Tuesday, June 2, 2020
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Spiritual Stamina
We spent Easter Week reflecting on the 21st Chapter of John’s Gospel and the implications it has for our modern lives. The Resurrected Christ appears to the disheartened apostles who have returned to their nets and the sea in their confusion after the events in Jerusalem during their Passover time. Christ had returned to the Upper Room where they had all shared that last meal before Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, and Jesus’ faithful followers – much like us – rejoiced with Christ’s revelation of himself. Now they feel a bit empty and flat when little in their lives appears to have changed significantly or for the better in any way at all. And so they go back to what they know . . . and their world changes irreparably when Christ appears again on the shore of the sea.
The apostles sling their nets over the water another time as the man on the shore asks and although they have been casting for hours and have caught nothing . . . the nets come up full to bursting. And miraculously even though there were so many fish, the net does not break.
During Eastertide we have explored the burdens and rewards of discipleship. We have examined the costs and the benefits of following Christ. We have evaluated the requirements and gifts of living as disciples and we have sometimes found that we have no stomach and little energy to persist in the journey. We hunger, we thirst, we ache, we tire, we stagger and flag under our perceived burden and yet . . . we return each morning to our Sisyphean task. Despite our exhaustion, deep within we know that Christ continues to sustain. We know that he fills our nets daily. And we see that the nets have not torn. This is, indeed, a marvelous God.
Paul understands this condition of amazed exhaustion when he writes to the Romans – and to us: We even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance proven character, and proven character hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)
Today, as we celebrate the real presence of Christ among us we turn to this intimate friend and brother who knows us so well, and we place all our worries and delights, all our anxieties and joys, all our fears and celebrations in his able arms. We fall into this threefold God who protects, saves and sustains, and we pray . . .
Dearest and most precious God present in us,
Although we tire we are not beaten, so living in the life of Christ, we rejoice in our exhaustion. You have filled our nets again and we know that we cannot pull them from the sea without you.
Although we lack so much we are not lost, so living in the life of the Spirit, we celebrate our poverty. You have given us all the resources we will ever need and we know that we cannot discern them without you.
Although we have no stamina we find ourselves rising to new mornings, and living in the goodness of God, and so we praise you. We find ourselves each day with grateful hearts and we know that we cannot live without you.
Remind us that although our nets are full . . . they will never tear. Although our limbs are weary . . . they will never fail. Although our hearts are broken . . . they will never be empty. Amen.
A re-post from June 2, 2013.
The Noontimes 