Good Morning All,
Are you expecting Jesus? The disciples in our verse weren’t expecting
him. Our story begins with seven of the
disciples (probably the fishermen of the group) were at the Sea of Galilee and
Peter announces to the rest that he is going fishing. The rest agree to go with him. We aren’t told why Peter made this
statement. Perhaps he thought it was
time to get back to work; it was time to earn a living again. Perhaps he wanted to use the time of fishing
to think and try and figure out all that has happened in the last few
days. Perhaps he was nervous and just
needed something to do to keep his mind occupied. These or other reasons might be why Peter
decided to go fishing; we are never told.
Yet as they had been out all night and were
unsuccessful; they were coming back to shore.
A guy on the beach asked them if they caught anything and they answered
“no.” This guy on the beach told them to
drop their nets on the right side and they would catch some fish. Soon they had so many they could barely pull
in the net. One of the other disciples
recognized Jesus but it was Peter who jumped in the water and made his way to
shore. The disciples recognized that it
was Jesus who spoke to them and was now standing in their presence making
breakfast for them.
The disciples were not expecting Jesus to
be standing on the shore as they came in from their evening of work, but he was
there. Do you expect to meet Jesus when
you are working? Do you even think about
him at work? Or are you a “suit coat
Christian”? A few years ago, when men
always wore suits to church; most would put the suit coat on as they left for
church and took it off as soon as they were home and didn’t put it back on
until the next Sunday. Some of us do
that with our faith. We put it on as we
go to church, but we take it off and leave it in the closet the rest of the
week. Our faith doesn’t seem to have
much impact on our “real” life and that is unfortunate. For there are many times when expressing our
faith could impact someone we are working with, someone who is hurting or lost
and in need of God’s mercy in their life.
God wants us to live our faith every
day. First, so that we may always know
and remember the comfort and the security of his love and grace that he has for
us. This is to give us the certainty of
our salvation through Jesus. Secondly,
it is to keep us aware of those around us who are in need. They may need an ear to listen or a shoulder
to lean on or they may need a word of encouragement; whatever the need, when we
keep our faith on at all times, we can be ready. We can be ready to meet Jesus standing on our
shore as we finish our daily work.
Gracious Lord,
give me the wisdom to always wear my faith.
Keep me close to you so that I will always know your grace. Give me the courage to speak your truth to
those around me. Lead me to be merciful
to the ones who are in pain or are suffering that I may share your grace with
them this day. In your precious name we
pray, amen.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Bret
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