Third Sunday of
Easter (C)
May 5, 2019
Text: John 21:1-19
He is
risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
There
is no magic formula for growing the Church.
Now, don’t go telling the District President I said that. But it’s true. If there was a magic pill, a sure-fire
method, a money-back guarantee of success, don’t you think I’d have tried
it? After all, just humanly speaking, my
livelihood depends on the success of this place. And you’d have tried it, too, because you
love your Church, and you want this to work out. And beyond any selfish reasons we may want to
bring in a large catch of new believers (the prestige of big numbers, the ego
boost, the bottom line in the offering plate), insofar as we are a New Creation
in Christ, we love the lost. We love
people and we want them to have this gift.
We want them to know what we know, the peace that passes all
understanding, salvation in Christ who was crucified and is risen from the dead,
sins forgiven, eternal life, our own resurrection from the dead. If there was a magic way to pull in a large
catch, easily and quickly, every congregation would do that thing. And it’s amazing, every single pastors
conference I’ve ever attended promises to reveal the easy fix. Instead what it ends up being is a week of
all of us beating one another up for not loving the lost enough, because surely
if you loved the lost enough, you’d do that magic thing (which usually, for
them, means open Communion and contemporary worship), and your Church would
grow like gangbusters, but it’s not, so you mustn’t really love the lost, you
rotten so and so. And yet, their
congregations aren’t growing all that much, either, and the magic trick remains
an enigma. What it is, is a whole lot of
blabber and bluster about human ideas, innovative methods, sociological and
psychological mumbo-jumbo, and not a lot of trusting in the Word of the Lord.
Peter
is going fishing. He’s confused and
afraid, and probably downright tired after the events of Holy Week and now the
bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
He doesn’t quite know what to make of it. Nor does he know what to do with himself So he returns to his old occupation. He returns to the familiar, to what he knows
and can count on. Peter goes fishing, and
the others go with him. They fish all
night and they catch nothing. Not a
thing. Their best efforts. All their expertise. Hard work.
Persistence. Not one fish.
Until
this Stranger appears on shore at the rising of the sun. They do not recognize Him. And yet, He is so familiar. And He says to them, “Children, do you have any fish?” (John 21:5; ESV). What an odd greeting. Children?
We’re grown men, here! But He’s
right. We don’t. In spite of everything, the nets are
empty. “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some”
(v. 6). And what happens? They’re not able to haul it in for the
quantity of fish! And they know. They’ve seen this episode before, when Jesus
first called them to catch men alive (Luke 5:1-11).
In
both cases, what made the difference between their previous efforts and their
sudden great success? I’ll give you a
hint: It wasn’t open Communion or contemporary worship. It wasn’t their efforts at all. It was the Word of Jesus. And here’s the thing… They weren’t doing anything
wrong as they fished all night and caught nothing. Nor were they missing something right that
they should have been doing. It wasn’t
lack of love for the fish. It is simply
the mystery that sometimes you fish all night and (at least seemingly) come up
with nothing for your efforts. And then
Jesus speaks and you haul in more than you can handle. But it’s not the fisherman who control the
catch. It’s not those in the boat. It’s Jesus.
By His Word.
And
so the Church. The Church is the boat,
the great ark of our salvation. And the
fisherman, the pastors and those in the boat, you, cast out the net of the
Gospel. We work hard. We’re persistent. And so we should be. That is the mission of the Church, to cast
the net of the Gospel into the chaotic sea of this world and haul men into the
boat with us, into the Church, and bring them with us to that bright shore
where Jesus is.
Now,
it’s a mystery, but sometimes we can fish all night and catch nothing. We witness.
We confess the faith. We pray. We invite people to Church. We hold special services and special
events. We’re involved in the community. Pretty soon we’ll have t-shirts we can wear,
and not just t-shirts that advertise, but t-shirts that have the Gospel on
them, t-shirts that preach. It’s very
exciting to be part of a mission congregation.
At least for a while. But then,
I’ll be honest, sometimes I feel like Peter must have felt by about 4 that
morning. Hard work, all night, for
what? I’ll bet you feel that way
sometimes, too. If only there was
something we could do, some magic, sure-fire trick that would fill this place
to capacity, and then some.
Beloved,
there isn’t. That’s the Law. Repent.
Repent of thinking that the success of the Church depends upon our
efforts. Repent for measuring success by
the number of posteriors in the pew and dollars in the plate. Repent of worrying about the future, which is
securely in our Lord’s hands. Get to
work, yes. Repent of not fishing at
all. Repent for not supporting the Church’s
mission with your prayers and your dollars and your own efforts. Get busy and be generous. But don’t think the mission of the Church
depends on that. It depends on one
thing, and one thing only: Jesus’ Promise.
Do you have any fish? Cast the net
and you will find some. Preach the
Word. The Word, the Word, the Word. In all its forms. In Scripture.
In preaching. In confession of
the faith. In Baptism. In Absolution. In Supper.
