Monday, April 5, 2021

Looking Ahead to April 11, 2021 -- Easter 2B

 The Scripture Reading this week is not the Lectionary suggestion for Easter 2B, instead we will read John 21:1-19

The Sermon title is New Normal?

Early Thoughts: What do you do when the world has changed and doesn't make much sense anymore? Peter goes fishing. Peter tries to go back to what he knows best.

John 21 is an odd chapter. The Gospel seems to end quite well at the end of chapter 20, after the appearance stories and the discussion with Thomas. Then suddenly we have this other story, almost like a postscript, or an add on.  Or maybe it is like Detective Columbo and "...just one more thing...".

The friends have returned to Galilee, gone back to where it all began. This also means they have gone back home. And Peter goes fishing. This is who he is. This is what he knows. Is he trying to erase the memory of the trauma that he has just experienced?

I think many of us, in the face of life-altering events, have those moments of wishing we could go back to the way things used to be. All the more so if those life-altering events have been traumatic, have included a great loss. Can you really blame Peter? Yes he has encountered the Risen Christ. Yes he has experienced Easter. But to be honest the events of that last week in Jerusalem have to have left him more than a little bit shaken. Life was probably much simpler when he was a fisherman.

Add to that the fact that he is likely carrying guilt over his denial of Jesus. When it really counted Peter turned his back. Peter, who swore he would never do that, turned his back. His understanding of himself has also been challenged. He used to know who he was. Maybe he can get back there again.

But then Jesus shows up.

Resurrection refuses to let us sink back into our old patterns. Normal is just a setting on a dryer, so the saying goes. Sometimes New Life means we can never go back again. Coming through death and into life changes us in ways that can not be undone.

The phrase "new normal" has been terribly over-used in the last 20 years. It has been used as a way to push people to accept changes that, in their hearts, they knew were dangerous -- a prime example being the way it was used by the Bush administration in the aftermath of 9/11. It often gets used as a way to quell disagreement in this constantly changing world.

And yet there is a reality to the phrase. Because the world is constantly changing those things we consider ordinary or normal also change. And when the changes are big, in response to life-altering events, the disconnect between what was, what is, and what yet may be is equally large. Still, there are always those voices calling us to go back to what is known, and comfortable, and familiar.

COVID-19 has challenged many of us for the past year. For 12 months+ people have been longing to go "back to normal". It can even been argued that this longing to go back to normal is responsible for some of the behaviours we have witnessed that fly in the face of advice from public health experts.

What if "normal" is not what awaits us. What if the New Life post-COVID means we have been transformed as individuals and as a society?

Peter tried to go back. Jesus showed up and pushed him into a different place. Jesus showed up and released him from the guilt and fear that was holding him back. Jesus showed up and Peter moved forward into his new normal.

Will we go fishing or will we explore what might lay ahead for us in our own experience of Easter?
--Gord

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