The New Dawn May 6th 1990
It is a very great pleasure to have been invited to conduct your Service this evening. I was last in this Church in 1968, when, if I remember rightly, David Caton was your Vicar and my eldest daughter was confirmed while we were here. It was also the first time I was invited to speak in public, to say the Intercessions from the back of the Church. Perhaps it was a foreshadowing of things to come.
The theme of my Sermon is The New Dawn or ‘new beginnings’. The Resurrection appearances of the Risen Lord to his disciples and followers. In the appearance of Jesus to his disciples by the Lakeside in Galilee, we can picture the disciples setting out for their fishing expedition. They had come back to Galilee in obedience to our Lord’s wishes and promise that they would see him in Galilee, so St Matthew tells us. They would have set out in the early evening, and we know that they toiled all night and caught no fish.
It is during the hours of darkness that our spiritual energy is at its lowest ebb. This would have been accompanied by physical and emotional fatigue, after the terrible events of the crucifixion followed by the amazing events of our Lord’s appearance to them in the upper room in his risen body, and the perplexities about what it all meant for the future.
It is the darkest hour that precedes the dawn. It was just as day was breaking and they were drawing into land that they see a figure on the beach, but they did not know it was Jesus. He calls out to them, “Children, have you any fish”? They tell him “no” and he tells them to cast their net on the right side of the boat and they will find some. So they cast their net and were not able to haul it in because it was so heavy with fish. And it is John who says to Peter, “It is the Lord”. And our impetuous Peter doesn’t wait to bring in the fish, but leaps into the sea to get to Jesus as quickly as possible.
It must, for all of them have been a sharp reminder of that time – now so long ago- when they caught a similar huge shoal of fish at Jesus’ bidding. It must have seemed like a miracle to those rough and ready fisherman, and that was the occasion when Jesus called them to become ‘Fishers of Men’.
One of the mysterious things about the Resurrection appearances of Jesus is that in the first instance, the disciples don’t recognise Jesus. It is not until he does or says something that is personal to them that they realise who it is. At first, by the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene supposes him to be the gardener. It wasn’t until he called her by her name, Mary, that she recognised him. The disciples going to Emmaus did not know him until he ‘broke bread’ in their presence. And now the disciples who are fishing didn’t know him until they caught a huge shoal of fish.
I think there are things we can learn from these mysteries and from what Jesus said and did. The Collect for Easter Day begins with the words: “Almighty God, who through thy only begotten Son Jesus Christ has overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life”. The Way is now open to us. The New Dawn is ours to rejoice in. The Dawn is not an end but a new beginning. Not for us yet the vision, the fulfilment. There is first the day’s work to be done. To Mary he said, “Don’t cling to me”. The agony is over, but it is not yet time for the carefree joys of eternity. There is still work to be done. And as to us also, the angel at the empty tomb says, “He goes before you”. It is for us to follow, to go on working, for as long as he wills. In these words, with which the Easter Collect begins, we affirm the continuing life of Christ, our Brother, with us still in the world today.
So the journey through life takes on the appearance, not of a pilgrimage which follows remotely the footsteps of a hero who first trod that way a long time ago, but a journey like that of the disciples to Emmaus, accompanied by Christ. “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures”? Their hearts had been set on fire with his words and his presence, even before they knew who it was. It helps us to know we only have to listen and to be aware. To share a journey with a friend is to halve its length and its hardships. With his companionship we need not fear the hazards on the way. “Don’t be afraid”, the Angel in the tomb said to the women before sending them on their journey. The disciples at Emmaus recognised their Lord when he sat at the table with them, took the bread and blessed it and broke it and gave it to them. The ‘breaking of bread’ is the symbol of hospitality and friendship. If we are to live consciously in the companionship of Christ we must also give him our friendship. “I call you not servants but friends”, he explicitly told his disciples. We must therefore do our part.
St Thomas Aquinnas, a Priest and Teacher in the 13th Century tells us that in friendship there are three elements: First, to will the good of our friend, even at sacrifice to ourselves. Secondly, the friendship must be mutual. Each must be ready to give to the other. Each must be ready to receive. Some people find it easy to give to others but difficult to accept favours themselves. So the egotism in us is reluctant to take life as a total gift from God’s hands. We need the humility to overcome this.
The third essential quality is sharing. A real sharing of life with God. Not just of superficialities such as exists between acquaintances, but a sharing of the deep things of life, the deep thoughts and ambitions – the secrets of the heart.
How do we share our lives with Christ? First, by constant reference to his will – making his will and his wisdom the guiding light in all that we do. There must also be the constant daily turning of the mind to God which is the life of prayer, making the awareness of his presence a deep and constant possession.
Jesus was showing his friendship to his disciples when he invited them to have breakfast with him, and in the sharing of the bread and fish. So, out of the night of darkness, after their toiling at sea and having caught nothing, at the approach of a new dawn, another day, they meet with Jesus on the beach and share in a friendship meal. Their first communion with their risen Lord. The kind of friendship meal that the early Church came to know as the Agape or Love Feast.
There are so many things one could say about this new age dawning, the Coming of his Kingdom on earth which our Lord had brought into being through his coming to live with us on earth, and for dying and rising again for us. And he said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”.
And now may the God of all grace, who called us into his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, restore, establish and strengthen us on a firm foundation: to whom be glory and dominion ever. Amen