After that first Easter the disciples left Jerusalem and returned home to Galilee. Even though everything in their world had changed, even though their Lord had risen from the dead, they went back to work.

After all, they had to earn a living. In this morning's Gospel we find a group of them hard at work in their old occupation as fishermen.

I would suspect that most of us would think of fishing as a form of recreation. You know - close up shop and hang a sign on the door that says "gone fishing." A relaxing way to spend the day.

But few professional fishermen would see it that way. A fisherman or fisherwoman has to get up before dawn and work a long day hauling lines or nets or traps.

It can be dangerous. You have to work in all kinds of weather. Storms can suddenly blow up when you're far out to sea, endangering your life.

And fishing can be stressful. Stressful to your body - hauling heavy loads of fish isn't work for somebody with a bad back, and it will give you a bad back sooner or later.

And fishing can be stressful to your mind. You have fixed costs, and some days you don't catch enough to meet those costs. The disciples had to bring in a steady haul of fish just to cover their expenses for nets and sails and boat repairs.

In today's Gospel passage we come upon the disciples after a bad night at sea. They had worked all day and night and had caught nothing.

The Gospel story is clear about that. It wasn't just a small catch. It was a zero catch. These were professional fishermen. They knew the sea. And yet after a stressful day and night of casting and pulling their nets over and over again, they had caught nothing. Their nets were empty.

As if to remind them of their failure, adding insult to injury, a stranger on the shore calls out to them just as the sun is coming up. It is too dark to see him clearly, but they can hear him well enough.

"Have you any fish?" he asks.

"No," they answer. Zero. Nothing. Now even this stranger knows that they are failures as fishermen.

And then the stranger gives them this bit of unsolicited advice: Cast your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some fish.

I'm sure some of them thought, "What does he know? We're professional fishermen, and here is some bozo standing on the land telling us how to do our job."

But probably because they had nothing to lose, they took his advice. And suddenly their net was full of fish. So many fish that the net was too heavy to haul it into the boat.

John, the beloved disciple, was the first to put two and two together. It is the risen Lord!, he said.

By the time they had dragged the 153 fish on to the beach, Jesus was there, standing beside a charcoal fire where some fish and bread were already being grilled. He took some of their freshly caught fish and added it to his fish the fire.

And then he said, Come and eat. John tells us, Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

The risen Christ was revealed. In today's Gospel passage John uses the word "revealed" three times. The Greek word for "revealed" is "phaneroo." It has the same Greek root as the word "epiphany." It means to "make manifest," to "show."

How is the risen Lord revealed to us? How is the risen Lord made manifest? Where is the risen Lord today?

One place might be in the stress of our daily lives. A stressful job that seems to be producing no results. The anxiety of not having enough fish or bread or money coming in to make ends meet. A hard day and night of work that results in zero.

That's where the disciples met him. They were totally stressed out. They were exhausted. Their net was empty. They were failures. And that was when they saw the risen Lord.

I'm not saying that you have to be a failure to meet Jesus, but it wouldn't hurt. I'm not saying that you have to be totally stressed out to meet Jesus, but it wouldn't hurt.

I'm not saying that you have to be exhausted from a job that seems to be going nowhere, but it wouldn't hurt. Because that's where the disciples met Jesus.

How did they know that it was Jesus? Some would point to the miracle of abundance - the miracle of the large supply of fish.

Like the miracle of the large supply of wine at the wedding in Cana, like the miracle of the loaves and fishes that fed five thousand, this miracle of abundance is indeed a place where the presence of the Lord is revealed.

The very abundance of the catch of fish was enough of a clue to reveal to the disciple John that the man on the beach was the risen Lord. After all, didn't Jesus say I have come that they might have life and have it abundantly?

But there is another clue. Jesus takes some of their fish. Jesus takes some of their fish. Jesus already had bread and fish cooking on the fire. We know that he could have fed a multitude with what he already had.

But instead, the risen Lord said to the disciples, Bring me some of the fish that you have just caught.

That's how it works. Jesus asks us for what we already have. He asks us for it, and he takes it. He takes it, and he blesses it, and he gives it back to us to feed our souls.

What can we give to Jesus? And what will he take from us? Certainly he will take the fruits of our labors.

Don't we say that every Sunday when we lift up the collection plate at the altar and say "All things come of thee O Lord, and of thine own have we given thee."? Or when we sing, "Praise God from whom all blessings flow"?

Certainly Jesus will accept the fruits of our labors. The full net of fish, the full collection basket - these are surely worthy of the Lord's acceptance.

But we can also offer to Jesus the empty net. Indeed, the net was empty when Christ appeared on the shore.

And we can also offer to Jesus the failures that sometimes happen even when we work our hardest to succeed. We can offer to Jesus the stress of a job and of a life that doesn't always work out the way we planned. And we can offer to Jesus the burdens that we carry that are known to him alone.

And believe me, Christ will accept that empty net of failure. And he will accept the burdens of our stressful life. He will take them from us, and he will give them back to us transformed.

If you don't believe me, believe him. He said, Come unto me all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

A couple of weeks ago a member of this congregation told me about a T-shirt he had seen a woman wearing. The T-shirt bore this message in large block letters: "Too blessed to be stressed."

"Too blessed to be stressed." It would be wonderful if all of us had the wisdom and the faith implicit in that message on the T-shirt. Indeed, God has blessed every one of us in many ways, including the blessing of life itself. If we could keep that in mind, if we could always reflect on our blessings, many of the stresses of daily life would fade into the background.

But I'm afraid that for many of us the opposite is true. We are too stressed to be blessed. We are too overwhelmed by the stresses of daily living to recognize the blessings of trees in blossom and the laughter of children. We are too stressed to recognize the many blessings around us.

Like the fishermen who worked all night and caught nothing, we are too stressed to recognize the voice of that stranger on the beach who calls to us.

And so I offer this suggestion. Bring that burden of stress to the Jesus you already know. Offer it to the risen Lord in prayer. Offer him your failures. Your empty net. Your heavy heart.

Offer to Jesus whatever happens to be on your mind today. He will take it. He will take it away from you. And he will feed your soul.

Amen.