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In the name of Jesus. Amen.

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The text for our meditation this morning is from the reading from John

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chapter 21.

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The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter it is the Lord. When Simon

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Peter heard that it was the Lord he put on his outer garment for he

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was stripped for work and threw himself into the sea.

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The Evangelist John tells us that the risen Christ revealed himself

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again to his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias. This text in John 21 is

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bookended with Easter proclamations.

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The was now the third time John says that Jesus was revealed to the disciples

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after he was raised from the dead.

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The disciples see and they hear and they believe.

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There is a great miracle in this story.

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After Easter week, the disciples had gone on ahead to Galilee. Peter

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decided to go fishing and the other is went along in the boat to help.

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They fished all night, but caught nothing at daybreak

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they are near the point of giving up. And suddenly a man appears on the

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shore calling out to them.

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He tells them to cast their net on the other side of the boat and when

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they do there are so many fish

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it is more than they can handle.

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And then the disciple John recognizes the man on the shore and tells

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Peter who it is.

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And Peter jumps into the sea to go to his Lord.

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I would like to tell you a brief story of how others have viewed and

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depicted this text from John chapter 21. And in  particular how they have

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viewed Peters faith.

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In the late 16th century the Society of Jesus sent Matteo Ricci to

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China with the task of bringing the Christian faith and the Catholic

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Church to the people there.

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Like many of his Jesuit missionary counterparts Ricci saw catechesis

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and education as the means to introduce the teachings of the

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scriptures.

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Communicating the faith and the stories of the Bible was not easy in

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China.

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There was no translation of the Bible in the language of the people.

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So Ricci relied on images to convey the message.

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He and his missionaries used illustrated Bibles from Europe, but they

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also began to enlist Chinese artists to produce and replicate pictures

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for further distribution. Images with a brief text of explanation can be

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mass-produced and put into booklets and used for teaching.

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It seemed the best way to communicate the faith to the people.

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But when Matteo Ricci came to depict our text in John chapter 21,

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he took some liberties with it. He already had an engraving of

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Jesus appearing to his disciples by the Sea and of the fisherman in

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the boat and of Peter swimming in the water to Jesus on Shore he had

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that image already.

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But Ricci ask the Chinese artist to change the image on the engraving

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to portray Peter walking on the water to Jesus.

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This is not a confusion of the story in Matthew 14 when Peter walks

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from the boat to the walking on water Jesus and begins to falter and sink.

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Ricci knew that story.

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But his portrayal of the tax in John 21 is unique here Peter goes to

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his Risen Lord striving with outstretched arms walking amongst the

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waves.

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Now to be clear the text of John 21 does not say that Peter walked on

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the water.

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It says that he leaped into the sea and came to shore.

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But Ricci just the story in order that the wrong image may do the right

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work.

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He wanted to show the Chinese a testimony to the power of the Risen

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Christ.

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He wanted to show them what faith looks like.

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Admittedly this alteration of the picture may be an example of

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Ricci's theological assimilation

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if not syncretism a little Confucianism mixed in with Christian

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theism, perhaps.

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He did that in his missionary work in China, and there was controversy

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about it.

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But nevertheless there is something for us to consider in what Ricci

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does here.

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He was trying to portray Peter seeing the Risen Lord and wanting to be

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with him.

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He was trying to convey the meaning the impact of faith.

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Ricci's alteration of the engraving was not really an attempt to

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reinterpret the story but to get it the stories meaning in a way that

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the Chinese people could remember it. He wanted to invoke faith through

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visual memory.

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Faith in Jesus walks on water.

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Jesus has the power over the sea and the waves but he is Lord over much

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more than that.

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He is sovereign over the forces of nature but he has also come to

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resolve the fallen condition of humanity and to save.

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Ricci was communicating the meaning of Christ and his resurrection for

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fallen people and he conveyed the meaning of Faith with an image of a

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fisherman who was being raised up.

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Just a few weeks before

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Peter had denied Jesus and in doing so he had thought only of himself

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and had forgotten his Lord.

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And when he realized what he had done he wept bitterly.

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But now his sorrow is mixed with astonishment and joy. Peter has

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received the Peace of the Lord.

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He has seen the Risen Christ for the third time and he wants to be

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with him.

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He knows that he belongs with him.

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Peter was forgetting himself.

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He was seeking what he needed no longer in himself, but only in his

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Risen Lord.

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This faith would lead Peter and the other disciples to follow Jesus to go

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out preaching and teaching with boldness what they had heard and seen.

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In this Faith they bore witness to the gospel of the resurrected

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Christ.

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And this faith would lead Peter to the Cross his own cross.

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But his death would be forever joined with Christ's own and his new

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life will be joined with Christ's Resurrection life for all eternity.

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Faith does miraculous things when it hears and sees Jesus and

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believes.

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Faith goes in peace where it is sent.

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Faith comes in joy to where it is called and it always looks to Jesus and

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listens to Jesus and remains in his presence, faith follows him.

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There is a great miracle in this text.

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There is a great catch of fish in the net.

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There is a greater miracle in this story though.

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There is the faith of the fisherman.

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The disciples see they hear and they believe Jesus.

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As the Evangelist John tells us this was the third time that Jesus

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appeared to his disciples after his resurrection from the dead.

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The third time.

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There is no uncertainty about his rising from the dead now and in the

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previous chapter of John Jesus has given his disciples his peace.

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They have this piece in the scene by the lake this side of Easter the

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peace the reconciliation between God and fallen human beings has been

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accomplished.

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Just as God creates faith in the hearts of the disciples, so he

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creates faith in our hearts.

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In spite of our sins are denials are faltering and failings in spite

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of our faithlessness.

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God has mercy and he forgives.

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He calls out to us to follow him and be with him where he leads. To

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hear and see with eyes of faith and believe this is the great miracle

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that God has worked in us.

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He has given us the gift of saving faith in Jesus.

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Now, on this side of Easter

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we are reconciled to God and we belong to him.

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He is with us always wherever he calls and we follow him.

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Come and see and believe with the disciples.

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It is the Lord.

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It is Our Risen Lord Jesus. Amen.

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In the name of Jesus. Amen.