JOHN 21:1- 19

Jottings on John…Easter 3…New 2019

Trains of thought that occur to me & invite imaginative exploration are, in order: I’m going fishing…Have you caught any fish?…Throw the net out to the right side of your boat…Peter jumped into the water…&, Bring some of the fish you’ve caught. 

When Peter tells the others, “I’m going fishing”, has a restlessness, or, an uncertainty, crept back into his life since the Jesus events that have unfolded thus far? When we don’t know what to do next, do we, too, ’Go fishing’ in a manner appropriate to us? Settle back into an old status quo, rather than risk venturing into God’s future for us?

When some ‘interfering stranger’ on the shore of our life asks us, “Have you caught any fish?” & then, “throw your net out on the right side”, are we likely to respond, “Mind your own business & I’ll mind mine!”? When we obey, though, we may find our ‘Interfering Stranger’ knows what He’s doing making it His business! Grasping God-Opportunities lead to grasping Faith-windfalls & sharing them with others. 

Instead of letting our ‘superior’ experience hold us back, go for the un-expected & un-known! You never know….! Remember how Jesus once talked of His fishermen followers becoming ‘fishers of human beings’. How’s our ‘human fishing’ been going lately? The ‘Stranger on the Shore’ could be much more the Promise of a good ‘catch’ than any threat we may fear!

Peter’s ‘diving into the water’ encourages us, too, to ‘dive in at the deep end’! I know it can be easier, though, to postpone taking any real action. (Can a church sometimes do that by setting up committees, rather than prayerfully discerning it’s time to take the plunge & dive in?) Where are we personally in this discerning process?

Last, but by no means least, Christian Faith has always been about sharing.  Sharing God-self with us firstly through the Prophets, & then in the Person of Jesus, & by His Spirit.  Sharing God with each other as ‘small p’ prophets, again by Holy Spirit, is the next step from the Jesus shore into the Jesus boat.  Let’s not avoid another issue that concerned Jesus (& JB); that of sharing the tangibles of daily life with one another.  

Brian

Afterthought: Easter is all about our jumping out from our ‘old old stories’ & into God’s new future for us. What Easter is all about isn’t simply Jesus being raised to new life, but His raising us to new life with Him. When God-in-Christ calls us from the beaches of our lives, let’s ‘do a Peter’ & jump to it; jump to Him. There’s no Easter for us in staying on an old shore, or returning to the safety of our old boats.