Fishing story

Church was canceled today

Because I didn't hear a sermon today, I thought I would try writting one myself.

The text:Fifth Sunday after Epiphany Luke 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

The gender inclusive language misses out on the play on words that Luke uses. Rather than being fishing men, you will be fishing for men. Men here means people. Of course today even that language invokes images that miss the point as well. Today we still use idioms of fishing for dating. Not what Jesus had in mind at all.

Jesus wants them to draw humanity in toward Jesus. To live lives that make people wonder and will follow them to Jesus.

They caught more fish that day than they could manage. Too many to pickle, too many to sell, too many for their nets, too many for their boats. There was profit with Jesus around. But they left all of that to follow Jesus.

Jesus calls us to follow him everyday. This is a scary message. Are we to leave our work places and follow him? Well, they never stop fishing. We see later in the Gospels that they still fished. The image that really grabs me here is leaving their drenched boats, torn nets and caught fish to walk with Jesus.

"Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man." Isn't that the truth! We see Jesus' greatness and our own weakness and we are ashamed. Jesus doesn't care about all that we have done wrong or anything that we are ashamed of. He wants us to follow him; He wants us near him--Grace defined.

Jesus may ask us to do things that seem futile at first, but then we will be surprised at how well it worked out. Many times we too do not want Jesus near us, but Jesus is always calling us to move toward him and in turn lead others to him.