“Gone Fishing.”  When that sign appears on the door of a business, it means the owner is on vacation.  Don’t try to call.  He or she is not available.  That person has left behind the stresses and frustrations of life to relax and focus on the pleasure of catching fish.  No deadlines, no clocks; only the sunshine, the water, and quiet.

In the scripture reading for today, the scene takes place after the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  Jesus had appeared to the disciples a couple of times since his resurrection.

Those eleven men, of the original twelve, met every day for prayer and many times went to the Temple and met with other followers of Jesus.  They had certainly known some stress those few weeks.

The day finally came when there was a feeling in the air.  You know, like that first warm March day and you suddenly think, why not fire up the grill tonight?

Maybe the kids are playing outside, no ball games are scheduled, you know it is going to be a longer evening because of daylight savings time, you have heard the redbuds are blooming at Lake Keomah; and you think, this would be a perfect evening for a picnic.   

There were seven disciples gathered together that evening.  Perhaps the April weather was just right when Peter had an idea.  “I don’t know about the rest of you, but this is too good of an evening to sit around here.  I’m going fishing,” he announced. 

The others six said, “We’re going with you.”

The readers of this Gospel are now asking, “What is going on here?  The disciples are going fishing”

Let’s turn back in the gospel of John, to the 35th verse of the first chapter.  Here we see John the Baptizer preaching in the desert and one of his disciples, Andrew, was there when John pointed out Jesus as “the Lamb of God.” 

Andrew and another man went to meet Jesus and Jesus asked, “What are looking for?”  

They said, “Teacher where are you staying?”  Jesus invited them to come home with him.

The next day Andrew went to find his brother, Simon, and said, “You gotta come with us.  We have found the Messiah.”  Simon came along, met Jesus and Jesus renamed him, Peter, meaning the rock.

In John’s gospel, those two disciples followed Jesus and then Philip invited Nathaniel.  Was this the first encounter of Jesus with Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathaniel?  

Did those disciples follow Jesus full time or only periodically?  Did they take a day off from their work when he was in town to go and listen to him?  At what point did they actually leave their occupations and follow him full time?

We have to remember that the Gospels are an outline and not a detailed account of all the ministry and teachings of Jesus.

Mark, believed to be the oldest Gospel, writes in his first chapter of Jesus walking along the seashore and inviting Simon and his brother Andrew to follow him and become “fishers of men.”  The account is repeated in Matthew’s Gospel as well as Luke’s. 

I have often wondered at the disciples’ willingness to leave their boats, positions, possessions, and profession behind and immediately follow Jesus.  

Is John’s account of Jesus’ encounter with Andrew and Simon Peter a prelude to Jesus deliberately going to look for Andrew and Peter and telling them that now is the time to come and devote their full attention to the ministry and teachings of Jesus? 

Piecing the accounts together, this theme of fishing seems to be like the covers of a book about the relationship of Jesus and his fishermen disciples.  At the beginning, Jesus came to the seashore to find his fishermen disciples and invited them to follow him full time and become “fishers of men.” 

The ministry of Jesus is focused on telling everyone the Good News.  He wanted everyone to know that God loved them and wanted most to know them and be involved in their lives.  Then, in what looks like the end of the final chapter of the book, the Scripture we read today, the fishing theme returns when they go back to the occupation of fishing.

There they were that beautiful April evening, out in the open sea, throwing the nets over the side, feeling that familiar stretch in their arms and the thrill of the net hitting the water, spreading out ready to encapsulate the great catch below. 

It was all coming back to them now.  The stresses of the recent weeks seemed to be released from their tense shoulders every time they threw the nets, each in turn perhaps trying to instruct the others and predict where they were going to catch the biggest haul of fish.

That fishing trip was intended to be a great reliever of stress, but it soon became the great source of stress.  They weren’t good at this at all anymore.  They were really out of practice.  Something was going on.  Had they lost their touch?  All night they struggled and caught nothing.  What if they never caught any fish ever again?  They were in a terrible spot. 

Their Master was gone.  They had no one to follow and learn from.  They did not know enough to continue teaching in his name.  They weren’t equipped to preach with any authority that would command the attention of followers, and now they could not even go back to what they had known before him. 

They had worked so hard to catch fish that evening, Peter had taken off more and more of his clothes, or they had fallen off as he struggled to cast the net just so.  They were fishing like beginners.

From the seashore they heard a familiar voice, “My children, have you caught enough for breakfast?”

On one of the final times Jesus had with his disciples when he was free to travel and teach them, he had called them “My little children.”  John 13:33 is the account of when he predicted his death.  Now from the seashore once again he calls out “My children.”  He asked them, “Have you caught enough for breakfast?”

“No” they replied. 

“Then cast your net on the other side, on the right side of the boat,” he instructed. 

It was the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that had always provided.  At one time he told the disciples to cast out into the deep and let down their nets even though they had struggled all night and caught nothing, and the catch was tremendous. 

