First Reading:
138I give you thanks, O Lord, with my
whole heart; before the gods I sing your praise;
2I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your
name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness; for you have
exalted your name and your word above everything.
3On the day I called, you answered me, you increased my
strength of soul.
4All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord, for
they have heard the words of your mouth.
5They shall sing of the ways of the Lord, for great is the
glory of the Lord.
6For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly; but the
haughty he perceives from far away.
7Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve me
against the wrath of my enemies; you stretch out your hand, and your
right hand delivers me.
8The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast
love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.
Second Reading:
5Once while Jesus was standing beside
the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear
the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of
the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their
nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to
Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he
sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had
finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the
deep water and let down your nets for a catch.
5Simon
answered, Master, we have worked all night long but have caught
nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.
6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that
their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signaled their
partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and
filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when
Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Go away
from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!
9For he and all
who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had
taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee,
who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to
Simon, Do not be afraid; from now on you will be
catching people.
11When they had brought their boats to
shore, they left everything and followed him.
So when I read the scripture for today and I knew we were going to come out to Allen Pond for the worship service, I figured I had to bring my fishing stuff. It ends up I forgot my rod today but I did remember to bring some flies with me… some of them are designed to look like bugs (here's a grass hopper and a big hairy spider) a few are designed to look like little fish, but the idea behind all of them is that they look like food to the fish. So a fish is swimming along sees some of what looks like nature's finest fish food and boom, the fish eats it. Little does the fish know that inside this thing that look like a delicious morsel is a little hook that's attached to a line so that I can reel it in and have it for dinner. You see fishing, as most of us know it is all about fooling the fish into being caught.
In Biblical times they didn't fish with flies… It would be hard enough to feed your family by fishing with flies, and you'd never be able to catch enough fish to make a living. Instead they used nets that were weighted so when you dropped them into the water they'd sink fast, catch fish on their way down and the weighted ends would come together so the people on the boat could pull in as many fish as they could haul up at one time. Their mode of operations when it came to fishing was about being in the right place at the right time.
In our story it had been a long night fishing but Simon Peter didn't
mind when Jesus hopped into his boat and asked him to set out from
shore. Of course you can use my boat as a pulpit. So Jesus taught
for a while and then he told Simon Peter to go into deep water and
throw in his nets, well I can't imagine Peter wasn't real wild about
those instructions. You see he knew how to fish pretty well, he had
been doing it since he was young, and he had already fished all night
and hadn't caught anything. But in Luke's gospel, Simon Peter had
seen enough of what Jesus could do over the last few days that he was
willing to give it a try. If you say so, I'll throw in my
nets.
And then the miraculous happened: so many fish that the
nets began to break and the boat began to sink. They called the other
boat and loaded it so full of fish that it started to sink too. It
was extraordinary, it truly was a miracle.
Now, I've heard more than one preacher say that in order to win Simon
Peter's loyalty, Jesus had to show Peter that he was better at what
Peter did best. The idea of course is that a fisherman would know
it's God because God's the only one who could out-fish him. I've
known a few fishermen who might think that way, but I'm not sure
that's how God works. I don't think God has to prove Himself like
that… It seems more likely to me that the sheer volume of fish
flopping around at Peter's feet was to make it abundantly clear that
what was going on wasn't about fishing at all. The fishing
lesson
was something else entirely. It was about being a
different kind of fisherman. And, as you might expect, it was a day
that changed everything for Simon Peter.
Over and over again in scripture we see examples of God entering into the lives of ordinary people and calling them into a new way of being. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, from the beginning of our book the list goes on and on. It includes Peter and the other disciples in today's passage, but it doesn't end there. Christianity itself is based on the fact that in Jesus Christ, God entered into human history and changed everything. Jesus brought health and wholeness, he brought reconciling relationships, he offered a different paradigm for life, and wherever he went, the kingdom of God was right there with him. And this particular passage from Luke's gospel shows us that Jesus didn't just come into history in some broad, global, universal context on that first Christmas eve two thousand years ago. No, Jesus came into Simon Peter's reality in a specific manner and in a personal way because that's the kind of God our God is.
Today I'm going to invite you to an exercise that may be a little unusual for a Sunday morning, we've done something like it before at church but I figured how often do we get to gather around tables for worship… we might as well use the opportunity. So first, I'm going to tell you a story of the way God entered into someone's life. Next, I'm going to invite you to remember how God has entered into your life. You see, based on the scriptural pattern, I'm convinced that God still works by entering into people's lives and changing them, changing us, so that we are never the same because that's the kind of God our God is. And then I'm going to invite you to share for a few minutes around your tables.
To begin, this is the story Thomas Merton wrote about his experience of God entering into his life, I shortened it from what he wrote in his autobiography (The Seven Storey Mountain):
It was sometime in August that I finally answered an impulse that had been working on me for a long time. Every Sunday I had been going out to Long Island to spend the day with a girl I was quite taken with. But every week, as Sunday came around I was filled with a growing desire to stay in the city, and believe it or not, to go to some sort of church.
