February 10, 2019 – Luke 5:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
If You Say So, Jesus
5th Sunday after Epiphany – February 10, 2019
First Lutheran Church – Winnipeg, MB
The disciples have been out all night fishing – and they have caught nothing.
It was hard work – and it still is – commercial fishing.
The nets were heavy, the water was cold, their muscles ached.
And they were tired – they’d been doing exhausting physical work all night long.
But then – Jesus appears on the shore.
And Jesus is their friend.
They know Jesus and maybe – just maybe – they have come to trust him a little bit.
Yes: he’s been traipsing around the countryside healing the sick and teaching the good news of
God’s reign appearing now.
And he’s become famous – and they know all this.
But – and here’s the thing – they know Jesus personally and I guess have come to trust him.
Because just a chapter ago, he healed Peter’s very ill mother-in-law.
And so, when Jesus stands on the shore and tells them to once again put out into deep water,
and let down their nets, just one more time, as weary as they are – they do it.
If you say so, Jesus – we will do it.
Not just anybody could have asked them to do that – but because Jesus did they responded,
because they had come to trust Jesus.
That is what it means to have faith. Faith is trust in Jesus.
So they do what he says.
And then, once again, as so often in the Gospels, we have a tremendous image of abundance.
The haul is greater than anything they could possibly have imagined.
Greater, larger, bigger than maybe anything they could have projected.
Two boats, filled to sinking with fish!
Like the water turned into wine at the beginning of his ministry in John’s Gospel,
this is a crazy amount of fish!
If the wine at Cana assured that no one would go thirsty at the big party, just so
the fish in this story assures everyone that not a single person will go hungry that day.
God’s reign has begun.
In Jesus, God’s reign of plenty, of equity, of fairness, of sharing and generosity has begun.
They just do what he says.
Well, Jesus goes on.
Jesus being Jesus he doesn’t just leave things there.
They have now come to trust Jesus even more.
So Jesus takes things to the next level.
He tells them to leave everything behind – boats, nets, livelihood, possibly their sanity –
he tells them to leave everything and follow him.
And he will teach them to catch people.
He’s caught them, right?
He’s just fished for them and caught them – he takes them out of the water.
They are his catch of the day.
He takes them out of the Sea of Galilee, – or Lake Gennesaret as Luke calls it here.
He takes them from the “deep water” or, in Greek, bathos.
In the Hebrew Bible, the bathos is a metaphor for chaos and danger.
Listen to the beginning of Psalm 69:
Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck.
I sink into deep mire, where there is no foothold.
I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me.
I am weary with my crying; my throat is parched.
My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God.
I have no doubt we can all relate to this.
God: I am up to my neck in deep water – save me. I’m waiting.
For me personally, the beginning of this Psalm is what depression feels like: being swamped
in the deep water, in the bathos.
But it is what any illness often feels like.
Then, too, we speak of drowing in debt, and I’m pretty sure this is what that feels like.
There is the chaos, the bathos, the deep water of poverty, unemployment, hunger,
abuse, addiction, injustice, loneliness, grief, shame, and guilt –
all of which feel like they could overwhelm you and our world at any moment.
And then, and then, there is Jesus, who stands on the shore, and says,
“Come on out. I’m here. I’m not going to let the deep water overwhelm you.”
God’s reign of abundance for everyone is here.
Come fishing with me.
Come fishing with me,
and help me take all those threatened by the bathos out of the deep water that
is threatening them.
Come help me take all those threatened by an unfriendly economy out of the deep waters.
Live together. And share what you have. And experience God’s abundance.
The abundance of food, first of all, but also the abundance of grace, and forgiveness,
and acceptance, and inclusion.
Share the abundance of respect, and dignity – and love.
There is enough for everyone.
Come pluck people out of the deep waters of the consequences of human sinfulness with me.
You’ve trusted me to take you out.
So trust me some more, and come with me, and help me take out others.
Let’s fish for people,
and together take them out of the deep waters threatening to overwhelm them.
This is how Jesus calls his very first disciples,
and in Luke’s mind it sets the agenda for the church:
the church’s purpose is to pluck people out of the deep waters this world often plunges them into
– and invite them into an alternative of living together in real community.
The deep water, the bathos, the threatening chaos is a timely metaphor for our time.
In early 2019 national politics across the globe seem to be threatened by chaos.
Increasing tensions between races and ethnic and religious communities is on the rise in
Canada and abroad.
Our own neighbourhood at Sargent and Victor is threated by a crystal meth epidemic that
has far reaching consequences on families and relationships and local businesses.
These are chaotic, deep waters.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by them, and retreat, and do nothing.
But there is Jesus, standing on the shore.
Beckoning us out, first of all.
Promising us a way out of our deep water, whatever it is.
Whatever it is, he says, don’t be afraid – I’m here.
I’ve been there for you before – you know I have.
So trust me again.
I’m just here – keep your eye on me. And come to me.
Together we’ll figure it out.
And then, once you’re out – come with me, and help me pluck others out of the deep waters.
Jesus stands on the shore, and invites us trust him and work with him.
Jesus stands on the shore and invites us to come with him and let our nets down into the
deep waters of people’s lives and with him pluck them from those deeps waters.
It’s hard work.
As with the miracle of abundant wine, the miracle of abundant fish doesn’t just happen – poof!
Turning water into wine involved a lot of work for the servants!
And for Peter and the others letting their nets down one more time after fishing all night for
a huge load of fish was a lot of work!
The nets were heavy! They were tired! They were cold!
But what do they say?
If you say so, Jesus, we will do it – because we have come to trust you.
You have been there for us before – and we trust you to be with us again.
So they keep their eyes on Jesus, as he stands on the shore,
the single point of navigation on their horizon.
And they navigate their way home to their meaning and purpose in life in him:
plucking others out of the deep overwhelming waters of life.
When I was eleven I went for a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee.
And the kind man driving the boat asked me if I wanted to put on his hat and steer the boat.
I said ‘Yes!’
But I had never driven a boat before –
and we were in the deep water in the middle of the Sea of Galilee.
“That’s okay,” he said,
“You see that point over there” –
and he
pointed me to a rocky outcropping on the shore a long way away.
“Yes,” I said.
“Just keep the prow of the boat pointed right at that and we will get to where we need to go.”
So I did – and we did.
We got there safely – everyone got there safely.
I like to imagine now that rocky point as Jesus, on the shore, inviting us to trust him,
inviting us to pluck those in danger from the deep water,
and inviting us to bring them all safely to him.
It’s a lot of work – but if you say so, Jesus, we will do it.
So with the disciples who had toiled all night and caught nothing,
with tired sore muscles, let us keep our eyes on Jesus, and together let us say, “Amen.”
Pastor Michael Kurtz
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