The sign of the fish

 

A Sermon preached on Easter III, April 18, 2021 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden and St. Christoph, Mainz

Acts 3:12-19, 1 John 3:1-7, Luke 24:36b-48

This is the last time we encounter Jesus with his disciples in Luke’s Gospel. This is the last time Jesus will share his peace with them in person and the last time they will share a meal.  After this, Jesus will lead the disciples out to Bethany, where he will bless them before being carried up into heaven.

I don’t think it is entirely a coincidence that at this last meal Jesus eats a piece of broiled or baked fish to prove to the disciples that it is really him, and that he is not a ghost. On the one hand we can expect fish to be on the table when the disciples are eating. It seems to have been a common part of meals in Jesus’ day. In the feeding of the 5,000 the boy had bread and fish with him. In the final encounter with Jesus in John’s Gospel, a charcoal fire with fish on it, and bread, make up the breakfast meal. And of course, a number of the disciples were originally fishermen and so it would have been part of their diet. So yes, he gets offered what was on the table.

But there is more to it. Whenever fish appear in the New Testament, they tend to be associated with plenty or abundance, with generosity and with mission. We have the miraculous catching of fish when the disciples are first called: “For (Simon Peter) and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’” (Luke 5:9-10) At this final meal, Jesus renews that call, sending them out to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in his name to all nations.

We have an equally miraculous catch at the end of John’s Gospel, in the episode I mentioned above, when “they cast (their net), and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish,” 153 of them as it turns out. (John 21:6) At the end of that episode, in what is also an act of forgiveness for Peter’s betrayal, Jesus renews Peter’s personal mission to “feed his sheep” and to follow him.

The feeding of the 5,000 begins with an act or generosity, when the boy hands over his loaves and fishes to be shared and ends with a symbol of abundance: “And taking the five loaves and the two fish, Jesus looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And all ate and were filled. What was left over was gathered up, twelve baskets of broken pieces.” (Luke 9:16-17) No one is left unfed, no one goes hungry and there is even plenty left to feed and nourish those who were not in that place when Jesus taught them.

We experience similar generosity and abundance in the disciples’ final encounter with Jesus, when he makes clear that repentance and forgiveness of sins are not restricted to Israel, but are available for the whole world, that they are limitless. In showing himself to the disciples, in bringing them peace, that is wholeness and fullness of life, and in opening their minds to understand the scriptures, Jesus renews and extends their mission to bring the whole world into the embrace of God’s saving and healing love. In the Acts reading we heard first, we see Peter beginning to live out this renewed call, when after reminding his listeners of their guilt, “you rejected the Holy and Righteous One …. and you killed the Author of life,” (Acts 3:14-15) Peter calls them “to repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.” (3:19) Nothing is beyond redemption.

You may have noticed that we omit the Confession during the Easter season. This is not to shorten the service but is a tradition of the ancient church. It does not mean that Christians miraculously become perfect people during the seven weeks of Easter and therefore have no need of repentance and forgiveness, not even you! But during this time, Jesus’ sacrifice once for all, for the forgiveness of sins and the restoration of relationships is still very fresh, it is at the top of our minds, as is the promise of new and everlasting life in him.

During Easter, we are in the midst of celebrating the fullness of God’s kingdom, the state of being that John looks forward to in his letter when “we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3) In the fullness of God’s Kingdom, we will be free from the past brokenness and pain of our lives and our relationships are whole and life-giving. In the fullness of God’s Kingdom, talk of sin and forgiveness will no longer have a place, because we will be healed. Despite what John says, we are not there yet. Even those who abide in Jesus will sin, but still we look forward to the time when the promises of new life and healing offered on that first Easter morning will be fully realized.

Even when Easter is over, and our confession returns, we remember Easter each and every Sunday. In our corporate worship we encounter the risen Jesus over and over again. We receive and share his peace, we are shown his body, and we pray that our minds will be opened to understand the scriptures. Every week we share a meal with him through which we are reconciled with God and one another. Each week we renew our call to bring the whole world into the embrace of God’s saving and healing love and are sent into the world, in Christ’s name. In doing so, we carry on “Christ's work of reconciliation in the world” that according to our catechism is the ministry of all God’s people.

Coming back to my fish theme. The early Christians used a fish as a secret symbol for Christ. Recalling Jesus’ words about the sign of Jonah, “just as Jonah was for three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth,” (Matthew 12:40) it was seen as a symbol of Jesus’ resurrection. And it was also a declaration of their faith in “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour,” which is what the letters of the Greek word for fish, Ichthus, stood for. Let us go into the world proclaiming the peace of God and repentance and forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ name, in the sign of the fish.

