Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
*I had a sermon mostly finished for this Sunday when I was felled by a stomach bug and had to get someone to cover for me so this sermon was never finalized or preached but I was excited about some of the content so I offer the rough draft here for what it's worth.
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, grace and peace to you from the one who makes good their purpose for us. Amen
“Pull out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
Jesus is telling the fishermen to do what they know won’t work.
It’s not the right time of day to catch fish in the deep water, and even if it were, as Simon points out the fishermen had just spent all night out on the lake and had caught nothing.
This is something they’ve been doing their whole lives, don’t you think if there were fish to be caught they would have caught some? They know this lake and the fish just aren’t there today.
But Simon listens to this Rabbi whose teaching is so popular that he has just commandeered Simon’s boat from which to teach the crowds pressing in on him, actually Jesus is quite well known to Simon Peter, Jesus has been staying with Simon Peter at his house while Jesus is teaching in and around Capernaum. In fact Simon has seen first hand Jesus’ healing powers, it was Simon’s mother-in-law that Jesus healed from a high fever. Simon respects Jesus, he calls him Master as a sign of that respect but he hasn’t fully bought in to Jesus’ announcement of the new age that is dawning, the time of Jubilee, the good news of the kingdom of God that is near, here and now. A wise teacher, yes, a skilled and faithful healer, yes, the messiah? No. So despite the fact that he has a front row seat as it were to Jesus’ transformative mission, Simon Peter goes on with his life, he continues to fish to support his family and his community and even this is not going well.
“Pull out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon knows this won’t work, he’s just been out in his boat, but he listens to Jesus and does as he says and when they had (let down their nets), they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.
and they call for backup from their partner boat and they came out and they fill both boats with so much fish that the boats start to sink. An overwhelming abundance of fish.
What better sign of the abundant way of God here and now for a fisherman than a huge catch of fish? And Simon Peter correctly interprets this as a divine action, and the one thing Simon Peter knows more about than fishing is himself and just how sinful he is, how unworthy of this he is and he falls down at Jesus’ knees, saying “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
Simon Peter joins a long line of people, who when called by God acutely feel their unworthiness, we heard this with Isaiah in our first reading, and Paul alluded to his own story in our second reading and yet God takes actions that transform their resistance to the invitation that God has placed before them. Isaiah’s protests are silenced when an angel cleanses his mouth with a coal from the altar such that his cries of “Woe is me” turn into “Here I am; send me!” when the voice of God asks “whom shall I send”
Paul was headed toward Damascus with murderous intent when Jesus stops him in his tracks, blinding him and then restoring his sight through the faithful prayer and witness Ananias, called by God to heal Saul.
Ananias himself is understandably reluctant to answer this call, he protests “Lord I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the priests to bind all who invoke your name.” Ananias knows that Saul is a bad guy, bad for the followers of Jesus. But he responds to the assurance of Jesus and goes and heals Saul, who becomes Paul, who God works through to spread the good news of Jesus Christ all over the world.
But before we get to Paul, before Ananias even, we need Peter, who faced with the glory of God knows how far short he falls from the glory of God, Simon who obviously has an interest in the teachings of Rabbis since he’s housing Jesus, who in listening to the scriptures expounded knows what God does with sinners, catches them with hooks and nets to get them out of the way of the righteous as the prophet Jeremiah says “I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them, and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight. 18 And[b] I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.” (Jeremiah 16:16-18)
This was something I learned this week, that the image of God’s fishing for people was traditionally one of judgement (https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2019/2/5/call-to-mercy-salt-lectionary-commentary-for-epiphany-week-five)
And here with Simon Peter in the boat, Jesus turns the image on its head
“Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” he tells Peter, catching not for prophetic judgment but for Godly mercy, catching people to save them from their sins, and you Simon Peter, not only do I forgive you but I want you to work with me, and at this Jubilee mercy Simon Peter leaves everything even that huge catch of fish and follows Jesus, because the mercy of God is worth so much more.
Today in our season of epiphanies Jesus is revealed as one who lives out the jubilee mercy of God, especially in ways that we humans know won’t work. Whether it is fishing in the deep water or recruiting that guy- those people to work with him, and get Jesus goes ahead, and wouldn’t you know it, it works.
As one commentator I read this week said: “) At its heart, Luke’s story declares God’s abundant mercy. Far from catching and damning sinners, God’s work is to save them, to save us, and the whole world besides. How? In part, by inviting sinners to join the movement — and this invitation itself can be dignifying and transformative. God’s call is a call to mercy, beginning with being merciful toward ourselves. Simon, take heart — and stand up. We’ve got work to do. Indeed, Simon Peter’s life is an ongoing testimony to all of this, not only in this story of his call, but also in the story of the cross to come. Remember his brave words, his betrayal, his three denials? The church is no house of triumphant greatness or perfection. It’s a house of mercy.” (https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2019/2/5/call-to-mercy-salt-lectionary-commentary-for-epiphany-week-five)
Jesus knew that Peter’s all night fishing persistence would come in handy, Jesus knows what part of each of us which might at times seem like character flaws, are just right for helping him announce God’s mercy for the world, Jesus knows us, and yet Jesus not only forgives us but also calls us to take part in his mission of mercy and salvation, in ways that we know will not work, with people we know are not worthy, and yet when Jesus finally transforms our resistance into faith sure enough, time and time again we are met with the glory of God before us. Amen
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