Luke 5:1-11
Today’s scripture is a fishing story. Some of you are fisher folk. Sometimes you go fishing and catch your limit. Sometimes you go and there’s nary a bite. You enjoy the scenery, the quiet, and the break from your usual routine, but you don’t catch fish. That’s more or less OK if fishing isn’t your business. But for Simon and James and John and the others in this story, fishing was their business. It’s not OK to fish all night and catch nothing. Empty boats don’t pay the bills.
It was probably a nice distraction from their discouragement when the teacher Jesus asked to borrow a boat. Jesus spent some time, maybe an hour? teaching the folks who had gathered to see this new fellow, following in the footsteps of John the baptizer. He had something to say, and the fishermen listened with one ear while they cleaned their nets, removing weeds they had caught overnight. They were not in a hurry because there weren’t any fish to take to market. What did they hear? Luke doesn’t say, so we fill in with teachings from other stories:
If a soldier asks you to carry a pack a mile, go two.
If your neighbor is hungry, give him bread.
You matter more to God than the birds flying by or the sheep on the hillside, and they are completely cared for. So don’t worry.
God intends for you to be well.
You are God’s light in this world.
It was a nice message, a hopeful message. It didn’t pay the bills either.
When Jesus was winding down, Simon got ready to take his boat back and clean it, too. Instead, Jesus said, “Row out to the deep and put down your nets.” They had fished all night. The nets were newly clean and folded, and it was time to rest. Simon had no interest in trying again that day. He was done. But there was the crowd, and he didn’t want to offend the new teacher, so out they went. They threw the nets. There were more fish than they had ever seen. They called in the second boat of reinforcements and even that could hardly hold the catch.
The whole experience brings Simon to his knees. “I don’t know who you are, but if you are from God, be merciful to me.” (And if you are from some other power, please don’t hurt me!)
Luke uses this story to explain how Jesus called men to become his disciples, his apprentices and assistants in the movement he was launching. “You’ll be fishing for men, next.” Tradition explains that it’s our job to help Jesus “catch” people to be his believers. The expectations are set high; our signup genius should overflow like their boats. It’s true that these men who once fished, became disciples. What’s not clear is why. If the miracle you need is a big catch of fish and Jesus gives you that, you don’t stop fishing. You invite him to stay with you, rather than going with him. But Simon falling on his knees gives us a clue that what really impressed him wasn’t the fish, it was the way Jesus took his falling-apart life and filled it right up with hope. It was the message that he’d overheard when he was half listening, that God was up to something in this ordinary life that was extraordinary. Something worth paying attention to; something worth signing up for.
Most of the time sermons aren’t written, they’re found. This week I found this sermon while we were bagging macaroni at the food bank. Nell and I were putting ingredient labels on bags of macaroni, which doesn’t take much concentration, so we could talk about how things are. She correctly noted that aside from this macaroni, life is pretty hard right now. People we care about are afraid. Crazy hurtful things are all over the news – and that doesn’t count two plane crashes. I realized that the reason nothing productive has been crossed off my to-do list in two weeks is that I’m pretty much paralyzed by things going haywire and completely out of control. It gives us pause. Then for some reason I saw all those fish from the scripture, more and more of them pouring into the nets until there were more than enough for everyone. After that amazing success, why does everyone stop fishing and go with Jesus? I suspect their reaction wasn’t about fish. It was about being in the presence of someone who comes along side you when life is its most discouraging and reminds you that there is so much more.
What we need more than anything right now is to get in touch with Jesus’ message that the universe in on our side and the bullies don’t have the last word. There are still fish in the lake and there is still hope in the world.
What does that hope look like?
It looks like connection. Remember the story. There are the fishermen working on the shore. There are folks who’ve come looking for the new teacher. There’s Jesus who sits offshore in the boat and talks to people about life and finding goodness in it. There’s Simon who shares his boat and Jesus who shares where he sees fish schooling. None of that fixes what’s wrong with the first century, but they are all in it together.
There’s lots of talk these days about how divided we are. How we can’t trust one another. How this idea or that one is ending the world as we know it. How strangers are dangerous, and family might turn you in, or your coworker might report that you said something inclusive last week. Here’s the truth. We are all in this together. We are, at the very heart of our being, interconnected. We breathe the same air. We live one Life. Scientists tell us that the individual trees of the forest are connected underground across their root systems so that they function as one being. No one lives alone. We are entwined with one another.
Jesus invited people into community and the nature of that community is abundance. The fish filled the net. Their joy overflowed. When we recognize our connection to one another, we reconnect with the heart of God, who is good, who is life, who is all. We get tired and wrung out and discouraged, but there is a deep well of love waiting to fill us up again. Folks may try to tell us to grab onto what’s ours because someone is trying to take it away from us, but the truth is there’s more than enough. There’s enough food, enough work, enough joy, enough love, enough hope. When we share it, it multiplies; it never divides. Jesus said, “Come with me,” and together they provided for each other and shared with everyone else. Jesus is still saying, “Stick with me” and in him we find abundance.
And most of all we find love. There are plenty of folks wanting us to believe that the world is broken. That kindness is weakness. That cruelty is going to have the last say. Here’s why people followed Jesus and why they stayed with him: love. Here’s why even when they killed him, those who knew him best believed he was still alive and with them: love. There are a lot of hard things happening in our world and even harder things happening around this world, but at its core, Life remains rooted and grounded in love. Nothing can take love away if you don’t let it.
Jesus’ followers lived in the first century trauma AND they lived immersed in God’s love. They lived in villages controlled by Rome AND they lived in communities that practiced love. They lived in the Roman Empire AND they lived in the Kingdom of God, who is love.
This is the gift God is going to give us today and every day:
People to stand with us
Hope to pour over us
Strength sufficient for each moment’s need, and a bit extra to share with a friend.
Love stronger than any power to hurt or divide.
This is the season of Epiphany when we celebrate the light that Jesus brought into the world. It’s the light that people saw in him and through him that changed the way they saw their world. It’s the light that keeps shining through the ups and downs of history and right into this moment.
This is what we know: Light shines in darkness and darkness cannot overcome it.