St Mary's, Appledore, North Devon

Reflections

From_the_Vicar

Reflection from Rev Hilary Kemp

John 21.1-14 (NIV)

Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish

Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.

5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”

“No,” they answered.

6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.

7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.

10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Reflection

The fact that this is the set Gospel reading for today when I am due to write the reflection is a major God-incidence! For those who don’t know, a God-incidence is like a coincidence… and many would call it a coincidence… but it’s one where, to the person calling it a God-incidence, God is clearly at work.

On May 11th, we are launching Messy Church in Abbotsham. We had our planning meeting a couple of weeks ago and the passage that we agreed to base our first Messy Church session on is… Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish!

We have planned several fish based crafts, a worship session and will close by sharing a meal of fish and chips together. Messy Church will happen on the second Sunday of each month, 3.30-5.30pm in Abbotsham Village Hall and is primarily for children and their families but is suitable for all ages and anyone is welcome to join us. We still need help with various things from cooking to helping with crafts to moving furniture. Please do get in touch with me if you feel that is a way that God is calling you to serve - either as a one off to help us get started or as part of an ongoing commitment.

So, I’ve been thinking about how exciting this account in John’s Gospel is and how to get that across during our Messy Church worship session. My sense is that the disciples know for sure that Jesus is risen at this point but they are still pretty confused and unsure about what that means and what they should do. So they return to what they know… Simon Peter says he’s going fishing and the others all opt to join him.

They have an uneventful night and don’t catch a thing. As they are returning to shore - no doubt fed up, disappointed, tired and ready for food and a good sleep - an unknown person on the shore questions them about their lack of fish and tells them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat to find fish. Given that it says they didn’t realise it was Jesus, I wonder what made them do that? When we feel we are the experts we are very quick to dismiss anyone who we think doesn’t know what they are talking about. Why did the disciples cast their nets again on this stranger’s say so? An intriguing question which – as with many things in the Bible - we don’t know the answer to. But does it pose a question about whether we should listen carefully and not be too quick to dismiss suggestions that seem ridiculous? Maybe the ridiculous suggestion we are hearing comes from the God who makes all things possible?

What we do know is that when the disciples listened to Jesus and did as he said the result was pure abundance. So many fish that they were unable to haul the net in and were surprised it wasn’t torn. I’m going to do a maths thing now which is completely out of character and should generally be much more expected from our Rector… Maths is not my thing, but it is Jules’ thing! However… here’s a great equation: Listen to Jesus + Do what he says = Abundance. Wow! How amazing is that – and it is repeated again and again in the Bible and in the stories and experiences of believers all over the world across many, many centuries.

I wonder if you managed to find 10 minutes in any of your days this week to do as Jules suggested on Monday and reflect on the events that changed the world forever? If you didn’t, I encourage you to try and find space to do that before you find space to do what I suggest below!

Yesterday evening, at the Praying for Abbotsham meeting, at the suggestion of the host, we listened to a reflection from Lectio365. Lectio365 is an app which I recommend to you. It offers three reflections each day from different contributors. The reflection we listened to last night was from Izwe Nkosi. He was reflecting on the reading about the road to Emmaus. The part of it that struck all of us is just as relevant to this miraculous catch passage:

“Is there something that God has asked me to do that I’ve put off because it wouldn’t be seen as sensible? Perhaps I’m waiting until I have more time, or more money, or more courage, before I take the leap and obey? If so, I remind myself that

Jesus’ resurrection redefines what is important

and his victory over death redefines what is possible.”

My challenge to you (and me) is to spend some time listening… and to remind yourself of those words in bold above… we don’t have to hold back because we don’t think it’s possible, because with God, all things are possible.