5. Sunday after Epiphany, 02/07/2010

Sermon on Luke 5:1-11, by Walter W. Harms

1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2 he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 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.

4 When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch."

5 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."

6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 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.

8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" 9 For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10 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 catch men." 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

How Much Does It Take to Impress You? Any of you here today ever gone fishing? Ever catch anything? Ever caught nothing? Any of you really "serious" about fishing or do it for a living? How many fish would it take to astonish you? Let me give you a couple of examples.

The first fish I ever caught was a 5 inch catfish in a small creek in Nebraska. I caught it with a string and a safety pin. Pretty impressive!!!! Well, how about this. I saw a blue heron (that's a bird) catch a fish 5 times bigger than it throat, toss it in the air to position it, and then swallowed it whole and alive. Talk about liking sushi! Very impressive.

Report I have heard here from persons fishing the Highland Lakes of Texas talks about catching 200 to 300 white bass during the spawning season. Now I have never seen those fish. I personally believe most "fish" stories come from persons who put all their catches together and get the high number they come up with. But 200 fish on one outing? That's impressive!

I have visited the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo, Japan. Although we got there around 9 AM, most of the fish were already gone. Every day except for about 2 days a month, 4 million pounds of fish of all kinds go through that market. That's staggers the mind!

In the USA every year 190 million pounds of fish are eaten. That's also very impressive.

Well, just how many fish would it take to astonish you? Any figures that I quoted enough for you? Oh, I should add: astonish you, make you declare you are sinful and that God should leave your territory, and then, catch this (no pun intended), leave everything and follow this person we call Jesus?

Well, it took two full boats, and I mean full of fish boats to astonish Peter and his companion to leave everything and follow Jesus. That's impressive, for sure. Was it the fish or what was it that prompted this action? And what about Jesus' word to Peter: "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men"? What would impress you to leave everything and follow Jesus? What impresses you enough to want to "catch" people?

This incident of the fish is not Peter's first encounter with Jesus. Jesus had healed his mother-in-law from a fever. He had seen Jesus heal many, many people with all kinds of illnesses, diseases, and deformities. Peter had heard Jesus speak on this occasion and other times. All of that probably impressed Peter, but didn't provoke him to any special kind of action. In fact, we find him in this event recorded by Luke of the life of Jesus cleaning his nets after a night of fishing and catching nothing.

He is kind enough to row his bow a short distance from the shore so that people could hear Jesus speak well to the crowds. When that speaking was finished, Jesus said to Peter to go out to where the water was deep and throw the nets over for a catch.

Now Peter was an experienced fisherman. You fish at night when the fish come closer to the surface of the water. Peter knows how to fish. Fish descend to the deep not to be seen during daylight hours.

Now this Jesus who to Peter knew little or nothing about fishing, tells him to do what no good fisherman would do: in the daytime, in the deep water, try to catch fish.

Peter was probably also at least a little bit exhausted from being up all night, and from pulling nets in, even with nothing in them. That was hard work, tiring work. He was in the process of cleaning all kinds of "stuff" off of the nets, perhaps also repairing them for the next evening expedition, if it was going to be a good night for fishing.

He tells that to Jesus. But Jesus has impressed him, and because Jesus said it, Peter goes out into deep water, puts his nets in, and encounters a catch like nothing he has ever had before. The nets are in danger of tearing. In fact, he has to get the other boat out there to bring the catch in. Even with the other boat filling up with fish, there are so many that the boats are in danger of sinking. That is impressive! Very impressive! "Wow!" impressive!

Peter's reaction? He falls down at Jesus' knees. He worships. He confesses what we all should confess. God the Lord should leave us because we are sinful. We have no right at all to be in the presence of God. We should have God leave us to our retched fishing, our occupations, our proclivities to do what we think is best.

The confession of sinfulness by Peter was not due to any particular sin. He did curse and swear because there were so many fish. He didn't lust. He didn't immediately calculate how much his bank account would increase because of this bonanza of fish, he didn't think about all the good he could do and impress people with all the money he would make, he didn't think about how now he would be able to impress the other villagers and his fellow fishermen with his wealth. None of that. The fish didn't really impress him.

It was the fact that this person Jesus, whoever he was, could say a word, not an incantation or mantra, not even a prayer and fish would swarm into nets beyond any clever ways of fishing that he or anyone else had ever devised.

