Why do you get up every morning? What is the point or purpose of your life? That is the most important question we could ever ask, so why is it something that we so seldom consider? Are we afraid of the answer? Or are we afraid there is no answer?
Why are you here? Not here in church, but why are you here on the planet; taking up room, using up air, consuming resources?
What is the real purpose of your life?
We consider these questions. It is the kind of thing we think about when we leave school or university. If you've ever had a serious health crisis you may have paused to ask some of these "ultimate" questions.
Soon though, we get so caught up in day to day activities that we lose sight of the purpose of our life. We get busy and one day look up and our life has passed before us.
Maybe that's what happened to Peter and company. I don't know how much time had passed since the resurrection, but
* Nathaniel mended
every fishing net they had and was about to go next door and see if the neighbours
had some he could mend.
* Martha had almost scrubbed a hole in the floors.
* Cleopas had lost all the weight he put on over Passover because he had walked
the fourteen miles back and forth to Emmaus every day hoping to run into Jesus
again.
* Mary had been seen hanging out at the cemetery.
* Thomas never left the house because he was afraid he'd miss Jesus again if
he came back.
Peter spent most
of his time sleeping. Then, one day, he'd had enough sleep. It was late afternoon
when he announced, I'm going fishing.
Everyone began grabbing their equipment to join him. This waiting was about
to drive them all crazy. They spent the last three years with Jesus. Every day
was a new adventure, always something new. When he died they were devastated.
He was their reason for living. He was why they got up every morning.
When he died life didn't seem to make sense any more.
Three days later though, some of the women disciples brought the rumour that Jesus wasn't dead anymore. In the time since, Jesus appeared to them all. It seemed he was indeed alive, but now what? How does one follow a resurrected messiah?
I mean, now he wasn't there every morning to lead them, teach them, challenge them, inspire them. He was alive, but it wasn't the same. Before, they didn't have to worry about how to spend their days, because Jesus took care of that.
One moment he was there, the next he wasn't. They'd be eating, and suddenly, there he stood. It didn't seem to matter if the doors were locked or not. Walking along, suddenly, there he was. When they encountered him, he always knew what they'd been saying or doing. It was as though he was there all the time, an unseen presence.
This was a reality they did not yet understand. Finally, Peter decided just to go fishing. Fishing he understood. Fishing he could do. He wasn't sure about being a disciple of someone who wasn't physically present, but he knew how to fish.
You know, maybe, that's why we stay so busy doing the things we know how to do. Perhaps, if we fill our time, we won't have to examine who we are and how we live.
I believe God created each and every one of us with a purpose in mind, and our lives are wasted until we discover that purpose and begin to fulfil it. Now, that is not to say that people who fish for a living are wasting their lives. That is not true for fishers any more than it is true for doctors or lawyers, teachers or preachers.
Unless, of course,
what we do is to avoid doing what God created us to do. That is, if we are filling
our days with activity, but missing God's purpose, then we are wasting our lives.
Peter & Co. went fishing. Maybe, they were trying to avoid the implications
of living with a risen Jesus.
I mean, it's one thing to follow Jesus when it might bring success and prosperity. That made sense. They hitched their wagon to Jesus' rising star expecting that when he became the Messiah they would become rich, powerful, and important. But if Jesus' reign was to be spiritual, well, there might be more money in fishing.
So they went fishing, but Jesus still wouldn't go away. After all, that's where he had found them in the first place. Jesus is nothing if not persistent. He didn't scold them for going back to the familiar, or trying to avoid him by filling their life with other things. In fact, he helped them succeed in what they are doing.
Imagine how they must have felt. First they failed as disciples; now they were failing at fishing. Then, Jesus came along and they caught 153 fish. The specific number of fish is a clue the author was an eyewitness. This was a first hand account of what can happen to you when Jesus comes into your vocation.
Whether we are engineers, accountants, managers, or truck drivers, our lives take on new purpose when Jesus comes to work with us. I love the witness of a woman who asked what kind of work she did, she said, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, cleverly disguised as a clerk.
That is exactly what God wants to do with us and our lives. It is a partnership of the best sort. Our theology becomes biography. That can't happen when you are at church. It must happen when you are fishing or filing.
The deep purpose of our lives must extend to every area of our lives. And our purpose must also extend beyond the boundary of our lives. Martin Luther King said, "You ask why are we here, and I will tell you. We are here to serve. Success is not defined by the number of servants you have, but by how many people you serve."
According to a parable Jesus told, only a fool thinks that the purpose of life is gaining more and more. Our generation has certainly proven his analysis to be correct. The most certain formula for misery I know is to have as your only purpose for rising in the morning to be what you can gain for you. If you can summarize the purpose of your life with the words "me" and "mine" then you have succeeded in sentencing your soul to hell. Not necessarily the hell of eternal fire, but the hell of a shallow, vain, and meaningless existence.
Look at the great lives that have made this a better planet.
* What if Beethoven
had just been an organist?
* What if Thomas Edison had just been a mechanic?
* What if Florence Nightingale had just a nurse?
* What if Mother Theresa had just been a nun?
* What if Oscar Ramero had been just a priest?
The people we call great are those who have enriched life for others. You and I can be great, but only if we discover that God's purpose for our lives goes far beyond the boundaries of self.
Jesus made their fishing productive. Notice they had more than they could eat for breakfast; they had enough to share. Notice too that Jesus took some of the product of their own labours, to feed them - Bring some of the fish you have just caught.
Jesus provided for their needs by blessing the labours of their hands. And Jesus blessed them so they had more than enough to share. Imagine the stench of 153 fish if they had tried to keep them all for themselves, and you may have an idea of what some of our lives sometimes smell like to God.
The American pilot Elmer Bendiner in his book The Fall of Fortresses describes a bombing run he made in World War II over the Germany: Our B-17 was barraged by flack from the Nazi anti-aircraft guns. That was not unusual, but on this particular occasion they hit our petrol tanks. Later, on the ground, I began to reflect on the miracle that the twenty-millimetre shell had pierced our tanks without causing us to explode in the air. I went to our crew chief to ask if I might have the shell for a reminder. The chief explained that there was a lot more to this than I thought. As it turned out there was not one shell but eleven. Any one of them should have blown us out of the sky. He went on to explain that they discovered the shells were all dummies. Each shell was empty except one that had a piece of paper in it. Someone had written in Czech, "This is all we can do for you right now."
Those Czech resistors may not have felt their lives had much purpose since the Nazis had taken over. But for one group of workers what they had done meant everything. It meant life.
You and I may never be Mother Theresa or Oscar Romero but we can all live as cleverly disguised disciples of Jesus, and that may make all the difference in the world for someone.
During World War II, our country desperately needed more coal. Winston Churchill called together the leaders of the miners to enlist their support. He asked them to picture in their mind that day when victory was at last won. There would be a great parade which would pass before Buckingham Palace. The naval heroes who kept the sea lanes open would all pass by; then the brave soldiers who landed at Dunkirk or defeated Rommel in Africa; then would come the pilots who against great odds fought off the Lutwaffe. "But then," Churchill said, "perhaps last of all, would come a long line of sweat-stained men and women, their faces black with soot. Someone might cry out from the crowd, 'Where were you during the war?' and from a thousand parched throats will come the answer: 'We were deep in the earth with our faces to the coal for England."
Perhaps we can't be Mother Theresa or Oscar Romero, but our life can have divine purpose if go forth from this place as ordinary looking women and men who are cleverly disguised as disciples of Jesus.
Amen.
This sermon was first preached in the Metropolitan Community Church of Manchester. Click here for further information.