The Deep Water

Illustration: Best Buy Black Friday It was Thanksgiving Eve and the night before Black Friday. I was a supervisor at the Best Buy in Dubuque Iowa for our Mobile department… as well as our computers and digital cameras. I had just finished eating a quick dinner with Ashley and the boys before I headed over to the store to begin my 5pm-1am shift.

When I arrived, the line of excited shoppers was already growing. The doorbusters had grabbed the attention of hundreds… and we were ready to sell. From the start of my shift until the end of the shift I barely had time to breathe. Talking to 3-4 customer groups at a time, helping confused seasonal workers through the chaos, restocking shelves... it was a constant whirlwind. And at 1am, as I finally clocked out, I knew that in just 4 hours I would be back at the store for Black Friday itself.

I was exhausted. I was spent. I didn’t have anything left to give. And yet, 4 hours later, I was back on the floor doing it all over again for a full 12 hour shift.

Tired Fishermen That night of exhaustion reminds me of the disciples in our Gospel Lesson today. They spent hour after hour throughout the night casting their nets again and again in hopes of earning some livelihood. It wasn’t just fishing for fun… they were fishing to support their families. If they didn’t catch any fish… their families would struggle.

After a night of hard work of casting the net out and dragging it in over and over… successful or failure you can imagine their bodies would be aching from exhaustion. Their muscles sore. More than likely a few bumps and bruises and cuts from trying to do it in the dark… and then nothing to show for it. Simon says that they worked all night long but had caught nothing. No fish to eat. No meat to sell. No money to bring home. Exhausted bodies… and worn out spirits too.

It's these empty-netter, exhausted in mind and body fisherman that Jesus encounters on the lakeshore. They’re empty handed and just doing what they can to put away their gear and head home… and then Jesus shows up. He doesn’t ask… he gets in one of their boats and he tells Simon to shove off the beach and back into the lake just a bit so he can teach.

Now, realize… these fishermen aren’t Jesus’ disciples yet. Realize that these fishermen… are just fishermen who had a horrible night that they likely want to forget and are just ready to go home. I’d imagine that as Jesus starts climbing in their boat and telling them to go back out there could have been a temptation to give him their own fisherman salute. And yet… and yet there is something about Jesus that catches their attention. His words, his tone, his mannerism, his very presence… there’s something beneath the surface that draws them in… intrigues them… and so they listen.

These exhausted in mind and body fisherman who just worked an all-nighter shift without any take home pay and now just want to go home instead get back in their boats and go back in the water because Jesus calls them to do so. And then Jesus begins to teach the crowds that are still upon the beach.

Now we don’t know what all he taught here. But whatever it was, his words continue to capture the attention of these fishermen. They’re intrigued with who this Christ is. To the point that at the end of his speaking, when he turns to them and tells them to go out into the deep water and cast their nets once more that they don’t argue.

We hear Simon say that they’ve been working the nets all night and that they haven’t caught anything… but even in the same sentence he says ok, he’ll do it. What Simon doesn’t do here is he doesn’t start listing the reasons going to the deep is going to just be a waste. He doesn’t tell Jesus that their nets are designed for shallow fishing… not deep water fishing. He doesn’t tell Jesus that it’s the wrong time of day and there’s simply no way that this will work. He doesn’t tell Jesus all of the practical reasons why Jesus’ command is ludicrous.

And maybe it’s just that he’s too exhausted to argue the point, I don’t know. But regardless, he goes where Jesus calls him to go… into the deep. A place where everything he knows as a fisherman tells him its pointless. Everything he knows tells him that this venture will be a failed venture. In fact, I almost wonder if that’s why he warned Jesus that they had been trying to catch without any luck. Maybe he didn’t want Jesus to look bad… maybe he was trying to protect Jesus from losing face with a miracle that would inevitably fall short.

The Long Night of Covid I think about those times in our own lives that we feel like we’re going into the deep water. We feel like we’re over our heads and it just seems hard to imagine a way forward. We’ve seen a lot… we’ve been through so much… and yet this particular, whatever it is be it an issue of health or financial stability or appliance failure or an adult child struggling to find their path or… whatever it might be… this particular challenge just seems overbearing. And despite our best efforts nothing seems to work. We had the best boats, we had the carefully knitted nets, we knew where to go for the best chances of success but we keep coming up empty on all accounts. And we feel that mind and body exhaustion that tells us there’s no way, just no way that things are going to work out. We can feel that way in our walk as disciples, especially now. We’re still in the long night of Covid… and we’re exhausted. Frankly, even when I just say the word Covid and think about the reality that it’s still here and still affects things… my spirit groans a little. It can be tempting to put away our nets and just head for home. It can be tempting to close ourselves down from the rest of the world and say, “Well, we tried.” We did what we could, we tried to be faithful, we kept putting the nets out there but in the darkness the only prize we came back with were the bumps and bruises and cuts that we got along the way. Our bodies are worn out. Our spirits tired.

Into the Deep And Jesus says, go to the deep water. Cast again. And get ready. You see, the deep water in our scripture today represents more than just that feeling of being over our heads… the deep water is the unknown. The deep water is the unseen. The deep water is place where we are not in control. The deep water is where God’s activity shows up beyond logic and understanding. The deep water is where we know our best efforts… our best boats… our best nets… that none of it matters without God showing up. And it is in the deep water that we see most vividly that indeed, God does show up. And in our moment of defeat with sore bodies and tired spirits… we are shocked to experience nets straining from a harvest beyond our imagining.

Leaving it Behind In our text, as Simon and the other fishermen start pulling in the net, they realize they need not just one boat but two to hold the bounty in that catch. It’s a blessing that goes well beyond giving them enough to feed them just through the day… but it means provision for beyond the immediate moment. And what’s amazing is that in this story, as Simon finally receives everything that he thought he needed… Jesus calls him to something else. And with two boats full of everything that Simon was after… he leaves it behind and why? Because he trusts that somehow… someway… God will continue to provide. And it is this trust that Jesus has inspired in Simon that pulls him into that walk of discipleship. Simon went from feeling like he had nothing left to give… no hope of making ends meet… no chance of making the catch to get him to the next day… to believing he could leave the bounteous catch behind and follow the one whom had told him to go into the deep.

Conclusion As we experience the long dark nights in our lives where the nets keep coming up empty, might we be reminded of Simon’s story… of the one who was called from cleaning his empty nets and sent to the deep waters. As we find ourselves tired and worn down, as we find ourselves ready to raise the white flag and seek something easier… as we start to say, “Well, we gave it our best shot but this is it.” Remember God showing up in the deep and creating a bounty beyond all hope. Remember Christ giving Simon exactly what he thought he wanted… and remember how when he had it all… he left it behind because he himself was caught in the miracle of Christ’s calling.

Cast the nets.

Look for God’s blessings.

And see how God is calling us to the deep this day.