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"Fishers of Men"
It was over twenty years ago now that I had my first experience
with deep sea fishing. I was the vicar here at St. Luke’s and
one of the members invited me to go out on one those big party
boats where they load up 25 or 30 tourist for a day at sea. We
cruised out into the Atlantic Ocean, the motors stopped and we
let down our lines for a catch.
I was amazed at the size and variety of fish people around
me were catching, a Grouper over there, and then a Red Snapper
and my friend caught an Amber Jack. They reeled them in and a
crew member stood by to retrieve their hooks and mark their
fish so they could take them home. I kept fishing until lunchtime
when we stopped to eat the sack lunches we’d brought with us.
With the smell of bait on my hands and heavy fish aroma in
the air I ate my warm tuna salad sandwich and went back to
fishing.
Finally in the afternoon I had a bite. I reeled in the
prettiest little orange fish you’ve ever seen about six
or eight inches long. The crewman took the hook out its
mouth and promptly reset the hook securely and told me
to use my catch for bait. And then it was time to go
home. At least I didn’t have to carry anything heavy
to the car, except my pride.
Now it occurred to me this week as I thought about this
text that it is not only fishermen who sometimes come
home empty handed and disappointed. Simon Peter’s words
to Jesus, “Master we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t
caught anything,” could be applied to a whole range of
activity in our daily lives.
There are plenty of times when we work hard at something
and seem to come up empty handed. Kids, have you ever
studied hard for a test and then been disappointed with
the grade you received? Have you ever worked hard at
being someone’s friend then felt rejected or left out?
Ever practiced and practiced and practiced and never
gotten into the game? There are plenty of times when
we don’t have the success we hoped for.
And it doesn’t go away when we grow up. Anybody here not
gotten a raise they deserved? Anybody ever put in a lot
of good years with a company and then been laid off or
watched the company go bankrupt, or maybe had your own
company that you poured everything you had into and lost
it? Anybody here ever work hard and still had trouble
making ends meet at the end of the month?
And then there are our relationships: at school, at work,
and especially at home. Some have given their all to a
marriage and come away feeling empty and cheated. Parents
do the best they know how for their children only to see
them get hurt or turn away from them. Children have strived
to please only to have the adults in their lives be too busy
with other things to notice.
In one way or another I think we can all imagine Peter
and his partners’ attitude that morning in our text. I
wonder how much they were even listening as Jesus asked
to use their boat for a pulpit. I wonder if they were too
busy dealing with their empty nets to really pay attention
to him. Maybe they were reviewing their fishing strategy
from the night before or thinking about how many fish they’d
have catch the rest of the week to make up for the night
they’d just had. Maybe they were wondering about how they’d
pay the crew or where the groceries would come from without
a catch to sell in the market. I can even picture the disciples
being a little put out by the crowd that had gathered. I wonder
if they heard anything Jesus was saying.
I have a really hard time listening, especially to sermons
(maybe that’s why I became a pastor?). Life crowds in and
occupies my mind with worries and concerns and when it’s
not worries and concerns there are a lot more exciting
things to think about like the Super Bowl and the stock
market. Songs and Bible readings and sermons and prayers
all seem pretty irrelevant maybe even a nuisance if you
want to be honest about it. It is hard for us to listen
to what God is saying.
So, when he had finished speaking, Jesus said to Simon,
“Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
That got their attention! Are you kidding me? The best
time to fish is at night, not the middle of the afternoon;
and the best place to catch fish is at the edge of the
shallow water not out in the deep part of the lake. You
can almost hear the irritation in Simon’s voice, “Master,
we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything,
but because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
Patiently, Jesus gets their attention. He doesn’t lash
out at Simon. He doesn’t say, “Simon, what was my sermon
about this morning?” Instead, he brings him suddenly and
startlingly to a realization there is more going on here
than meets the eye. As soon as they let down the nets they
caught such a large number of fish that their nets began
to break. It is a moment of truth. It will change Simon
Peter’s life forever.
Jesus patiently seeks to get your attention too! In the
midst of your pursuit of happiness, in those moments where
you seem to come up empty handed after all your hard work
he brings the miraculous power of His life, death, and
resurrection. It is always the moment of truth. It changes
life forever.
