"Deep Fryer or Slow Cooker Faith?"
Faith in God can come swiftly, or it can take a long time.
Sermon Preached by
Ross A. Lockhart
Sunday, April 27, 2003
Text: John 21:1-17
Acknowledgements: I would like to thank The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling and the congregation of Timothy Eaton Memorial Church for the invitation to preach this morning as we worship God together.
One Sunday morning, a young boy arrived late to his Sunday School class. His teacher knew that the boy was usually very prompt and asked him if everything was all right.
"Oh yes" the boy replied. "I was going to go fishing with my dad but at the last minute he told me that I should go to church instead."
Well, as you can imagine the Sunday School teacher was very impressed with this answer and followed up by asking if his father had explained to him why it was more important to go to church rather than to go fishing.
"Oh yes," the boy replied. "My dad told me that he only had enough bait for one of us to go fishing today."
This story highlights a rather playful tension between fishing and faith, while today's Gospel reading takes that tension much more seriously. Of course, in Jesus' day fishing wasn't for sport, rather it was people's vocation…a serious business…after all it provided a roof over their heads, food to eat, something to trade in order to enjoy something other than fish 365 days a year for dinner!
Fishing, in the Sea of Galilee (Tiberius), was big business and was the livelihood for many in the region. The Sea of Galilee is a harp-shaped body of water, nearly eight miles across at its furthest point and 150 feet deep, and I'm told that it contains over 40 different species of fish. Many people made a very healthy living off fishing the Sea of Galilee, salting their fish, shipping it up to Jerusalem, where it was traded at "the fish gate" and sent from there all over the Roman Empire. Fishing the Sea of Galilee was a comfortable life, a quiet life, a predictable life and it was the life for many of Jesus' disciples…until one day everything changed.
The disciples would never forget the day that Jesus waltzed right into the middle of their daily routine…walking along the lakeshore and calling to Andrew and Simon (who would later be called Peter), saying, "Come and follow me and I will make you fish for people." Would it be fishing or faith for these two?
Remarkably, as you probably know, the two men dropped everything and followed Jesus. It's almost as if there was no tension whatsoever between fishing and faith! And, as if to prove that it was not a fluke, Jesus goes a little further down the shoreline and tries it all over again, this time, however, with a much more serious fishing operation. A short distance away in a large boat, James and John worked with their father Zebedee and a bunch of hired help. Jesus extended the same invitation and in a brief moment they, too, resolved the tension between fishing and faith and followed Jesus. No police records check for their ministry needed, their resumés were not scrutinized by a committee, no signing bonus, and they certainly did not have to sign a 1, 2, or 3 year discipleship contract…you know the kind that says: "We agree to be Jesus of Nazareth's disciples and all the duties assigned by him until the hour when the Son of Man will be glorified. At this point we reserve the right to flee in terror for our lives and deny ever knowing the man."
Now, I know some of you might be thinking "Well, the disciples weren't really doing anything anyway, so maybe it was easy for them to quit and follow Jesus…sort of like an adventure." Well, it's fascinating to note that recent scholarship reminds us that these "fishermen turned disciples" were not just teenagers working a summer job flipping "Galilean fish burgers" for five denarii a week. No, instead it is believed that some of Jesus' new followers were respected members of their community, maybe even small business owners, members of the ancient world's equivalent of the Rotary Club.
These upstanding citizens simply dropped their nets and followed Jesus…choosing faith over fishing and never looked back…well, until today's Gospel reading, that is!
Today, we find the disciples in a very different state. Gone is the confidence and instead they are full of fear and confusion, for in the shadow of the cross their discipleship is over.
Sure, they've faxed off their resumés hoping for another job, but when all you've got on your resume is "TIME SPENT WITH NOTORIOUS CRIMINAL JESUS OF NAZARETH" for the last three years, you don't receive many calls back, do you?
So, time for a decision. Peter stands up and declares, "I am going fishing." The other disciples look around the room, shrug their shoulders and say, "We're going with you."
And so Peter leads the disciples out of the crowded room, onto the dusty road and down to the lakeshore. And as the disciples pause, feeling the warm sand between their toes, a fish flops in the water nearby and, as the late afternoon sun begins to set, they see their old fishing boats off in the distance and their hearts sink. For they know exactly what they are doing - they are falling back on the old ways. For once Jesus himself called them from this very shoreline to follow him and "Fish for people," but now as they step into their boats and push away from shore they realized their discipleship is over and they've slipped back to the old ways.
