Acts 9:1-20; Ps. 30; Rev. 5:11-14; Jn. 21:1-19 One of the greatest gifts that I have received in my life has been my relationship with my maternal grandfather. My Grandpa Bob was a dentist by trade but a tinkerer by nature. He loved to take things that would otherwise get thrown away and re-use them for another purpose. He was also an amazing fisher. If I have the opportunity to fish half of the waters that he did I ll live a good life from oceans to bays to rivers to lakes, he covered most of the Western United States in search of elusive fish. Now, one of my favorite stories, though, is about how he fished. My grandfather looked for any way that he could hook a trout. At one point this involved going through my grandmother s silverware drawer for a teaspoon that hadn t been used for awhile. And being the tinker that he was, he sautered off the end, punched a hole in the curved part and voila, a lure was born. Now as it happens, one time he was fishing on a lake and evening was falling. He decided to switch to the teaspoon lure, and wouldn t you know, he started hooking fish. While no one else was. Know being good, prideful fishers, they were reluctant to ask what he was using, but his catch spoke for itself. So the fishers around him one by one came alongside. What is it that you re using? You wouldn t believe it if I told you, replied my grandfather. No, sure I would, they insisted. Taking a deep breath he replied, it s one of my wife s teaspoons. And to a man, with a snort, they d get indignant, mutter something about
teaspoons and the sun not shining and go back to catching no fish. How many of you have ever gone fishing? And gotten stumped? Not caught a thing? But been unwilling or unable to face the change that was staring you in the face? Now forget about fishing. What about those times or places in your life when overwhelming evidence has gathered and told you that something isn t quite right, that you needed to change, but you were afraid. Or were caught in a rut, a way of being that wasn t fulfilling, but simply the way you had been living for awhile? How did you respond, how will you respond, how will we respond? Today we find our disciples, in one of those rare post Resurrection scenes, this time back at the old business. Out in Simon Peter s boat, fishing on the Sea of Tiberias, where several chapters earlier we found this same group feeding thousands of people. There they are, working away, all through the night, with no success at all. And just after daybreak, from the shore, they hear a voice calling them. First, this person seems to know that those on the boat had been unable to catch a thing. Then this stranger tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat. And they do. Soon, in a scene that it familiar to our Gospel ears, their nets are full of fish. And at the sudden abundance from nowhere, they realize who
has told them to cast their nets again. It is Jesus. And they realize that their lives have changed for good. Along a hot, dusty road to Damascus charges a zealot, breathing threats as he goes. Saul of Tarsus, a formidable persecutor of the followers of the Way is on his way to hunt those who profess that Jesus is Lord. And all of the sudden, in a revelatory flash, he is knocked off of his horse and blinded by the light. And in hearing the words of Christ, he is humbled into a state of near-paralysis. It is only after Ananias, in a show of incredible trust and courage, comes to lay hands upon his head, however, that Saul s life changes forever. Saul becomes Paul, experiences a matter of speaking, begins fishing from the other side of the boat. A few years ago, one of our visiting scholars, the Rev. Dr. Michael Guinan, gave an illustration that I ve shared before, that of Orthonoia, or the straight, or right way, Paranoia two ways alongside each other, and Metanoia a change in being. Then this past Lent the Rev. Dr. Louis Weil shared that he is a different person, a changed person, who experiences this metanoia every Lent and Easter. Essentially, if we are witnesses to this resurrection, this glorious impossible, our lives too must bear the effects of that change. Here in the first part of today s Gospel we find our disciples doing some of the same old things. conversion, sees a different way of being, and in a
Once they encounter the Risen Christ, however, things begin to change. It is critical to remember that conversion is not limited only to one way of being, merely one moment in our lives. It is an ongoing experience of faith in God, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. It is for this reason that Nora Gallagher, an author and Episcopalian has written a book entitled, Practicing Resurrection. Her insights on daily life are a reminder that we are constantly practicing at this new way of being. It is not a one and done enterprise. Just because the disciples had and experience with the Risen One did not mean that they were off the hook. In fact, it meant quite the opposite. They were on the hook like never before. It meant that they were called to live into a way of being that required all of them, every day, forever more. This Sunday is not only the third Sunday of Easter, it is also the day that we are celebrating Earth Day. Though this is the 37 th celebration of Earth Day, this is not a new tradition in the church. We have always had a close connection with the Earth, especially as expressed in Rogation Sunday and the days that follow. These days, celebrated in late Spring, connected us to agriculture and asked for God s blessing upon the crops and the very Earth that we depended upon. However, as our culture moved from the country to the city, this understanding of our dependence upon the Earth lessened. With the
emergence of the agribusiness we have in large part removed ourselves from the land and are often divorced from the rhythms and cycles therein. Yet our celebration and recognition of this day comes with a different sense of urgency at this time in our world s history. The temperatures of the earth are rising and the world is being affected at a rapid pace. Despite the flurry of media that surrounds this issue, climate change and its' effects is at root a scientific question, not a partisan question. Yet for us as Christians, as ones that are commanded to tend to, to feed the sheep, the issue of climate change is an ethical and moral question. As Rev. Sylvia drove across the country several months ago, she received a revelation not unlike Paul s. She wasn t driving, thank goodness, but as she made her way to us she realized that in this time and especially in this place, that one of the calls of this parish could be to be the greenest church in Walnut Creek. To live this life together as visible witnesses to the goodness of Creation and our responsibility as steward to care for it. And that by doing this we could make a statement to both our stewardship of the Earth AND about evangelism for it. Because make no mistake, of the 85% of the County that has no connection to any religious institution, there are many out there that are yearning to hear Good News about the care and responsibility of this earth. They are eager to be a part of a community that is actively proclaiming this Good News AND living it everyday.
For us at St. Paul s this may start in the way that we gather our energy from solar panels that we place on the roof of one of our buildings. But I have a feeling that this can be just the beginning of a new way of being, the beginning of a conversion of sorts for us as a parish and as individuals of this Body. Because once we begin to see ourselves as intimately connected to this Earth we inhabit, as inseparable from the creatures that we have been created with, we cannot help but practice our Resurrection in a new way. We will begin to live the words that Christ proclaimed to Peter long ago, to feed and tend his sheep. Now I d be naïve if I didn t acknowledge that I ve been there many times myself. Even if I know that I ll fish all night in difficulty, catching nothing, at least I ve done it before. When practicing this new way of being, whether it is personal or corporate there is an inherent risk. Anytime that we fish from the other side of the boat we put ourselves out there, but what did the disciples catch? What will the other side look like? It looks like this, So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. (Jn. 21:11) Friends, we are a people of the Resurrection, which means that on the other side is abundance. What we must be able to do is turn around to begin anew. Throw our nets to fishing from this side of the boat is uncomfortable.
the other side. And wait to see what this new practice might bring to shore.