I can remember a television serial, many years ago that always ended with an epilogue – the word would appear on the screen, and although the story line had been resolved, here it was again, revisited with an added twist or extra bit of news to complete the programme.  This chapter of John is sometimes described as an epilogue. A piece added to complete the whole, but hardly an afterthought. It’s incredibly important in its own right - a crucial addition to the success of Christ’s ongoing mission for the world.

The section of the chapter we have heard this morning speaks of a third resurrection appearance of Jesus to his disciples, a miraculous catch of fish, and the reinstatement and commission given to Peter.  But the image that stays with me is the ‘breakfast on the beach’.

Jesus and breakfast go so obviously together – his whole ministry had been one of meeting need, transforming despair and displaying a complete understanding of humanity and its needs and failings.  Even in his resurrection body, when his thoughts must surely have been on the glory of an immanent return to his Father, he is on the beach, displaying a love and compassion for his troubled and confused disciples by acknowledging their emptiness and filling them with his presence.  They had returned to the trade they had known before Jesus had called them - maybe seeking a comfort from doing those things that had been part of them and their families for generations. A task that could be done without too much thought. Where arms and eyes, shoulders and legs, could be put to work almost automatically finding refuge in something they knew, something that was real, something that behaved the way it should.  Water remaining water, fish doing what fish do, and the toil of the night just as they had remembered, before Jesus, before their lives had been changed and had become so strange and unrecognisable to them all.

But when I read this passage, I can’t help but spot a note of irony here too. Jesus calls to the disciples who had been out all night, as was the norm for fishermen, and just after daybreak he calls to them ‘children, you have no fish, have you?  Rather stating the obvious don’t you think?  But listen again to Jesus – hardly a question, but a reminder of the barrenness of their night’s work.  They had no fish because their nets were meant for something else.

“I will make you fishers of people”, Jesus had told them, but it seems they had for a moment forgotten this and had returned to the trade of their fathers. However, even this was yielding no comfort. The night had passed yet they had caught nothing.   But then the command to throw their nets to the right side of the boat – and, with Jesus’ intervention, they now had so many fish in their nets that they were unable to haul it in.  The everyday made miraculous by his presence. And the veil was lifted from tired and defeated eyes and Jesus once again was recognised, standing by a welcoming fire with a breakfast already cooking of fish and bread.

I love the way Jesus allows his disciples to contribute to his provision. For me it speaks so much of discipleship, that when we allow Jesus to lead us, the miraculous is possible, yet he still desires to use us in his purposes, even when we are tired, confused or have taken a wrong turning.  Peter’s response, impetuous as ever, was to rush to Jesus. But I wonder what thoughts filled his head as he waded in front of the boat to be the first to reach Jesus. I doubt it was anything to do with the aroma of cooking fish.  He must have felt a desperate urge to do something, anything for Jesus, in an attempt to wipe away the memory of that courtyard where he had dishonoured both Jesus and himself.

When Jesus first met Peter - recorded at the beginning of this Gospel, he addressed him as Simon, son of John, and then immediately followed this by renaming him as Cephas (or Peter in the Greek) meaning rock.  Yet interestingly, from what we know of Peter in the Gospels, it would seem that his solidness was not always especially evident, but instead he often displayed an impulsive character, speaking before he had thought things through, and showing a lack of understanding in the ways in which God was to be served.   However, Jesus saw what he could become, and his early renaming of Peter was to foreshadow the future role he would have as the rock upon which God would build his church.

In his addressing of Peter now, on the beach, he uses again that early address: Simon, son of John. Is Jesus perhaps reminding Peter of that first call, that first meeting which was to be the beginning of a journey into the divine purposes of God. Purposes that would take Peter on a journey of knowing who he truly was and who Jesus truly is. He hadn’t wanted a Messiah who must suffer, he hadn’t wanted a Messiah who would wash feet. But now, dawn had broken, and he understood. Jesus, serving breakfast, serving humankind, and calling us all to share in his provision. 

But there is some unfinished business. Before Peter can begin to face his future ministry, he must be healed.  Healed from the painful experience of rejecting his Lord and healed from the knowledge that Jesus knew him better than he did himself, revealing his egotistic nature and seeing it for what it really was.

I was reminded during the week of a prayer we use in our Eucharist Service… ‘when we were still far off, you called us in your Son, and brought us home...’ Peter was far off, he had dishonoured his Master and dishonoured himself, yet Jesus calls him and meets him where he is, - loving him, accepting him, showing him the reality of God’s grace and the reality of the transformation that had taken place.  Jesus asks his disciple him three times if he truly loves him. Each time Peter affirms, not just his love, but a better understanding of who he is before God, and of what he is to become.  Peter was indeed a transformed man and it was this transformed man that Jesus can now re-call with his earlier words - ‘follow me’. Peter is changed, he knows it, Jesus knows it, and this time he follows, knowing the full cost and eventually giving his own life in defence of the sheep he was now to shepherd in Christ’s name. 

Ministry re-instated and transformed, yet built upon his love of God, his experience of discipleship, and of the giving of himself to the one who calls and asks us to share in his kingdom work.

You will not have missed the many references recently to a new initiative in this Team inviting all to give careful thought to what the future shape of ministry could look like in our churches. Many from the Team have attended the first two sessions of the Up Front project where we have been looking at the responsibility of the whole church in ministry and where our individual roles might be used. This evening we are holding the last session in this series, but this will not be the final word - rather one part of a process of ‘moving forward’ in ministry and mission for this Team, and all of us, lay and ordained, must encourage and support each other during this exciting time.  Jesus calls us all to offer service in his name and whatever that service or ministry may be this passage today offers much to encourage us, as it did to those first disciples.

Breakfast on the beach -
Jesus didn’t need the fish caught by his disciples, but he did need them to learn a valuable lesson. That when he calls, he equips, and we, just as those early disciples, must listen to his voice and follow his leading - to know when to cast out the net, and when to share his company with others, always allowing him to sustain us and draw us into a deeper fellowship with each other.

In a few moments we shall be sharing another meal, but this time of bread and wine, where Jesus bids us to ‘take and eat’ in remembrance of him where he binds us together in love and fellowship while meeting each of us personally.  God continues to call and he continues to equip. He calls us individually and corporately and every one of us has a role to play in God’s purposes.  As we continue to prayerfully reflect on the future of our team ministry let us remember that love for God brought the disciples a task, the task of loving others in his name. Each confession of Peter’s love was met with a fresh challenge of service from Jesus.

As St. Paul reminds us in his first letter to the early Church in Corinth, we may be given many different kinds of gifts for many different kinds of service, but if we do not have love, then our actions will be worthless. Love is the most important gift. It was love for us that sent Jesus to the cross, and love that prepared the beach breakfast. It is love still that calls us to ‘follow him’ - continuing his kingdom work, sharing in his ministry, and seeking the lost and hungry.

We have been given a mission – and the tools to do it. We have been empowered by the Holy Spirit and given each other in order that we may be built up into Christ’s body here on earth.  I feel excited by this, don’t you?

And now, to him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power.  And all God’s people say ‘Amen’.