Barbeque on the Beach + Easter 3C + 4.14.13

M. Campbell-Langdell+

All Santos, Oxnard

4.14.13 + Easter 3C

(Acts 9:1-1-20, Ps. 30, Rev. 5:11-14, Jn. 21:1-19)

Possibly you have heard of Bishop James Pike, a radical bishop of California from the late 50s to early 60s, who was way ahead of his time and a bit “new age.”  Well, apparently he went to ETS seminary to preach in about 1962 and a clergy colleague of mine remembers him waxing lyrical about the incense that rose from California.  Of course, he was talking about the smoke from our barbeques!  Well I don’t know about you all, but I find this pretty true.  Just as it has started getting warmer, all the garage doors in our little neighborhood have started rolling up Saturdays and Sundays and a myriad of barbeques—some traditional gas ones, some little portable weber grills like our own, some hand-welded masterpieces—smoke meats and veggies in that Southern California ritual.  And there is something almost religious about it.  If you follow the Blondie comic strip, you will have noticed the Bumstead family ritual of rolling out the grill on the first day of spring!  They are all gathered around the grill, each holding their grilling instruments aloft as solemnly as we lift the bread and the cup! [1] 

And if you wander by Port Hueneme’s beach you will find something similar to what we hear about in today’s gospel—a bunch of barbeques right on the beach!  Our semi religion of American leisure even relates very directly in this way to the gospel.  Because what happens in the gospel, but that the disciples are bereft of a catch, Jesus, whom they don’t recognize yet, helps them out from the beach, and then invites them to come chow down, adding their own fish that they got with Jesus’ new way of fishing (interesting, huh?) to the offerings. [2]  This passage is referred to by some in a lovingly joking fashion as “barbeque on the beach.”  And although it’s a joke, it also speaks to our life and customs here in Oxnard.  

So, what really happens here in John 21, after we’ve just had the Thomas story?  I perceive the disciples a bit at loose ends.  They’ve seen the risen Christ, but they are in that liminal space where they are just overwhelmed by all that’s happened.  They have lost their closest friend, mentor and direct connection with God, and then they have the whiplash joy of realizing that all that stuff he said about rising and returning really was true, but true in a way that was unimaginably better than they could have foreseen, and then, downtime.  You might think they’d go off and start spreading the good news, but they are too overwhelmed. 

They just need to chill for a bit, get back to something they know well, which is fishing.  So Peter heads out, and they say, sure, why not, let’s all go.  And it’s a disaster.  I’ve heard this about fishing.  Sometimes it’s a bust.  But Jesus shows up, ah yeah, didn’t someone say something about go on to Galilee? –huh… And he helps them out from the shore.  And they catch a mess of fish. 153 to be exact, but the point is it wasn’t just enough to justify their night, but a super-abundance.  A bit like God really, that sometimes what we get is really so much better than we can ask or imagine….

Well anyway, after breakfast, there is this really interesting discussion between Jesus and Peter.  Before Jesus is killed, we have seen Peter deny Jesus three times, so many say that this is sort of a three-fold unraveling of those denials and a replacement of them with an affirmation of Peter’s love for Jesus.  One commentator suggests that this is kind of like how we must release and reverse our old habits of fear in order to put on and claim new habits of love. [3]  But I also see here Jesus enacting a teaching I heard from the Rev. Eric Law, a communications specialist amongst other things, who says that for people to really “get” something, they must hear it three times.  Jesus is saying, listen, really get this—feeding the sheep, caring for the flock is of primo importance.  Love, Love, Love, Care, Care, Care. 

So back to the lovely barbeque on the beach—some have said that it is really a lot more like the early eucharists than we might think—apparently many Christians did bread and fish before bread and wine. [4]  And it’s true—in being fed in communion as well as in the fellowship of Christian community, be it at coffee hour or at a good ole barbeque, we feel connection, community, a sense of belonging.  But after that good feeding of body, soul and mind, we need to remember the other part of this story.  We are sent out to love and feed the sheep.  Not just me, the named “Pastor” here, but in a sense we are all sent to be good pastors, to share of our abundance with the world as a way to say “thank you, Jesus” for the abundant love we have received.  Sometimes we are sent out like Saul who becomes Paul, in a dramatic flair, and sometimes we are faithful Ananias helping a new Christian find his or her wings, or remove the scales from his or her eyes. 

But the point is that God doesn’t share with just for us to be happy and content like we might feel after a good barbeque or a rousing experience of communion.  No, God wants all the sheep to have enough.  And since we are all God’s creation that means everybody—everyone who wouldn’t give a baah! is still important to God as part of God’s creation. 

So… how do we go about feeding the sheep?  Well, we’re already doing it, it’s just a matter of how to get more involved in a way!  We do Bread of Life.  Our 11:15 service feeds the lambs in Sunday school, we feed the sheep when we are a listening ear about concerns in the community and help out where we can.  We are also feeding the sheep when we are a listening ear or a helping hand to a member of the church or wider community who just needs a little support. 

And although my image today is this really cozy beach barbeque, we also know it’s not all fun and games being a follower of Jesus.  No, at the end of the passage, we hear that Peter, and perhaps we too will be in uncomfortable, perhaps dangerous situations trying to share the Word.  Sometimes we just have to follow God in faith, without knowing how everything’s going to work out, and we might feel as if someone else is leading us where we don’t want to go.  But Christian community, the unity that we feel at this table, the fellowship and mutual support, all give us the bread that we need for the journey.  Just as the bread and fish that Jesus shared with the disciples on the beach gave them the strength for what lay ahead, as they endeavored to spread the Good News far and wide and for caring for the flock.  We too, can take strength from this Eucharist, from our fellowship together, from all this rich abundance that God has given us, and convert it into energy to care for the sheep of Oxnard!  Let us follow! Alleluia!

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[1] “Blondie,” by Dean Young, March 20, 2013.

[2] George Hermanson, “BBQ on the Beach,” April 22, 2007, can be found at: www.georgehermanson.com/2010/04/the-bbq-on-the-beach-year-c-easter-3-sermon.html.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Lewis R. Donelson, “Exegetical Perspective: John 21:1-19,” FOTW Year C, Vol. 2, p. 423.