| Acts 4: 1 – 12 Psalm 116: 1 – 8 St. John 21: 1 – 14 In today’s appointed Gospel, the disciples…or some of them anyway…have gone back to fishing. They went back to doing what they knew best, which is how most of us deal with grief or disappointment or disorientation when it comes our way. One of the unpleasant features of self-isolation during COVID-19 is precisely that our habits, familiar patterns, and coping mechanisms have been disrupted. We can’t go back to doing what we know best how to do! There is no blame placed on these disciples. They are doing the best they can. We understand them and we may, these days, envy them. Jesus meets them where they are, there on the Sea of Tiberius, doing what they can. Jesus meets the unenlightened, the misdirected and the confused with great patience, repeatedly. God in Christ strives with our ignorant and recalcitrant hearts and loves us to the end, and then loves us some more. In this apparition, Jesus has a full-English breakfast with the disciples on the beach. It could be an East Coast clam bake. His continuing message of corporality and continuity with the Suffering Messiah is under-scored once more. Yet, in this reading, seeds are sown for a seismic change in the followers of Jesus. You will remember from Easter Thursdays’ reflection that there are three interlocking components of the resurrection of Jesus: 1. the empty tomb, 2. the multiple apparitions, and 3. the seismic change in the followers of Jesus. Here Jesus begins to indicate that his apparitions are placing demands on the disciples. The wonders of God have not ceased…cast your nets on the other side of the boat, employ the agency given to you. You are called to fish for people and to implement the reign of God now, in ways that transform the lives of others. The disciples themselves undergo startling transformation. This band of cowards who fled at Jesus’ arrest and hid thereafter, who were not expecting a Resurrection nor inclined to believe it had occurred until after multiple apparitions of Christ; these timorous people become fearless in declaring the Good News of Jesus. Most, if not all of them, meet martyrdom by violent death. This seismic transformation had solid underpinning. The universe was not as it seemed. God had acted, and, as they repeatedly experienced, continued to act in human history and through specific people. At this juncture in the current COVID-19 pandemic, you likely wish everything would go back to the way it was before. I do. We are told the good-ole’-days will not return, and of course they can’t, because the only thing certain is change, and change has arrived for us in spades. Perhaps, like the disciples, we will find that our previous habits, our fishing trips to Lake Tiberius, are giving way to a deeper calling from God. I am not talking about overly-spiritualized experiences, but rather of the placing of our skills and agency and personhood in service to God in Christ in costly ways. As for the first disciples, people of Faith come to learn that seismic change arrives with frequency for the followers of Jesus, and is something to be embraced. “I remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news I proclaimed to you, which you received, in which you stand, and through which you are being saved.” 1 Corinthians 15:1 Canon George F. Woodward III The Collect for Friday in Easter Week “Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” BCP page 224 For Guidance “O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and in your light we may see light, and in youth straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” BCP page 832 In the Evening “O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in your mercy grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last. Amen.” BCP page 833 |
| St. Paul’s Anglican Church Calzada del Cardo, 6 Centro 37700, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico 415.121.3424 www.StPaulSMA.com |