There is more to life than meets the eye. God is at work
on eternity and He is accomplishing it in the midst of
your ordinary, everyday life. The miracle in this text
is not the catch of fish, some might even try to explain
that away as coincidence, which it certainly is not. But
the big miracle of this story is the presence of God in
human flesh in a boat on the Sea of Galilee in the person
of Jesus that touches the ordinary, everyday life of
mankind and transforms him from a worrying, reluctant,
failure to become the bearer of the message of eternal
life to the world.
Let me say it again: The miracle of this story is the
presence of God in human flesh in a boat on the Sea of
Galilee in the person of Jesus that touches the ordinary
everyday life of mankind and transforms him from a worrying,
reluctant, failure to become the bearer of the message of
eternal life to the world.
Peter gets the message. He fell at Jesus’ knees and
said, “Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man.” Isaiah
experienced the same thing in the Old Testament lesson. In the
presence of the glory of God in the Temple he cried
out “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips,
and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my
eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Sometime, somewhere, somehow, today you have to figure
it out too. Eternity is happening all around you. I
saw a story about a couple of young children who found
an unbroken robin’s egg in their back yard. They
carefully brought it in the house, made a nest of
tissue, looked up to see what temperature a robin’s
egg needs to be kept at, put a heat lamp nearby and
a thermometer and then waited. The kids’ mom made a
little note next to the artificial nest that read:
Be patient. I’m happening.
God is patient because you are happening! Your life,
your circumstances, your fears, your failures, He has
broken into with the words of Jesus. The most precious
and magnificent words recorded in all of Scripture. God,
the eternal, all-powerful, creator and sustainer of the
universe, right smack dab in the middle your mess, says,
“Do not be afraid.”
Don’t you see? It happened again here this morning. You
came to church. Your mind was on other things. You stepped
into God’s presence in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit and He did not destroy you for
your preoccupation with the things of this world. Instead
He spoke. “Do not be afraid. I forgive you all your sins.”
There is the miracle.
He turns your head to the cross and says, “You see that?
That’s for you. In Jesus I have come to give you life –
real life – eternal life that begins right now. Do not be
afraid. Nothing in this world can defeat you. Your fears
and your failures are not the measure of your life. Jesus
is the measure of your life. I say you are mine. By His
death you are forgiven. By His resurrection you have
new life.”
You know the old saying. Yesterday is the past. Tomorrow
is the future. Today is a GIFT, that’s why we call it
the PRESENT. God makes today a present, a gift given for
us to live without fear and even more than that a gift
given for to live with a purpose. He calls us to put out
into the deep let down our nets. It is a call to leave
here today with the miracle of surviving a direct encounter
with God shaping, influencing, directing everything you do.
From now on you will catch men! In your life the word of
Jesus, “do not be afraid,” becomes real for the people
around you to see, to scratch their head and wonder
about. His word of forgiveness in your life makes you
the net to gather as many as He can into His boat,
called the church.
You see what that means don’t you? People are watching
you. They know you go to church. Your friends at school
are affected by the way you handle your studies, your
attitude toward your classmates and teachers, the way
you behave when no one is looking.
From now on you will catch men! In your life the word
of Jesus, “do not be afraid,” becomes real for the people
around you to see, to scratch their head and wonder
about. His word of forgiveness in your life makes you
the net to gather as many as He can into His boat,
called the church.
You see what that means don’t you? People are watching
you. They know you go to St. Luke’s Lutheran Church and
School. They are affected by the way you handle your work,
your attitude toward your boss, your co-workers, your
employees, the way you behave when you think no one is
looking.
My friends, you have stood in the presence of God here
today and lived to tell about. That changes everything.
Jesus said, “from now on you will catch men.” Your life
is not your own. You belong to Christ and His word makes
your life the net to draw the world into His loving presence.
It’s time to go home and let down your nets into the
deep. Start by forgiving each other as you have been
forgiven. Don’t be afraid. Live your forgiveness today
and then tomorrow and then the day after that and He
will fill this place to overflowing.
Amen.
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