We are being stretched thin by the lockdown. Some retreat into a self-protective fetal curl and snarl at the world. Some get hostile in the face of authority and vent their resentment at having their freedoms curtailed in any way. All of us are defaulting to whatever is most familiar, even if the familiar is hurting us, others, our planet. Old habits, however, are hard to break.
After the resurrection, Peter had a hard time his breaking old habits of pragmatic self-preservation. Out in the boat again, catching … nothing …
When Jesus calls to him to cast his nets on the other side of the boat, does his skin prickle? The catch – 153 fish, big ones (why does John tell us these details? Is it just a guy thing?) – is too big to haul in at first, but when they finally do, “even with so many fish, yet the net was not torn.”
We are hauling in some BIG fish these days. Kindness and patience and hope and generosity at a time when all we want to do is curl up with dark chocolate and Netflix and shut our eyes to the racial hatred and the political polarization and the death toll from COVID. Be kind? Be patient? Hope? Give?
Really. Big. Fish.
But we will land this catch, and our nets – those relationships that are being mended and stretched and strained, at times beyond bearing – they will not break.
And Jesus is building a fire on the beach, and breakfast is almost ready.
After the resurrection, Peter had a hard time his breaking old habits of pragmatic self-preservation. Out in the boat again, catching … nothing …
When Jesus calls to him to cast his nets on the other side of the boat, does his skin prickle? The catch – 153 fish, big ones (why does John tell us these details? Is it just a guy thing?) – is too big to haul in at first, but when they finally do, “even with so many fish, yet the net was not torn.”
We are hauling in some BIG fish these days. Kindness and patience and hope and generosity at a time when all we want to do is curl up with dark chocolate and Netflix and shut our eyes to the racial hatred and the political polarization and the death toll from COVID. Be kind? Be patient? Hope? Give?
Really. Big. Fish.
But we will land this catch, and our nets – those relationships that are being mended and stretched and strained, at times beyond bearing – they will not break.
And Jesus is building a fire on the beach, and breakfast is almost ready.
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