Now, I don't know about you, but this story from John 21 wasn't a story I heard very often in Sunday School. In fact, we were given a very different image of the disciples. I remember on those days in our little Sunday School classroom in west Winnipeg when the sermon would run too long, there was an extra hymn, or extended communion and our teachers would panic - perhaps what's going on right now upstairs in this church! Our teachers would quickly gather some "CONNECT THE DOT JESUS" or "CONNECT THE DOT DISCIPLES" pictures to help pass the time. And the disciples I encountered in Sunday School, the ones we coloured and displayed on the wall, were enormous, burly, confident men doing the work of God. That image is burned on my brain! Quite a different image than the disgruntled disciples and forlorn fishermen whom we encounter in the first few verses of John 21 today, isn't it? It sure wouldn't make a very good recruiting poster for the ministry, would it? It's not the kind of image we would proclaim as Christians to the world. Of course, we do that with all sorts of Christian bumper stickers like "Put the US back in JESUS" or "My boss is a Jewish carpenter" - have you seen those around town? Well, here's one you'll never see: QUIT DISCIPLESHIP AND GO BACK TO A REAL JOB! (John 21)
But I have to tell you that I really like these initial verses of John 21. I like them because they help make the disciples so much more real to me…more human, as they struggle with doubt and despair.
So often in our tradition we like to share only the stories of faith where people encounter God, they meet Jesus and automatically make a decision to follow. Right there on the spot their lives are changed as these call stories remind us that "heroes of the faith" just drop their nets and immediately follow Jesus. I must confess though that I have often found it troubling to read the New Testament accounts of people encountering Jesus and believing right away…no hesitations, no doubts. You see I am not the kind of person that makes very good split second decisions whether it be a desperate purchase on a used car lot with a salesperson breathing down my neck or the department store's perfume counter on Christmas Eve five minutes to closing! (By looking at the reaction of some of the men I see I am not alone in this experience!)
And so, in the past I've tried to comfort myself saying well Jesus must have had some sort of amazing charisma as the Son of God that just made people drop everything, right? That would explain how people can encounter Jesus, like the disciples in the beginning of the synoptic gospels, and believe right away.
Of course, my hope in this theory dissolves when I read further in the scriptures, after Jesus' death and resurrection, and discover that people who didn't even know Jesus during his ministry are converted instantly, like St. Paul on the road to Damascus.
It's almost like, to borrow an illustration from my favorite type of cooking - fast food - many people in our church history have a "deep fryer faith." They go into the deep fryer of faith and come out a short while later instantaneously transformed…a nice crispy conversion…hot and ready to serve God!
Is this the only way to become a disciple of Jesus? What about the rest of us who say, "Hang on, Jesus, let me finish mending my nets and I'll catch up with you in a minute?" or "Hey, somebody hand me some sunblock for that blinding light and help me off the Damascus road so I can make up my mind about this whole discipleship thing?"
Surely, the gospel call stories do not mean that for absolutely everyone who hears about Jesus, instant deep fryer faith is required?
For some, God in Christ works slowly to bring people to faith.
For those of us who are a little slow off the mark, there is good news and there are some pretty interesting examples from our church history. For while the deep fryer faith stories are important, there are stories of people coming to an authentic faith with God in Christ of a very different kind, that we also need to hear and acknowledge.
One of my favorites is the story of John Wesley.
This year of 2003 marks the 300th birthday of John Wesley and churches with Methodist roots around the world are celebrating, including our United Church of Canada…and today right here in a congregation founded by and named after Timothy Eaton…a prominent Irish Methodist!
John Wesley was born in Epworth, England in June 1703, the son of Samuel (an Anglican priest) and Susanna (a devout Christian laywomen who was very well- educated for her day). He was one of 19 children - now that's one method of church growth that I wouldn't be too keen on, where the minister provides both the Sunday School and youth group!
John wrestled with faith from his childhood and worked his way through formal education full of doubts and despair as to the state of his soul. He struggled as many of us do today, asking "Am I Christian because I have a real relationship with God or is it because I have just grown up in a Christian culture, a Christian family?"
