Start Your Day Off With a Good Breakfast

SERIES:  Resurrection Appearances

Starting Your Day With a Good Breakfast

John 21:1-14

McMinnville FUMC April 27, 2008

Don’t you just love a good spiritual high?  Do you know what I mean by a spiritual high?  It’s that rush we get when we know we have encountered something that truly is of God.  It often occurs when we see the hand of God at work around us or in us.  We feel as if we are on cloud nine.  A Spiritual high is one of those moments when we experience a closeness to God that causes us to stop and say, “Wow!  Isn’t God Great!”

Many of us have had those experiences.  Perhaps it was when we recognized that God loved us in spite of our own sinfulness and we were moved to accept Christ as our savior.  It felt so good!  Perhaps it was when we went public with our faith and we were either baptized or confirmed.   It was such a heart warming experience to have folks shake our hand and hug us and officially welcome us to the family of God.

Often times we experience a spiritual high far away from the confines of a church building.   Perhaps it was when we took in the grandeur of a picturesque mountain view or as we stood along the shore of a vast ocean and felt the foamy waves crash at our feet.  For some of us we may recall those spiritual high moments occurring in a most unusual place such as a hospital room as we watch a newborn babe fight for its first breath of life or when witness an aged saint breath out their last.  Somehow we know it is a God moment, something holy has occurred and in the process we experience God.

Easter Sunday is often such an occasion.  We walk into the sanctuary and see the multitude of lilies; we look about us and see an ocean of people; we listen intently as the choir sings at its best; we watch as babies are baptized and children and adults are confirmed; all of these things somehow come together and we experience a special closeness to God.  If you would, we have a spiritual high.  It is a “Close Encounter of the Holiest Kind.”  Our spirit tells us, “It can’t get much better than this.”

The problem with spiritual highs is they are often followed by lows.   There was a time when the Sunday following Easter was called “Low Sunday.”  It supposedly had some theological significance.  Now pastors often refer to it jokingly as “Low Sunday” because generally Easter is the highest attendance day of the year an the following Sunday is the lowest.

It is not so much that these occasions are really low spiritually but that it is a return to normalcy.  It is a return to every day life.

I believe this is what was happening to Peter and to the six other disciples mentioned in this text.  All of them, especially Peter had experienced a great spiritual high.  They had been happy, many miraculous things had taken place.

It could be said that Peter had been on a spiritual roller coaster with all its ups and downs and unexpected turns.  Think about all that had taken place.   It began when Peter denied Jesus.  The spiritual roller coaster starts down in a fury.  He later discovered that Jesus had died on the cross with unresolved issues still existing between them.   The roller coaster picks up speed.  He struggles with his guilt and shame for several days, he feels as if his car is about to crash, when unexpectedly he receives a special message delivered by the women who had been to the tomb: Go tell the disciples and Peter to meet Jesus in Galilee.  His spiritual roller coaster has bottomed out and starts going up.  He knew then that not only was Jesus alive, Jesus had forgiven him of his sin.  Up.  Peter then went to the tomb and saw for himself that it was empty.   Higher!  He saw with his own eyes the linen burial clothe folded nearby.  Higher still!  Later when he was with the other disciples in the upper room, Jesus came to them not once but twice and showed them his nail scared hands and his spear punctured side.  His spirit peeks and his stomach is flipping.  Peter had seen Jesus with his own eyes!  Peter knew that Jesus was alive!  He had seen the risen Lord!  Now what?

When the initial joy, when the spiritual high of Easter is over what next?  When the initial euphoria of salvation settles in and we get back to daily living, what are we to do?  When Sunday is over, what do we do on Monday?  When the melancholy of daily life; when the mundaness of 8 to 5, not counting commute time, returns, what do we do?  Can we be on a spiritual high all the time?   Should we make those occasions our goal?  Let’s face it, we may be feeling pretty good about things, all is well with the world not to mention the spouse and kids, and something comes along, knocks our legs out from under us and the cold hard reality of life sets in.  What do we do?  

I realize I am bombarding you, machine-gun style with lots of questions.  It probably feels some what overwhelming.  Perhaps I am asking these questions because they are often my own questions.  We sometimes think that quote “religious folks,” that “religious professionals” are always up here, spiritually, feeling close to God, on a spiritual high and never feel empty.  Let me tell you that this is simply not the case.  Just because ones life is wrapped up in ministry or because someone is a Christian does not mean we live on a constant spiritual high.  Most of our lives are lived in the norm.  The ecstasy of Easter does not go on 24-7.   Expecting it to do so is unrealistic; to spend all of our energy trying to drum up our next spiritual high is  even unhealthy.

