URC Daily Devotions Sunday Service for 1st May 2022 – The Revd. Nicola Furley-Smith

The Third Sunday of Easter

The Rev’d Nicola Furley Smith
URC Secretary for Ministries

Will you come and follow me
if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
will you let my name be known,
will you let my life be grown
in you and you in me?

2 Will you leave yourself behind
if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
in you and you in me?

3 Will you let the blinded see
if I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
and never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean,
and do such as this unseen,
and admit to what I mean
in you and you in me?

4 Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
to reshape the world around,
through my sight & touch & sound
you and you in me?

5 Jesus calls us!  By thy mercy,
Saviour, make us hear thy call,
give our hearts to thine obedience,
serve and love thee best of all.

Sermon

The disciples have returned to their previous vocation and head back to shore with empty nets after fishing all night. And in the light of the resurrection here stands Jesus.

His call to them is to go back out and try again and he gives them instructions as to the next step. He tells them to put the nets out on the right side of the boat. They follow his instructions and the result is the miraculous catch.

Whereas Luke’s gospel also contains this story right at the very beginning of his gospel in that call of the first disciples as they are commissioned when he says  – come and follow me – John tells this story here as part of the resurrection appearances of Jesus where we experience a re-commissioning of sorts – come and follow me says Jesus..

What were they thinking? They had fished through the darkness of the night but their nets were empty. Nothing. That’s when Jesus, still unrecognized by the disciples, shows himself and says, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” That’s not so much a question as it is a statement. Empty nets. no fish, no life. That’s when Jesus shows himself.

In the same way, the empty net is not only descriptive of their fishing efforts it’s descriptive of the disciples themselves. They are as empty as their nets.

Who here hasn’t experienced that darkness and emptiness? You know what that’s like. You fish, you work, you do your best but you still come up empty. On a bad day, welcome to my world! In those times we have come to the limits of our own self-sufficiency. We have nothing to show for our efforts and nothing left to give. We’re empty. Nets cannot be filled unless they are first emptied. In the same way we can never be filled with Jesus until we come to recognize the limits of our own self-sufficiency. The emptiness is not the end or a failure but a beginning.

The amazing thing to me is that the disciples who do not know who he is at first go back out. Is it their desperation for a catch, a love of task, a desire for success, a sense of the specialness of the stranger calling them to return to their task, or something else? I think it’s the something else: Jesus shows up when the nets are empty. They believe but they don’t see.

Whatever it was, they venture back out and find huge success. Their nets are overflowing. 153 fish seems a very specific number.  Many have guessed what the significance of the 153 might be but it may simply imply all of the community of believers. In other words many were caught.

They have breakfast with the man they now recognise as Jesus. It is a Eucharistic event despite the lack of wine and there’s fish rather than bread. But, more importantly, it is at this meal that they receive a recommissioning for the task ahead. They are reminded of who they are and what they were originally called to be. They are challenged to get back in the boat and try again — in more ways than one. Following the call of Jesus means putting your nets back into the sea even though you may be tired and wonder what it has all been for. You believe even though you may not see.

For Simon Peter, the change is clear. A new day and a new name. Jesus wants Peter to start again. Simon, son of John, do you love me?  Three times over. As if to undo, to erase, the three times that he denied Jesus. The memory does not need to be voiced; it just needs to be acknowledged and put away with the opportunity to move on. No longer will Peter be defined by his worst mistake.

So let me ask you this. What are your empty nets today? And when you have answered that question don’t abandon your nets. They are the very places Jesus is showing himself to you. They will be places of resurrection nets filled with large fish, all 153 of them; to nourish your life.

One more thing. Do you notice that all this happens at daybreak? The light always overcomes the darkness. In the light of this new day, in the light of the full burst net in the light of the 153 fish it isn’t just about the rising of the sun (S-U-N) but the rising of the Son (S-O-N). Jesus will show himself to you in the context for your resurrection and the raw material from which new life will be fashioned. The last supper has become the first breakfast and the charcoal fire of denial has become a charcoal fire of welcome and invitation. What looked like endings will become new beginnings.

This is the kind of text that allows for some creative discussions of what church and ministry might look like if we dropped our nets on the other side and if we really followed Jesus. And that excites me! You’re probably thinking – well it should you are, after all, the Secretary for Ministries. But it also terrifies me Because it will take us into paces which make us uncomfortable.