In 1725, with the support of/a push from his parents, John agreed while studying at Oxford University to follow in his father's footsteps and enter the Anglican priesthood (deacon 1725, priest 1728).
But John's doubts continued and after a short-lived "team ministry" with his father, he returned to Oxford to teach, being made a fellow of Lincoln College. While at Oxford Wesley met regularly with other young scholars who also struggled with their faith, but after a few years he still did not have an assurance. He had the idea that "missionaries always have a strong faith" and so he accepted a position as a missionary in 1735, to the new colony of Georgia in British North America. Secretly, John hoped that the change of environment might give him some assurance of his own faith - not your typical image of a missionary!
Sadly, the whole trip was a disaster. Now, while John's ministry in America may not have been "anything to write home about" his personal life was enough to fill volumes of the old world's equivalent to our tabloid magazines and keep the paparazzi busy for weeks, if not months. You see, John broke a rule that every first- year seminarian hears - never date a member of your own congregation! Just don't do it! But Wesley did!
Wesley fell in love with a woman in his parish who decided (perhaps wisely in hindsight) to marry another man. How did John respond to this news? He was furious and responded by barring his former love interest from communion…a major social snub in that day and perhaps even today! The situation went from bad to worse when this women's uncle turned out to be the local judge, who gathered some folks together for a grand jury and pressed charges against Wesley.
Now, if you are expecting a great hero of the faith to stand his ground and face his accusers in the eye like Martin Luther with the famous "Here I stand" speech, you'll be sorely disappointed. No, John Wesley jumped on the first ship back to England and got out of there. He just took off and fled the whole mess…now totally disillusioned and probably at the lowest point in his life. John wrote in his diary on the ship back to England that he had gone overseas to convert others but in reality who was actually going to convert him?
Back in England, however, he joined in community with Christians and one night (May 24, 1738) he went reluctantly to a prayer meeting (in other words he was dragged to church by his friends) where he finally felt a personal assurance that God was real and that God loved him. He said that his heart was "strangely warmed" and realized for the first time that what Christ did on the cross, he did for John personally. A way to understand this is to say that for the first time God's story connected with John Wesley's story - God in Christ became real and personal for him. Of course, John knew all about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in an intellectual way - after all, he grew up in a minister's home - but for the first time he experienced the story in a personal way.
And so, slowly after this experience, John felt renewed in ministry and he began to preach with more vigour and helped awaken many to faith. Those who were awakened by his preaching (and the 6,000 hymns his brother Charles wrote) were gathered together in small group ministry known as the United Societies that grew and grew until after John's death in 1791 they became the Methodist church and spread all over the world helping to found such famous churches as the Uniting Church of Australia, the United Methodist Church USA, and our very own United Church of Canada.
So what does Wesley's story tell us about coming to faith in a way other than the "deep fryer faith?"
I believe that Wesley's story makes it okay to "belong before you believe." We could even call Wesley's experience a "slow cooker faith," because it was as if he had to sit and stew in the juices of God's grace for years before he could confidently say he believed in God. After all, it was over 10 years after John Wesley was ordained before he could say with any assurance that God in Christ loved him - 10 years! I think that's why student ministers love Wesley so much - because he sets the bar so low for your first 10 years in ministry. You don't have to accomplish much!
This need to simmer in God's love is reflected in recent church statistics from England that suggest that people can belong to a church for up to three years before they can say, "Yes I believe in God and I want to be a disciple of Jesus."
So how about for yourself? Which category do you see yourself in? Deep fryer or slow cooker faith?
With this knowledge in mind let's turn again to our reading from John 21. If you asked what kind of faith the disciples had the eager student would put a hand up and say "deep fryer faith." But after dropping their nets to follow Jesus, the disciples consistently screw up, revealing that their faith may be more a journey of trial and error, of slow progress towards an authentic relationship with God - just like the slow cooker faith.
After all, those called by Jesus to "fish for people" have now returned to regular fishing. It's bad enough that the disciples failed after three years of ministry to grasp in Jesus' presence that He was fully human and divine - the very Son of God. It's bad enough that his disciples scattered in Jesus' final days, abandoning their leader and weeping bitter tears in fear and isolation around Jerusalem. But now, after that glorious act of God's grace revealed in cross and empty tomb - that inspiring act that has comforted every generation of Christians, baffled scholars and irritated skeptics - where God the Father raised Jesus to new life through the power of the Holy Spirit - the disciples have returned to their old ways. You could even say that in John 21, the disciples snubbed Jesus.
