John 21:1-19

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The risen Christ empowers us for mission.=

A sermon preached by <= o:p>

Dr, William O. (Bud) R= eeves

First United Methodist Church

Hot= Springs, AR 71901=

May 3, 2009=

One of my favorite= stories comes from my days down in south Arkansas living on the shores of L= ake Chicot. It seems that there was this grizz= led old fisherman who would come down to the boat launch and put his flat-bottom boat in the water and take off across the lake, but nobody ever saw him tak= e a fishing pole with him. All he= had in the boat was a rusty old tackle box and a dip net. Yet every day the fisherman would = return after a couple of hours with a boatload of fish.

Understandably, this s= trange success caused quite a bit of talk, and the game warden heard about it. So he dressed in his grubbiest clo= thes, and the next time the old fisherman showed up, he casually asked if he coul= d go fish with him. The old guy sa= id, “Sure,” and off they went.

The boat finally found= its way into a secluded cove of the lake, and the fisherman stopped the motor a= nd opened his tackle box. He pul= led out a stick of dynamite, lit it, let the fuse burn down, tossed it overboar= d, and the explosion rocked the boat. Then the fish, killed by the explosion, began to float to the surfac= e, and the fisherman started scooping them into the boat.

The game warden had se= en all he needed to see. He reached = into his coveralls, pulled out his badge, and said, “Mister, I’m from the Game and Fish Commission, and you’re under arrest for illegal fishing.”

The old fisherman just looked at the game warden for a second.&nb= sp; Then he reached into his tackle box, took another stick of dynamite,= lit it, handed it to the game warden, and said, “You gonna sit there, or = you gonna fish?”

This is essentially the question the risen Jesus asks the disciples along the lakeshore early one morning: “Are you going to sit there or fish? Are you going to go back to the ol= d ways and the old days, or are you going to continue to follow where I lead?̶= 1;

After Easter, accordin= g to John’s Gospel, the disciples returned to Galil= ee, and they decided to go fishing. Several of them had been professional fisherman, and sometimes the b= est way to deal with grief is just to stay busy. But they didn’t catch a thin= g all night. As the dawn broke, this stranger on the shore called out to them and told them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. W= hy not? Nothing else had worked.=

Then all of a sudden t= he nets were full to bursting with fish! It was incredible! I c= an imagine Peter and John trying to haul this massive catch in, and Peter sayi= ng, “You know, this is almost like that time Jesus…No….Do you suppose?…” But Jo= hn had already made the connection. = He shouted, “It is the Lord!”&nbs= p; Like the eyes of the disciples opened at Emmaus, they recognized him. Peter got so excited he = threw on his shirt, jumped in the lake, and swam to shore. When he got there, Jesus had alrea= dy started a fire and was grilling some fish, and with what the disciples had caught, they had a breakfast feast on the shore with the risen Christ.=

This last post-resurre= ction appearance in the Gospel of John has been the subject of much study and debate. Today I want to share= with you three words that point to its meaning for us as we seek to be 21^st= century disciples.

First, we are fed. The f= irst step in experiencing the power and the presence of the risen Christ is to f= eed on his grace. I think it̵= 7;s significant that Jesus feeds his disciples before he calls them to do anything. There they are, out= on the boat, drifting along, having no success, tired and starving, when Jesus calls to them and changes their whole situation. Not only do they suddenly succeed = in their quest for fish, but then they come to shore and are fed with the food= and the fellowship that Jesus has prepared for them.

When we are drifting t= hrough life, wearing ourselves out with essentially unproductive tasks, we find ourselves starving for something real.&nbs= p; The first step toward something real and meaningful and productive i= s to be fed spiritually by God. He= comes to us; he gives us his love; he forgives our mistakes; he empowers us to go on. That’s grace. That’s food for our souls.

I often hear people sa= y that they want to “get fed” at church. In fact, people will stay at a chu= rch because they are being fed, and they will leave a church because they are n= ot being fed. When I hear that, = I know they are not talking about the doughnuts.&= nbsp; We need to be fed in our relationship with Christ. We need to hear and to learn the Word. We need to worship. We need to have fellowship w= ith other disciples. We need to k= now we belong and are loved and cared for. There’s nothing wrong with that. The world depletes our resources w= eek by week, and we come to church hungry—spiritually hungry for love, joy, peace, and hope. That’s= our mission, from the sermon to the music to the small groups and ministries for all ages. We want to fill you= up with the grace of God. We wan= t to feed you well.

But that’s not a= ll; the second word is “follow.” We are fed to follow. I don’t know about you, but = after I am fed, I usually want a nap. Karen can give you the sad details on this, but it seems to be a gen= etic problem that was passed down from my father and has also infected my two so= ns. After a big meal, my favorite plac= e to be is my recliner.

I saw an ad someyears = ago for the ultimate recliner. It= was called the “Mount McKinley.” It was, as you might guess, very large. But the secret of the = Mount McKinley was hidden under the pad on the right arm.= You could lift it up and there was a console equipped with a telepho= ne, an answering machine, TV remote, controls for the vibrating massagers in the chair, even a place to plug in your laptop computer! You could almost live in that chai= r.

