Gone Fishing: 153?

Gone Fishing: “153”?!

John 21:1-13

August 10, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

Can you imagine a world without fish?   According to the United Nation World Food Program over half of all fisheries in the world are endangered or stressed to the point of threatening their sustainability; including types of tuna, shark and sturgeon.  The state of the ocean fisheries are a clear indicator of the health of our planet. Greed, pollution and ignorance can devastate a fish population. When they are managed well a fishery produces an enormous amount of food.  When they aren’t managed well it can bring ecological and economic disaster.

Check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium website for their recommendations for the fish coming from sustainable fishing and fish farms and the ones that don't. We should avoid buying or eating in restaurants fish that cannot be sustained or we will end up with a world without them!

Here in California the commercial and recreational salmon fishing season was shut down and severely limited between 2008 and 2011as the Department of Fish and Game reported record low salmon censuses.  In 2010 they estimated only 65,000 fish were heading through the Golden Gate and up the Sacramento Delta for spawning season.   All fishing was shut down completely, understandably so.  This year census came back to just under 1 million allowing a limited fishing season.

The diverting of fresh water from the Sacramento River delta to central and southern California, and the enormous pumps used to do so severely threaten the annual spawning run of salmon among other fish.  

One of the theories behind the dramatic decreases in Northern California salmon population is dependency of hatchery fish to make up the foundation of the school.  These fish all have the same genetic background so when certain environmental factors such as water temperature or krill availability are bad it affects the entire school at the same time.  Our salmon population doesn't have the genetic diversity to survive varying conditions.

Now I am sure you find this fascinating but you have got to be asking yourself, “Pastor Mark, what does it have to do with God?”  Go ahead, lets all say that together!  “Pastor Mark, what does that have to do with God?”

Well, I am glad you asked!

Could the genetic homogeneity of Northern California’s salmon population and its threat to survival be an analogy for the church? 

Churches thrive when they have a diversity of people in age, race and social standing.  They may struggle when they are made up of only one kind of people.  Such churches can lose their focus on their mission as a church investing their energy in maintaining their preferences in order to preserve their homogeneity.

Maybe that is why the gospel writer of John said there were "153" fish in the great catch?!

Consider:

There is One God in three persons; Creator, Son and Holy Spirit. There are four gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  There were seven days of creation; eight beatitudes; Ten Commandments.  Israel had twelve tribes, Jesus had twelve disciples.  It rained forty days and forty nights on Noah, the Israelites traveled forty years in the desert Exodus, Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness.  The birth of the church at Pentecost came fifty days after Passover.  In Revelations there will be 144,000 chosen martyrs singing eternal praises to God (12x12x1000).

Numbers have deep symbolic meaning in the biblical record.  Numerical symmetry is a tool used by the Bible’s authors and editors to convey spiritual significance.  When Luke describes “Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom Jesus cast out seven demons…” (8:2) and then reports Jesus confronting Beelzebul, the ruler of demons, noting that if the faithful aren’t prepared  ”unclean spirits can return with seven more evil than itself” (11:26), the writer of Luke wants the listeners to know just how universal evil can be, "seven" signifying the unity of creation itself.  John of Patmos picks up the inference in the Book of Revelations envisioning seven churches, seven lamp stands, seven seals and seven trumpets in eschatological battle with the seven headed dragon.

Numbers are important in the Bible. So where does the writer of John’s gospel get "153" fish in our text this morning?  153?!

Interpreters and scholars have been scratching their heads over “153” for centuries with no final conclusions. Some suggest a hidden meaning in the fact that 153 is the sum of the numbers 1-17.    The earliest suggestion may still be the most accurate.  St. Jerome (347-420CE) tells us that the Greek zoologists of his day recorded 153 different kinds of fish; and so by mentioning this number John may have been symbolizing the totality and range of the disciples' catch and symbolically anticipating that the Christian mission would bring in all people or at least all types of people; race, nationality, gender, class, social status. (Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible Series, Doubleday, 1970, p. 1074, also note Matthew 13:47 "every kind of fish").

The fishing nets of Jesus don't discriminate, they don't exclude.  Everyone is invited to participate in the Body of Christ.   "153" may actually mean that when we say “all are welcome” in the church we mean all.  Diversity is a good thing; in fact it may be an essential thing for the sustainability of the church.

And it makes sense when you consider those at the beach that morning.  Sometime after Easter the Risen Lord Jesus appears to a group of his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias also known as the Sea of Galilee.  Simon Peter is there.  Remember him?  The first to confess Jesus as the Christ (Mark 8:29), the only disciple to try walking on water (Matthew 14:28-33).  It is Peter at the arrest and trial of Jesus the first to deny ever knowing him (Mark 14:66-72=s) and the first to run away when Jesus needed him the most (Mark 14:50).

