Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

“Worthy is Christ, the lamb who was slain, whose blood set us free to be people of God. Power and riches and wisdom and strength, and honor and blessing and glory are his. This is the feast of victory for our God.”

We love to sing this Hymn of Praise here at Christ the King, and especially in Easter time there seems to be no hesitation to sing it with full voice, borrowing it directly from the heavenly host, the living creatures and 24 elders in the Book of Revelation and (as it says in the text,) “singing with full voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’” Later, in the Eucharist, in the preface, we are going to borrow from this text once more preparing to sing the “Holy, holy” together “with all the witnesses of the resurrection, with earth and sea and all their creatures.”

Songs of praise and joy are spilling into our midst during these weeks of Easter. Not only our songs, but also our lessons lavish upon us an abundance of things: the presence of Christ resurrected, an abundance of gifts, of grace, of reassurance, and an abundance of people called and forever changed by the encounter with Christ.

Just look at the stories this morning:

• There is Paul-Saul, persecutor of the early Christians in Jerusalem and Damascus, on his way to one of his missions of hatred, - all of a sudden overpowered by light, thrown to the ground, and enlisted by the voice of the risen Lord to be model missionary to the Gentiles.
• There are the disciples by the lake, seven of them.
  Among them Peter, whom Jesus encounters first in chapter 1 as Simon son of John, and who was told by Jesus after the foot washing, You cannot follow me now where I am going; but you will follow afterward. Thomas who comes and sees and calls Jesus My Lord and My God. Nathanael who is found by Philip in chapter 1 and told, Come and see, and he did, and his coming and seeing is now coming full circle in this last chapter of John’s.

An overabundance of fish is lavished upon the disciples as they heed Jesus’ call to throw their net once more, and when they haul it in the net does not tear. And when they get ashore, breakfast is already made for them. It is simply already there on the shore by the risen Lord. The disciples experience in this last chapter what John says in his first chapter: From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. (John 1:16 )

Does this not remind us also of the miracle of Cana, the turning of water into overflowing amounts of first grade wine? And of the feeding of the five thousand at this very same lake here in Galilee, with twelve baskets of bread left over from five loaves?

Indeed, from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

• And then there is Peter and yet another moment of intense feelings. Peter making good for the three times he denied Jesus in the night of his betrayal and arrest, Peter three times pledging his love to Jesus in serving Jesus’ sheep, Jesus’ followers. Not only does Peter pledge his love, but really his life since he will die as a martyr. And at the very last Peter then receives what he has not received before, the direct invitation from Jesus: “Follow me.”

Grace upon grace. The fullness Peter has received. And Paul, and Thomas, and Nathanael.

In his gospel john has Jesus deliver a farewell speech to his disciples. He spends about twenty percent of his entire gospel on this speech which is meant to prepare the disciples for the time after Jesus will have left, after he will have died. Jesus prepares his followers for the future and how they can continue to be in such fullness of grace. This future has arrived, it is now.

Let us take another look at the story there that morning when the future has become present. This story is like a painting, set on the shore of the lake at daybreak, the disciples in their boat, turned toward Jesus who is calling to them to cast out their net where they will find some fish. Next to Jesus a fire is burning, fish are grilling, there is bread. Peter is in the water, swimming toward Jesus, the other men dragging the fish they caught.

The enchantment of the scene is created by the fact that these men are real people. People who do not know what discipleship will mean for them, who do not know how their community will live in the absence of Jesus, how they can endure their own weakness of faith, how they will be able to experience Jesus’ presence in his absence. People who do not even know yet that they are going to be witnesses of Jesus whom God resurrected. Who are still turned backwards, like Paul, like us, occupied with what seem to be righteous purposes for life.

The beauty of the image of the beach breakfast at daybreak lies in the recognition that the ordinariness of the disciples’ doings and needs has the all potential of God’s presence breaking in, abundantly, and then seeing that it has always already been there.

Peter said, I am going fishing, and the others said, we’ll go with you. Now that Jesus is gone, these disciples go back to their old business of fishing. They are looking backwards, they are not able to apply the new life they led with Jesus before he died to this time after Jesus’ leaving. I am going fishing, are Peter’s words. The irony is that Peter indeed will go fishing, yet not for fish but for people, hauling in people, drawing them to Jesus, and through him to the living God. The other two with names, Thomas and Nathanael, are both disciples who like to have evidence. They want to come and see. Their needs are graciously answered. Then there are the sons of Zebedee about whom we know nothing, and two others whose names we do not even have.

All these are disciples, followers of Jesus. The ones with names and the ones without names. The martyrs and the ones whose witness did not lead to a violent death. The ones with a history to remember until today, and the ones whom history has long forgotten. But for all of these Jesus provides a miraculous, abundant catch of fish and graciously hosts a breakfast on the beach. A breakfast that in our terms would be a bowl of cereal or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Who would have thought that a shared peanut butter and jelly sandwich could have such potential? The potential of abundance and promise, an encounter with the risen Lord? From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

The abundance with which God provides for all of the people whom we have encountered in scripture today is the key for their ability to become witnesses and tell the story of Christ’s resurrection and continued presence. Be it Paul, be it Peter, be it the disciples whose names we do not know, be it martyrs or the disciple whom Jesus loved and who as the only one of the apostles did not die a martyr’s death but continues his witness for us through the writing of these stories, - the gift of Jesus’ presence is abundantly provided for those who answer the call when they hear it. And most likely the call of the living God will always be unexpected, breaking through in a drama, or waiting to be recognized in a simple breakfast.

When recognized however, excitement is in order, why not jump in the lake?, and songs of praise may be raised:

Worthy is Christ, the lamb who was slain, whose blood set us free to be people of God. Power and riches and wisdom and strength, and honor and blessing and glory are his.

Amen.