Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
February 6, 2022
Scripture Reading: Luke 5:1-11
Let’s talk about Peter for a moment… or Simon Peter as he is called in today’s bible reading. Peter is probably the best known of Jesus’s disciples, and today’s story is the first time we get to meet him. He’s a fisherman, fishing in the Sea of Galilee, and by the end of today’s story he’s left everything behind him in order to follow Jesus. Later on, we’ll see that he becomes part of Jesus’s inner circle, along with James and John. The three of them will go up the mountain with Jesus and see him transfigured or transformed – they will see God’s holiness shining out of Jesus. Peter will also be the first person who names Jesus as the Messiah, but when he objects to Jesus’s teaching that he is going to suffer and die, Jesus famously says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan.” At the last supper before Jesus’s arrest, Peter will recklessly promise to stand by Jesus no matter what the future brings, but then after witnessing Jesus’s arrest, Peter will deny knowing Jesus three times before the rooster crows and he will weep bitterly when he realized what he has done. After Jesus’s resurrection, Peter is going to be one of the first disciples to rush to the empty tomb, and he will also be among the first to encounter the risen Christ. And then if we carry on to the book of Acts, we will get to see Peter, who started his life as a fisherman in the backwater of Galilee, preaching to crowds of thousands of people, and becoming a leader in the earliest church.
But in today’s reading, we have Peter meeting Jesus for the first time. At this point in Jesus’s story, he has been baptized by John in the Jordan River; he then spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted by the devil; he preached publicly for the first time in his hometown of Nazareth where he was at first well-received, but then the people tried to run him off the edge of a cliff. Since then, he has been traveling in the area around the Sea of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and healing people.
Now Simon Peter was a fisherman who spent his nights in a boat out on the Sea of Galilee trying to catch enough fish to pay the exorbitant tax rate demanded by the Roman Empire, with hopefully enough fish left over to feed his family. Maybe he had had an opportunity to hear Jesus teach, maybe he had witnessed one of the healings, or maybe he was only aware of Jesus’s reputation.
Today’s story begins with Peter, beside his boat on the shore of the lake, washing his nets after a full night of fishing, which had resulted in a catch of nothing. There were going to be empty bellies that day in his house. Then down to the lake comes Jesus, followed by a huge crowd of people wanting to hear what he had to say. There were so many people that that the only way Jesus could possibly be heard was to go a little way out in a boat and speak to the crowds on the shore. And so he climbs into Peter’s boat and asks Peter to push out a little ways.
I wonder what Peter was thinking in this moment. Maybe he was excited to have a front row seat to Jesus’s teaching. Maybe he was glad to have a chance to help Jesus out. Maybe he was just tired after a full night of fishing, and frustrated because he hadn’t caught anything, and he would really just rather get home and go to bed.
But no matter how he was feeling, he did what Jesus asked him to do; and after teaching for a while, before heading back to shore, Jesus tells Peter to drop the nets one more time.
Now here is where I can really empathize with Peter. To all of you who have ever been a professional, or someone who is knowledgeable in your field – to all of you nurses and teachers and accountants and lab techs and paramedics and carpenters – how does it feel when someone who has nothing to do with your field of expertise comes into your workplace and tries to tell you how to do your job?
Peter is the expert fisherman here in the boat. He’s fished all night and caught nothing. Now, in the middle of the day, this isn’t time right time for catching fish. And here’s this carpenter from an inland village who has come along and is now telling Peter how to fish.
To me, one of the most amazing parts of this story is that Peter actually does what Jesus tells him to do. Peter say, “OK Jesus, we’ve worked all night and caught nothing; but if you say so, I will let down the nets.” I can’t help wondering if Peter accompanied these words with an eye roll.
And wouldn’t you know it – when Peter and his crew haul the nets back, they are so full that the nets begin to tear and the boat begins to sink.
I think that maybe this is the moment that Peter realizes that he’s not dealing with any ordinary carpenter from Nazareth. He falls down at Jesus’s feet in awe, and paraphrases Garth and Wayne from Wayne’s World, “I’m not worthy. I’m not worthy.”
And full of awe and wonder, Peter, along with his partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee, leave everything behind – boats, nets, families – and they follow Jesus.
Jesus uses language that would be familiar to them – instead of catching fish they are going to be catching people. I know that I’ve suggested before that if Peter, James, and John had been farmers rather than fishermen, maybe Jesus would have used different words – you are going to be harvesting people rather than wheat – but fishing is the language that they speak, and so Jesus tells them that they are going to be catching people.
But when I read the story this year, I really started wondering about this image of “catching” people, and I started wondering if this is really the best image for what we are called to do.
The thing about catching fish or catching people is that it is a very passive activity on the part of the one being caught. In fact, the one being caught may be actively trying to escape the one doing the catching. And is this really how we want to be carrying out the mission that we are called to?
For I thing that we all, like Peter, James, and John, are called to a mission as we follow Jesus. As we follow Jesus, we are given an opportunity to invite others to join us there.
One of my professors at AST, Dr. Alyda Faber, likes to talk about “Theological F-Words” – words that are part of our faith vocabulary, but words that make us uncomfortable to hear or to say – words that we might whisper under our breath rather than saying them out loud. And I wonder if “evangelism” is sometimes one of those Theological F-words.
We’re not going to “win more souls for Jesus” by casting out a fishing line and pulling people in even as they struggle to get away – that strategy has been tried time and time again with disastrous consequences. Just think of the Residential Schools here in Canada.
But the root of our English word “evangelism” comes from the Greek “euangelion” which simply means “good news.” Evangelism, at its heart, means simply sharing good news with someone else.
And that doesn’t usually look like a fishing line or fishing net approach, catching someone and reeling them in. Instead, it is much more likely to look like listening deeply to someone and offering to pray for them. It is much more likely to look like living a life that is so full of love and joy that other people want what you have. It is much more likely to look like someone asking how you manage to cope with the stresses of life and you sharing with them about how your faith journey strengthens you.
And just as Peter didn’t cause the miraculous catch that day in the boat – he just trusted in Jesus and did what Jesus told him to do – we don’t need to worry about our “catch” either. We trust in Jesus, we can share and invite, but it is the Holy Spirit who opens hearts to receive the message.
I do believe that Jesus has called all of us to follow; and I also believe that as we follow, we are given opportunities in our lives to share the good news with others and invite them to join us.
We aren’t catching fish to feed our families or to earn our fortune – instead we are inviting others to join us as together we can be a beloved community that loves each other and supports each other, a community that is authentically human together, as together we try to fumble our way along this path that Jesus shows to us.
And so instead of being sent out into the world to “catch,” I believe that we are sent out into the world to share, and to invite, and most of all, to love. And may the Holy Spirit guide us on that way. Amen.
“Miracle Catch”
Mike Moyers
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