Good morning, Friends! Thank you for coming here to worship this morning!
A couple of weeks ago, I said we’re going to be reading from the gospel of Luke from now through Easter. And there’s a reason for this.
It’s really important for all of us to be familiar with Jesus. We need to know what he said, what he did, how he feels, and who he is.
So, every week, when you come here, you’re part of a big picture. We want everyone to know this stuff, and to be familiar with it. We want you to be a teacher, a representative, an ambassador for Jesus.
So, let’s get down to work!
We looked at the first sermon Jesus gave. Does anybody remember the formula I told you last week for giving a sermon?
1) talk about God
2) talk about 20 minutes
3) if you can’t do one, at least do the other!
In his first sermon, Jesus said: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for prisoners, and sight for the blind, to set people free, to proclaim that this is the year of the Lord’s favor, and to say, it begins today, here and now.”
Some people really liked that. Other people attacked Jesus, and said, “Who does he think he is?”
Last week, we talked about healing, which is a really big subject. It raises lots of questions. But a few things stand out:
1) There is no record of Jesus ever turning anyone away, who came to him for help
2) Jesus broke a lot of rules in order to help people
3) There was no one Jesus was afraid to pray for. He considered no one untouchable, and he considered no sin unforgiveable
4) Really important – Jesus told us to do the same things that he did. Teach everywhere, love everyone, pray for everybody, share his message, and wash people’s feet
Today, we’re looking at a different story. Jesus has been teaching down at the beach. Everyone’s crowding close to hear him. And Jesus is in danger of being pushed right into the water!
Let’s read the story, and see what happened.
One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. Jesus saw two boats at the water’s edge, 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 Jesus sat down and taught the people from the boat.
When Jesus 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 did, 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.
Luke 5:1-11
Wow! There are a lot of different things going on in this story. There are so many different things we can say.
Weren’t people excited to hear Jesus? Didn’t everyone want to get as close to him as they could? Nobody wanted to miss a word of what he said. Probably people wanted to touch him. Maybe they hoped he could heal them. Maybe they just hoped some of is holiness would rub off on him.
But this is the lesson churches often forget. People want to get close to Jesus. If we don’t allow that, or if we get in the way, they’re not going to be interested. If we really help people to hear Jesus’ words, if we let people ask Jesus questions, if they can touch him here, if Jesus forgives them here, if it’s a living experience – we won’t be able to keep people away.
In today’s story, it got so crowded on the beach, that Jesus did something nobody expected. He jumped into a boat, and he pushed off from shore.
I know a Quaker meeting in Indiana that has a boat service, every Sunday during the summer. It’s at a big Quaker camp on a lake. They have the service down by the water, and people come on boats from every direction. They listen to the service on their boats. They’ve been holding this “boat-in” service for many years.
But in today’s story, Jesus needed a little elbow room, so he got into the boat. Nobody expected that.
Maybe we need to get into the boat more often. George Fox and the early Friends used to go out preach in the streets and on the open hill sides, and hundreds of people came. They preached in homes and in prisons. Later on, Quakers preached in mental hospitals and schools and slums.
Here at Springfield, Sunday School used to be a mission program for all the poor kids who couldn’t go to school. We were the only school they had, and children came by the hundreds to Springfield. Sometimes, you just need to do something different. Jesus did!
After Jesus was done, he spoke to the guys who owned the boat. They’d had a bad night. They hadn’t caught a single minnow. Jesus said, “Let’s try again. Push your boat out into deep water, and put out your nets.”
The fishermen thought Jesus was crazy. They knew their business. They’d worked all night. They were worn right out. They’d never seen Jesus put a line in the water before.
But Simon, one of the guys who owned the boat, had seen Jesus before. If you remember last week, Jesus went to Simon’s house, and he found Simon’s mother-in-law, practically at death’s door with an uncontrollable high fever. They were just waiting for her to die. And Jesus knelt down by her bed, and prayed for her. And in just a little while, her fever went down, and she got up, and fixed a meal for everyone in the house.