This past week many of us were saddened to hear of the death of Linda McCartney, wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, after a hard fought battle with breast cancer.   I was touched when I read that during their 31 years of marriage they had only spent one night apart. 

To have spent so much time together and then suddenly for it to be over, must have been devastating.  The emptiness, the loneliness, something that many of you are familiar with, must be overwhelming.  In some ways Peter was experiencing the same thing.  Day and night for over three years he had been at Jesus’ side.  The coming, the going, the preaching, the smells, the unique body gestures, where to be no more.

So what did Peter do when he had been up here and suddenly found himself here?  Well, he got together with a couple of fishing buddies, went down to the lake and did some fishing.  When we hear this most of us want to criticize Peter as if he were doing something wrong.  We are tempted to say to Peter, “Peter, you have witnessed the risen savior why aren’t you off preaching somewhere?”  It is interesting to note that Jesus did not criticize Peter for what he was doing.  You see, I believe Jesus saw some positive things about what Peter in this episode. 

Notice that Peter was trying to get on with his life.  He did not sit down some where and wait for his next quote “religious experience.”  He went back to living.  The bottom line was he was a fisherman and at this point he had not been instructed to do anything other than fish.

We too must get on with life.  When we have had an experience with God we can not just sit back and marvel in it and wait for the next one to come along.  We must do what life requires of us.

Perhaps is it important for us to notice, concerning the post resurrection appearances of Jesus, that even though the followers of Jesus wanted to be with him and were ever looking expectantly for him, that none of them found Jesus.  Jesus always found them as they were going about the activities of daily life.  Perhaps this should teach us something.  We need to be mindful of Jesus and focus on the things of God, we should even anticipate those special high moments but we are not going to have them just because we are looking for them.  Jesus will come to us when he is ready and usually this is during the normalcy of life.  It is when we are faithful in living our daily lives that Christ comes to us.

Observe here that even though Peter got on with life and took care of the business that was at hand, he still wanted to experience Jesus again.  What better way to do this than to go back to were it all began.  Peter went back to work but he did not take the first job to come along.  He went back to doing what he was doing when he first met Jesus which was fishing.  Nor did he cast his net into the first fishing hole he came to.  He went to the place he first meet Jesus.  In the nets, in the boat, along the lake shore, he could remember and even visualize his experiences with Jesus.  But this time as he worked the waters, he wasn’t fishing with his hired help.  He took with him six individuals who had had the same experience with Jesus as he had.  He surrounded himself with people of similar thinking.   I bet you I know why the disciples hadn’t have caught any fish that night.  I bet it was because they were to busy talking about life with Jesus.  There is old John the beloved and he says, “Hey Thomas how did you feel when Jesus held out those nail scared hands for you to see?”   And Thomas he says, “I don’t know if I can really describe it John.  I will never ever forget it.  How did you feel when you got to the tomb and saw the stone rolled away.”  They had memories of what life was like walking beside the master.  These memories encouraged them as they lived in the norm.

Perhaps this is a good lesson for us.  As we live our everyday lives doing the things we must do, we need to remember those special moments with Jesus.  We need to spend time with those who have also experienced the love of the resurrected savior for themselves.

So what do we do after those spiritual highs that we have in life?  What do we do the day after Sunday?  We get on with life but remembering those moments and lean on those who have been there. 

Peter decision to go fishing was a good thing.   Jesus did not criticize him for doing this.  But we cannot help but notice that the story emphases emptiness.  Peter and the disciples had fished all night and their nets were empty.  They had worked all night, their bellies began to growl, they were hungry.  Their stomachs were empty.  The empty net and the empty stomachs vividly reminded the disciples how empty their lives were without Jesus.  Who was it that filled the nets?  Who was it that prepared breakfast and filled their stomach?  Who was it that could fill the emptiness in their lives?  Jesus.  We cannot depend on others, no matter how important they are to us, to fill any void in our life.  Nor can we depend on a certain familiar place or thing to fill it either.  We need to understand that the important thing is not the spiritual highs; you see they come and go.  The feeling of ecstasy will fade.  What matters is Jesus.  Only Jesus, only Jesus can make us feel whole.

I remember growing up hearing my daddy say, “Eat a good breakfast, it is the most important meal of the day.”  Experts and breakfast cereal advert risers tells us, “Start your day off with a good breakfast.”   The disciples discovered that the key to having a meaningful life is starting each day with Jesus.  It is not the experience, it is the person.

Are you hungry this morning?