February
10th, 2019 “Fishing with Jesus” Rev. Heather
Jepsen
Luke
5:1-11
Imagine
this . . . the camera pans out and we see a lake and a small fishing dock. This is no major port or big city area;
rather this is a small fishing group on a rural lake. These guys have had a long night, and they
haven’t caught anything. They are
sitting on the edge of the lake untangling and cleaning nets which the night
before floated empty in the darkness.
Their frustration and fatigue are apparent in their downcast eyes.
In
the meantime, the great teacher Jesus has left the metropolis of Capernaum and
come out to speak with the country folk.
Word about him has spread and the crowd is so thick he can’t really
teach them anything because everyone is standing too close and blocking
everyone else out. So, Jesus decides to
get into a boat and pull out on to the lake.
I
can just see Simon, who we will later know as Peter, in this scene. He’s crouched beside the lake, working
through the twisted knots of his netting.
He looks up to see a crowd but he is unaware of what is going on. And all of a sudden, some guy is getting into
his boat, some stranger, someone he doesn’t even know. I imagine Simon might be a little annoyed,
not only has he had a long fruitless night of fishing but now some guy is in
his boat. Simon sighs, and goes over to
Jesus who asks to be put out into the lake.
“Sigh . . . OK” He gathers in his
supplies because he doesn’t want to leave them on shore with the crowd and he
heads into the lake with this mystery man in his boat. Jesus sits down to teach and Simon is so
tired that he only half listens while he sits and busies himself untangling his
nets from the night before. He gets the
gist of some of the message but really, he is not paying attention. Part of him is thinking about what a waste of
time this whole night and now day have been.
Suddenly
Jesus turns and is speaking to him directly, “Put out into deep water and let
your nets down for a catch.” I can just
read Simon’s mind here “You have got to be kidding me; I just got these nets
cleaned and untangled.” But sensing that
this is not a time to say no Simon responds with respect, “Master, we have
worked all night long but have caught nothing.
Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” He is thinking that this can’t be
happening. He just got the nets
untangled and he knows there are no fish out there; he has been out all night. Plus, who wants to pull into the deep
water? Everyone knows that that place is
unsafe; anything can happen in the deep.
No sailor would deliberately set a course for those treacherous waters.
Simon
sighs, and maneuvers the boat out toward the deep. His heart races, as he hasn’t been in deep
waters in ages and the last time he was out there he nearly drowned. Simon drops the nets back into the water,
trying not to think about where he is.
Suddenly the boat lurches to the side, and Simon is filled with fear. That’s it; the great deep has now come for
them all. As he looks over the edge of
the boat in fear, he realizes that he is not being pulled into the depths after
all, rather the nets are so full of fish that they are pulling down the
boat. “You’ve got to be kidding me”
Simon says. He signals the Zebedee boys
on the shore and out they come to help.
It’s the biggest catch ever, so big the nets are breaking and the boats
are taking on water. No fisherman ever
has seen a catch this large and Simon can’t believe that this is
happening.
And
suddenly he turns and he looks at Jesus, actually looks at him. He forgets all about his long night and
tangled nets, he forgets all about the fact that he is out in the deep, he
forgets all about himself and stands there in the boat and really looks at
Jesus. And he sees him, he sees Jesus
the Christ, and he thinks not only of how rude and unbelieving he has been that
morning but what kind of man he has been his whole life. And he falls on his knees in humbled
awe. “Go away from me Lord, for I am a
sinful man!”
This
is where Christ meets us. He meets us in
the midst of our everyday lives. Jesus
does not come to the temple to call his disciples, not to the top of a high
holy mountain. Jesus comes to the
country, the backwoods, the simple lake folk.
Jesus comes to the teacher, the homemaker, the fisherman, the
farmer. Jesus comes to us where we are
in the midst of our everyday lives.
Jesus comes to us in these little places, at home and on the road, at
our jobs and in the grocery store. Jesus
comes to us when we are busying ourselves with our daily tasks and we aren’t even
thinking about him at all. God’s kingdom
reaches into human life and God’s call is unpredictable and unmerited.
