Hi Everyone
After a very long gap, the EmmDevs are starting again! I do apologise for the long delay in restarting, but as many of you know, Brenda's Dad has been in hospital since mid November after a brain-bleed and he will probably be there until April. We've been doing our best to support him and the rest of the family, but this has spread us thinner than usual.
I have missed writing EmmDevs! So I'm looking forward to starting them again and do hope that our new series will make the wait worth it.
Speaking of the new series... with the Corona Virus looking like it is going to become an endemic instead of a pandemic, people are starting to talk about "getting back to normal." The truth is that the "old" normal is gone and we have the exciting privilege and opportunity to create a "new normal".
Over the next few weeks I will be looking at some of the traps and temptations to avoid and some of the resources, opportunities and blessings we'll discover on the road to a "new normal".
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Old Normal
John 21 comes as a bit of postscript to John's Gospel... Chapter 20 is the Upper Room and Thomas. Jesus has blessed them: "Peace be with you - as the Father sent me, I am sending you" and He has breathed the Spirit on them. Thomas has declared his faith: "My Lord and My God!" John has concluded the book with his beautiful summary: "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."
And so John 21 comes as a bit of a surprise: Jesus has commissioned, but Peter's going fishing...
Preachers and Commentators are at sixes and sevens about this passage:
- Some see it negatively: Peter is regressing. He's in denial of his calling. He can't face the responsibility of continuing without Jesus' physical presence and so he simply goes back to his "old normal" - the life of a fisherman.
- Others see it positively: Peter is going back to the place where Jesus first called him. What is lovely is that Jesus pretty much does turn this moment into a "second calling" by repeating the miracle of the big catch of fish.
- Still others see a bit of both: On the one hand, Peter is overwhelmed and intimidated and so he retreats, but, on the other hand, a night of fishing could have provided him with the quiet and intimacy he needed to think, talk with fellow disciples and pray.
What's interesting is that the "old normal" produces no fruit. They caught nothing...
What I love is how Jesus meets Peter in the moment.
No rebuke or disapproval - just a quiet presence, bringing abundance in their catch, hospitality in the fish already cooking on the fire and forgiveness, restoration and a call to service in the walk with Peter on the beach.
No rebuke or disapproval - just a quiet presence, bringing abundance in their catch, hospitality in the fish already cooking on the fire and forgiveness, restoration and a call to service in the walk with Peter on the beach.
You and I also face a new normal. We face the same choices and temptations as Peter and the same Lord comes to meet us promising Presence, Abundance, Hospitality, Forgiveness and Restoration.
| Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. "I'm going out to fish," Simon Peter told them, and they said, "We'll go with you." So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. (John21:2-3) |
