And I Said How About Breakfast with Jesus

I would like to begin with a couple of jokes, some that you have might already have heard. The first goes like this:

Two brothers are terrible trouble makers. They are always breaking things, stealing things, lying, and making all kinds of general trouble. The parents have tried everything to get the boys to change, to no avail. Finally, out of options, they ask their pastor if he can help. He says he will talk to the boys, but only one at a time. The parents drop off the youngest and go home, promising to return to get him soon. The boy sits in a chair across from the pastor's desk and they just look at each other.

Finally, the Pastor says, "Where is God?" The boy just sits there and doesn't answer. The pastor begins to look stern and loudly says, "Where is God?" The little boy shifts in his seat, but still doesn't answer.

The pastor is starting to get angry at the boy's refusal to converse and practically shouts "Where is God?" To the pastor's surprise, the little boy jumps up out of his chair and runs out of the office.

The boy leaves the church and runs all the way home, up the stairs and into his brother's room. He shuts the door and pants, "We're in BIG TROUBLE. God's missing and they think we did it!"

The second is like this:

A pastor was making a visit at the request of a family who had recently visited his church. He took a seat in a chair by the fireplace and began to talk with the mother and father. During the course of the conversation, the couple's 6 year old son kept coming into the living room in desperate search for something. Finally the father asked, “Son, what are you doing?” “I'm looking for Jesus.” the son answered. The pastor, being an astute individual, offered this pearl of wisdom, “Well, I think Jesus is right where you looking. All we have to do is open our eyes and see.”

The boy looked quizzically at the pastor as the father begin, “Sorry, Pastor but...” “No, dad,” the boy interrupted as he dropped to the carpet. Rising back up with a cat in his arms he said, “He was right. I found Jesus! He was under the couch!”

Silly stories, I know.

In today's scripture reading, we experience a silly story of sorts. The disciples are out at the Sea of Tiberias, collecting themselves when Peter decides to do what most men do when they don't want to talk, he decides to go fish. Nothing spectacular but the others decide fishing beats sitting around on the beach, so they go with him. They spend the entire day and night out on the boat fishing, and like most fishing trips, they catch nothing. At daybreak, a voice from the shore shouts, “Have you caught anything?” Without hesitation, they respond, “No, nothing!” The man on the shore yells back, “Cast your net on the right side of the boat!”

The disciples do not question the man. They simply cast their nets and within seconds their nets literally runeth over. John immediately says, “It's the Lord!” and Peter, in Peter like fashion, dives into the water and swims to shore while the disciples row like crazy to get catch up. Nothing mattered in that moment but being with Jesus and all it took to see Jesus was to go and do nothing.

In this resurrection journey, we often get caught in the results of the journey. We focus on the outcome as proof of God's involvement instead of looking at the experience of the journey. The church gets trapped in this “business model” in which it's purpose is solely about numbers, figures, attendance, conversions, baptisms, and building projects. Each of these measurable outcomes invoke an attitude of superiority above others. It invokes this notion that a church is blessed by God by the number of people who come instead of who comes. It invokes this notion that the church is blessed by how much they've spent on their building project instead of who are giving and what are they building for. It invokes the notion that the church is blessed by the number of baptisms instead of the who are being being baptized. The church judges itself on the visible, tangible results of our activities instead of judging itself on the love they have for their Lord and their neighbor. In the hustle of this visible result attitude that is infesting the modern church, we forget to stop and ask, “Where's Jesus?”

I am reminded of a story I once read. Mike Yaconelli, in an article on “Where's Jesus,” tells of a time when he was forced to ask that very question:

“I was recently hit with that very question (Where's Jesus?) during a meeting with a well-known evangelist. After an hour and a half of his very organized presentation on a new, nationwide program for spreading the gospel, he stopped and asked some of us to respond.

I started to speak, but the words caught in my throat. My tears ambushed me, and I was unable to respond. Taken by surprise, I wondered what my tears were all about. Instantly I saw the following mental picture: A man was leaning against the wall a few feet from us. He seemed lonely and sad, like a wallflower at a dance. One look at his eyes, and I could tell he desperately wanted us to notice him, to pay attention to him, to talk to him—but we just went on with our business and ignored him.

That man was Jesus, of course. There he stood in the midst of our long conversation about strategies, programs, and target markets, and we didn’t even notice the very reason why we have these meetings in the first place! I believe that in much of modern youth ministry (ministry in general), the question "Where’s Jesus?" has been replaced with “Who needs Jesus?””¹

Jesus didn't care about the amount of fish the disciples caught. He cared about them. He simply wanted to have breakfast with his friends. He wanted to be with them and wanted them to be with him. They didn't need a classical church setting with hymns. They didn't need a rock concert or evangelism conferences or church leadership conferences. They didn't need a young hip preacher with orange hair or Billy Graham in his suit. All they needed was a boat, a net, and go fishing to see Jesus.

Jesus is dangerous. If he was dangerous to the religious leaders before he was crucified, he is even more dangerous to us today now that he has risen. When Jesus shows up, plans go out the window, visions get altered, and we become radically different. I think that's why we rarely ask, “Where's Jesus?” I think we're terrified of the wounds of the resurrection journey. I think we're terrified to place our fingers where the nails were. I think we're terrified to place our hand inside where the spear struck. I think we're terrified because we will fall to our knees crying, “My Lord!” We are terrified that if we look to the shore and if we cast our nets, our boat will sink. We are terrified that Jesus may actually just love us for who we are and that doing nothing is all it takes to see Jesus.

We have become convinced that what Jesus wants in the church is a group of people are in constant motion, busy bodies building anthills. I believe, even in our mission mindfulness, we are so concerned with being Jesus that our churches are constantly drowning out Jesus' voice, “Come and have breakfast.” Maybe what Jesus really desires in our churches are followers who say, “Sorry, I don't have time to read your article. Sorry, I don't have time to hear about your guaranteed program. I'm busy taking some folks fishing and having breakfast with Jesus.”

Maybe what Jesus wants the most out of us and our churches is nothing. Maybe what Jesus wants and what the church needs are churches that would prefer to go fishing than to go knocking on doors. Maybe what Jesus wants are churches that are willing to have breakfast with him instead of doing things for him. Maybe what Jesus wants is for us to slow down, sit by the fire, and be with him. Maybe we over-think this church thing. Maybe all we need is boat, a net, and breakfast with Jesus. Maybe that's all it takes to really change the world.

He's on the shore with a fire and breakfast is waiting. Just waiting.

1Yaconelli, Mike. “Where's Jesus?” http://www.youthspecialties.com/articles/wheres-jesus/