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 gotten 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 burst. 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’s knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were astounded 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.
Sermon Text
What is it that lets people really meet Jesus? Its such a simple question, but I think it is one we struggle to answer. The communities that we serve are all around us – there are people who know about Jesus everywhere, maybe even people who once knew Jesus well – but I think we are all very aware that when it comes to an active and involved relationship with Jesus, people are really lacking a true connection with Christ. We live in a part of the world where most everyone will tell you they’re “Christian,” but few people actually could tell you what that faith actually does for them. Maybe it makes them feel a bit better about the world around them, but does it change the world around them? I’m not so sure.
I think that one of the largest problems is that, in the atmosphere of nominal Christianity, the Church took the perspective that it was inevitable. “Everyone goes to a church, if not now they will when they settle down and start a family, they’ll find their way eventually!” And yet, that just is not the case anymore. Even people who say they are Christian just do not see Church as something essential to their faith, they have no interest in joining a congregation, in finding a community, in taking on the mutual responsibility that comes with a community of faith, in knowing Jesus Christ through the body of Christ that is the Church.
The reason, people of God, is not a fault in the world around us. We are always ready to point the finger at young people or at a secular society or at any number of other external factors, but we have to make something clear. Christ never tells the disciples, “The workers are many but the harvest is really too difficult to take care of, so don’t feel too bad if things aren’t working out.” No, Jesus says, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”[1] The Church is responsible for its own vitality and its own willingness to follow Christ and serve the world.
In our scripture today we see Jesus calling some of his first disciples. The disciples were out fishing, they had caught nothing all night, and Jesus told them that if they went out now, they would find their nets full. The disciples doubted, but the second that the net touched the water it began to fill, and fill, and fill. It was a miracle! But it also should no surprise anyone who knows what God typically is up to. There is a pattern we are given in Simon’s willingness to listen to Jesus, and if we follow that model we are going to see miracles in our own life.
Jesus came out and was preaching, and the people wanted to hear what Jesus had to offer. The crowd was pushing too much though, and Jesus needed a place he could stand where everyone could see him and where he could stand without being swarmed. Simon listened and gave him his boat as a pulpit. It was after this that Jesus sends him out to the waters to catch more fish, and after that that he tells Peter his job will be to catch people from now on.
The issue that initiates this episode is that people want to see Jesus. People still want to see Jesus, believe it or not. Christ is the center of everything – the source of all creation and the end to which every piece of creation aspires to. People want to hear Jesus, to know Jesus, to feel the redemption and the revivification that comes from Jesus. The Church needs to be a place that people can heart Jesus. More than that, we need to be a people that are willing to put up our anchor and move to make Jesus easier for people to hear.
We have wonderful outreach programs in this church, but everything we do is still attractional. We want people to come to us, but they’re not looking for us – they’re looking for Jesus! Simon Peter saw that people were looking for Jesus and gave his boat, he moved away from the work he was busy with, to meet the needs of what Jesus wanted to do to reach the people. What are we doing to break away from this building? Have we really chased any of the inroads we have into the community? We’ve got so many people around us that are never going to come into this building, so what are we doing to go out to them?
The vision of what can happen when we take the step away from our usual busywork is found in Jesus’s miracle in those fishing nets. So many people flood the nets that there isn’t enough room in one boat to fill them, multiple boats are needed to hold them. A ministry that goes out into the world, you see, may not bring people into a relationship with the congregation that first reaches out to them, but a good ministry will make people seek Jesus wherever they can get him, and a good ministry is humble enough to acknowledge that may be a congregation other than the one we ourselves come from. What matters, is not that the boat that cast the net receives the catch, it matter that the catch is caught at all.
Now, some people may rightly say to me, “Pastor John, I love our church, but you’re putting a lot of emphasis on the Church here. Faith in Christ is all that is sufficient for salvation, so why the emphasis on bringing people into a church community?” Thank you, theoretical worried congregation member. You’re right that faith is, “the one thing needful,” and you’re right! Membership and participation in a Church do not immediately equal a vibrant and engaged Christian life… However, I have seldom met someone who is thriving in their faith and does not have a faith community to support them.
We’re an individualistic society. We do not want anyone telling us what to do. We do not want to share our things with other people unless we have a good reasons. We’re content to build a bubble all around us and only ever work with the people we want to in the ways we want to when we want to. That is not, however, the society that Jesus is calling us to be a part of. When Jesus opens the door for us and invites us to participate in the Kingdom of Heaven, it is not something we do on our own terms or on our own time. When Jesus comes to the lakeshore, we have a boat to offer and we either let Jesus get in or we don’t.
A Church that follows Jesus is not worried about attendance on Sundays, but on a community of people who are connected and supporting each other. A community that reaches out to each other to make sure everyone has what they need, that they’re living the life Christ called them to live – not only in terms of holiness and service to one another – but in terms of Joy. A vibrant church is able to hold each other as we cry and lift each other up as we celebrate. When I say that people need the Church, I am also saying that the Church needs to act like the Church – not just on Sundays and especially not just in this room.
Christ calls us to be “fishers of men,” “catchers of people.” The word used here can also mean “ensnare,” and I think I like that word better. I like it because, if we are really showing people what Jesus is doing, what a Church that is living out the life Jesus called them to is doing, then they should not be able to get us out of their head. We should be a community everyone wants to be a part of, pushing against the lakeshore to see more of what they can see of Jesus through us. Whether that be on a Sunday morning, a Saturday evening, or at some other hereto unplanned congregational activity does not matter. However, we need to be people who are willing to show the world Jesus, and trust that Jesus is enough.
We need to plan for a church that goes beyond these walls more and more, and we need to be serious about sharing the hope we have. People want Jesus, why do we keep holding him in this room where no one can see him? We need to push our boat from the shore, and we need to see what happens when we let people see what God can really do. – Amen
[1] Matthew 9:37
Teach us to Number our Days 