Two weeks ago at Grace we celebrated a marvelous Easter together. How could it be anything other than marvelous? "Christ is Risen." "He is risen indeed." But now I fear we've fallen prey to the dreaded 'Simon Syndrome." Almost six hundred people in church two weeks ago. If everyone of those six hundred got so caught up in resurrection news, they brought just one person with them the next Sunday ... well, let's just say there were two hundred in church last Sunday ... and probably about the same this morning. I call it the "Simon Syndrome," in the context of our Gospel text for this morning. The "Simon Syndrome" is experiencing Easter and then forgetting it.

It is perhaps two weeks after Easter and some of the disciples are back on familiar turf. Familiar turf, for most of the disciples, means familiar surf. Familiar turf means fishing the waters of Galilee. There is, however, something slightly troubling about all of this. You and I celebrate Easter and then it's back to school, back to workplace, back to familiar territory. You would have thought Easter would have meant something different to the disciples. Jesus had signed them up to be partners with him in a new fishing enterprise, with the net result that people, not fish would be caught. The disciples were to be fishers of people. Just as minnows are used as bait to catch other fish, so the disciples themselves were be the bait to catch people. And yet, so soon after Easter, where do we find them? Last week we read they were hiding out in the Upper Room. We find them this week in Galilee; not hiding out but casting out - casting out their nets upon the waters.

Now Jesus could have done this whole preach the Gospel thing by himself. After all, Jesus is God and God is all-powerful. But God decided that the way  to spread the good news is through people. Gospel partners. And one more time, where do we encounter the disciples this morning? Two weeks after Easter? Back in the same boat, plying the same waters ... almost as if Jesus were just an interlude. An intrusion between sailings. Almost as if Easter never occurred! Actually ... maybe you and I also have a tendency to pack up Easter too quickly as we return to familiar territory. Here we are, two weeks later, and what really has changed? I'm preaching to empty pews! If we all took our partnership in the Gospel really seriously and had gone back into familiar territory crowing about Resurrection and new life ... well today we'd be meeting underneath a revival tent. There are a lot of people within shouting distance of our familiar territory who never hear the Gospel - at least never hear it from us, we who are baptized as Partners to Christ!

Many of you are familiar with the name Ginger Rogers. I read an article about her the other day, in which the writer maintains that the true legacy of Ginger Rogers can be summed up in one word. Not actress. Not dancer. Partner. She was a fine actress in her own right; she could dance up a storm. But when people think of Ginger Rogers, they almost automatically think of Fred Astaire. He is recalled as the dancer; she is remembered as the partner. But I'm guessing the word partner would not be jarring for Ginger. It is not a bad word; it is not a put-down. In fact, I would count it an honor if folks remember me this way: Partner in the Gospel. Like you, I like to think the Gospel plays a part in my life.

Partners. All life is a partnership. Each one of us owes debts of gratitude to countless others for where we are today. Almost any of us could be excellent loners, I suppose. But it takes a willingness to work together, to acknowledge the gifts of others, to be a good partner. In reality, there is no such thing as a self-made person. At the very least there was the coupling of the parents. At the very least there was the nurturing as an infant; the teaching as a child; the access to food and technology as an adult. A person who claims to be self-made has a very small creator!

The Bible, right from the get go, acknowledges the need for partnership. When the world was completed and God is just about ready to rest from the effort, God creates Adam. And then God says of all Creation, "It is good." But ask Adam. Adam quickly discovers it is less than good; it is lonely. Eden is less than paradise, because it is lonely. Paradise implies a partner, and Adam is alone. Initially in the garden, there is no inclination to dance. For in the garden, there is no partner! And then along came Eve. Not less than Adam. Not greater than Adam. A partner with Adam.

When Jesus first sent out his followers out to spread the Good News, he did not send them out one-by-one. Jesus sent them two-by-two, paired up, partnered. Ministry is seldom, if ever, a single's act. Our masthead on Grace Notes includes the not-so-original notation that the ministers of Grace are the people of Grace.

If ever there is a church where there is one pastor and that one pastor is perceived as the sole minister ... there will be too little ministry to too few souls! On the other hand, in a healthy congregation, there is Partnership in the Gospel. You ministers in the pews receive at least as much ministry from one another as from the partner in the pulpit. And you ministers in the pews extend far more ministry to the world. This is the way things are in a healthy congregation, where one parson cannot minister to all persons. And in our text when Jesus commands, commands Peter three times: Feed my lambs; tend my sheep; feed my sheep, the words are directed not only to Peter, but to Christians down through the ages who partner with Peter in ministry.

The Bible, in fact all of life, is the story of God's continuing search for a partner. The Bible, in fact all of life, is the story of God's tap on the shoulder, "Come dance with me!" Some of us accept - some of the time. Others of us, all too often, prefer to be wallflowers.

I know nothing of the personal faith and commitment of Ginger Rogers, but I would not hesitate to suggest she is a good model for ministry. After all, she certainly understood what this being a partner is all about - even to the point of allowing another to lead.

Our Christian life, our partnership in the Gospel, is like a slow dance ... cheek to cheek with God. Allowing God, of course, to lead! With God taking the lead in our life of faith, we'll be partners with Peter in feeding the sheep and thus we'd be less likely to fall prey to the "Simon Syndrome." For in feeding the sheep, Easter becomes ever more real!