wasn’t me.”

He had messed up.  After saying “Even if everyone else deserts you I will never desert you,” Peter had deserted him.  He’d messed up.  We get that.  We mess up.  It’s one of my biggest fears as a pastor.  Messing up.  Getting in between someone and God due to something I do or something I fail to do. Part of what it means to be a disciple, a student of Christ, is realizing our own insufficiency in following Christ. We need to realize that.  The prophet Isaiah has a vision of the heavenly throne in Isaiah 6.  He cries out “Woe is me!  I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips…”  Peter has said something similar on the shores of the very lake he’s on now.  When Luke tells a similar story of a miraculous catch of fish so large it was breaking the disciples’ nets, Peter falls at Jesus’ knees saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”  Do you know what happens to Isaiah?  A seraph takes a pair of tongs.   The seraph picks up a coal and flies over and touches it to Isaiah’s lips.  “Your guilt is departed from you and your sin is blotted out.”  While the charcoal undoubtedly reminded Peter of that night, here is Jesus with charcoal and he’s brought the fish and the bread and he’s also brought forgiveness.  Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them (and this is always reminding us of another meal that Jesus shares with us) and did the same with the fish.

Jesus then takes Peter for a walk.  This next scene with Peter happens away from the others.  Jesus gets to the heart of the matter.  Jesus gets to the number one qualification for being his follower.  “Do you love me?”  The first time it’s “Do you love me more than these?”  Peter had made some grandiose claims about his own loyalty in front of everyone else, and it’s never about comparing ourselves to someone else when it comes to our love for God (favourably or unfavourably).    The question is for each of us. “Do you love me?”  “Yes, Lord; you know I love you.”  It’s the key question.  It’s the first half of the greatest commandment.  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.”  Then comes the second half of the greatest commandment – “Feed my lambs.”  We’re always coming back to the lambs!  Jesus asks a second time and the answer comes back, “Yes Lord, you know that I love you.” “Tend my sheep.”  Different words.  Sheep.  Lambs.  Feed.  Tend.  Service – caring for others in Jesus’ name and for his sake will be all-encompassing  It will be different for different people.  Feed.  Tend.  Lambs. Sheep.  You’re going to be the shepherd now, Peter.

Of course, these words aren’t just for Peter.  They’re not even just for professional Christians.  We are all going to be shepherds.  Imagine! 

Feed my lambs.  Tend my sheep.  Feed my sheep.  However, can we do this?  Does it seem unlikely?  It should be because we know ourselves right?  We know what goes on in our hearts and minds and souls.  If you’ve followed Jesus for any length of time you also know what he’s done to change your heart.  We don’t do this on our own friends.  We do this in the power and with the accompaniment of the risen Christ who appeared to his followers and breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is the Christ with whom we are walking. NT Wright puts it excellently in his book John For Everyone:

“Here is the secret of all Christian ministry, yours and mine, lay and ordained, full-time or part-time. It’s the secret of everything from being a quiet back-row member of a prayer group to being a platform speaker at huge rallies and conferences.  If you are going to do any single solitary thing as a follower and servant of Jesus, this is what it’s built on. Somewhere, deep down inside, there is a love for Jesus, and though (goodness knows) you’ve let him down enough times, he wants to find that love, to give you a chance to express it, to heal the hurts and failures of the past, to give you new work to do.”

Here's the amazing thing about Jesus’ response to Peter’s “You know I love you.”  Jesus doesn’t say “Well, love me then.”  Jesus doesn’t say “Well let that love be shown in emotive outbursts toward me.”  “Take care of the flock,” Jesus says.  Tend to.  Feed.  This passage is often read for pastors at ordination services, but the call here is on each and every one of our lives.  We all have a flock, you see.  Take care of the people to whom God entrusts us.  God trusts us.  Parents, your children.  Children, your parents.  Pastors, your congregations and congregations your pastors and leaders.  Those at work are our clients, customers, co-workers, patients, students, and teachers.  The people in the apartment beside you and across the hall.  The people in the house next door and across the street.  Your friends.  Your enemies too if we’re really taking Jesus’ words seriously. And we want to take Jesus seriously.  May we have joy in our seriousness, knowing that for over 2,000 years how Jesus has made himself known to his followers.  Jesus appears, Jesus makes himself known when his word is proclaimed.  “It is the Lord!”  This is the message.  It is the one who is worthy of all our love, all our thanks, all our praise, all our adoration.  Jesus, the one in whom John says we have received grace upon grace.  The one in whom is life, and this life is the light of all people.  The one who said , “Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.”  The one who said “My peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” 

Jesus is made known at His table of grace and thanksgiving.  Jesus may make himself known at any table around which his people gather.  Where no-condition invitations are extended and accepted.  Where stories of God’s presence in our lives are shared. 

Jesus is made known, Jesus appears, when the love which his followers have for him is demonstrated in our care for one another.  Jesus is made known as those who follow him take up his call, “Feed my lambs.  Tend my sheep.  Feed my sheep.”  Look after them.  Lord, help us look after them as you look after us and carry us close to your heart.  “Precious Lord reveal your heart to me,” we sing.  May that be our prayer as we enter into a season of preparation to celebrate the life, death, and resurrection of the one who continues to prove his care for us.

Amen