READING: Luke Ch 5 1-11

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

SERMON: Nobody is on top of the world every day. Everyone has ups and downs.

Sometimes our world is happy and sometimes it is sad. Sometimes our life moves along briskly, we complete what we set out to do and sometimes we get stuck.

We look failure in the face day after day. We don’t know how to get out of the rut which we don’t know how we got into. Life as we know it comes to a halt.

Today’s gospel reading is about similar discouraged men.

They were fishermen – not recreational fishermen, but workers whose families went hungry if there was no catch.

Jesus had met them before – when they were associated with John the Baptist.

It was a very bad day for the fishermen. They had fished all night and caught nothing. Now it was morning, after a night of failure, and the men were washing their nets so they’d be ready for the next night’s work.

There was a crowd on the beach near where they were working. A big crowd. They were listening to Jesus – crowding in all around him.

Jesus is in the water – out a little way from the crowd.

When suddenly Jesus steps into Simon’s boat. “Put out a little way from shore”, he asks Peter, and he does.

From the boat Jesus continues to teach to the crowds. Finally he is done and the crowd goes home.

Jesus then turns to Simon. “Put out into the deep water”, he tells him, “and let your nets down for a catch.”

It was really a bold statement for Jesus, a landsman, to tell a professional fisherman how to do his business. And Peter answers Jesus immediately by explaining the facts of life to him.

“It won’t do any good,” he says, “We have worked all night – and have caught nothing. There is no point to it.”

Have you ever been there? You do your best. You work hard. Nobody appreciates your efforts, people may take you for a ride and the harder you try at something, the less you produce. The results for all your efforts are zero a big fat zilch, nothing.

Have you ever been in the place where all your wisdom and senses tells you to just give up. The last thing you want to hear and the last thing you need to hear when you are in this position are the words “try harder”.

But back to our reading, Peter and Andrew, James and John – they were not stupid men. They knew the lake, the underwater ledges where the fish congregated, the kind of weather you had to have to bring in a good catch.

Their families had been working the lake for generations. They knew the time to fish – and where to fish – and they had gone fishing – at the right time – and at the right place – and come up empty.

“Try over there”, Jesus says. “over there in the deep water – let your nets down for a catch.”

“Master, we have worked all night long”, Peter replies, “we have done everything we should have done, everything we were taught to do by our fathers and there fathers before them, but we have caught nothing… yet – if you say so – I will let down the nets.”

Why they agreed to row out into the deeper water – we do not know.

Perhaps they did so because they were learning to trust Jesus – perhaps they did it to humour him – perhaps it was because of something in Jesus’ tone of voice. Whatever the reason, Peter agrees to do what Jesus asks of him.

Well we know the story from here – they threw the nets out from they boat and caught such a great shoal of fish with them that the nets began to break.

They caught so many fish that when John and James came alongside and helped load the boats – the boats began to sink. It was an amazing catch.

Today is a day when many preachers will probably be talking about how we are called to be soul catchers – how like Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John we are called to leave everything behind, all our ordinary concerns and worries and focus on winning people for God.

When the fishermen said to Jesus – We know our business, we tried it – we worked all night and nothing happened, so what’s the point. Well we also are like Peter, we know our business. But sometimes we know it too well.

We know things about ourselves and about others – and what happens?

We feel frustrated. We feel alone. We feel inadequate. When God calls us to go out and win people to him, we may well believe that what is being asked of us will not work out – and we don’t want to try again.

But we need to put out into the deep water – and let down our nets.

We need to say – that’s all very fine Jesus – but we tried our best – we tried it before and it didn’t work but because you say so, I will do as you have asked.

But what’s the point? What is the point of all this?

Well my friends the point is this: that sometimes we just need to head out into the deep waters and let down our nets for no better reason than Jesus has asked us to do so.

Jesus did not come simply to make each one of us into some kind of fishermen – going out to catch souls with a line of faith so that they could be displayed in some heavenly trophy case.

He came so that each one of us might have an abundant life, a full and rich life, a life in which we know and experience and share the love of God – a love that ensures that in the end our labours are not in vain, no matter how many days our nets may come up empty.

To achieve that life – we have to do one main thing – we have to recognize that our knowledge and our experience is not equal to that of God’s.

We have to recognize that God’s ways are indeed superior to our own, that his wisdom is greater, his timing better, and his counsel more life-giving than our own.

God is able – and willing to help us – God is able – and God calls us to share that message, the message that through listening to him and following him, there comes an abundance from where before there was nothing.

There comes the opportunity to reap the harvest, fish in the depths of our community and help grow the followers of Christ Jesus.

The question I wish to leave you with is this… are you up for casting your nets and fishing the depths?

May God’s grace make all things new for it makes us who we are supposed to be. Amen

PRAYERS

Let us pray to God, who gives more abundantly than we dare to ask.

Grant that the Church, confident in the power of the Resurrection, shall be always alert to hear your call and faithful to follow it. Give your people courage to launch out into the deep and make your word known to all.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

Give to the world a new vision of your glory. Raise up witnesses who in your name will turn the hearts of men and women from hostility to friendship and from suspicion to trust.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

In all our works, strengthen us to co-operate with others for the common good. Bless our families, friends and neighbours with the joy of knowing the Risen Christ.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

Have mercy on those who are weary and discouraged because they see no result for their work. Strengthen them to persevere and to trust in your calling.

Lord in your mercy hear our prayer

We pray for those who have died and have been raised to new life. Grant them the eternal glory which Christ won for them by his saving death for our sins.

Merciful Father accept these prayers in the name of your son our saviour Jesus Christ. And so we bind our prayers together in the words that Jesus taught his disciples.

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, For ever and ever. Amen

Revd Kevin
Associate Priest
St.Wilfrids and St.Thomas’s