Creekside Church Sermon of April 25, 2004 "Breakfast With Jesus" John 21:1-19	Rev. David Bibbee
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King Shahrayar was a feared man, especially by the eligible women of the kingdom to whom the King was attracted. The King was betrayed by his first wife, and he vowed never to make himself vulnerable to such terrible pain again. This did not mean he would not marry. He was married 1,000 times. But neither the honeymoon nor the marriage lasted long-- before breakfast the next morning, the King had his brides beheaded!

King Shahrayar's next bride knew the fate of the thousand before her, and was determined to save her life and change the King's heart. Her name was Shaharazad. She had the gift of telling magical, beguiling stories. On their wedding night, she asked the King's permission to bring along her sister, Dinarad. Just before dawn, Dinarad asked Shaharazad to tell the King a story. In a style typical of Persian storytellers, she stopped when the tension had reached a crescendo. The King pleaded with her to finish the story called, "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves," but she told him he must wait another day. Night after night, Shaharazad regaled him with her stories, without the conclusions, which guaranteed her another day of life.

Shaharazad wove her stories for weeks, then months. Her stories were about light shining in dark places, and seeing without really seeing. The King did not realize that she was introducing him to himself. Shaharazad mesmerized King Shahrayar every night for over three years, but she had only one story left in her treasury of tales. She told the story of her, the King, and the baby they were expecting. The last story was the one the King decreed would never end.

When children beg their parents to read "another" bedtime story, it isn't just a stall tactic to postpone sleep. Everybody loves stories. We just don't want them to end. This is what is going on in our text from John.

Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection. They were cowering behind a dead-bolted door when Jesus walked through it and gave them his peace. Listen to the last two verses of chapter 20:

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in his name.

It sounds like a conclusion to me, and a pretty good one at that. But John had more to say, so he added a postscript, like the P.S.'s we add at the end of letters because we forgot something important. It is as if John wants to give "something extra" to encourage us-a little more faith to help us make it through the night.

It was wonderful seeing Jesus alive and well, but he wasn't with them long, and the disciples didn't know when or if they would see him again. They couldn't just sit and wait indefinitely. They had to get on with their lives. The most reasonable thing to do was go back to what they were doing when Jesus first called them.

After completing two years of college, I was restless. I was a religion major, preparing for seminary and eventually, pastoral ministry, but my heart wasn't into it. I began doubting the authenticity of my call. I asked myself, "What in the world were you thinking when you said yes to ministry?" I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life, so I completed an application to re-enroll at Ohio State and get back into architecture. It would be hard, but at least it would be familiar.

Peter told the disciples, "I'm going fishing." "Wait for us," the others said. It was the only thing they knew how to do. Without Jesus, it was the only thing left to do. John says there were seven of them. Where was the other four? The band was breaking up. They might as well go back to the IRS office and the wharf, and start over again.

How did Easter touch you this year? I hope it was an uplifting experience that renewed your faith. How long did it take for the, "Easter high" to wear off? No matter how inspiring and meaningful worship may be, by the time we get back to work and school, Easter is already a distant memory. The ordinary routine of life goes on, and Wednesday night, its meatloaf for supper.

Easter joy can't be sustained indefinitely. It is short-lived. Just ask Peter. It was an electric moment when Jesus appeared to him. The next thing you know, he says, "I'm going fishing. Anyone coming?" They weren't fishing for sport, but necessity. They had to earn an income. There were mouths to feed, property taxes to be paid, and kids that needed to get to soccer practice.

The boat was right where he left it three years ago. The nets were in good shape. If there was something Peter knew how to do, it was fish. He was just a little rusty at finding them.

They fished all night and got skunked. It had less to do with skill, and more to do with dwelling on all they had been through. They had such hope in Jesus and what he would do, but in the end he died like all the others the Romans nailed to crosses. Each time they pulled up the empty net, it was a sign of how they felt.

The first light of dawn was visible when he called-"Did you guys catch any fish?" "No," they replied. "Put down the net on your starboard side," he said, "you should find some there." When they hauled the net in, it was so full that the flashing of silver fish looked like a waterfall cascading over the top.