Only the Lord of the universe, the Maker of heaven and earth could do this. And here he was right there, perhaps even in his boat among all those fish. That was beyond impressive. It blew his mind. He was in the presence of God! That did impress him.

He had no right to be there. He had no cause for God to be with him in the boat. He had no grounds even to conceive why, why God would be there. At best, he was a good fisherman, but good in any other area of his life? No way.

To continue to exist God had to leave his neighborhood, his territory. He knew, this Peter did, that man by nature is impure, corrupted by forces over which he had no control, missing any mark, and all marks for that matter, that God had set for mankind. In every way he knew he was inadequate to be with God, in his presence, talking with him. He was sinful. He worshiped and he confessed. And then he did the only thing he could possibly do. He left everything, his miraculous catch of fish, his boats, his livelihood, his wife and family, his mother-in-law (well, maybe that wasn't to hard!), his friends and companions, his synagogue, his planned future, his dreams, his fantasies-to follow this Jesus. This Jesus had told him two magnificent things: don't be afraid, and, from now on you will catch men. This makes it possible for him to leave everything. Those two statements are impressive, "wow" impressive and they are told to you and to me today, now, here, words we need to be impressed by every day.

"Don't be afraid!" Well, you might think that you don't fear very much. Maybe true, maybe not. Have any of these? Fear about the future, the weather, the government, the wars, politics, the family, school, tests of all kinds, the relationship, the economy, your health, pain, dying, death, your depression, your fantasies, your lack of so much?

How about these? If there is a God, what does he think of you? Have you ever really tried to be good? Why does God continue to bless you? Does it seem that God doesn't care what happens? What if there is no God, and you are on your own?

The Lord Jesus says to you: "Don't be afraid!" Why? Because you see this Jesus came to this lake in Galilee to tell Peter and us not to be afraid of the awesome power and majesty of God. Because God cares for people, he cares about you and he cares about me and all of us here and throughout the world. He knows we are right when we confess our shortcomings, our failures, our proclivity for doing what is evil and neglecting the good. He know that there is this impossible gap between any possible thought of God being good to us and our response to him and to the people he created and puts in sphere. He knows that better than we know it ourselves.

He comes to "catch" us out of the black sea of fear in which we live. He comes to give us the end of fear, the beginning of peace and a calm heart. He comes to banish forever from you any idea that he doesn't want us near him. He wants to be close to you, to take you up in his arms as he did little children. He wants to hug you and tell you. His strength will prevail in our weakness and our weak endeavors.

More than that, he walks the way of sinful man to death. Our God, our Lord dies for us so that we might live and breathe in the atmosphere of God's love for us. The cross is a sign of our sin, but more importantly it is a sign of God's deep, deep love and care for us. I hope that that sign of God's divine care and acceptance of you, the cross will impress you, astonish, cause you to confess and worship, and . . .

Leave everything and follow him. That might really be impressive, you might hear yourself say. But there is it. We do find it hard to sing the hymn: "What is the world to me, With all it vaunted pleasures, When thou, and thou alone, Lord Jesus, are my treasure."

Not so hard to do when we realize that everything rusts and decays. All relationships come to an end. Nothing lasts, but Jesus.

But we are not in a wilderness with nothing. We have the greatest adventure of all time. We, you and I, those loved, saved and rescued by Jesus are now to catch men.

That means simply: you and I are to rescue people from fear, from the deep, deep cold depths of despair, the fear of failure, the fear that this world gives with its totally screwed up notions of success, glamour, and right.

We have this powerful Word to speak to them which literally will save them from a now and an eternity of evil. We have Jesus to catch people with. This word "catch" means to restore to life and strength, to revive."

Would you save a drowning person if you could? Would you save a person from a burning house if you could? Would you step forward and protect someone from abuse if you could? Well, you can do this for anyone by speaking the Good News of Jesus that the drowning is finished, the fire is out, the abuse of conscience and self is finished because the end of all fears is here. Here in the One who says to you: put out into the deep for a catch!

Try it. Catch people with a Word of hope, a Word of strength, a Word of encouragement, a Word of sins forgiven, a Word of God's presence even when we don't know it, can't see it, or don't realize it.

You will, I guarantee, find this impressive!

retired pastor Walter W. Harms
Austin, TX U. S. A.

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