John 21:1-14
April 22, 2007
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng of the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco in Yosemite.
For many years now, we come to Yosemite as a church group on the weekend after our taxes is due. Maybe we know we are getting a tax refund so we like to splurge it on this weekend. Maybe we discovered that we paid a big tax bill so we come up to these beautiful mountains to not think about it. Or, maybe it’s just easy to remember that after April 15 or this year, the 17th, it’s time to go to Yosemite. The world of paying taxes tells us when to come to Yosemite.
Last Monday’s tragedy at Virginia Tech has filled our news and our hearts with sorrow and grief. We can’t help ourselves to be glued to the TV because we as human beings cry out when others are hurting. What is supposed to be a safe environment for college students and their professors to learn has been turned into unimaginable human chaos. All we can see is an upset world after Easter. We feel that we are thrown out of balance. Thank God, we can come to Yosemite to get away from that old world.
The Gospel lesson we read together took place after Easter. What we see is not an upset world after Easter but a world upset by Easter. Simon Peter said to the other disciples, “I am going fishing.” He is going back to the world that he is familiar with before he became a disciple. The other disciples join him because they wanted to forget all the horrible things that happened: the betrayal, the denial, the crucifixion, their doubts. What they knew was fishing and end up catching nothing. This is an upset world after Easter.
But in John’s Gospel, the risen Christ is surprising and upsetting. Jesus shows himself again to the disciples by the sea. It’s not simply that the tomb is empty, but rather that after Easter, the world is intruded with the Risen Christ. While the old world is in the grip of death, after Easter, the world is rearranged, turned upside down so that God may set the world right. Jesus tells them how to fish and when they obey him, there’s this huge catch. Jesus made available bread with the fish they caught to eat. He ate breakfast with them on the beach.
I think the reason why we come to Yosemite every year is that we live in an upset world that is thrown out of kilter and by coming up here, we are reminded by the wonder, miracle, and extravagance of God’s world. It may be that taxes upset us. The Virginia Tech massacre upsets us. But the resurrection of Christ is the beginning of a new world that is more clearly under the reign of God. We leave our familiar world that we live day in and day out to come if only for a weekend to Yosemite to be reminded that the old world is now upset by Easter. If only for a moment that we can catch an eye-full of God’s new world while we are here in Yosemite this weekend, we would more clearly see the reign of God. This may be the thundering waterfalls, the gigantic granite stone-faced mountains, the fellowship that we have as sisters and brothers, the food we eat, the helping and serving that we give to one another, the joy of knowing Jesus Christ after Easter.
When I come to Yosemite, I rarely see a dandelion. But in my garden, no matter how carefully I try to pull one out, I never get the whole thing. The root stays deep in the ground, threatening to grow and blossom again.
But despite their bad reputation, dandelions are pretty little flowers with yellow strands all tucked neatly in the center. And truly they are the most beautiful of all flowers when presented clutched in a child’s dirty little hand. No one gets yelled at for picking them. Perhaps they grow only to be used and enjoyed by children.
Dandelions are ignored or attacked, never nurtured or cared for, and yet they always bloom profusely. They demand no pampering or special attention to yield the bright blossoms; they pop up in fields, in lawns, and between cracks in the sidewalk, even in the best neighborhoods. Can you imagine trying to grow them in a garden? They’d sneak through the boundaries and pop their sunny yellow faces up in the surrounding lawn. They would never stay put.
Christians should be more like dandelions. Our sunny yellow faces should be a reminder that simple faith has deep roots that are impossible to dislodge. Our vast number would show the world that even though we are not fancy or pampered, we are evident everywhere, even in the best neighborhoods. We should be as easily accessible as a dandelion. Jesus is. We need to get out of our gardens and jump across the boundaries that keep us where people expect to find us. We need to show our sunny yellow faces in all the spots that need a little brightening—the crack in the sidewalk or at home when we complete our taxes or on all the college campuses and neighborhoods in the world.
Christ is upsetting our upset world by Easter. We are to follow him to upset the upset world too with God’s love and peace. Surely, we are living in a world upset by Easter because Christ is risen!
Let us pray.