This blog is an adaptation of a sermon preached May 1st 2022 in St Andrew’s Galilee.
Hearing the gospel story of the disciples encountering Jesus while fishing in Galilee on a morning in May in Galilee gives a fresh complexion to it! As part of my preparation for today I decided on Thursday to go and see the ‘Jesus boat’ in the Yigal Allon Centre at the Kibbutz Ginosar. This extraordinary, lovingly preserved 1st century fishing boat was found in 1986 when the water levels in the lake were low. Having been carbon dated, it was preserved over a ten year period before going on display in 2000. Of course, no-one knows if it was a boat used by Jesus and the disciples, or an ordinary fishing boat, or whether it was used in the rebellion against the Romans when fishing boats were repurposed as war ships.
But it is instructive, for lots of reasons. Firstly, it is quite small and shallow, so when the wind whips up the waves on the Sea of Galilee you can imagine how easily the small boat would be overwhelmed. You can also imagine what close quarters the crew would be in and how they’d have to work together. There would be no need for team building exercises with this team: they’d have to listen to each other, respond to body language and move to balance the craft if a heavy netful of fish were dragged in.
Also interesting to me is that the boat itself is made up of twelve different sorts of wood and had been patched many times. It suggests that fishing was a tough life. Economic conditions were a catalyst for the rebellion against the Romans led by Judas the Galilean in 6CE (while Jesus was a very small boy), and so brutally put down such that Josephus recorded that the sea ran red with blood.
Again, there is no evidence that the Jesus boat was ever caught up in rebellion, but it is a reminder of the woeful economic conditions most people struggled with all the time, and the context for Jesus’ bread multiplying ministry.
The shores of the Sea of Galilee, or Lake Tiberias, had been home to Jesus and his followers, and John has the disciples (or some of them) back there in the days following Jesus’ crucifixion and early rumours of his resurrection.
The story begins in the dark again. The disciples had fished all night and caught nothing. We can imagine them, chilled to the bone, waiting gloomily for dawn and finding failure in this familiar fishing as well as in the new fishing Jesus had promised them, cut short by a conspiracy between the priests and the politicians in Jerusalem.
But then, just as light steals across the Galilean hills and the dawn chorus tunes up, something happens. Jesus appears to them. He comes to them. He stands on the shore and he calls out to them, “Any fish?”
‘Nothing,” they replied.
And then the key turning point. This stranger on the shore said, “Let down your net on the other side.” And they did. And the net came up so full it seemed at breaking point. And then the disciple Jesus loved made his confession of faith: “It is the Lord!”
But it was Peter who threw on his clothes and swam or waded ashore. Why did he dress for swimming? Because he knew he was going onto holy ground.
John tells us there was a charcoal fire burning, the coals nicely glowing and ready for cooking, and some fish already on it. The scent of barbequed fish must have been glorious to these hungry fishermen.
Jesus speaks again to tell them to bring some fish, and again, Simon Peter obeys. He goes back to the boat and drags in the huge catch. Why 153 fish? Does it just mean a lot? Or is there some symbolic meaning to the number;lost in time? It has been speculated that the catch represents every nation known on earth at that time. It is perhaps enough to think about the net going from empty to full because they had listened to Jesus.
And Jesus invites them to come and eat. Repeating actions they had seen many times all across the countryside, and in an upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus took bread and broke it and shared it and did the same with the fish. The story echoes the feeding of the crowd where fish and bread miraculously fed 5000 men and women and children besides.
In this story physical and spiritual crash together. It’s a mystery. How can this man they knew to be dead be on the shore sharing fish and bread? But the hunger was real and the need was real and the faith was real. ‘They knew he was the Lord.’And we can go further. Now there is no longer ordinary and sacred: everything is transformed in the light of the resurrection. This insight into the sacredness of the whole creation, or the hallowedness of the ordinary is something Celtic Christianity, fostered by St Columba of Iona emphasized, and revived by the modern Iona Community. In the light of the resurrection every blessed thing is holy. And the sacrament of communion seen in in our story of shared fish and bread and to be celebrated here in a few minutes points us to this. Rachel Held Evans put it like this:This is the purpose of the sacraments, of the church—to help us see, to point to the bread and wine, the orchids and the food pantries, the post-funeral potlucks and the post-communion dance parties, and say: pay attention, this stuff matters; these things are holy.
The second part of the reading, as I said earlier, is about Peter’s rehabilitation. He has shown his trustworthiness in listening to Jesus and obeying him. Now he is entrusted with the task of leadership. In words which echo Jesus’ calling himself the good shepherd, Peter is tasked with caring for and feeding the sheep. He is hurt that Jesus asks him three times whether he loves him, but each declaration of love cancels out a betrayal in the high priest’s courtyard.
The last thing Jesus says to Peter repeats what the gospels say happened right at the beginning: Jesus said to Peter, ‘Follow me!’
Jesus has predicted Peter’s arrest and his death which we believe took place in Rome. On the walls of a catacomb in Rome is scratched the image of a small boat. The fishing boat had become a symbol of the church. You might say that’s not surprising as so many of the first disciples were fisherfolk, but I think it is more than that.
The small ship of faith, out on the wide sea and tossed about by currents and winds beyond its control is a good picture of the church. The crew, you and me as members,pulling together on sheets and bailing as needed, each one a part to play.
But most importantly, as this story shows, listening for the voice of Jesus, obeying him, following him. Caring and feeding and multiplying, and in so doing finding new life and new hope. A resurrection for Peter and for us.
William Loader, an American pastor,wrote a powerful reflection on this passage entitled On Shore: https://billloader.com/OnShore.htm
It finishes with these words:
They ate together,
a fellowship of grace and rehabilitation,
of forgiveness and hope,
a symbol of the persistence of divine love,
also for you and me.
Is that what our church is? Is that what our church could be? Let it be so, Lord. Let it be so. Amen.
Stepping out of the boat... 