Galilee, Alaska
Canvas: 20”x 24”
Time: 2 hours
Cost: [Not For Sale]
Artist Statement
Then (Jesus) said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?”
Just before the service began, my son, Daniel, suggested I focus on the fishing aspect for the painting. So I did. In the story, after Jesus has died and risen again, Peter goes out to fish and some disciples accompany him. Then, when Peter and disciples self-willed effort fails, Jesus shows up on shore and yells, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” They yell, “No.” and Jesus yells, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.” This reminded me of Father’s Day in 2000, when I went out with my dad to fish for Red Salmon in Cordova, AK on his commercial fishing boat. A day I will be eternally thankful for. I remember the excitement of pulling salmon out of the net as fast as I could. They seemed to appear miraculously out of the grey-blue waters of Prince William Sound! The third fisherman on the boat is my brother, Patrick, who in his 19 years on Earth fully embodied Peter’s attitude of diving into things headfirst!
For the sermon, Doug talked about failure on this Father’s Day Sunday, 2019 and how Peter denied Jesus three times, but later was given three opportunities to acknowledge him. All of us have failed to live up to the standard of perfection that Jesus required of each of us. (“Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in Heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:48) We cannot do anything but fail, really. (Paul said, “…there is no one who does good, not even one.” Romans 3:12) So, eventually we get dragged down by shame and guilt. Yet, again and again, and again Jesus shows up. He invites us to stop trying, and to simply start trusting him to live his life in us and through us. He trusts us to feed his sheep because he becomes our navigation system to show us where the fish are, our strength to pull in the nets, and our ability to feed others, as he cooked breakfast for his disciples on the beach. But, how, exactly, do we love, Jesus? Instead of believing in our failures and negative feelings, we only need to acknowledge the he has already “caught” us all in his net--he reconciled every person to himself on the cross!! Then, we join in joyfully, fishing and feeding other people!!