Call to worship:
If you lift your net and it is empty,
Come here! We’ll cast it out again into Christ’s abundance.
If you open your eyes but do not recognize the Holy One, Come here! We’ll find the Risen Christ here among us. Draw near! To give blessing and honour and glory to God!
Adapted from: https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/03/call-to-worship-easter-3-c.html from Feed My Lambs, written by Rev. Quentin Chin. Posted on the United Church of Christ website. http://uccfiles.com/pdf/FeedmySheepEaster3April14.pdf
Opening Prayer:
Great God of Heaven and Earth,
you call us to leave behind our preoccupations and to follow you into the future.
Sometimes, we find your call challenging.
We are comfortable, maybe even complacent, in our present.
May this act of worship be a gesture of our willingness to follow where you lead.
In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Amen.
Adapted from https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2014/01/offering-prayer-following-where-you-lead.html posted on the United Methodist Foundation of Michigan. http://www.umfmichigan.org/offerprayers.html
STF 471 Lord I come to you
Lord, I come to You.
Let my heart be changed, renewed,
Flowing from the grace
That I’ve found in you.
Lord, I’ve come to know
The weaknesses I see in me
Will be stripped away
By the power of Your love
Hold me close,
Let Your love surround me;
Bring me near, draw me to your side.
And as I wait,
I’ll rise up like the eagle,
And I will soar with you.
Your Spirit leads me on
In the power of Your love.
Lord, unveil my eyes,
Let me see you face to face,
The knowledge of your love
As you live in me.
Lord, renew my mind,
As your will unfolds in my life,
In living every day
By the power of Your love.
Chorus
Geoff Bullock (b 1956)
Bible Reading
John 21:1-19
Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish
21 Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: 2 Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 3 “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
4 Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
5 He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
6 He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
7 Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, “It is the Lord,” he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water. 8 The other disciples followed in the boat, towing the net full of fish, for they were not far from shore, about a hundred yards. 9 When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread.
10 Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.” 11 So Simon Peter climbed back into the boat and dragged the net ashore. It was full of large fish, 153, but even with so many the net was not torn. 12 Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord. 13 Jesus came, took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. 14 This was now the third time Jesus appeared to his disciples after he was raised from the dead.
Jesus Reinstates Peter
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”
“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Time to reflect:
Traditionally, the third Sunday after Easter is Vocation Sunday. A day when we are encouraged to reflect and to seek God as to how as Christians, we are living out our calling; to respond to the Gospel of God’s love in Christ, (https://www.methodist.org.uk/about/our-calling/). There are many ways through which we live out our faith both within the Church and the wider community. Today, we are invited to encourage one another by sharing our stories of how God has called us into different vocations within the church and to be continually open to God’s calling.
Our Gospel reading, from John Chapter 21, is a narrative of loving forgiveness and calling for Peter. Take yourself back to the Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples are gathered round the table; Jesus breaks the bread and shares the wine. But then, Jesus says to them all, that this very night you all will fall away. This would have come as a shock to them I am sure and Peter being Peter says, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will”. Jesus’s reply is direct, “This very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times”. Matthew 26 verses 31-35.
I am sure I am not alone in saying that there have been times when I have felt the call of God in my life and turned in the other direction. It is 34 years since I sensed God calling me to become a minister within the Methodist Church. I, like Peter, denied God’s calling; didn’t test it out with fellow Christians or test it out myself. Instead, I told no-one for 25 years. Looking back, I ask myself why?
The answer, if I am honest, is an unwillingness to trust God into unchartered waters. God, graciously however, waited and kept on knocking on my door until eventually I started to listen. Trusting God’s calling has been a step of faith, a challenge, but the best decision that I ever made.
Peter was taken to a place of vulnerability on the seashore of Galilee. They had gone back to their previous vocation, fishing, a place of comfort at a time of bewilderment. They had seen the risen Jesus and been sent to spread the Good News. We don’t really understand their journey from the locked room, where Jesus appeared, to the Sea of Galilee, but here they are, fishing again. This was the place where Jesus had originally called them to follow him, they fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus was standing on the beach and called to them and gave them instructions to cast their net to the other side. It was hearing this familiar instruction that opened their eyes to Jesus. Jesus takes Peter aside and asks him three times, ‘Do you love me”? Notice there was no condemnation for denying he knew Jesus. Instead, love and a call to follow.
Responding to Jesus’s calling took courage as we see in Peter and takes him to a place of vulnerability where he encounters God’s love. Read John 21 again and reflect on the compassionate and loving nature of Jesus.
Be courageous this week and take a step of faith and share your journey with a friend as to how you have served God over the years. Amen.
Prayers of intercession
You are invited to pray silently for:
The needs of the world…
The Church and its calling…
Loved ones going through difficult times…
For peace, justice, and reconciliation…
In Jesus name.
Amen.
The Lord's Prayer
Please use the version that you prefer
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be your name,
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
On earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
As we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
And deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power
and the glory are yours
Now and for ever.
Amen.
StF 673 Will you come and follow me
Will you come and follow me
If I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know
And never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown,
Will you let my name be known,
Will you let my life be grown
In you and you in me?
Will you leave yourself behind
If I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind
And never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare
Should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer
In you and you in me?
Will you let the blinded see
If I but call your name?
Will you set the prisoners free
And never be the same?
Will you kiss the leper clean,
And do such as this unseen,
And admit to what I mean
In you and you in me?
Will you love the ‘you’ you hide
If I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside
And never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found
To reshape the world around,
Through my sight and touch and sound
In you and you in me?
Lord, your summons echoes true
When you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you
And never be the same.
In your company I’ll go
Where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow
Final Prayer
As you go out into the world,
seek the presence of the Risen Christ in each other and in all of Creation.
May God give you joyful courage to follow the command of Jesus: “Feed my lambs.” “Tend my sheep.” “Feed my sheep.”
Amen.
From Feed My Lambs, written by Rev. Quentin Chin. Posted on the United Church of Christ website. http://uccfiles.com/pdf/FeedmySheepEaster3April14.pdf cited https://re-worship.blogspot.com/2013/03/sending-feed-my-sheep.html