After a while, the urge became so strong that I couldn't resist it. I called the girl and told her that I wasn't going out that weekend and made up my mind to go to a church service for the first time in my life. The first time in my life you ask? It was true that I had studied, I had been to Rome, in and out of a thousand cathedrals and churches, yet if anything had been going on in those churches, I fled nearly in a panic.
I won't easily forget how I felt that morning. There was this sweet, strong yet gentle urge in me. It was something quite new and strange, this voice that seemed to prompt me, this firm growing, conviction of what I needed to do. It had a smoothness and simplicity about it and when I gave into it, it didn't rush over me or trample me down, but it carried me forward with purpose and direction.
It was a beautiful Sunday and since it was the first time I had really spent a sober Sunday in New York, I was surprised at the clean, quiet atmosphere of the empty streets uptown. I walked toward the church, how bright that little building seemed. All at once the churches of Italy and France came back to me. The richness and fullness of the atmosphere hit me; for now I was going to enter into it fully for the first time. Until this point I had known nothing but the outward surface.
I found a place in the sanctuary that I hoped would be obscure, and sat in the back. What a surprise it was to find so many ordinary people in a single place, together more conscious of God than of one another: not there to show off their hats or their clothes, but there to pray or at least to pay attention to God. I sat, drinking it all in. I walked into that church deaf and dumb, but by following those interior movements I experienced the grace of God and all of a sudden I could understand nothing else.
For Peter it was an extraordinary catch of fish, for Thomas Merton it was a series of interior movements, but for each it was God, entering into their specific reality in a personal way. Because that's the kind of God our God is.
And now it's your turn. I'd like to invite you at this point to remember. I'm going to stop talking for the span of about a minute. If it's helpful for you feel free to close your eyes or gaze off into the woods… whatever helps you to remember. But and I want you to remember a time or a situation where you knew the presence of God; a time when you felt like God entered into your life.
As you're ready, give thanks for this time of remembering and let's turn toward a time of sharing what God has done because I know I'm not the only one here who can talk about what God has done. So I'd invite you to turn toward your tables… maybe a couple of different groups per table and share with the people there what you remembered, what was going on around you in the situation, what was going on inside you, and how you were changed by the experience. Share with one another what you remembered.
Let's pray together and then bring our attention back to the large group. God thank you for this time of remembering and sharing, may we all know you and be better able to see your goodness because of it. Amen
Now, in the moment of God entering their specific reality, both the
apostle Peter and Thomas Merton might have preferred the story to end
there but it didn't. Merton left that church service before it was
over, He was afraid and didn't feel ready to take communion. It
wasn't until a week or two later that he wrote, All of a sudden
something began to stir within me again, something began to push me,
to prompt me. It was a movement that spoke like a voice—What
are you waiting for? Why are you sitting here? Why do you still
hesitate? You know what you ought to do. Why don't you do that?
What started with the experience of grace after following those
interior nudges one Sunday morning in August continued as a drive into
his life-long mission. He went on to become an influential social
activist writing against nuclear proliferation after the end of World
War 2 and writing in favor of nonviolent action in the struggle for
civil rights. He was one of the best known monks of the
20th century and one of the greatest modern authors of
Christian spirituality. Millions of his books have been sold and
through them countless people have been influenced to listen for God's
interior movements in their own lives. God entered into his life and
changed everything
As for Peter, he knew right away that what was going on was bigger
than fishing. He didn't revel in the windfall of the huge catch. He
didn't ask how Jesus knew where the fish were. As the fish flopped
around his feet, he was afraid of what was coming. He said, Go
away from me Lord for I am a sinful man.
But the thing is, Jesus
already knew. He knew exactly who Peter was. He was an ordinary
person who was in the midst of being called by an extraordinary God.
Not terribly different from us. Exactly the kind of people Jesus
wanted to share in his work of proclaiming and living into God's
kingdom.
Don't be afraid,
Jesus said, from now on you will be
catching people.
You will be an entirely different kind of
fisherman.
And fishing for people doesn't require nets or flies or hooks… fishing for people isn't about fooling them into being caught, and it isn't entirely about being in the right place at the right time... Fishing for people is about relating with people in a way that's authentic and hopeful, and something different than what they see all over the place everyday. You just shared among yourselves stories of how God has entered into your specific reality in a personal manner. And as Christians that's how we fish… by living and by sharing the reality of hope that comes from the stories of what Jesus Christ has done and what the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives and in our community.
When we pay attention to what God's up to we end up living our lives in such a manner that people see something in us that draws them to want to know who God is and that's fishing for people. When we become aware of how God is entering our lives, it opens possibilities for God to work through us and that's fishing for people. When we follow where and how God leads us that's fishing for people… and when we live fishing for people, God just might change everything because that's the kind of God our God is. This is the invitation for us from today's gospel lesson and brothers and sisters it is good news. Thanks be to God. Amen.
The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland, United Parish of Bowie, at Allen Pond on August 1, 2010.
© 2010 Daniel Holland
