Adapted from a sermon preached at Trinity, Mount Airy, on May 4
By Bishop Sam Rodman
I love the resurrection stories we find in the Gospel accounts. I love them because they are crazy and unpredictable, confounding and wonderous, and strangely reassuring, all at the same time.
The Gospel reading from the third Sunday after Easter is no exception. It has all of these elements and adds one more.
“Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, ‘I am going fishing.’ They said to him, ‘We will go with you.’ They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
“Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, ‘Children, you have no fish, have you?’ They answered him, ‘No.’ He said to them, ‘Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish.” (John 21:2-6)
The Gospel of John isn’t the first time we hear this story. It happens earlier, before Jesus’ resurrection, in Luke’s gospel. And in that version, Jesus is in the boat with them. But the same sequence occurs.
“Once while Jesus was standing beside the Lake of Gennesaret and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to burst.” (Luke 5:1-6)
In both versions of the story, Peter and the disciples fish all night and catch nothing. Jesus tells them to try a different side of the boat, and lo and behold, they haul in an amazing catch of fish. The nets almost break, and the ship almost sinks with the weight of the fish.
INTERPRETATIONS
One way of interpreting these stories is to recognize that they show us who Jesus is. Jesus is the Lord of creation. He commands the wind and the waves. He knows where the fish are. He has powers of perception that the rest of us do not. I believe all of this about Jesus.
There is another way of interpreting this story. It does not negate the first interpretation. It stands alongside it.
The second interpretation is that this is a metaphor of the apostolic call. Jesus told the disciples, “I will make you fishers of men.” This is a story about the power of the Gospel to win over and transform the hearts of people, both women and men. It shows us that the power of the Gospel of God’s love, in Jesus, will inspire an amazing response, more than we can imagine, or ask, or even manage, without God’s help.
In John’s version of this story, the net is filled to overflowing with 153 fish. This is a very specific number. There are several interpretations of the meaning of this number. One is that, in Jesus’ time, there were 153 different kinds of fish in the Sea of Galilee. The message here, in this interpretation, is that the Gospel has the power to speak to all people and to draw them all into the net of God’s compelling gift of love for us.
This understanding helps us to recognize that the love of God for every person is at the heart of what holds us together. This is what we believe. This message has saving power, and not just for those who believe. This message of God’s saving love is for all God’s children. It is the promise that we proclaim because this is our hope, too.
There is yet another way of interpreting and understanding this story. Again, not in place of the others, but alongside them. Jesus is teaching us how to think outside the box.
Think about it for a moment. These are all experienced fishermen. They did this for a living before they met Jesus. The Sea of Galilee is their home. They know its rhythms and cycles. They know where to find fish. They have their routine. They follow a pattern.
Jesus is inviting them to change their pattern, to change their routine—to fish from the other side of the boat. Any experienced fisherman would tell you this is foolishness. They have already fished all night. But look what happens when they try.
Jesus is inviting them, and us, to challenge our own conventional wisdom, to change the way we approach the problem, to consider a different way, one we may never have tried before. This is the symbolic meaning of fishing from the other side of the boat: It means thinking outside the box. It means changing our pattern. This does not come easy to us Episcopalians. It is often said that one of our articles of faith is “We’ve never done it that way before.”
This certainly speaks to the situation of the church in the 21st century, as we find ourselves in a landscape that is changing so rapidly we can barely keep up. The context in which we do ministry is different than it was 10 years ago, five years ago, or even last year. We have trouble keeping pace with these changes.
Jesus is inviting us to follow him by trying something new, by letting go of our past experiences, just enough to meet the challenges of a new future.
We are in a similar place in the life of our country, as each day it seems we are faced with new challenges: executive orders by the boat load; deportations; on-again, off-again tariffs; the roller-coaster stock market; and how we can talk about any of it without sounding partisan. How can we find common ground, when there seems to be so much division and confusion?
How can we share the good news of Jesus in new and different ways with people with whom we disagree? How do we hold fast to our deeply held convictions and still hold our arms open to another person whose own position seems diametrically opposed to ours?
We are all asking the question of how we talk to our neighbors, friends and loved ones when we are so deeply divided. I am asked this question each week during the Q&A sessions in our congregations. How can we cast our nets on the other side of the boat? How can we change our patterns? I wonder what that might look like.
Maybe we need to start listening to each other more deeply. Maybe fishing on the other side of the boat means suspending our predetermined assumptions about how another person thinks or feels. Maybe we need to ask more questions to try to see someone else from a different point of view. Maybe it means trying to see another person the way God sees them.
ACCEPTING THE INVITATION
Maybe it’s time for all of us to recognize that the labels of left and right, of liberal and conservative, are not actually that helpful. Maybe they are getting in the way. Maybe it’s time for all of us, instead, to start with what Jesus teaches and shows us, by example, about how we should treat one another. Maybe it is time for us to remember that love is what we hold in common. Love of God, love of neighbor, all our neighbors.
I do hear the voice of Jesus calling to us, not only in a prophetic tone but in a voice of gentle invitation that lifts us out of our helplessness, reminding us that we are not alone. I hear Jesus inviting us, urgently, to try something different, to think outside the box, to try and see things from someone else’s perspective, to fish on the other side of the boat.
As we search for a path forward, we do know that Jesus is with us. We know that his deepest desire is for the health, wholeness and well-being of all God’s children. And we know that the Gospel promise of resurrection hope always gives us the opportunity to see with new eyes and to try again from a different perspective.
Like Peter, Jesus is inviting us to find new ways to express our love, to feed God’s lambs, to provide leadership, to tend God’s sheep, to think outside the box, and together, to change our patterns. Amen.
Bishop Sam Rodman is the XII bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.
Subscribe to the quarterly Disciple magazine (digital or print) for more stories like this.
