Brian’s Sermon for 7^th February 2010 – The Deep Water

Readings: Isaiah 6: 1-8, 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11, Luke 5: 1-11

“Put out into the deep water.”

Over recent years I seem to have consistently found myself with an annual theme of sorts. Sometimes it’s just a word or a phrase, and other times it’s more of an overall focus, but inevitably it develops during the first weeks of the year and carries on to influence what I preach and where I put my energy throughout. Psychologists, I’m sure, could have a field day working out why this is and what it means.

So this year, over the past few weeks, this theme has been quietly gestating in my head, and already its manifested itself in my recent sermons about being the body of Christ and bringing life, and during the past week that developing focus has found itself a home in that command from Jesus to Peter in this morning’s gospel reading, ‘put out into the deep water’.

Several things strike me about Luke’s telling of the Gospel story. One is the way Luke consistently reinterprets Marks telling and puts a different spin on it, and another is the relationship between Jesus, the disciples and ‘the crowds’. Here in today’s reading we’re already into chapter five of Luke and Jesus is only just getting round to gathering some disciples, but its clear from the start that he already has a large following, so large in fact that he takes to a boat to teach them because they’re all pressing in on him.

It’s interesting that we get this portrait of Jesus being chased down by fans eager to hear his words when just last week we were hearing about him being run out of town by an angry mob because of his preaching in the synagogue, how times have changed. Right through the gospel stories we hear about these crowds following Jesus, and it’s obvious that there were many more than twelve disciples. Luke overlays much more of a hierarchy on Jesus entourage than Mark does, but both make it clear that hundreds, and sometimes thousands, were attracted by what Jesus said and how he said it, but not always.

Jesus takes to Peter’s boat to escape the crowds. We get both names in the reading, but really Peter is still Simon at this point, with Luke no doubt using his new name to identify that this was the Peter all his readers knew about. Once in the boat Jesus gets Peter to pull out just a little so the crowd can still hear him and then he begins to teach.

It’s interesting that we get no mention of what Jesus actually says to the crowd in this instance. Clearly it’s not the real focus of the passage, that would be the ‘how Peter came to be a disciple’ story, but surely what Jesus said must have had some influence on Peter’s decision, and the others? Or perhaps that’s precisely what the omission of his teaching implies; that the decision of Peter and James and John to follow Jesus had nothing to do with what he said or the content of his teaching, but rather was simply based on who he was and their encounter with the living Christ?

Having finished his teaching Jesus says to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch’ and Peter does it. He does it despite the fact that they’ve been working all night and caught absolutely nothing and what he’s being told to do doesn’t seem likely to result in any other outcome, and he says as much, but he does it anyway, and the result is predictably amazing.

You know what it’s like when you’re watching a movie or a television programme and it’s just so obvious what’s going to happen next that when it actually does happen it’s actually annoying that the scriptwriters went for such an obvious response? That’s a bit like this reading today. We just know, the moment Jesus says do something and someone says ‘but it won’t make any difference’, it’s just so obvious that a miracle is going to happen. Isn’t it interesting though that we still call it a miracle? And isn’t it even more interesting that even though we think its obvious amazing things are going to happen when we listen to stories from scripture, we think the opposite in our own lives and ministries? I’m just going to leave that question hanging there for a couple of minutes.

So they’re in the deep water and they’ve caught more fish than they can handle, so much fish in fact that they’ve had to call other boats for backup so their own doesn’t sink, and Peter’s response is to fall at Jesus feet and say, ‘"Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" And Jesus doesn’t disagree. Jesus never says, ‘no, no, of course you’re not that bad, in fact you’re actually quite ok’. Jesus just says, to both Peter and his companions, ‘Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching people.’

There are some issues that arise out of what Jesus says here, and chief among them is the attitude that some people and churches have that our job is to go out and try to ‘catch’ people for God. We’re supposed to get them caught in our nets and haul them over to the Lord’s side, whether they like it or not. I’m quite convinced that some of these people can’t spell ‘metaphor’, and like all metaphors if you push it too far it falls apart, so let’s not get caught up in the image of fishing for people. What’s important here is this; Jesus knows that Peter is a sinful man who doesn’t have the necessary where with all to make it as a disciple. To be the disciple of a well-known and respected rabbi was a plum position in ancient Palestine. Only the cream of the crop got to learn at the rabbi’s knee, and you just didn’t find cream in fishing boats. So Jesus knew Peter wasn’t worthy, but he chose him anyway.

We know how the passage ends. They get back to shore and Peter and James and John leave their boats and their nets and, although the reading doesn’t say it, their families and their friends, and they followed Jesus, and so the story continues.

So here’s where I’m at. This time last year I was focused on strengthening what we’ve got. From the beginning of 2009 I knew my theme for the year would be firming the foundations, shoring up the programmes and ministries we’ve developed over the past seven years and focusing our vision for the future, the vision that we captured in our Parish Vision Statement and print every week on the back of the newsletter. In a nutshell, 2009 for me was focused on building the body of Christ. This year I’ve found myself thinking about being the body of Christ.

In my head I know there’s still a lot to do. We need more people and more money. One of our Vestry goals is to grow the average worshipping attendance figures by a hundred people a year for five years, I think that’s a great and important goal. I think that because going by the number on our parish roll alone we could do almost twice that and we should because I believe totally and completely that our fist and most important task is to gather and worship our God. But I think it’s important too because more people means more opportunities for new and creative ministries in and to and with our local communities. In my head I know that, just as I know that we need to lift our income level to maintain the level of service that we’re offering already.

The fact is this beautiful church is an expensive building to keep and because we don’t exist just to maintain a beautiful building we also need to ensure we have the staff and resources required to both maintain and build the Parish. To cover the cost of maintaining two fulltime clergy, for example, means raising another ten to twenty thousand dollars over the next year or so, on top of what we’re already doing. In my head I know that too.

In my heart though I know the time has come for us to put out into the deep water.

We could, quite comfortably, float here in a relatively shallow pool, far enough out to not be stuck on shore sunbathing, but close enough to land to feel safe. We could stay here indefinitely with a relatively small crew ensuring the boat stays afloat for the much larger group of passengers, but in my heart I know, and I’m sure you know, that’s not what this boat was built for.

It’s time to put out into the deep water. It’s time to find out what it might mean to live that Parish Vision Statement rather than just read it. It’s time to explore what it means for us, as the body of Christ in this place, to leave our nets and follow Jesus. It’s time for us to accept that, in the face of the divine, fully aware that we neither ready nor worthy, our response must be the same as Isaiah’s and Peter’s – here I am Lord.

Where might our deep water be? I’ve got some ideas, but I’m not steering this boat alone. The deep water we find ourselves in needs to be the place where Jesus sends us, not just where I or someone else thinks it might be good to go. What is certain is that deep water is never completely safe, it’s a place of storms and danger and sometimes a deceptive calm, and like Peter I’m quite sure we will have all sorts of reasons for not going there. But I’m going to challenge us to go there anyway and when we get there I’m going to challenge us to not be so surprised when amazing things happen, because goodness knows we should expect the unexpected whenever God’s involved.

‘Put out into the deep water’. That’s my theme for this year and I’m not yet sure where it’s going to take us or me, but I do believe the time is right to find out. I hope you’ll join me on the voyage.