That morning while fishing Peter doesn't even recognize the Lord at first.  In traditional fashion he is fishing naked, or in loin cloth only, and is so embarrassed when he sees his Master than he jumps into the water to hide himself.

Then there is "Doubting Thomas" the disciple who refused to believe in the resurrection reports of his colleagues until he had put his own hand in the wounds of the Risen Lord (John 20:24-29).  There are the fisherman James and John sons of Zebedee and two unnamed others.  And there is Nathanael.  Remember him?  The seminary drop-out who years earlier said of hearing about Jesus, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:45-51). Now he is there helping to pull in the catch.

What a crew!  Yet it is to the likes of these that Jesus appears.   Asking them to throw their nets in a different direction and haul in a great catch.  Jesus will make them some breakfast of fish and bread (remember last week's text and the feeding of 5,000...there will always be enough if we share...).

What follows is extraordinary as Jesus takes Peter aside and commissions him to "feed my sheep" three times (John 21:15-19).  Peter, the bold, uneducated, freighted and confused Peter, will become the leader of the earliest church in Jerusalem, will preach the first sermon of the church's history at Pentecost baptizing 3,000 that very day (Acts 2) and will die a martyr's death in Rome, where he is honored to this day.

The confused and doubting, the no-named and the famous, the courageous and the cowards are left in charge of the future of the church.  That we are still taking about their Jesus 2,000 years later suggests that this motley crew didn't do too bad of a job "feeding the sheep".  Thanks be to God!

I really relate to the character of Peter in our gospel lessons.   Our text this morning gives me great encouragement as a bumbling preacher of mediocre talent and as a fisherman.

My brother Paul and I started fishing for Blue Gill and Perch with cane pole and bobber with red worms on a hook at our uncle's lake cabin when we were very young.  Once after pestering our father for days he rowed us out from shore and sat patiently as we tried our best to catch something in deeper water to no avail.  For my Dad, a New York City boy, who thinks camping means a night in Motel 6, it was the one and only time he went fishing with his sons but we loved him all the more for it because at least he tried.  My brother still remember that day and laugh together to this day.

Moving out to California in my High School years I was introduced to salt water fishing for Sturgeon, Striped Bass and Salmon in the San Pablo Bay and along the Marin Coast.  And have been hooked ever since.

In my senior year of High School, after the autumn football marching band season was over, the band director came to me, the third chair trombone player, and suggested the perfect use for my instrument.  The first chair trombone player needed a practice instrument so he could have one at home and one at school without dragging his good one on the bus each day, so the Director suggested that I sell him mine for $ 40.  I immediately caught his estimation of my talent and future as a trombonist...one with which I totally agreed.....and sold my trombone for the $ 40.   With which I purchased a salt water fishing rod and reel that I still use today!  One of the best deals I have ever made!

Bonnie and I have taught both of our sons ocean fishing since they were in elementary school in Fresno; we'd drive over to Cambria, also known as the Fresno Riviera, and take them out on charter boats.  We try at least once a year to all go out together.  Bonnie is an excellent fisher-person, she and our older son seemingly impervious to seasickness. 

Being on the ocean, watching the whales, dolphins, seals and birds is a wonderful experience of the majesty of God’s creation.  It is an absolute thrill to have a fish on the hook that is big enough to fight back.  The State of California requires barbless hooks for such fishing and the fisher person has to use patience and skill to bring a fish in.  When the fish comes to the surface the flashing color and form is breath taking.  In ocean fishing one never knows exactly what is on the other end of the line so there is also the thrill of surprising grace.

And having said all of that, I'd rather see my sons catch a fish any day rather than myself.  For some primal reason to see your children succeed in any endeavor is more rewarding than your own success.

Isn’t God like that?  God must “smile down from heaven” watching the likes of Peter and Thomas and Nathaniel, Mary Magdalene, Lydia (Acts 16:11-15) or Junia (Romans 16:7) succeed in throwing the nets of love and grace far and wide, in new directions, catching a great harvest to build the foundation of the church so long ago.  

The confused and doubting, the no-named and the famous, the courageous and the cowards are still left in charge of the future of the church. Is God our Parent still smiling down on us as we endeavor to cast our nets in new directions?

I can't imagine a world without fish.  Neither can I envision a homogenized church succeeding in the future. The Apostle Paul writes, in the church "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)  Our diversity and openness to cast our nets far and wide may be our greatest hope.  That certainly is one meaning of the enigmatic "153".  And at the Sea of Galilee as Jesus fixes breakfast for his disciples we can take great hope in the fact that God isn't done with us yet.  God can use broken and confused people even like you and me to change the world in Jesus' name.

Amen.