April 14, 2013

Glynn Cardy

Easter 3     John 21:1-19

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The Resurrection appearances, such as the ones we heard from John 21 this morning,[i] are not primarily descriptions of what happened to Jesus’ physical body after he died, but what happened to his disciples after he died and how they found the will and the strength to give up their former lives - what they knew, and embody the vision of Jesus that they had only glimpsed. Indeed to focus Easter on a dead body apparently coming back to life misses the point.

The Gospel reading today is a blend of stores, all centred on the resurrection of Peter. These stories include fishing, an abundant catch, a barbecue, and a commissioning.

The first is about a group of disciples returning to the trade they knew: fishing. As scholars like Dom Crossan point out it was in Galilee that the disciples first faced the ignoble, cruel death and loss of their friend and master Jesus. Distraught and disoriented they had returned to what they knew, and slowly, surprisingly, found the seeds Jesus had planted in them had not died too.

The miraculous catch of fish is a variant of Luke 5 – which also accompanies a call to Peter. One of the features of stories about the post-death appearances of Jesus is that they nearly always end up with Jesus commissioning someone. The Jesus apparition has a purpose – and that purpose is a job to do.

Saul, too, riding as we heard into Damascus found the Christ on the road. “The Christ” is church code for the potency and grace of Jesus carrying on after his death. The Christ is not a human-shaped death-defying visitor from some off-the-planet place. 

The Christ appeared to the persecutor Saul in order to set him on the path of apostleship.[ii] The sense of call that Saul experiences merges with the sense of Christ’s presence. 

Apart from the drama of these appearance episodes, aren’t they the stories of countless Christians throughout the ages who have felt called to step away from the worst of themselves to become through grace the best of themselves?

The lucky miracle of netting a large number of fish may be hiding much more below the surface. Might the author of the Gospel of John have remembered Jesus’ words to Peter in Mark’s Gospel that he was to be a fisher of people? Harvests at sea or on land were symbolic of the promise of fruitful mission. Perhaps, as Bill Loader cheekily observes[iii], one day we will fathom the numerical symbolism of the fish (153) - one fish for each interpretation, so far!

The beach barbeque is not dissimilar from other meals in John’s community. Even if the elements do not match, hearers of John’s Gospel would not have had to strain their imaginations to sense a connection with those meals which celebrated Christ’s risen presence in their time.

Meeting the risen Jesus in the context of the meal meant facing fundamental questions. That, too, has not changed. The food consumed is both material food and yet more. It becomes a vehicle of grace. The people we eat with are companions and yet more. We become vehicles of grace to each other. God is found in the real food, in the real company, and in the reality of each person. We are in God. In this meal God is not an outsider but the host – giving and being consumed.

But Peter’s story is larger than an account of calling. It is a recycling of denial into affirmation. As we know from the accounts of Jesus’ death three times Peter had not loved Jesus more than all else (18:25-27). Peter, the potential leader, became a figure of shame as the cock crowed. Peter’s enthusiasm to boldly follow Jesus flounders and dies in the echo of the cock.

Yet here on the shores of Galilee the enthusiasm is back and again Peter is out of his depth. We might think of Matthew’s story of Peter’s failed attempt to follow Jesus on the water. Peter on that occasion sinks. The Gospel of John now puts Peter back in deep water, confronted again with loyalty and love in a question thrice repeated.[iv]

Resurrection celebrates the triumph of the powerful love of Jesus over fear, hatred, and death. The resurrection of Peter celebrates divine grace.

The world and the church, across its history, are littered with smashed lives ground beneath vengeful, judging feet. “Thus far and no further”, they cry, “cross the line of shame and there is no way back”. 

“It is impossible,” says the letter to the Hebrews (6:4-6), “for those who have fallen away to be brought back to repentance”. The first letter of John says such are not to be prayed for (1 John 5:16). Harsh judgemental attitudes and actions unfortunately remain all too common among Christians.

The divine initiative at Easter refutes the judgemental side of human nature. The story of Peter is that while shamed and resigned to his former routines the grace of God reached out and said, ‘Have I got a job for you boyo.’ Peter was turned from death to life. He was resurrected.

Similarly Saul on that Damascus Road experienced the striking interruption of the God of grace. Saul wasn’t struck down with lightning. He wasn’t damned. He wasn’t even cursed. Rather the voice of grace reached out and said, ‘Have I got a job for you boyo.’ Saul, who afterwards would be known as Paul, was turned from dealing in death to dealing in life. He was resurrected.

Against all odds and against the prevailing values which would later ascend to rule in much theology, God proposed love to Peter again. Almost irritated by the persistence of divine grace, Peter opens himself to life and leadership. Peter will feed the sheep. Peter will follow Jesus, as he had said. Yes, he would follow, as once he declared he would and as Jesus challenges him again to do (21:19).

Paul’s call to leadership is more interesting. He is sent to do a long apprenticeship [the Book of Acts reduces the ‘long’ to a few days; unlike Paul’s own account in Galatians is a number of years!]. Paul was sent to sit at the feet of the people he once persecuted, learning about the consequences of the pain he inflicted and the power of their faith which kept them going.

Peter’s resurrection is legendary. His rehabilitation is a celebration of divine grace. He also symbolizes leadership, the shepherd appointed by the true shepherd, to do as he did. There could be no arrogance here for Peter, no lofty superiority, and no heartless dogmatism. Instead, Peter was a frail human being brought again to his feet, and brought to new life and leadership by God’s generosity. Such is the image and the possibility.

Paul in his writings would remind us of more failings of Peter later. James, the leader of the Jerusalem Jesus movement would need to move Peter sideways. Peter ends up looking very much like us, and like us kept needing grace. 

Michael Leunig has written a poem called ‘At the Top’ which is reminder that in each of us, no matter how much we have failed and feel a failure, no matter who or how many we have hurt, including ourselves, there is a seed of hope, of grace within, which Leunig calls an angel.

“At the top of the tallest building in the world

Sat the saddest man in the world

And inside the man

Was the loneliest heart in the world

And inside the heart

Was the deepest pit in the world

And at the bottom of the pit

Was the blackest mud in the world

And in the mud lay the lightest, loveliest, tenderest,

Most beautiful, happy angel in the universe.”[v]

Let us again say together the Prayer for Today:

The early church was full of people who made mistakes. Big mistakes. Like Peter the betrayer. Like Paul the persecutor. May we too never be frightened of failing, and of starting all over again. May we be kind to and tolerant of ourselves, and extend such kindness and tolerance to others. Amen.

[i] Note that for the biblical exposition in this sermon I have drawn significantly on the interpretative work of Dr William Loader http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkEaster3.htm

[ii] Galations 1:15-16.

[iii] http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/LkEaster3.htm

[iv] This was a way in which the ancient world typically highlighted its key texts.

[v] http://www.leunig.com.au/index.php/poems?showall=&start=4