At one time, when they had no money to pay the tax, Jesus told Peter to go and catch a fish and take the coin out of its mouth and pay the tax.  (See Matthew 17:27.)

Jesus always knew where the fish were.  He was always able to provide what the disciples needed.  If those men had been created primarily to be fishermen, Jesus could have made them multimillionaires.

Today’s scripture is an account of that early morning when they followed the instruction of Jesus.  The catch was tremendous.  John said to Peter, “There stands the Lord.”  Peter threw his cloak around himself, tied his belt, and jumped into the water to get to Jesus.

On the shore, Jesus had breakfast prepared.  He had provisions enough for his disciples, but still he asked them to take some of what he had given them from that huge catch of fish and contribute to what he was doing for them. 

In our day, in this place, Jesus reminds us that our purpose on this earth is not to catch fish, that is, to live as though what we do for a living is our reason for being here.  If what we do for a living was our only purpose, Jesus would have the power to give us the ideas for the multimillion dollar ideas.

This scripture reminds us that what we do for a living fails miserably as our reason for living unless even in our jobs and business we follow the instructions of Jesus and cast our net as he instructs, operate our business, do our job as he teaches.

When we try our best to operate our business or do our job as Christ instructs, we find ourselves succeeding.  We may drag a huge catch to the shore and make a big profit.  But then our Lord asks us to contribute something from which he has given us to what he is doing:  making breakfast for everyone.

I want to say that this congregation has taken seriously its call from Christ to become fishers of people.  You have invited, you have welcomed and included others to help this part of Christ’s church grow in numbers.

You have followed Christ’s instructions in the way you have lived, and you have prospered.  You have heard Christ’s invitation to join him by contributing part of the profits you have known because of his instruction.  You have joined others in the breakfast, enjoying the provisions Christ has prepared for us in worship.

Then, after breakfast, Jesus had a question for Peter.  Notice that Jesus doesn’t call him “Peter,” but “Simon, son of John.”  In doing that, Jesus was saying to him, “Remember when I first met you?  I found you as a fisherman, a man who was known as the ‘son of John.’  I renamed you ‘Peter, the rock.’  Have you gone back to being the person you used to be? 

“I remember ‘Peter’ who stated his love for me and said he would go to any length to protect me and make sure my kingdom succeeded, a person who claimed he loved me most.  So how about it?  Where do you stand now?  Do you love me with that same kind of selfless love?   Do you love me more than these?”

Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you like a brother.”

Jesus replied, “Then because of your love for me, feed the lambs.”

Jesus asked, “Simon, son of John, the man I found fishing years ago, the man I found fishing today, do you love me with that selfless love you professed not so long ago?”

Peter replied, “Yes, Lord, you know I love you like a brother.”

Jesus replied, “Then show me by shepherding my sheep.”

Jesus asked, “Simon, son of John, the man I found fishing, do you love me like a brother?”

The third time, Peter felt the pain of his denial.  He asked, “Lord, you know everything; you have asked me three times.  What do I have to do to assure you that you are my first priority?”

Jesus said, “Because you love me, feed my sheep.  You don’t have much time left to do this.  Now you are at a point in life when you can do what you want.  You can take the evening and go fishing, you can hang out with your friends, and it may seem that you have lots of time left to focus on feeding my sheep.  Today I saw you throw on your tunic and tie up your belt so easily.  You are free to do as you please.  The day is coming when you will be arrested and tied up and taken to a place you do not want to go.” 

Jesus was saying to Peter, “The time is short.  If you want to express your love for me, remember your real goal is to be fishers of men, not to just catch fish.”

Today this message is for us.  God has given us certain abilities and interests and an income to provide for our households.  We must remember that, regardless of how good we are at what we do, we do it only by the grace of God.  It is our God who has lined up the fish and told us where to catch them.

He invites us to come ashore and enjoy time with God.  God invites us to worship and asks us to bring part of what God has provided and contribute it to what God is providing.

Then it is here at this place of worship, the seashore in the story, where nourishment is prepared for us, that we are faced with the question of Christ.
 
He calls us by the name we had when he found us, “Well, Mr. Quarterback Football Player, do you love me?  Well, Miss Track Star, Mr. Best Student, Miss Most Likely to Succeed, do you love me?”
 
Reminded of who we were when we first met Christ, we declare our love and Christ calls us once again to the purpose of God’s Kingdom.  He says, “Don’t forget that your life is not just about being the best kind of success, the best kind of fisherman, but the best fishers of men, the best at calling others to follow me.”

So then each of us has the opportunity to begin the day leaving behind a sign that says, “Gone Fishing,” meaning not that we have taken the day off to go and sit by the lake, but we have taken the call of Christ seriously and gone fishing for others to join us as parts of God’s family.

As we go about our daily occupations, whatever we call “fishing,” we remember that while Christ may be instructing us how to succeed in our business and jobs, how to handle money wisely, he is also calling us ashore, to come and worship, bring part of the catch and be reminded that our first call as his disciples is to “Go Fishing” to help his Kingdom grow.

                                                          Amen.

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