And, of course, many of us would say that Jesus would be entitled to return a snub for a snub. Jesus could have said to the Father, "You see, just like in the garden when I told them to wait for me, to watch and pray, they have failed my instructions again." For as much as John 21 tells us about the disciples, it actually tells us even more about the very nature of God in Christ. Jesus could have returned a snub for a snub - but these are not the ways of God. For John 21 reveals that God is faithful even when humankind is not. God in Christ does not wait for humankind to seek the Lord out but, rather, God comes to us. After all, if Jesus were to wait for the disciples to seek him out he'd be waiting an awfully long time. So, in an action that echoes the atoning action of God on the cross, it is the injured party and not the guilty who seeks us out and extends pardoning love and an invitation to relationship…so too again at the end of John's gospel.
Even when his disciples gave up on him, Jesus did not give up on them. Jesus seeks them out, for it is as Paul says in Romans 8, "Nothing can separate from the love of God in Christ Jesus." Once again, God's atoning love is revealed in Jesus, for Christ reaches out and bridges a gap that we could not fill on our own. Even when we are unfaithful to the Lord, God is faithful.
And so after a dark night of fruitless fishing, Jesus walks along the shoreline - the same shoreline he once called his disciples from to fish for people so long ago. Jesus walks along the shore again and calls his disciples, he gathers them, nourishes them and informs them that their ministry is not over.
For even though the disciples have proven themselves unworthy, Jesus gathers them, feeds them and commissions them to do God's work in the world. God's pardoning love is "writ large" when in the movement from life to death to resurrection, Jesus gathers and surrounds himself with ordinary, fallible, sin-filled people, who by God's grace become a most extraordinary community - the church.
Today, God continues to make an appeal to the world for a loving relationship through Christians - those fragile and fallible creatures who know they live in God's deep and mysterious pardoning love and grace. This appeal of evangelism and social justice may have a dramatic and sudden affect on some people's lives (the deep fryer faith), and for others it may take a long time with the Holy Spirit working like a slow cooker bringing about faith in God's own time.
I was reminded of this when I served a United Church congregation with deep Methodist roots out in Nova Scotia. There was a retired fisherman I met in the local community named Bill. Bill did not attend church very often (Christmas and Easter), although his wife was actively involved in a local church. Sadly, Bill's wife died and even though Bill was not a member of the church, the local congregation extended love and care to him in the months that followed. Responding to this care, to this outreach of God's love, Bill became more than an occasional visitor to the church. Slowly he grew in his love for God and Christ's church, attending occasionally and then more frequently, cautiously joining the choir and then enthusiastically becoming involved in outreach ministry. Bill later said to me, "You know, God became real for me but it took a long time…I stumbled and even turned back every now and then and it was almost like Jesus came to the lakeshore just like in the Gospel readings. The only difference is that Jesus had to come again and again, calling my name over and over and over again through the years, until I would finally respond."
Friends, the good news is that is exactly what God continues to do today in our world. John 21 reveals that Jesus continues to return to the shoreline and call our name time and time again until we respond. And even now, we may find ourselves in a dark time, caught in the same boat as the disciples of old with tension between fishing and faith…our way or God's way. For we, too, stand in the crucial period after Easter in danger of slipping back to old ways, forgetting all that Jesus taught and asked of us during the Lenten journey.
But glory to God for the Gospel promise that even in the midst of our darkest night the risen Christ stands nearby. Our Lord Jesus returns to the shoreline - the periphery of our lives - time and time again and like the dawning of the sun on a crisp Galilean morning and awakens us to God's burning love in our lives, for Jesus is this dark world's light. Jesus comes to us and seeks us out just as that amazing Celtic blessing for Easter declares:
The Lord of the empty tomb
The conqueror of gloom
Come to you.
The Lord in the garden walking
The Lord to Mary talking
Come to you.
The Lord appearing in the Upper Room
Dispelling fear and doom
Come to you.
The Lord appearing on the shore
Giving us new life forevermore
Come to you.
And my friends, whether it be through a deep fryer or slow cooker faith, may this awesome God of unfailing love and resurrection hope; the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, come to you this day and remain forevermore. Amen.
This is a verbatim transcription of the original sermon.