Fishing and Fending

This weekend I’m preaching about the disciples and their unsuccessful fishing trip after the first Easter. After post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, they are either freaked out or just putting in time until they receive further instructions. They have returned to what they know - fishing.

As I try to read this with fresh eyes I can’t help but think about how they are labourers, blue collar workers. They would be considered ‘essential’ workers by today’s standards, bringing in food for the people. They fish all night and don’t catch anything. Perhaps after the events of the last several days this is the last straw. They can’t go back to how things were. Too much has changed and even the fish aren’t biting. They have lost so much and are probably disillusioned and frustrated and definitely tired..

Then Jesus calls to them tenderly and compassionately from shore. He tells them to put their net in on the other side and they reluctantly do it. Suddenly the net is full to bursting with wriggling fish and they have to heave it into the boat. This miracle reminds them of when Jesus first called them to be disciples and they realize that it is Him. They rush in to shore and eat the simple breakfast He has prepared for them on the beach.

On Monday in the provincial legislature paid sick days were voted down. The government ultimately gave a death sentence to essential workers, forcing them to make the impossible choice of coming to work sick in environments where Covid-19 is easily transmitted or staying home to get well without pay and not being able to afford rent or groceries. This while the Premier self-isolates and is able to work safely from home with his salary intact.

This story from John 21 demonstrates the inherent value of labourers in God’s eyes, those who work with their hands and produce what people need. In our far more complex society of today, essential workers include grocery staff, health staff, emergency services personnel, transit workers and the list goes on. It includes the people who daily put themselves at risk to provide and care for the rest of us. Often they are some of the lowest paid and from racialized communities and neighbourhoods and they are filling up our ICUs.

I speak and write and work from a place of privilege. My “regular” job allows me to work from home with a work laptop and my privilege means that I can afford internet connection so I can get in a queue to be vaccinated. I don’t have children and I have good health and a cellphone and live alone. Isolating for me has been easy and when I injured my hip, to work from home was no problem. I didn’t skip a beat.

In the story of those disciples reverting back to their original vocation as fishermen, they’re doing what they know just like so many workers here, whether brought in from other countries to produce and harvest our food or from Canada. They work long hours, sometimes long night shifts in factories, or doing back breaking labour that many wouldn’t want to touch

The disciples struggle because everything has changed except for the value Jesus brings to their lives. He is able to take their current situation where things don’t make sense and there is much uncertainty and He brings Himself into it with a voice of reassurance. Yet again, He shows up for them and rather than Him being fed by them, He feeds them with their bursting fishing net beside them, reminding them of what they can do by working in tandem with Him and using their gifts and skills.

Jesus’ words to Peter to feed and tend His sheep are also for us. There are so many people who by and large remain invisible to us, out in the dark early morning hours having worked to exhaustion with seemingly little to show for it. If we are the body of Christ in this time, how do we fix the situation around us, of essential workers who can’t succeed in this pandemic because of the constant threat to their health and well-being of just doing the work they know how to do and inequality and lack of access? These people certainly aren’t valued as they once were. How do we help them turn their sorrow and empty nets into joy and abundance? How do we value them and re-energize and feed them so that they can continue? Perhaps this will involve advocacy and petitions, acts of grace and renewed pot banging on balconies and front steps. Perhaps this will involve de-constructing how capitalism seems to outweigh our humanity

Wouldn’t it feel wonderful to be calling out to beleaguered hard-working people and to set a feast in front of them, to reassure them of the value of what they do? Wouldn’t it feel amazing to invest in people and to feed them with not just food but confidence and dignity? The sheep who need feeding are everywhere around us right now. Let’s bring them into the light and lift them up. All of us, when we offer our work to Christ, can haul in a big catch.