May 4, 2025

Easter 3, Year C

John 21:1-19

Epiphany, Winnipeg

This scene of fishing and breakfast and “Do you love me?” and “Follow me” is the last big appearance of Jesus to his disciples as John tells the gospel. It’s the last thing, so let’s go way back to the first thing, starting at Chapter one verse one, when we hear about the Word. Not the Bible, but God’s own creative speech, that made everything – the sun and moon and stars and air and prairies and those plants over there and you and the ticks that are coming out and the cat who lives at your place and the tulips and the morning breeze and your neigbour’s lawn and your neighbour who won’t cut their lawn, and the bees and the moose and…well, you get the point. And that Word who was there for the making of all that, became flesh, a person named Jesus, and lived among us, and from Jesus we have received grace upon grace. The goodness and love of God, grace upon grace.

Just remember that. Well, honestly, I won’t let you forget.

Jesus sits with his disciples and feeds them bread and fish. Remember another story with bread and fish? They say there were five thousand people there on a hillside, and Jesus saw them and said, “Where are we going to get any food for all these people?" Like he didn’t already know. And he took some bread and fish that a youngster offered and he fed all those people, with baskets and bushels and baskets of food left over. That’s grace upon grace.

Remember about the wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee? When they ran out of wine, and Jesus’ mom said, “They don’t have any wine left,” and Jesus turned about one hundred and eighty gallons of water into about a hundred and eighty gallons of wine, or something like eight hundred litres for anyone born after 1980 or so? Grace upon grace.

Remember when Jesus and a woman of Samaria talked at a well in the noonday heat, and he offered her water that would never leave her thirsty, or remember when he healed all those people, not because they were defective or anything like that but because communities need to be healed and people need to be brought together, with no nobody shunted off to the side? Because there is room for everyone and more? Grace upon grace.

Or when Mary Magdalene saw Jesus alive outside the tomb and didn’t recognize him, and Jesus said, “Mary, it’s me,” and right then she knew that life and love would always outlive hatred and fear. Grace upon grace.

When Jesus said, “I have come that they, you, all my sheep, may have life and have it abundantly and freely and fully”? Grace upon grace.

Jesus sits with his disciples today and feeds them bread and fish. I don’t know if you noticed, but when they sit down to this tasty shore breakfast nobody has done anything to make it all happen. None of the disciples has proven that they’ve worked hard enough to earn it. Jesus just calls out, “Hey, do you have any fish?” and Jesus knows they’ve caught nothing. Then he finds them a great catch of fish, and after they come up out of the water dragging their overloaded nets behind… they find that Jesus has already got fish for them on the fire on the shore. Everything they needed was there already. Jesus and a fire and some fish. Nobody had to do anything. It’s just a gift. Just grace upon grace.

All they’ve done, since that first chapter of John right up to today, is receive grace upon grace, peace upon peace, and Jesus’ own Holy Spirit, and a warm breakfast. Maybe not all of us have this experience, but if you’ve ever had fish fresh out of the pan on the shore on a chilly morning you know what grace upon grace tastes like. If it seems like you’ve caught nothing in life and it’s all just frustration these days and on a Sunday morning someone looks you in the eye, or stares straight into the camera, and says, “Peace be with you,” you know what grace upon grace is like.

And grace upon grace always comes first. We’ve heard those stories of it all along. A few weeks ago we first heard the news that grace upon grace raised Jesus from the dead, and grace upon grace walked out of the tomb, live and in the flesh, and stepped into a new world. Last week we heard of Jesus giving the disciples his own Holy Spirit, just breathed it right I into them, and then he spoke peace to them in a world where they could be so afraid. There’s a warm shore breakfast today, a free gift for the tired and frustrated, and only then does he say, “Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Follow me.”

Jesus isn’t saying, “Do you love me? Then prove it.” He’s just inviting Peter along into a world where the love and grace and abundant life Peter has received are what’s really going on all around.

Jesus poured out grace upon grace throughout his days. And when Jesus calls Peter, you, me, us, to feed Jesus’ sheep and to follow, he’s calling us into a life where nobody needs to justify themselves or prove their worth, but where we simply care for one another. Feed one another. Taste abundant life with one another.

It really does feel sometimes like we – as in we, the world – are just tired after a long night of fishing and catching nothing, doesn’t it? We had an election this week and now something just under fifty percent of Canadians are happy or at least relieved, and something just under fifty percent of Canadians are disappointed or mad. I was in Alberta, so it was more like seventy percent disappointed all around. It’s still a long night, and an election is over, and we haven’t caught much, or maybe even caught anything.

A quick scroll through the headlines today, from Alberta to Gaza to a courtroom in London and to countless other places and situations we know or have simply forgotten, makes it clear that we’re still in this long night of fishing and coming up empty again. Underneath all those stories are the lives of a lot of people – let’s say several billion, is it eight billion now – who seem to matter mostly because an economic system or a political power can make use of them. It’s always been like that. A long night of fishing and we haven’t found a way out. Empty nets again.

And a quick scroll through your own internal life might show much the same thing. A long night of fishing but my net still hasn’t found just the right solution to this ache I’ve always known, or this struggle that nobody but me knows about, or this nagging worry that I just haven’t done it right. Again. Sometimes it’s a long long night of fishing.

Then Jesus points us to a world where what really matters is “Feed my sheep." Look after one another. Every sheep matters. Grace upon grace finds a way, and always will, for you and me and all the people. Because grace upon grace raised up Jesus, and grace upon grace walked out of the tomb, and grace upon grace is given for us and grace upon grace will always find a way in our own troubled lives, and grace upon grace will always find a way even when the news feed wants to convince us that it won’t.

Because Jesus shows up with breakfast. He knows when we’ve fished all night and caught nothing, so he just shows up with breakfast. Even when we have caught something, or there’s something to show for our work, Jesus already has whatever we need. Seven disciples show up, finally having caught some fish, and they find that Jesus already has fish, and it’s there for them in a nice lakeside breakfast that was already there and already ready.

Listen closely for a voice you may or may not recognize. From right over there on the shore Jesus calls out and says, “Hey! Got any fish?” “Come and have breakfast.” And we come to the shore, to a warm fire and a fresh catch that we call communion or eucharist or Lord’s Supper and body and blood and grace upon grace. And after breakfast Jesus says “Do you love me?” and then says “Follow Me.” And wherever we go, there will be grace upon grace. In here, out there. Just like there always has been. Always will be.