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Sermon Date:	February 4, 2007
Sermon Text:	Luke 5:1-11
Church Calendar:	5th Sunday after Epiphany
Delivered By:	Vicar Ben Bahr

"Catch Alive"

“You’ve got to be kidding!” I can imagine that thought going through Simon Peter’s head when Jesus asks him to go out to deep water, in the middle of the day, to catch fish. “He’s pulling my leg. Any moment now he’ll burst into laughter and tell me he’s joking. Right?”

But an examining glance at Jesus’ face revealed no trace of jest. His instruction was quite serious. So, against his better judgment, Peter prepared to go out to deep water to cast out his nets. In typical Simon Peter fashion, though, he could not resist blurting out his feelings on the matter. “You realize we’ve been fishing all night, don’t you? And we haven’t caught anything at all.” Indeed, Simon and his friends fished for their livelihood. They were fishermen. They and their families depended on good catches – and they certainly knew what they were doing. What Jesus told them to do made no sense at all. Everyone knows that the best catch comes at night, and if they hadn’t caught anything at night, they certainly weren’t going to catch anything in the daytime.

And what’s more, you don’t catch fish in nets in deep water. That’s just not the way fishing is done. You can almost hear the “If you say so…” tone in Peter’s voice. “Ok, I’ll humor you, Jesus, even if it makes me the laughingstock of all the other fishermen.”

But when Peter cast out the nets, they caught such a great abundance of fish that the nets could hardly contain it, and the boats were nearly overwhelmed. Yet the nets held firm and the boats remained steady, and the catch was amazing.

God has a way of doing things we don’t expect, doesn’t He? He often chooses to work through the most unlikely people and methods. What kind of god would choose twelve bickering misfits to be his apostles and closest friends on earth? What kind of god would allow his son to be born in a stable and consider death by crucifixion to be a victory?

The kind of God who knows exactly what he’s doing, and chooses to work in his own ways and not the ways of the world. To quote First Corinthians 1: "God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God."

And so Jesus told Peter to let down his nets in deep water in the middle of the day, and the catch was overwhelming. What a fitting introduction to the lives the apostles would lead; as Jesus says, they will now be catching men with the Gospel. Catching men – you know, the original Greek word which we translate “catching” is very interesting. It’s the only place in the whole Bible this word is used. The word literally means “to catch alive”. Unlike the fish, which were caught to their death, the people the apostles caught would be caught to their life.

Does Jesus call you to let down your net, too, for the sake of the catch? What does He ask you to do? Is it possible that He desires you to step out of your comfort zone, trusting in Him instead of in your own talents, wisdom, and strength? How much different would today’s Gospel lesson have been if Peter told Jesus, “Look, Lord, I just got in from a long night of fishing and I’m exhausted. Everyone knows you can’t catch fish in the middle of the day, or in deep water, so I’m just going to finish washing my nets and go home.”

It is certain that Jesus’ instruction to the disciples to go out and fish for men is extended to us as well. You have heard the Gospel of salvation, and it is your task to take that Gospel out to all nations, beginning with those people even right here in this room who may not yet know Christ, then to the community of Oviedo, and farther and farther until everyone in the whole world has heard the good news that Jesus Christ died to wash away their guilt.

In the early church, Christians gathered in groups of fifty to one hundred people called “house churches”. After a house church had grown large enough, a group of people would leave to form another, allowing both groups to reach out to those who had not yet heard the gospel. Using the net of preaching, teaching, and Baptism, the churches would grow until they once again had sufficient size to send another group out and start over again.

I am delighted that the people of this congregation have stepped out in faith to do basically the same thing as the early church at Chuluota and perhaps at Sanford and other locations in the future. Just like in the Gospel today, the catch is too large for one boat! But working together, we can bring in the catch that Jesus’ word has provided.

Indeed, we must never forget that it is Jesus’ word that is responsible for the catch. The Gospel tells us that the disciples had been fishing all night, working hard and doing everything they could think of, and still they caught nothing at all. But at a simple word from Jesus, their nets were filled. When the Creator comes to His Creation, everything overflows with abundance.

And without a doubt, nothing is more abundantly overflowing than the grace of God. The reason we must catch alive many people with the Gospel of Christ is not to make St. Luke’s grow. We do not engage in mission to fill the pews. We engage in mission because Jesus Christ, having kept the law perfectly, died our death on the cross and gives us the life and salvation which belongs to Him. We engage in mission because there are people who don’t know what Christ has done for them.

Floundering in the deep sea, those who don’t know Christ’s love have no hope, no joy, no peace. This is why we engage in mission: to spread the light of true hope, of boundless joy, of perfect peace, of overwhelming love which all comes from Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus died to give us the promise of grace which makes all our guilt go away. He rose from the dead to proclaim that we need no longer fear death.

When He says “Don’t be afraid,” it’s not just a comforting expression. There is real power in those words. Don’t be afraid! Jesus is with you. Jesus has conquered sin and death and gives you His own righteousness. Jesus has instructed you to let out your nets for a living catch, and you know that His word will not fail.

I’d like to share with you the thoughts of F.H. Lindemann. He writes,

We have taken refuge in the net of the Church. We are the people pressing upon Christ to hear the Word of God; we were drawn from the sea of the world when the Lord became “my Light and my Salvation.” This was done first through Holy Baptism and is done also in the Holy Communion. We are to leave everything and follow Him.

The holy Gospel is truly a glad message. The storm may howl round about us; bodily suffering, war, human weakness, rebellious will, all surround the Kingdom of God. All human effort seems to accomplish little. Yet Christ lives in his Church. In faith we venture far out into the deep. Christ will fill the net of the Church. It seems that the Church works in vain, but in reality and unknown to the senses a great shoal of fishes is enclosed.

Now, go fish!

Amen.

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