Today, during our 8-day celebration of the Octave, we hear on this Friday of Easter Week more repercussions of the healing of the lame man by Peter and John - they are hauled before the Sanhedrin and called to account. And Peter did. "Filled with the Holy Spirit," Peter again testifies to Jesus' saving power. Now Acts is silent as to how long after Pentecost this took, but it can't have been more than weeks or months, it seems. So those chief priests, et. al., were pretty busy!
And then, after the Psalm, we hear my absolute favorite resurrection story: John's account of the Breakfast by the Sea. There are so many truly odd details it would be easy to get bogged down in them. 153 fish? Who counted and why? Why did Peter put clothes on to jump into the water? Why the right side of the net? Now John's Gospel is usually chock-full of allegory and other details, ausually the details of allegory are important to understanding the point of the story. In this case it seems that maybe the odd details, in their oddity, are meant to remind one of what's really important: Jesus himself prepared breakfast for his friends! To me, that is awe-inspiring and astonishing. The strange details here are perhaps like neon signs that suggest that something is worth sitting up for. A neon sign is cool in and of itself, but its true value is that it points to something else. "Come and have breakfast!" Of course, we get breakfast every Sunday when we come to the Table, but that one must have been sublime!
It's a bit harder to find appropriate music from The Messiah to match this Gospel, but here goes:
Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
And then, after the Psalm, we hear my absolute favorite resurrection story: John's account of the Breakfast by the Sea. There are so many truly odd details it would be easy to get bogged down in them. 153 fish? Who counted and why? Why did Peter put clothes on to jump into the water? Why the right side of the net? Now John's Gospel is usually chock-full of allegory and other details, ausually the details of allegory are important to understanding the point of the story. In this case it seems that maybe the odd details, in their oddity, are meant to remind one of what's really important: Jesus himself prepared breakfast for his friends! To me, that is awe-inspiring and astonishing. The strange details here are perhaps like neon signs that suggest that something is worth sitting up for. A neon sign is cool in and of itself, but its true value is that it points to something else. "Come and have breakfast!" Of course, we get breakfast every Sunday when we come to the Table, but that one must have been sublime!
It's a bit harder to find appropriate music from The Messiah to match this Gospel, but here goes:
Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Christ is Risen! Alleluia!
1 comment:
Or you could say that Jesus barbecued the fish for his disciples. I've always wondered about Peter putting on his clothes to jump into the water.
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