First, Breakfast, A sermon for Foundry UMC, Washington D.C.
May 4, 2025, Rev. Ben Roberts. John 21:1-19
Our scripture today has some oddities in it to be sure. First the disciples head out on a failed night fishing trip only to have Jesus talking smack from the beach in the morning; “catch anything?” “no,” they say. Then Simon Peter puts on his clothes before jumping into the water. Odd indeed. Overall what we’re given in these verses is a tidy epilogue giving closure to some main charters from the Gospel of John.
Our verses cover three parts, there’s a fishing trip, breakfast with loaves and fishes, and a closure scene between Peter and Jesus. Each of the scenes calls to mind other stories from Jesus’ ministry, including echoes of stories from other gospels.
Right away is a lesson on community. Peter says he’s going out fishing, but the other disciples don’t allow him to go it alone. This is a communal effort. The fishing trip calls to mind the disciple’s call story, only it’s not the call story from John it’s from Luke. However, in contrast to Luke’s story this isn’t a call story but a sustaining story for the disciples. In John’s account Jesus is no longer in the boat; it reminds us of Good Friday. But going in community and listening to the risen Christ’s still calling voice, the mission moves forward.
Back on the beach, the risen Jesus resides with a charcoal fire. There is only one other place in the Gospel that this term is used, and it is the scene of Peter’s denial of Jesus. So as the reader of the story we should call to mind this denial on the night Jesus is crucified. We are right to think something is about to happen between Jesus and the one who denied him. But first, breakfast.
When we speak of “loaves and fishes,” this scene on the beach is likely not the fist thing you think of. Instead many of us likely call to mind the feeding of the 5000 from early in John’s gospel and the feeding of the multitude in the other three gospels as well. The feeding of the crowd is one a only a few stories that appears in all 4 gospels. And it is by no means a bad thing that this breakfast on the beach helps us recall those narratives. The other thing it would rightly call to mind is the eucharistic meal or the Last Supper. We see similar things, and it’s in the breaking of the bread that the disciple’s fully recognize that it is the risen Christ present with them.
Finally, our reconciliation moment for Peter. Threefold questioning from Jesus, Do you love me followed by Peter's answer, you know I love you. It mirrors the 3 denials on the night Jesus is crucified and serves to move beyond that moment. Feed my sheep is the request as now Jesus hands off the act of being shepherd to Peter and the disciples.
There’s a lot of food present in our story today. There’s an abundance of fish. There’s bread. And there’s this call to feed Jesus’ sheep. It’s probably good that there’s a lot of food present here with us today. It is communion Sunday and it’s our great day of service where we are packing ten thousand meals with our partner Rise Against Hunger. This is at least our 13th year working with Rise (formerly Stop Hunger Now). They have been a good partner to us and importantly their model allows us the rare opportunity to serve as a congregation with fellowship where so much of our other direct service by necessity happens in small teams. It’s a bit of a win-win for us, time together in service and meeting a deep need in the world.
According to World Food Programme looking at 2025;
- “Acute hunger is on the rise again, affecting 343 million people in 74 countries where the World Food Programme (WFP) works and data is available.
- Up to 1.9 million people are estimated to be on the brink of famine, primarily in Gaza and Sudan – where famine was confirmed in one location in July 2024 – but also pockets of the populations in South Sudan, Haiti and Mali.
- WFP’s operational requirement for 2025 is US$16.9 billion, which would allow us to reach 123 million of the most vulnerable food-insecure people globally.”
Of course these are not the only crises in the world, of the 10 most overlooked emergencies our partners at Rise Against Hunger are active in 5 locations Burkina Faso, Burundi, Malawi, Niger and Zambia, with food assistance and efforts to increase local food security.
Against this backdrop and contributing to the crisis the US has cut massive amounts of international aid. That includes around $4 billion cut from giving to WFP.
I spoke with someone very familiar with global food security this week and asked what we’re seeing after US cuts. They described the effects of cuts to organizations like WFP resulting in real time preventable deaths from the effects of famine. The longer-term effects on populations being; stunting and developmental delays among children from the effects of wasting which also hurt regions long-term. Other near-term changes will mean a complete whipping out of efforts on food security/capacity building and addressing root causes of hunger. (depressing, but we’ll fight back before we even leave this room)
I asked the same person what from their faith walk tells them this work is important? They said, we (Christians) are about meeting basic needs. Jesus ministry was meeting those basic food needs in the loaves and fishes. Jesus was about the core of human need and not just surviving but thriving.
The Gospel of John would certainly agree.
Back to the beach. We recall the loaves and fishes, the feeding of the multitude, and the eucharistic meal.
Let’s add some layers about the eucharist meal. In John the Last Supper starts as an act of service. The other gospels begin with words of institution, but John starts with washing the disciples feet. Jesus says I give you a new commandment, to love one another as I have loved you. Dr. Petros Vassiliadis puts it this way; “John understands the Eucharist not as a mere “cultic” and “sacramental” act, but primarily as a diaconal act and an alternative way of life with clear social implications… The Eucharist was lived in the early Christian community as a foretaste of the coming kingdom of God, a proleptic manifestation within the tragic realities of history of an authentic life of communion, unity, justice, and equality…” Within the tragic realities of history a proleptic manifestation of an authentic life of communion, unity, justice, and equality.
Think about the shape of our communion together for a moment. Here we come to table with the backdrop of the tragic realties of history playing out in the world in this moment. Where we’re being told there’s not enough to go around and vital aid is being cut and leveraged as a tool of war. The Eucharistic meal says to that, no. Here everyone is fed the same and there is enough. Everyone is fed without regard to immigration status, wealth, employment. Housed and unhoused are all fed. We say in the meal that this is what it will be in the end, and we practice it now.
Everyday we have a multitude of opportunities to resist evil, injustice and oppression in the world. Today we have a few ways set out for our community. If you are helping pack meals today, thank you. All of us are able to contribute to that effort through our giving even if we’re not able to participate today. And those meals are going out into a world in deep need. We are also ensuring that we’re letting our voices be heard when it comes to the importance of lifesaving aid and so in the chat are links from Bread for the World calling on elected leaders to restore lifesaving aid and to protect the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
But first, breakfast (of a sort). We come to the table, give thanks to God, and participate in a meal that says abiding in love with God is possible now, that unity is possible now, that justice and equality are possible right now. All can be fed.
Counter to what the world shows us, on this third Sunday of Easter we are remined that a risen Christ still calls to us and shows the way. We’re shown that we go in community. We’re shown that we practice a hoped for reality now, where all our nourished. We are reminded that those who answer and say, I love the Lord are asked to go out and feed others.
