"Restore: Make New Stories"
John 21:1-19
Rev. Emily Labrecque, Westmoreland UCC
October 11, 2026
[Pray.]
Earlier this week I was browsing social media and came across an ad for a new documentary called Second Nature: Gender and Sexuality in the Animal World. The film and the experts within examine over 1,500 animal species that display same-sex sexual behavior, nontraditional parenting, sex-changing traits, and matriarchal structures. Aside from the fact that I’m very excited about this documentary, this particular line in the trailer caught my attention. “There is endless diversity in nature, and the old stories we’ve been taught deserve a second look.” The old stories we’ve been taught deserve a second look. Scientists, biologists, and sociologists are inviting us to examine the old narratives in light of the facts and implore us to create new narratives that might help restore queer folks and the bodies they inhabit to right relationship with all people. That sense of restoration is what connected me to our scripture today.
Now, we began this stewardship series by examining the money stories we embody and remembering the stories of our scriptures and tradition. Money, stewardship and possessions are some of the most discussed topics in the Bible, not because material wealth is important, but because one’s attitude toward money reflects one’s spiritual maturity and priorities. In week two we were invited to release those old stories, those that no longer serve us to make space for what could be. Last week we reimagined what it could look like for us to redistribute our resources so that everyone has enough.
And now, as we conclude this series, we are being called to restore healthy money narratives and ultimately restore ourselves to wholeness. Restoration is a common theme in scripture as well. God is always promising restoration to God’s people – restoring health and relationships; restoring fortunes and time lost. Restoration is not just about fixing the past but making all things new. Restoration is the act of God taking something broken or lost and improving it beyond its original condition.
With that idea of restoration in mind, let’s turn to our text for today. Jesus has died, the tomb is empty, Jesus has already appeared to them twice ... and so to experience some sense of normalcy, I imagine, the disciples go out to do the one thing they know how to do: fish. Only it becomes a frustrating activity because over the whole of the first evening, they catch absolutely nothing. They wake up, nets empty and therefore discouraged only to hear a stranger call out to them: cast the net to the right side of the boat and you will find some!
Not only some, but at least 153 the text says! And with the haul they knew it was Jesus who had been speaking to them.
What strikes me about this passage is not the specificity of that number, or the fact that they didn’t recognize Jesus initially ... but that by inviting them to cast on the other side of the boat, they were able to write a new story, a story of abundance and hope.
In a similar vein, scholar and professor Karoline Lewis writes, “There are all kinds of suggested possibilities by commentators for what this number might mean. But really? Why can’t it just be a lot of fish? ... Can’t it be simply that moments of abundance reveal God’s love? ... When lack is transformed to abundance. When despair is moved to hope. When abandonment is replaced with the restoration of relationship.”[1]
I have heard from so many of you over these last few weeks what a breath of fresh air it is to have transparency and renewed energy in our stewardship efforts. We are building stronger relationships, we are instilling trust in our leadership, we are increasing our understanding of our mission in the world. We are already writing a new story and the money hasn’t even come in. That gives me hope.
The last time Peter sat at a charcoal fire, he had denied Jesus 3 times (John 18). And now here, Jesus makes a charcoal fire on the beach to feed his disciples, and asks Peter 3 times, “Do you love me?” Here, Jesus offers Peter an opportunity to write a new story. He’s being invited to release his shame to reimagine a future of wholeness where he is restored to God. Peter’s moments of failure and denial don’t have the last word in his story. Here, instead of denying he even knows Jesus, he affirms for the third time, with a sense of hurt: “Lord, you know that I love you.”
Then feed my lambs, Jesus says.
Do you love me? Tend my sheep.
Do you love me? Feed my sheep.
These were the instructions that followed. Note the actions: feed and tend. These are verbs of community care, not accumulation. Jesus was reminding them all that even in their fear, their doubts, their confusion, they had to keep moving forward with an embodied faith.
The disciples didn’t catch fish until they moved their net to the other side of the boat. Jesus asked the disciples to bring some of their fish to breakfast. Jesus didn’t ask them to go out and simply rely on God to provide all their needs. Just as we cannot simply rely on the money showing up when we need it. Faith AND action together. Abundance is a team effort. Sometimes we have to bring something to the table for God to make a way.
This is one of the reasons we pledge, right? We offer a portion of that which God has given us back to this community that tends and feeds and cares and prays. We give back to this community because with our resources combined, God can do far more than we could ever imagine in our wildest dreams. We are co-creators of abundance. It is not just our doing. It is not just God’s doing. We too are called to cast to the other side, bring our fish to breakfast, and feed God’s sheep.
Your pledge makes a huge difference in the life of this church. It’s not just money. Your pledge is people fed and tended to. It’s music and formation. It’s fellowship and hospitality. It’s children being raised up in faith. It’s concerts and community service. Your pledge is so much more than money. It’s so much more.
But notice that Peter’s restoration doesn’t end in comfort. Jesus tells him he will be led places he would rather not go. Restoration is not the same as ease. And as we make decisions about our assets, programming, and staffing, we do it knowing that faithful discernment sometimes asks hard things of us. We will have a new and improved budget to work with and we will have to pray and discern the way forward. On behalf of the stewardship committee, I ask that you prayerfully discern and submit your pledge so we may continue to tend and feed and care for one another.
Jesus is at the fire, breakfast ready, hosting before asking anything of the disciples. The table is always and already set for each one of you. Thank you for investing in the future of Westmoreland, because faith in God’s abundance will lead us to unimaginable places, restoring our hope in what is possible.