You could also die in = that chair. Edwin Shoemaker invent= ed the rocker recliner and began the La-Z-Boy company in 1927. He is honored in the American Furn= iture Hall of Fame. In 1998, at the= age of 90, Edwin Shoemaker passed away in his La-Z-Boy. He settled into his recliner for a= nap and never woke up.[1] What a way to go!

Jesus doesn’t ca= ll us to be “recliner” Christians, armchair disciples, La-Z-Boy belie= vers (or La-Z-Girls, either). If o= ur only goal in being a Christian is to get fed, to have our needs met, to hav= e an experience that makes us feel better about ourselves, then we are still spiritually dead. Being fed i= s only the first step. Having been f= ed spiritually by the grace of God, we are nourished for discipleship. We are fed to follow.

One of the first words= Jesus spoke to Peter by the Sea of Galilee was, “Follow me.” One = of the last words he spoke to Peter by the Sea of Galilee was “Follow me.” That’s the key, the focus, the beginning, the middle, and the = end of the Christian religion. We follow Jesus Christ. In fact,= we don’t practice a religion at all; we follow a Savior. Christianity in essence is not a principle, a philosophy, or a proposition; it’s a relationship with a person—the risen Jesus Christ. We are fed to follow him.

Which brings us to the= third word—feed. We are fed to feed. One of the most important ways we = can follow Jesus is to feed his children who are starving physically, emotional= ly, and spiritually. The risen Ch= rist empowers us for his mission in the world.&= nbsp; We are called to action.

After Jesus fed the disciples breakfast by the Sea of Galilee, he had that famous conversation with his lead disciple, Simon Peter. Three times Jesus asked Peter, = 220;Do you love me?” Three tim= es Peter replied, getting more adamant each time, “Yes, Lord, you know t= hat I love you.” Three times Jesus replied to Peter’s profession of love, “Feed my lambs. Tend my sheep. Feed my sheep.” He called Peter to serve.

Writer Philip Yancey n= otes that toward the end of his life, Albert Einstein removed the portraits of t= wo scientists from his wall—Sir Isaac Newton and James Maxwell, two of t= he most highly respected and successful scientists of the modern era. Einstein replaced the scientists with portraits of Mahatma Gandhi—the liberato= r of India—and Albert Schweitzer—the medical missionary to Africa. Einstein explained that it was tim= e to replace the image of success with the image of service.[2]

We are called to service. We live in a world t= hat is starving for bread, starving for love, starving for salvation. Any way we can meet the needs of t= he children of God around us is following the command of Christ. We are fed to feed.

Bob Fisher looks like = your average, hard-working, church-going guy.&n= bsp; People call him "Shoe Bob," because he owns a small shoe repair shop tucked in a corner of a little strip mall in Wayzata, Minnesota. But he is not an average guy.= Shoe Bob is a radical servant who = has found a way to help the homeless. He helps the homeless by rallying his whole community, and he does it in his sleep.

In 1995 Bob was freezi= ng to death trying winter camping, and he heard God speaking to his heart, telling him if he was going to suffer, it might as well be for good. Bob thought he heard God wrong, but eventually he got involved with Interfaith Outreach, a local assistance ministry, and he got the idea to camp out in his front yard in November, in= Minnesota, to ra= ise $7,000 to buy Thanksgiving dinners for 100 needy families in his community. Twenty-one days la= ter, Bob was back in his own bed, and he had raised $10,000! He resolved to repeat his sleepout = each year, dedicating the funds he raised to help meet housing needs of families= in his community. Others joined = in, and since 1996, “Shoe Bob’s Sleepout” has raised more than $5,500,000 for the Interfaith Outreach ministry.[3]

I’m not saying y= ou have to sleep out in the cold to be a Christian. But I am saying we did not receive= the grace of God without a purpose. We have been fed to follow Jesus Christ. If we truly want to be his disciples, we will feed his sheep and tend his lambs and care for his flock in any and every way we can. We will feed the hungry. We will clothe the naked. We will care for the sick. We will visit the prisoner. We will teach the children. We will encourage the youth. We will support the older people.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> We will reach out in mission to our community and to the world because they are starving for the love of the ri= sen Christ. Why? Because we love our Jesus.

As we come to the tabl= e of our Lord today, we come to be fed. This is the table of love. This is the meal of grace. This is the bread of mercy. Each time we participate in this holy meal together, we recall the g= reat meals of Christ—the Last Supper, of course, but also the supper in Em= maus when the disciples recognized the risen Lord, and the breakfast by the sea, when Jesus fed his friends for the last time. And every time we share this commu= nion, we also look forward to the great banquet in heaven, when we will feast with all the saints and Jesus himself will be at the head of the table.

Come to be fed. Leave to follow Christ. Go forth from this place to feed t= he hungers of the world in the name of the risen Jesus.

Are you going to sit t= here, or are you going to fish?