Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Morning glory

Friday, April 6, 2018

From John 21
Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples at the Sea of Tiberius. Peter and six others went fishing. That night they caught nothing. At dawn Jesus said to them, "Have you caught anything to eat? Cast the net over the right side of the boat." So they cast it and were not able to pull it in the because of the number of fish. When Simon Peter heard it was the Lord, he tucked in his garment and jumped into the sea.

Peter's patience flagged, not with Jesus but with himself. What a fool he'd been. Gerard Manley Hopkins, Jesuit and master poet, wrote, perhaps as Peter:

When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? I'll not play hypocrite
To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but
That piecemeal peace is poor peace.
- Hopkins, from "Peace"

So now, in the fullness of time, this appearance of Jesus is for Peter. Most good fishing is done at night. Right? But not that night, not on the left side of the boat, not alone with no touch or smile or word from Jesus. Peter might say he is going fishing, but I think he wanted solitude, and those pesky friends of his just would not let him go. They insisted on hanging out. They had, after all, seen what happened to Judas when he found himself isolated and far too alone:

I am gall, I am heartburn. God's most deep decree
Bitter would have me taste: my taste was me,
Bones built in me, flesh filled, blood brimmed the curse.
- Hopkins, from "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day"

But this is the dawning of the ages, and Jesus will not be leaving Simon Peter on the shore, bereft of his anointing, no longer rock and rubbish of the night. That is not the way of the Lord who loves us and so he comes for Peter, just as after darkness comes the dawn. With the silhouette of Jesus against the sunrise, sudden fish tumble in the boat, and Peter tumbles into Jesus' arms. Embarrassed and afraid that he might be, Peter turns TOWARD Jesus, not away.

Jesus, being God, claims God's righteousness for Peter. Jesus can only see Peter as a son of God, not entirely unlike himself. They are brothers, children of God together. Jesus gives Peter complete permission to:

Act in God's eye what in God's eye he is -
Christ - for Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces.
- Hopkins, from "As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame"

Jesus, with his words and touch, reminded Peter of his role and re-called him into the Body of Christ on earth.

This God-sent poetry-in-motion brushes all of us with the beauty of Christ. We too inhabit those ten thousand places. The joy of our salvation is a never-ending joy, God's glory our own never-ending story:

Nature is never spent.
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
- Hopkins, from "God's grandeur"

Beauty robin red-breast, goodness ever-dancing dove, truth-trilled songs into the bright blue sky. We join birds of the air and lilies in the field. Like them we come from you and return to you; your word never goes home void. We are those words, Lord ... your words. You make us whole, you make us new, you bring us joy in the morning. This is what we can see, and this is what we can be.

Devotions Archive

Morning glory

Friday, April 6, 2018