Simon’s mother was one of those old Quaker ladies who’d get up out of her bed, if company was coming.
I used to know a little old Quaker lady like that. She loved her local high school basketball team. She literally hadn’t missed a home game for almost fifty years. The time this story happened, she was almost 80 years old.
The game had started, and she was making her way up to her seat, when she tripped on the bleachers. She fell and broke her hip. They call the ambulance. But the thing was, she wouldn’t let the EMT’s take her away till half-time, when her boys were ahead, and she was sure they’d win the game.
True story. But so is this one. The fishermen had been out all night, hadn’t caught a thing, but they obeyed Jesus. Maybe they thought Jesus was crazy, but they did what he said.
And, of course, you know what happened. Every fish in the lake jumped into the boat! They caught so many fish, the nets were about to break, and the boats were about to sink.
Don’t ever tell Jesus how and where to fish. He’s probably got a better idea than you do!
Simon’s reaction is kind of interesting. You’d think that they’d all be dancing on the beach. You’d think this would be a time for a big community fish fry. But instead, it says that Simon knelt down at Jesus’ feet.
OK, we get that. But then he said to Jesus, “Please go away! I’m a sinful person!”
What was that about?
There’s this thing in the Bible, and maybe it’s true for all of us, that when God is really here, it’s scary. It’s like, a little holiness is OK. But too much holiness, right here in front of us, is more than we can handle.
There are a lot of stories in the Bible, where people couldn’t handle the holiness. When Moses saw the burning bush, that wild fire out in the desert, God told him to take of his shoes, he was on holy ground.
One time when they were moving the ark of the covenant, one of the people accidentally touched the ark, and dropped dead.
When Isaiah was on the mountain top, he heard the still, small voice, and he wrapped his cloak over his face, because no one could look at God’s face, and survive the experience.
Simon felt the same way, right there in his own boat. He didn’t hate Jesus. But this ordinary place had become too holy all of a sudden. He knew he was sinful – we all do! – and he knew in his heart that if Jesus stayed nearby, the old person Simon used to be, wasn’t going to be there any more.
And do you remember what Jesus said to him? Do you remember the first thing Jesus said?
He said, “Don’t be afraid!”
How many times have you heard me say that? The first thing Jesus almost always says is, “Don’t be afraid!”
“Don’t be afraid to hear my voice. Don’t be afraid to touch my hands. Don’t be afraid to say my name, anywhere in the world, to anyone you meet. Don’t be afraid wherever you go, because I will be with you. Don’t be afraid in front of powerful people, even when your own life is at stake. It’s me. I’m always with you. Don’t be afraid!”
And then Jesus said, “From now on, you’ll be fishing for people!”
We usually see this as one of the great scriptures for missions. And it is. But there’s another way to hear what Jesus is saying.
Jesus literally says, “You’re a fisherman. But now, you’re going to be a fisher OF men.”
Simon could have had a different kind of work, and Jesus would have said something very similar. He could have said to a carpenter, “You build houses for a living. But now, help build homes for everyone, so that nobody is homeless or alone.”
Or he might have said to a cook, “You put food on the table. But now, your job is to feed hearts.”
Or Jesus might have said to a nurse or a doctor, “You heal bodies, and that’s a good thing. I want you to do something deeper. Heal hearts, and put minds at rest. . .”
Do you see what I’m saying? All through the gospel, Jesus challenged people to take things deeper, to take things higher, to be who we are, but to live in a new way.
Jesus invited all kinds of people to come along with him. He called fishermen, farmers, tax collectors, doctors, outlaws, rich women, poor women, people from every walk of life. Almost none of them were qualified in the usual sense. He didn’t try to wipe away who they were. He said, “Use who you are, for the kingdom. Use who you are, for Me.”
There are just so many cool things going on in today’s story.