Amen.

Mary and the Resurrection

A Sermon preached on Easter Day, April 4, 2021 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden and St. Christoph, Mainz

Isaiah 25:6-9, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, John 20: 1-18

I am so glad we have the gospels. That is probably a good thing for a priest to say anyway! But what I mean is that if we only had Paul’s account, we would never know that women were the first to encounter the resurrected Jesus. According to Paul, as we heard in his letter to the Corinthians: “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-6) It is not until later, when “he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time,” that women get a look in!

From all four gospels we know that Jesus’ women followers were witnesses to his death, at the foot of the cross. Only in John’s Gospel are we told that one man, the beloved disciple, was also there. All four gospels also tell us that women discovered the empty tomb and that one woman in particular, Mary Magdalene, the apostle to the apostles, was the first to see the resurrected Jesus and to go and tell the men what she had seen.

This is not the first time that women get written out of history, nor is it restricted to church contexts. But it took an awful long time for the church to admit for example that the apostle Junia, as mentioned by Paul in Romans (16:7) was a woman and not a man called Junias! Why does Paul not mention the women? To be fair, he was not there himself and had to rely on what the apostles told him: “I handed on to you … what I in turn had received.” Peter and co. may have been embarrassed that they had stayed away, and that they did not even believe

Mary when she did what Jesus told her, and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.” (John 20:18) They may just not have thought it was important. Thankfully, the gospel writers did and so let us look at the events from Mary’s perspective.

When we encounter Mary in the reading from John’s Gospel, she does not know that she is about to meet the risen Lord. She has seen him die and has come to mourn, and now cannot even do that properly as the body is missing: “Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.” Three times we hear her grieve: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” (John 20:11-15)

Mary has remained loyal the whole time. She never denied Jesus. But she does not expect to see him again, alive. That expectation is one reason why she does not recognise him at first. The Germans have a lovely phrase for this: "weil nicht sein kann, was nicht sein darf,” or “that which must not be, cannot be!” Another reason could be a blinding effect of her strong emotions. But there also seems to be something in the character of Jesus' resurrection body, since a failure to recognise him straight away, is typical of encounters with Jesus. Mary’s encounter is the first of many showing Christ overcoming a variety of barriers to faith, including grief, fear, ignorance, and doubt. The barrier of Mary’s grief is overcome when Jesus says her name.

For her, this is the resurrection moment! This is the moment when she sees her beloved teacher risen from the dead. Jesus calls her by the name he used for her before, and she responds with the title she used before. For a moment she assumes that their relationship could pick up where it left off and continue as before. But Jesus quickly lets her know that is not the case: “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” (John 20:17)

Why can’t she hold on to him? While Jesus’ body has not been taken or carried away, as she feared, Jesus does have to return to his Father, to his God and to our God! Paradoxically it is his leaving - to be “reunified” with his Father - that will enable our re-connection. When he returns to the Father, Jesus has told them, he will send the Paraclete, as John calls the Holy Spirit, who will teach us all things and who accomplishes the union of all Jesus’ followers with the Father and the Son. Because God is Jesus' Father, he is also our Father; because God is Jesus' God, God is also our God. Jesus calls the disciples his brothers. As his sisters and brothers, we are now all part of the fellowship that unites Jesus and the Father.

Jesus’ resurrection is so much more than a one-off event. Its effects are lasting, and repeated, and universal. We do not proclaim that Christ was risen, but that he is risen. The resurrection is both singular and unique and yet still present and powerful today. Christ’s life, teaching, death and resurrection continue to transform people and lives. Those who turn to Christ can feel and know his presence, not just but especially in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Those who turn to Christ feel empowered, by the Spirit, to do much more than they ever thought possible. Those who turn to Christ are called to imitate him both in his relationship with God and with one another: They are called to seek and serve him in all human beings, they feel a desire to come closer and closer to the God who is the source of our being. And most of all those who turn to Christ, are both united with him in his death and certainly united with him in his resurrection. (cf. Romans 6:4) Nothing stands in the way of Christ’s victory over death.

Mary may have been the first to go tell others: “I have seen the Lord!” But thankfully that role – being sent to tell the Good News – is not restricted to women. We are all called to go

into the world in hope, with purpose, with the message of reconciliation and forgiveness, that “Christ died for our sins”, for all those things we do to each other, “and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4) Where there is grief, let us bring comfort and hope. Where there is fear, let us bring love. Where there is doubt, let us bring our confidence in the risen Lord.

Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!