Something about this was strangely familiar. There had been another night they hadn't caught anything when a stranger on shore told them where to cast their nets. They caught a mess of fish that morning, too. They were so excited about all the fish they didn't connect the dots. Then the beloved disciple said, "Hey! It's the Lord!" The story was coming around full circle. The end was a new beginning. Peter jumped out and swam for shore while the others rowed in with their huge catch. There was Jesus on the beach, wearing a big grin, standing by a charcoal fire with fish on the spit. "Gentlemen, breakfast is served," he said.

Have you ever eaten fish for breakfast? It's a lot better than corn flakes or cold pizza. The best time to do it is when you're in the wild. You get up before dawn, catch some eat'n size walleyes, and fry them up in peanut oil in a cast iron skillet over hot coals while watching the stallions rise off the lake in the first rays of dawn. Truly one of the great moments in life. Why limit fish to supper? Jesus served supper the last time. We call it the last supper. This time Jesus fixed breakfast. The most important meal of the day, we're told. He fried fish at dawn. The story wasn't over after all. It was beginning again.

Ever since the first Easter, it has been tough keeping our beginnings and endings straight. Open your blue hymnal to #614 and let's sing the third verse:

In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity; in our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity. In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

One thing about the first Easter is sure-no one expected the resurrection. Jesus dropped a lot of hints, but the thought that he just might get up after being dead for the weekend didn't cross their minds. Dead is dead. He was a fine story while he lasted. Close the book. Stick it on the shelf. But there he stood, better than new, fixing breakfast.

Take some time and scan the four gospels, noting the number of times that Jesus and food are mentioned together. He went to dinner parties. He invited himself to Zaccheus' house for supper. He ate with sinners. He fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. He ate with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus days before his death. He ate with the disciples, hours before his death. He appeared to two disciples in the breaking of bread. He had breakfast ready for men trying to figure out how to live without him.

It is a way of saying that Jesus is as essential to life as food. When we celebrate the Love Feast, we eat twice. We are fed his body and blood. But we also eat a meal together as the reminder that we can discover his presence in our midst.

Our text also reminds us that when Jesus appears to people, it is not just to say, "Hi," and exchange pleasantries. He always has something for us to do. He found Peter and company on the lakeshore and said, "Follow me." He appears as a stranger on the lakeshore a second time and after breakfast says, "Feed my sheep." When we meet him, we are handed an errand with our name on it.

Barbara Taylor says this story suggests paying attention to the unsolicited advise of strangers who, for some reason, know a lot about you and possess something you could use. "Pay attention," she says, "since Jesus has a whole closest full of disguises.

A fine quality of people who fish is tenacity. We will not take the fish's "No," for an answer. There is no such thing as getting skunked. If we do, its only because we ran out of time. The fish may be in a negative mood, but somewhere on the lake are fish that can be coaxed to bite. It requires lots of patience, knowledge, and skill, but the key component is HOPE. By hope I don't simply mean the will to "hang in there," regardless how dark the situation. The hope I'm talking about is from a source outside us.

You find yourself in a royal mess with no way out, when all of a sudden a door opens and you walk through. You have seen someone in a negative light for years. You know too much about them. You've been on the receiving end of their venom. Then for some unexplained reason, the light shifts and you see something you have never seen in them before, and a row of bricks in the wall between you is knocked down. You shoulder a burden so heavy you are sure you will cave in, but for some inexplicable reason it becomes lighter, as if someone has taken a share of it from you, and for the first time you feel that you might make it. You've been out all night. The net is full of nothing but water, but then it has weight and you feel vibrations through the rope.

Maybe it feels to you as though something has come to an end. Maybe it's the end of a job, or the end of a dream, or a friendship, or an end of an era, or a marriage, or the end of your rope, or even the end of life itself. And then a stranger calls, you cast your net again aas something is in it. You see the silhouette of someone standing by a fire, you smell the aroma of fish cooking.

In our end is our beginning….

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