Sermon - 2019-05-05
Have you ever had a moment of dejavu? You know that feeling when you feel like you have been somewhere before, experienced the same events, or heard the same sermon over and over and over? Well sometimes we have those experiences and they cause us to have an odd feeling. One that we don’t know what to do or how we should react. We begin to question some things but also realize some rather important aspects that we need to be aware of.
Within our Gospel lesson today, I hope you had some experience of deja vu or feeling like you have heard this message before. Because you have and you have heard this happen in the lives of the disciples before as well. In the beginning of the Gospel, Jesus is on the beach, the disciples who were fishermen went out and did what they were all too familiar with, fishing. Now when the disciples come in from their night of fishing, Jesus (only they don’t know it is him) asks them if they caught any fish? When they said, “No.” Jesus tells them to go back out and cast their nets on the right side of the boat. Now you may recall that this is the exact way in which Jesus called the disciples to follow him. This is the exact same way, experience and almost the exact same words.
That day Jesus was preaching and they were out fishing, when they caught nothing, Jesus told them to go back out and fish on the right side of the boat. This is not an accident, there is a reason that this is included in the Scriptures. After the death of Jesus, the disciples feared for their lives and returned back to the safety and security of their jobs. While their experience with Jesus changed their lives and their perspective, they needed more to get them out of the ruts of their safety and into the calling of what Jesus had prepared them.
Now the Gospel does not stop there. Peter realizes it is Jesus and does some crazy stuff when he realizes Jesus was there like getting dressed and jumping into the water. But still the deja vu experience is not over. Jesus and Peter have a dialogue. Yet the words and language seem odd. Jesus asking Peter, do you love me? Then telling Peter to tend his sheep and lambs. But when you go back and realize that this parallels the time that Peter denies Jesus three times and is an atonement, a confession and forgiveness of what Peter said and did so that he is now set free from it to go and do the work that Jesus is calling him to do.
This is important for us to recognize, Jesus calling back the disciples and calling us to be aware of the mistakes that they made. For many of us, we need the same experiences and have them pointed out to us. Here Jesus is calling us to be disciples. At our baptism, we are called, claimed and loved as children of God. Here at the altar, we are fed, forgiven, and sent into the world to do the work that Jesus is calling us to do.
Now we hear about this, we walk past this or we even experience but sometimes the obvious needs to be pointed out to us so that things are more clear for you and for me and that the message does truly change our life. It has been three Sundays since we celebrated Easter, has our lives been changed? Have we done anything that has challenged us? Or are we like the disciples who have gone back to our safety, security of what we know and what is familiar.
Yet that is what the disciples did and they were called out into the world. Today, may you be called out and do what you are called to do. Amen.
Within our Gospel lesson today, I hope you had some experience of deja vu or feeling like you have heard this message before. Because you have and you have heard this happen in the lives of the disciples before as well. In the beginning of the Gospel, Jesus is on the beach, the disciples who were fishermen went out and did what they were all too familiar with, fishing. Now when the disciples come in from their night of fishing, Jesus (only they don’t know it is him) asks them if they caught any fish? When they said, “No.” Jesus tells them to go back out and cast their nets on the right side of the boat. Now you may recall that this is the exact way in which Jesus called the disciples to follow him. This is the exact same way, experience and almost the exact same words.
That day Jesus was preaching and they were out fishing, when they caught nothing, Jesus told them to go back out and fish on the right side of the boat. This is not an accident, there is a reason that this is included in the Scriptures. After the death of Jesus, the disciples feared for their lives and returned back to the safety and security of their jobs. While their experience with Jesus changed their lives and their perspective, they needed more to get them out of the ruts of their safety and into the calling of what Jesus had prepared them.
Now the Gospel does not stop there. Peter realizes it is Jesus and does some crazy stuff when he realizes Jesus was there like getting dressed and jumping into the water. But still the deja vu experience is not over. Jesus and Peter have a dialogue. Yet the words and language seem odd. Jesus asking Peter, do you love me? Then telling Peter to tend his sheep and lambs. But when you go back and realize that this parallels the time that Peter denies Jesus three times and is an atonement, a confession and forgiveness of what Peter said and did so that he is now set free from it to go and do the work that Jesus is calling him to do.
This is important for us to recognize, Jesus calling back the disciples and calling us to be aware of the mistakes that they made. For many of us, we need the same experiences and have them pointed out to us. Here Jesus is calling us to be disciples. At our baptism, we are called, claimed and loved as children of God. Here at the altar, we are fed, forgiven, and sent into the world to do the work that Jesus is calling us to do.
Now we hear about this, we walk past this or we even experience but sometimes the obvious needs to be pointed out to us so that things are more clear for you and for me and that the message does truly change our life. It has been three Sundays since we celebrated Easter, has our lives been changed? Have we done anything that has challenged us? Or are we like the disciples who have gone back to our safety, security of what we know and what is familiar.
Yet that is what the disciples did and they were called out into the world. Today, may you be called out and do what you are called to do. Amen.
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