Jesus
promises to be with us in all the places of our lives, if we will just give
them over to him. Jesus comes to us when
we are weak and we are tired. He comes
to us when we say “We have worked all night long and nothing.” He comes to us when we are beaten and
downcast, when we are distracted and woeful, when we are at our point of
failure and vulnerability. Jesus comes
to us when we have finally let our guard down.
God’s call comes when we least expect it, when we are in deep water,
when we are in over our heads.
At
these moments, at the low point in our everyday hum drum, God comes to us and
asks us to do some little thing that makes no sense. God asks us to let our nets down in the deep
water, to make that phone call, to join that church committee, to visit that
neighbor. God asks us to trust and
reach, to stretch and try, to move beyond our comfort zone into deep places
that make us nervous. God asks us to do
some little thing that is a bit out of the ordinary for us, but for some reason
we can’t seem to say no. We respond and
suddenly we are face to face with Jesus Christ, with the kingdom of God
Jesus
turns to Simon and says “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching
people.” From now on you will be fishers
of men. From now on you will be building
the kingdom of God. Simon and the
Zebedee brothers bring the boats into shore hauling the greatest catch ever
recorded and they do a totally insane thing.
They walk away from it. They
leave behind their boats, their nets, and their piles and piles of fish. They leave behind their whole lives and
follow Jesus. Can you imagine that? It is like having your stock go up higher
than any stock ever has and then just leaving it, it’s like the best wheat crop
ever harvested that is left to rot in a barn, it is like winning the lottery
and leaving the million-dollar check on the counter. They left everything and followed him. This is the nature of God’s call. Simon and the Zebedee brothers left behind
their boats, their workers, and a miracle catch to follow someone they can’t
comprehend on a mission they don’t understand.
God
calls us in the midst of our everyday boredom and God makes us into new
people. God calls us where we are today
and tomorrow, we become fishers of men, or whatever we are. You see, Simon and James and John were
fishermen, so fishers of men made sense for them. Maybe we will be something else. God will meet us in our everyday space and
use our everyday skills for the work of God’s kingdom. Do what you know how to do, and God will work
through you. Can you teach? Teach.
Can you lead? Lead. Can you organize things and work the
numbers? Do it for God. Music talent?
Share it in worship. Whatever
your thing is, and it might not be fishing, do it for God.
Often
our encounter with faith enables us to do things we can’t imagine, impossible
things, unthinkable things, like leaving behind our miracle catch to follow the
Lord. And I think that is why God tells
not to be afraid. Because we are about
to enter into something we could never even imagine. Because we are about to do things, we have
never even dreamed of doing.
Like
Peter and the Zebedee brothers we don’t know where following this call of
discipleship will lead. God doesn’t
offer us a vision of the end goal, but God does promise to be with us on our journey. Today we celebrate at the communion table and
this place is a reminder of God’s presence with us. God is here and offers us comfort and
nourishment for the road. When we gather
together at the table we gather with God.
Through the faith of the community, we are each individually lifted up
and offered courage and hope for the journey ahead. No one can be a disciple alone. When we see the abundant riches of God’s
blessing, we call our friends to help us haul in the nets. Discipleship is an act of community.
When
we read the story of Peter and the Zebedee brothers in Luke’s gospel, we
realize that God can and will meet us when we least expect it. When we are tired and weak, God will
challenge us to do more. God will call
us out of our comfort zones and out into the deep water. God will be with us, helping us to find
meaning and live into God’s purposes.
And God will transform our gifts into gifts that can be used for the
kingdom. We will become fishers of men,
or teachers of love, or singers of virtue, or organizers of the kingdom, or
leaders of freedom. We will become those
we were always meant to be, and we will respond to God with awe and
wonder. Let us respond to this call of
discipleship, let us push out into the deep waters of faith, and let us go
there together. Amen.
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