Let’s Go Fishing!
(Luke 5: 1-11)
It was many years ago when I was a young police officer when I mentioned to one of my training officers that my in-laws lived on Lake Livingston and liked to fish. I didn’t know that fishing was his passion, and he immediately asked if he could be invited up for a day of fishing on the lake. Sure, I told him, I would set it up and let him know. No pressure I thought. How would my training officer react to a day with no fish? Sometimes you find the fish, and sometimes the fish find you. The only predictable thing about fishing is its unpredictability. In any event, we set out one morning on a beautiful day in pursuit of the elusive Black Bass. After we came up empty-handed at a few of my father-in-law’s honey holes along the shorelines and in the coves, he suggested that we switch to fishing for white bass and go out where the lake was deeper as these fish ran in large schools. You’re the guide, lead on. We switched our bait and dropped our lines over the side of the boat when almost immediately the white bass started biting. We’d haul up our fish, put them in the live well and drop our lines again, immediately hooking another fish. We had to stop when our live well was full to the point of overflowing and headed back into the shore with quite a catch of fish. They weren’t the fish we set out to catch but with a change of location and bait we caught the fish we needed to catch. I talked to my training officer a few years ago and he brought up how much fun he had. It was a memorable and fruitful experience.
And it’s trying something different, changing locations, changing bait, changing your target, that Luke is writing about in our scripture lesson for today. He begins by telling us that one day Jesus was standing beside Lake Gennesaret, which is also known as the Sea of Galilee and the Sea of Tiberius, when the crowd who had come to hear him preach pressed in around him. Jesus saw two boats sitting by the lake and noticed that the fishermen had come ashore and were washing their nets. He boarded the boat belonging to Simon and asked him to row out a little distance from the shore so he could teach the crowd from the boat. At first, this might seem a little odd that Jesus would approach Simon and make such a request. Afterall, Simon had been fishing all night long, was tired, wanted to finish cleaning his nets, and go home to catch some sleep. But this was not their first encounter with Jesus who had previously encouraged him and three other fishermen to drop their nets and follow him. They knew of Jesus’ growing ministry and of his unconventional message and weren’t put off by his request to go back out. This guy was different from any other rabbi they had ever met.
When Jesus had finished teaching, he said to Simon: Row out farther, into the deep water, and drop your nets for a catch. Simon’s probably thinking to himself: “Great, fishing advice from a carpenter. Everyone’s an expert.” Instead, he replied: Master, we’ve worked hard all night and caught nothing. But because you say so, I’ll drop the nets. You can sense the frustration in his voice. Fishing is hard and demanding work with more bad days than good days, but he did as requested. He had nothing to lose, and this Jesus guy was pretty persistent. So, they dropped their nets, and their resulting catch was so huge that their nets were splitting. They signaled for their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they filled both boats so full that they were in danger of sinking. Overwhelmed, when Simon Peter saw the catch, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said: Leave me, Lord, for I’m a sinner! We’re told that Peter and those with him, James and John the sons of Zebedee, were overcome with amazement because of the number of fish they caught. Fishermen live for those catches. It’s what keeps them going. Jesus then said to Simon: Don’t be afraid. From now on, you will be fishing for people. Luke tells us that as soon as they brought the boats to the shore, they left everything and followed Jesus. Yeah, falling into a mess of fish is life changing.
Luke’s message isn’t directed to people who haven’t heard about Jesus. It’s directed to people like Peter, James, John, and people like you and me who have heard about Jesus, who have seen what He can do in a person’s life, who have seen the miracles and the healings. It’s addressed to everyday people like you and me, from varied walks of life, with varied lifestyles who have hidden talents that can be employed in carrying the light out into the world. Initially, I think Jesus picked four commercial fishermen as his first disciples for a reason. Like my Pacific Coast fisherman son-in-law, these men weren’t afraid of a little hard work. They weren’t discouraged by empty nets, nor were they intimidated by a little rough weather. They were used to adversity and were resourceful. They could get things done and didn’t require a lot of hands-on supervision. And you will notice that Jesus didn’t pick rabbis to be within his inner circle. This ministry wasn’t going to be about hair-splitting theological discussions. It was the Word of God for the people of God in its simplest and most relatable form. The men he picked were all Jewish so up until the age of twelve they had the basic training in the Torah and the ways of God. This basic knowledge coupled with their ability to relate to the audiences Jesus was trying to reach was key in spreading the Good News. They could share what Jesus had done in their lives and make it relatable to those they were talking to, their shared experiences.
John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist denomination, believed that all Christians were called to witness to Christ and he also recognized that God sometimes places a special call upon some individuals. Like Simon, you just have to be ready to willingly answer the call. Simon Peter knew that Jesus had healed the sick and driven out demons, but he was amazed that Jesus cared about his day-to-day routine and understood his needs. God is interested not only in saving us, but also in our daily activities. He knows that we are his boots on the ground and that the restoration of His creation will not be accomplished without our involvement. Like Peter, we may have our doubts or think we aren’t worthy, that we are insignificant, but God knows us better than we know ourselves and He knows what we are capable of doing if given the opportunity, the resources and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
God has two requirements for coming to him. Like Peter, we must recognize our own sinfulness. Then, like these fishermen, we must realize that we can’t save ourselves. Jesus does not drive away the sinner who recognizes his or her wretched condition. He accepts the confessing sinner and offers that person the opportunity of reconciliation with God. For us, following Jesus means more than just acknowledging him as Savior. We must leave our past behind and commit our future to him. If we know that we need help, and if we know that Jesus is the only one who can help us, we will be ready to leave everything behind and follow him. We’ll look one another in the eye and proclaim: Let’s go fishing!
Let us pray.
O Lord, open my eyes that I may see the needs of others; open my ears that I may hear their cries; open my heart so that they need not be without succor; let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong, nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich. Show me where love and hope and faith are needed and use me to bring them to those places. And so open my eyes and my ears that I may this coming day be able to do some work of peace for thee. Amen
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2/09/25
Let’s Go Fishing!
God knows us better than we know ourselves and He knows what we are capable of doing.