Dave spoke tonight from John 21:1-14. The things that are narrated here happened just after Easter, when life was getting back to normal after the trauma of all that happened that week. Peter, tired of being in limbo and waiting, had decided to go back fishing, but things were not going well for him and his friends. When Jesus called to them from the beach, his disciples did not recognise HIm. This was a recurring theme after the Resurrection: Mary thought Jesus was the gardener initially; the disciples on the road to Emmaus did not recognise Jesus at first. We can be like them too, failing to recognise Jesus in our ordinary, everyday lives.
We may perhaps not expect to meet Jesus anywhere but at church services, but the truth is that we can meet Him anywhere – whilst we are shopping or at work, for example. We do need special places to meet with HIm, but must understand that He can be found also in the ordinary as well. He was found by Mary in a cemetery garden, by two disciples on a dusty road, and here, He is found by the lake. Previously, He had been found at a wedding, at a well, at a funeral (not just in the synagogue). Jesus is with us everywhere and the ordinary places can become sacred ones when we recognise His presence there.
We do meet with God in the church building when we gather together, but we must be careful not to restrict meeting with God to this one place only. Jesus is with us wherever we go and we need to seek to recognise His presence in our everyday lives.