But what if, in our jubilee year, we thought of the church in our context
in terms of a recognition that our nets are empty and we need a change of plans? For many, and not just in our denomination, there is much talk of

• declining numbers
• a lack of ministers
• the burden of necessary compliance issues
• a general tiredness as we emerge from the pandemic into what new church looks like
• the fear that the church as we know it will not be here much longer
• shall I go on?

But what if, what if, we allow the presence of Jesus to unleash a creativity in us which allows us to realise the gifts God has given us to craft newly accredited ministries where we see need which is not about plugging gaps but genuinely and intentionally trying to find out what God is calling his Church to be and do.

For Peter, the call is to fish, then tend and feed. It is the same for us. But how?

Revelation chapter 5 might help us here. In verse 9 it asks us the question: Where can we hear the Lamb’s “new song” being sung in the world today? It proclaims that, when all is said and done, of the considerable noises we human beings are capable of, it is the Lamb’s new song that will endure. We need to listen for that song in our midst. I find this a cause for hope.

I’m a great fan of Marie Kondo’s art of decluttering. Her question is always what sparks joy for you?  What gives you energy? If it sparks joy, hold on to it.  If not, thank God for it and lay it to one side.  When Jesus comes into our midst perhaps we need to risk what we have held onto the past 50 years that we may see clearly.

Whatever God calls us to in the next 50 years needs to bring joy and energy as we walk his Way. Amen.

Hymn       Lord You Have Come To the Seashore
Cesáreo Gabaráin (1936-1991) translated Robert Trupia

Lord,
you have come to the seashore,
neither searching
for the rich nor the wise,
desiring only that I should follow.

O Lord,
with your eyes set upon me,
gently smiling,
you have spoken my name.
All I longed for
I have found by the water,
at your side
I will seek other shores.

2: Lord,
see my goods, my possessions;
in my boat you find
no power, no wealth.
Will you accept, then,
my nets and labour?

3 Lord,
take my hands, and direct them.
Help me spend myself
in seeking the lost,
returning love for
the love you gave me.

4 Lord, as I drift on the waters,
be the resting-place
of my restless heart,
my life’s companion,
my friend and refuge.

A Statement of Faith With Room for Creation

We trust in God beyond us  before us and after us;
Creator and Companion of All: decisive, collaborative,

Shaper of Earth, Breather of Life at work from the Beginning;
By choice, for justice,  assigning work for Creatures too.

We trust in Christ our God who shares our being;
God who Spoke Flesh
befriending us in Jesus;
Flesh, blood, and birth
in common with all life.

Jesus loved, healed, warned
turned tables, spoke for the poor
saw Wisdom in Creatures.
Welcomed with branches but nailed to the Tree.
Abandoned to Death,  Earth alone received him.

On the third Day he rose to New Life
to be with us as the Sky above us;
constant, present, Companion still.

We trust the Breath of Life, our God
The Wind that blows where they will;
Interpreter of Scriptures
Gifted like fire to the Church
seen in healing, peace, forgiveness
God in us and beyond us too.

Intercessions

Jesus called Peter to fish, tend and feed.

Lord, You know us better than we do.  You know that we love youand we know that we can show you that love by loving one another and all the world.  We pray for humility, wisdom and insight as we seek to meet the needs of world.

In a world that cannot hear your new song because of the boisterous voices of the strong over the weak we pray for those who hunger after justice, who long for freedom, who yearn for peace.  We pray especially for areas of our world where intentional injustice has made the innocent hungry, homeless or destitute.  We pray for the leaders of nations and all in authority that they may use their skills and the power entrusted to them responsibly and for the good of all people.

Lord, in your love and mercy, help us to tend and feed those in need.

We pray for all those whose spirit is crushed that they may know your healing and be restored in faith and confidence in God’s love.  We pray especially for those who are ill in body or mind, anxious and afraid, for those who are grieving, lonely, abused.  We pray for all the people we meet in our daily lives that we may recognise and serve Christ in each other and hear God speaking in the voice of friends and strangers.

Lord, in your love and mercy, help us to tend and feed those in need.

Heavenly Father, you reached out to Simon Peter despite his past failure and appointed him to be a shepherd of your flock. With faith in your compassion and mercy we commit ourselves and those for whom we have prayed into your care. We ask that our lives may be renewed and directed by your loving wisdom so that we may follow Christ, not in our own strength but by your grace and blessing. Amen.

Offertory

Accept, O God, our gifts and our giving as tokens of your love, and grant that they may be used wisely for the extension of your kingdom in and through this place and for the greater glory of your holy name; through christ our Lord.  Amen.

Hymn       Eternal God, Your Love’s Tremendous Glory
The Rev’d Alan Gaunt