Luke 5:1-11
Jesus Calls His First Disciples
5 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were 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 fish for people.” 11 So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
SERMON
It is said that in this day and age we live in volunteering crisis. In all sorts of volunteer organisations it is getting harder to get enough people to step up and have a go.
In churches, there is a general reluctance to step up into leadership roles. But it is at every level. Most pastors don't want to be bishops or assistant bishops. I have recently become the zone counsellor for the darling downs zone and I wasn't even very keen to do that.
Within congregations we find it hard to fill rosters. In Matthew 9:37 Jesus said: “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few”, and it seems to be increasingly true.
So, where have all the leaders gone or why do we not see true leaders emerging today? We lament the same thing with politicians and leaders in business and society.
If we look carefully enough, I suspect we may find the answer in Luke 5:1–11 or in Luke’s “great catch” episode. That is after we hear it first in the call of Isaiah. As disappointing as it is for me, we have to realise that the gospel lesson today wasn't actually about fishing but it is instead about Jesus’ own “great catch,” or his ability to gather and grow leaders.
As the story goes on after chapter 5 verse one, the “great catch” focus is not so much on fish but on followers—or, better yet, on the church’s future leaders (Simon, James and John, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and other ministering women [8:1–3]). These are leaders that we will see again. We will see Mary and Joanna again at the tomb. We will hear about James and John again in Jairus’s house, at the Transfiguration, and in Acts. Importantly, we will hear about Simon again—at the Transfiguration, in one of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, and in the book of Acts. Though few, and frail and fragile at first, these followers, this “great catch” of followers, will prove to be a formidable force in the coming years.
Still, the great catch would never have happened if Jesus had not helped these potential leaders to overcome their own personal stumbling-blocks, the things that had them stuck on the sidelines. So in Luke 5:1–11, we may well see why true leaders may not be emerging in our own times. We may find out the blocks that have caused some potential leaders to never take the step up.
We can pretty simply categorise these stumbling blocks into 3 areas.:
the past, the present and the future.
Past,
So many people think that they will not be able to serve in the church because of a chequered past or a sinful history. (you know, God could never want me with what I have done)
But you think of such people as the apostle Paul with his history as a violent man and a persecutor of the church, Saint Augustine who spent much of his earlier life Drunk and engaging in sexual immorality with prostitutes, John Newton the former slave trader who was later to write the hymn “how sweet the name of Jesus sounds”. God often fights his battles with broken swords.
We have an amazing weapon against the shame and the guilt of past sins.
We are baptised. Every week we confess our sins and are absolved, literally washed clean by the waters of our baptism. Even though we still sin and fall short of the glory of God over and over again, he sees in us the holiness of Jesus, we have put on Christ through our baptism. Our past sins are removed as far from us as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103:12)
The old sinful person has died and God, who is in the business of resurrection and new life has raised us up with his spirit, under the headship of Jesus.
Martin Luther is reported to have said, “If someone comes to my house and asks, ‘Does Martin Luther live here?’ I ought to answer, ‘Martin Luther has died and Jesus Christ lives here now.’” This is the power of our Baptism.
Oh, and there is another saying that I really like, and it goes like this:
Don’t judge me by my past, I don’t live there anymore.
Present
There are two things that rob us of the ability to work in the present. These things are paralysing.
The first one is busyness. The busyness of life often gets in the way, we can hear this in Jesus parable of the wedding banquet In Matt 22:1-14. There was so much to do for so many people that they wouldn't come.
How many of the things with which we busy ourselves are really necessary. I mean if they didn't get done how much worse off would we really be?
You know we have the same people who say we can't read our bibles for half an hour a day yet we spend 2 hours in front of the television and three hours on social media.
Peter and the other fishermen had worked a full night. And there was much work to do. With aching backs and skinned hands, they would have had to wash and store nets, and now because of the intervention of Jesus they had an amazing amount of fish they would have to clean. It's always the downside of a successful fishing trip isn't it? And yet they left them all and walked away to follow Jesus. Unbeknownst to them they were beginning their journey of leadership. The journey into leadership always begins with following.
The second thing that robs us with the ability to work in the present is this shame we've spoken about when looking at the past. You can hear it in the response of Isaiah, he knew himself to be sinful. You can hear it in the response of Peter “get away from me I'm a sinful man”. Yet God found a way to overcome this reluctance and to use them both for his purposes.
There's a book by the former priest Henry Nouwen, called “the wounded healer”. This book explores the fact that we are less than perfect, and instead of meaning that we are disqualified from ministry for this reason explores the fact that perhaps we are more likely to understand those who are going through the same problems that we have gone through and bearing the same wounds we have borne.
Future Fears
Now the thing that robs us the most of the future, and being able to see the future that God has in store for us, is fear.
Fear paralyses us, with concerns over what might happen to the church in the future, with concerns over our own safety or that of our children. Fear means that we are afraid to step out on the water, fear means that we find it so hard to keep our eyes on Jesus because of the size of the wind and the waves. We seem so afraid in the church: afraid of culture, afraid of society, afraid of so many things about which God tells us we need not fear.
Jesus said “33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
Our God is the God of the Past the present and the future.
He is the God who releases us from shame, and frees us from our past to live a new life, ever changing as it says in 2 Cor 3:18 from glory into glory.
He's the God that strips away our busyness and gives us a new priority, who calls us to step out of the boat and walk to him on the water.
He is the God who loves us with the perfect love that cast out fear. 1 John 4:18
God has a calling on my life and your life. Yours may be different to mine, but then it might not. But don't doubt that God can use you powerfully in the life of his church and in his plan of salvation.
As Esther's uncle Mordecai I said to her in Esther 4:14, “who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
The Harvest is plentiful but the workers are few
Prayer:
dear God, free us from our doubt, our shame, our busyness and our fear.
Show us the part you have for us to play in your plan that is unfolding.
amen
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