It all comes down to the Word.
This
is the teaching of the Holy Scriptures.
“For as the rain and the snow
come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it
bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so
shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing
for which I sent it” (Is. 55:10-11).
“A sower went out to sow his
seed… The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:5, 11). Most of the seed, as you know from the
parable, was trampled, or picked off by the birds, or withered, or choked. But some fell onto good soil and grew up and
yielded a hundredfold (vv. 7-8). “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing
through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).
I always thought Paul got the preposition wrong in that second
phrase. Faith comes from hearing, I
get. But then He says hearing through the Word of Christ. Surely he must mean hearing of the Word of Christ… No, this is a lesson we always have to learn,
again and again. Whenever there’s
something we don’t agree with in Scripture, or rubs us the wrong way, or we
don’t understand, the problem isn’t Scripture, it’s us! Paul is right. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing itself
is a gift bestowed by the Word of Christ as it is preached. That’s what Jesus means when He says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”
(e.g. Luke 8:8). He’s opening the ears
of the spiritually deaf with that statement.
We hear through the Word of
Christ. The Word gives us ears to hear and
faith to believe in Christ.
And
so this is the teaching of our Confessions.
I would draw your attention to the Book
of Concord reading printed in your bulletin this morning. It’s beautiful. “The preacher’s planting and watering and the
hearer’s running and hearing would both be in vain and no conversion would
follow it if the power and effectiveness of the Holy Spirit were not
added. The Spirit enlightens and
converts hearts through the Word preached and heard. So people believe this Word and agree with
it. Neither preacher nor hearer is to
doubt this grace and effectiveness of the Holy Spirit. They should be certain that when God’s Word
is preached purely and truly, according to God’s command and will, and people
listen attentively and seriously and meditate on it, God is certainly present
with His grace. He grants, as has been
said, what otherwise a person can neither accept nor give by his own
powers. For we should not and cannot
always judge from feeling about the presence, work, and gifts of the Holy
Spirit, as to how and when they are experienced in the heart. They are often covered and happen in great
weakness. Therefore, we should be
certain about and agree with the promise that God’s Word preached and heard is
truly an office and work of the Holy Spirit.
He is certainly effective and works in our hearts by them (2 Corinthians
2:14-17; 3:5-6).”[1]
This
is what Jesus is teaching us in the Gospel this morning. The Holy Spirit works faith when and where He
pleases in those who hear the Gospel (AC V).
There is no magic bullet. But
there is the Word of Christ, and that has all the power of God in it to bring
the sinner to repentance, the unbeliever to faith, to haul the fish into the
boat and bring them to Jesus on the shore.
And
this is why God gave the Office of the Ministry. Peter is restored with the command to “Feed my lambs… Tend my sheep… Feed my sheep”
(John 21:15-17). It is a three-fold
restoration for his three-fold denial.
But that is what the pastor is to do.
Feed and tend the sheep and the lambs in the stead and by the command of
the Good Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Peter is to suffer and die for the sheep. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved, is to
suffer and live for them. The pastor is
to feed and tend, suffer, and live or die by the will of the Lord for the sake
of the sheep. And you, the sheep, are to
graze in the green pastures, beside the still waters, that the Lord may restore
your soul. By the Word. Don’t run off. But if you do, here comes Jesus. I will warn you, He’ll use His shepherd’s
crook to yank you back, and it may not be pleasant. But He’ll do it because He loves you. But that is an image for another day… Next
Sunday, as it happens.
So
the pastor and the people are out in the boat that is the Christian Church,
casting the net of the Gospel into the chaotic sea of the unbelieving
world. And at the Word of Jesus, there
is a catch. And we’re so impressed with
the magnificent haul that we miss a very important point in the text. How many fish are there? John doesn’t say there are about 150 give or take. There is no estimation. Every single
fish is counted. 153. On the nose.
Precise. Because every single one
matters to Christ. Every single one was
brought into the boat by His Word. Every
single one was hauled to shore at the command of Christ: “Bring… the fish” (v. 10). So
how do you measure success in the Church?
God counts His people one at a time, and calls them each by name.
And
then He says, “Come and have breakfast”
(v. 12). He has fish and He has bread,
and these are not the fish the disciples caught. Jesus provides this meal Himself. See… God provides. While we’re out fishing all night, seemingly
to no avail, Jesus provides what we need.
In the offering. In the
pews. In the pantry and the bank
account. Our daily bread. Just go fish and wait on His Word and don’t
worry about what you’ll eat or drink or put on.
And then also, this is the feeding of the 5,000 on a smaller scale,
isn’t it? Jesus is the one who feeds His
sheep. Not just bread and fish, but
bread and wine. Not just bread and wine,
but Body and Blood. His, given and shed
for you, for the forgiveness of sins.
His, risen and alive. He’s not
dead anymore. He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
And He reveals Himself to His disciples, to you, in His Word. Now, come and have breakfast. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment