Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Richard Davenport February 6, 2022 - 5th Sunday after Epiphany Luke 5:1-11 God, in his infinite wisdom, knew what he was doing when he gave people different interests. I don't really care for the outdoors. I did some camping back in Boy Scouts. I'll go on the occasional canoe trip and that sort of thing, but, for the most part, the outdoors isn't my thing. My brother and sister-in-law, are much more outdoorsy than I am. I did a little fishing when I was younger and it just wasn't for me. I know, Tysen, my brother-in-law, very much enjoys the days he can take his sons out on a father/son fishing trip. I imagine he teaches them all about the different rods and reels used in fishing. He teaches them how to bait a hook. He shows them how to look for good fishing spots and what kind of fish you can get in different places. He shows them how to reel in a catch. They get the joy of their first catch. The moments are recorded in one day or another. Perhaps the fish will be brought home where they will then learn the joys of cleaning the fish for eating. The touching father/son dynamic applies in the Gospel reading for today. Peter, James, and John are out fishing. There's nothing really surprising about that. It was how they made a living. The lakes out there must have provided enough for people to survive like that, since it was a job handed down through the family. Matthew's gospel tells us James and John were in the boat with their father. That joy of the first catch I'm sure had long since passed, but they were still working together as a family. Their father had years of wisdom and experience when it came to fishing, but I'm sure by now they were no slouches either. Altogether they had probably seen every situation you might find fishing on those lakes. They knew how the fish travelled about the lake. They knew how weather affected how active the fish were. They knew when and where to go to have the best chance of getting a catch. They had a bad catch this day though, but the text doesn't tell us why. Bad weather, something scaring the fish, who knows? Jesus is out with them today. The father/son dynamic doesn't really apply with him. He likely learned carpentry with his father. Joseph would have delighted in the first stool Jesus made all by himself, the first table the two of them did together. Jesus was assuredly a dedicated worker and surely enjoyed spending time with his father. But this isn't his family and he has no reason to know anything about fishing. There's a scene much like this at the end of the gospel of John. Peter, James, and John are out fishing and Jesus isn't around. This is after the resurrection, so Jesus appears on the scene and they don't recognize them. He tells them to let down the nets on the other side of the boat and they get more fish than they can handle. Peter immediately realizes who is talking to them and dives out to swim to shore. It makes sense here. They are Jesus' disciples. Jesus is proving who he is by doing something only he could do. Here in Luke though, Jesus seems to be overstepping his authority. Peter, James, and John know Jesus isn't a fisherman. Jesus might be willing to hop in the boat and help out, but it isn't his trade. He doesn't have any experience as a professional fisherman. You could say, "But they're his disciples. Of course they're going to do what he says." Except they aren't. Jesus doesn't have any disciples at this point. In fact, this is what Jesus uses to confirm them as disciples, "Fishers of men." He proves he can do what they cannot. He proves he is worthy of their trust and faith. Only someone who can command creation itself could do such a thing. They may not understand the full implications of that yet, but it's more than they've seen anyone else do. They've heard he's the messiah. They won't really grasp what that means until after the resurrection, but for now, it's enough. It's enough to make them realize this is someone worthy of giving up your life for. This is someone worth following. This is someone who makes no distinction between what he says and what he does. They are the same thing. So what is the moral of this story? Obviously it's not really about fish or fishing. That's just what Jesus is using to teach them. So what is he teaching you? Can Jesus do your job better than you can? Yeah, sure. He's God. He can do anything. But that isn't very helpful. Maybe the point centers on what Jesus and he soon-to-be disciples are doing together. The disciples are hard at work doing something they know how to do very well. You could probably even say there aren't many around there who could do the job better. Nevertheless, Jesus tells them to do something. Perhaps a little reluctantly, they do what he asks. We have an idea what they expected to happen. The result is more than they expected, probably more than they imagined was ever possible. Does that sound familiar to you? I ask, but the answer may be, "No, not really." It's not as if unexpected things never happen. Sometimes they're even good. There are those occasional pleasant surprises. Though you can typically figure out why something happened after the fact. Maybe your spouse had been planning a romantic surprise for a long time. Maybe someone you helped appreciated your assistance and wanted to say thank you. Maybe someone just saw you having a hard day and wanted to pay it forward a little. Suddenly you're confronted with a little kindness, a little joy, a little bright spot in your day that you didn't see coming. In the long run, those little bright spots are nice, but they don't make a whole lot of difference. After a day, a week, you've probably forgotten all about it. You'd would have probably made it through the day just fine without that little extra recognition anyway and, once you'd thought about it, it wasn't so mysterious after all. What happens to the disciples falls into an entirely different category that we just aren't very familiar with. The catch of fish wasn't just unexpected, it was impossible. They would never have been able to accomplish something like that on their own. As professionals, they knew if they'd even have come close to catching that many fish in a single throw of the nets it would have been chalked up to a fluke, something they could never have planned on happening. For this to take place, it can only mean someone is at work on their behalf who can accomplish far more than they would ever be capable of. We don't really think about God doing the unimaginable, or even just the unexpected. We generally think our lives are going to be more or less what we see every day. We know what we're capable of. We know what our limitations are. We know how the world works. You think about who you are and think, "I'll never be a nuclear physicist. I'll never win the Nobel Peace Prize. I'll never get to do many of the things I'd always hoped to do because they're simply too far out of reach." Maybe all of that is true. You may never have the capability to do those things. But we take all of that and extend it to every part of our lives, even the things that pertain to God. If our limitations were ever really the issue, we would never be here in church to begin with. St. Paul reminds us, "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-by grace you have been saved-and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Luther knew his limitations. He was haunted by them every day. But God has no limitations and is able to take even a faithless sinner like Luther, like you, like me, and make us into saints, to bring faith and life where there was none before. Whether Peter, James, and John thought Jesus was spouting nonsense or not, they still did what he asked and their obedience was rewarded. God did what they doubted was possible. Their salvation was already underway and they would never have done that on their own. If God can do that, then dumping some fish in a net is no concern at all. We spend so much time looking at our own limitations and seeing no way out of the problems we face. We spend so much time thinking everything is impossible because we don't know any way to do it. God isn't worried about our limitations. He simply wants us to follow him. Our salvation is already accomplished through the intervention of his limitless love and his divine power over life and death. We end up so busy bemoaning what we can't do that we don't simply do what he has given us to do. We look at how far short we are sure to fall from our desired results we fail to see that our accomplishments aren't the point. God has seen to you and your salvation. He will bring about the results he desires. He simply wants you to trust him and to go where he leads. Sheep follow a shepherd because they trust he will lead them to green pastures where they will find the food they need. We are sheep who constantly balk because we see the pasture and think it can't possibly feed us. Yet, whenever we follow, we find it always fills us up and then some. He brings green grass where there was none before. He feeds us physical and spiritual food we didn't even know existed. All there is to do is to trust him, follow him, and go where he leads. Just listen to him. He has already given you salvation. Everything else is easy.