by. Fr. Bill Garrison
Please note that the following sermon text was provided prior to the audio recording. The two versions may differ substantially.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you--unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them--though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.
Luke 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
The gospel this morning has a famous story about catching fish so I thought I would tell a tale about fish too.
A woman was walking on a beach in Texas carrying two Redfish in a bucket. A game warden walks up and asked to see her fishing license.
“I don’t have a fishing license,” said the woman.
“You know it’s illegal to fish without a license, right?” asked the warden.
“I wasn’t fishing, officer. These Redfish are my pets.”
“Your pets?”
“Yes, officer. They like a little exercise, so when the weather’s fine, I take them to the water and let them swim around. Once they’re done, I give them a whistle and they jump back into my bucket and we head home.”
The officer wasn’t buying a word of it, so the woman said “Don’t believe me? Watch!” and she threw the fish into the sea.
The warden waited for a minute then said, “Alright, now whistle to your fish and make them jump out of the water.”
The fisherwoman turned to the officer and said, “What fish?”
I hope you will forgive me for jumping around a little bit. Something happens in the gospel that has always fascinated me since I learned the meaning of what Jesus has done. Specifically, he gets into a boat and has it pushed a small way away from shore, sits down, and then begins to teach the people on shore. Why would he do that? Isn’t there room for him on shore? Is the crowd too big?
No. Jesus is making an amphitheater so that the listeners can hear him better. The boat, water, and shore have formed a natural amphitheater. There are no sound systems in antiquity. They smartly created their own to augment their natural voices. I think that is really interesting and tells me something else important about Jesus.
The rest of the gospel is a miracle, a fish story. They caught a bunch of fish and Jesus laid out for them what their futures looked like. They would be catching people, not fish. They would be following him.
Now let’s go to the New Testament lesson. Here is where I would like us to concentrate. Paul is speaking. “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”
I have spoken about this passage before. I will speak about it again in the future, I am sure. Personally, this passage is the foundation of my faith.
Paul wrote a letter to the folks in Corinth, this letter, from which we just read an excerpt, about year 55 or so of the First Century. That would have been about 20 or so years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Paul never thought this letter would become part of history, but it has along with the six others he wrote that we find in the New Testament. (I know there are more than seven credited to Paul but scholarship has shown only seven of them were truly written by him.) These letters open a window into the reality of the first century. Again, they are historical in nature not just a nice story.
So, let’s hear again what he said. I will pick out the facts in the narrative. After his resurrection from the dead Jesus appeared to Cephas; that’s the nickname for Peter. He appeared to the Apostles. He appeared to more than five hundred men and women at one time, most of whom were still alive at the time of Paul’s writing. Then he appeared to James the brother of Jesus. And he appeared to Paul.
Folks I would be willing to wager that the risen Jesus was experienced by a ton of people. Probably if you hadn’t seen him yourself in the holy land you knew someone who had. The question of the day wasn’t whether Jesus had risen from the dead. People knew he had. The question was what exactly did it mean?
I remember one Easter when a fellow said to me, “You mean Jesus coming back from the dead really happened? Wow, that’s very cool.”
Yes. That’s very cool.
So, here’s our invitation. As human beings of the 21st century we have doubts about everything from time to time. We wonder if the resurrection is true, because if it isn’t we are all fools indeed as Paul states in another passage. So, don’t be afraid to reassure yourself. Look this passage up. Read it again, as many times as you need. Then feel once again the historical truth of the resurrection, and think about how much it means to each one of us. The resurrection of Jesus Christ makes everything different and everything so much better. Eternal life for each of us and Jesus’ formula for living is found there. It can’t get any better than that.