Simon probably would have been happy with just a couple of dozen fish. Jesus wanted him to have more. When Jesus said, “Put out into the deep, and let down your nets for a catch,” I think Jesus was probably smiling. He knew what was going to happen.
Simon and his partners didn’t. They didn’t have the least idea. But Jesus knew. He knew there were millions of fish out there.
So often, we share that feeling – “We’ve worked all night, and we haven’t caught a thing!” We get so discouraged, and we focus on our empty nets. Jesus sees an overflowing ocean, an ocean of life and light, and tells us to try again, and be surprised by the catch.
So many times, I hear people in church say, “Well we tried, and it didn’t work!”
And Jesus says, “Did you try over there? Did you try over in deep water?”
Deep water can mean all kinds of things. It’s the place we’re afraid to go, the place we don’t think it’s going to work.
Every church has it’s deep water moments. Every church has times when it tries something completely new and different.
I’ve told this story before, but the first Quaker meeting I served had no children. They were really depressed about it. I looked at the nursery, and they were just using it for storage. There was junk in the nursery, piled up to the ceiling.
So, we cleared all the junk out. I made ten trips to the landfill. I took some money I’d been given for a funeral, and bought a couple of gallons of paint, and painted the place. We threw out all the toys that were broken or ugly. I took some more funeral money, and bought new toys.
One of the women in the meeting had been teaching Sunday School for many years. She would come every Sunday, when there were no children, and she’d bring a big canvas bag with a lesson plan and all the craft supplies for 6 or 8 kids, when there were none. That’s faith, right there. That’s hope. That’s love!
In a couple of months, one or two kids started to come. Within a year, there were six. It grew and grew, and everyone was amazed.
Different story, same church. Just down the block, somebody started a group home for adults with special needs. People were saying, “There goes the neighborhood!”
I walked over to the group home one day and talked to the manager. I asked where the people who lived there went to church. He said, “Nowhere. Nobody wants them!” So, I invited them. It took a little persuasion, but in a couple of weeks a bus pulled in, with half a dozen of these people, and a couple of caretakers.
Not everybody in the meeting liked it at first. They could be a little disruptive. But pretty soon, we got used to them. We didn’t want to be without them! They became part of our meeting family.
Go out into the deep water. You’ll be surprised by the catch!
Let me tell you just one more story. Same Quaker meeting.
Every year, our town had a big Christmas parade. The parade went right past the front of the meetinghouse. People would come and park in our parking lot, then walk down the driveway and stand on our lawn to watch.
Somebody had the bright idea, “Hey, let’s make hot cocoa, and sell it, and make some money!” So, they appointed a committee.
The committee started arguing. They couldn’t decide on what size cups they were going to serve. They argued about whether the cocoa should be made with skim milk or regular milk. They argued a lot about how much they should charge for it.
Finally, some wonderful person said, “You know what? Let’s just give it away!” We all just looked at each other. And we did. We gave away free hot cocoa, all through the entire parade.
Several things happened. First, everyone who got a free cup of cocoa said we were nuts. Second, most of the people asked, “Can I make a donation?” We took in three times as much money, giving it away, than we ever expected to make from selling it.
Third thing was, a few of those people asked if they could come to our meeting. It wasn’t a fund raiser. It was a welcome, an invitation. Deep water, or deep cocoa – it really worked!
Time to wrap this up.
Jesus was willing to do something really unusual. Jesus could turn a boat into a church. Later on, he turned a hillside into a holy place.
When the preaching was done, Jesus told Simon and his friends to go out fishing again. They hadn’t caught a thing, but Jesus had them try in a place where they never expected to catch fish.
Jesus told them, “Don’t be afraid!” This is so important. “Don’t be afraid” is something we need to hear, every day, over and over again.
And then, Jesus called them to something different. Call it new life, call it deeper life, call it a higher way. Jesus turned their lives into a deeper direction. He said, “From now on, you’ll be fishing for people. . .”
And he’s still saying the same thing.