Early Morning Fishermen
Photo by Suzanne Wagner
It’s been said that an expert
is one who knows more and more about less and less. Have you ever heard this? While that seems humorous, it’s true if you think about it.
I receive the monthly enews
letter from the American Museum of Natural History in NYC. I love seeing what’s new at the Museum
and all of the interesting finds about this great planet earth. Recently they had a trailer for a film
exhibit called Jean-Michel Cousteu’s Secret Ocean. He is the son of the famous Jacques Cousteau who explored,
researched and photographed the ocean floor.
Well the apple doesn’t fall
far from the tree and his son, an oceanic-graphic explorer is now way deep in
the ocean exploring the ocean bottom too.
Only he explores it with modern technology like 3-D, H-D imaging. The colors are absolutely vibrant and
beautiful and the sea creatures, some never ever seen before are stunning,
creatures like the Christmas-tree worms and basket stars, fishes and
nudibranchs of all kinds. But he –
no we – wouldn’t see all of this wonder that God has created unless he dared to
go very deep into the ocean.
He is an expert, he knows
more and more about the sea floor and animals and plants. He went real deep. He explores the vast unknown and is not
afraid to delve into this uncharted territory to see what there is to
learn. To see and understand the
minutia and then to show others the beauty and richness in what he has found,
and usually there is much depth in their research.
Today in our scripture we see
that Jesus asks the disciples to go deep, to go out into the middle of the lake
where it’s the deepest and fish.
Let’s take a moment now to hear this story from the Gospel of Luke, the
fifth chapter.
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 gone 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 break.
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’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful
man!”
For he and all who were with him were amazed 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.
This is a good old summertime
text, especially if you are a fisherman sitting on a lake here in CT or, like
where I just was, Lake Geneva Wisconsin.
If this story sounds familiar you would be correct because similar
stories about Jesus and fishing boats appears in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark
and John.
Here Jesus is by a lake, in
fact an important lake to the fishing industry in the Galilee, the Sea of
Galilee. And he sees two boats
anchored on the shore. Some men
were washing their nets so he chooses one and gets into the boat owned by Simon
and asked him to ‘put’ him out a bit.
There must have been a huge crowd there and he needed some distance from
them but he still wanted to teach them.
So getting into the boat was the solution for Jesus.
And when he was done with the
lesson he then turned to Simon and said to go out in the middle of the lake to
where the water gets real deep.
Simon disputes Jesus’ request.
“Really?” “Master not for
nothing but we fished all night and caught nothing. What makes you think we’d
do better over there? But, if you
want us to we will.” Well wouldn’t
you know, the Master did know what he was asking them to do and they came back
with the haul of the day!
Can you imagine? The haul of the day. It was a miracle right before their
very eyes.
For Simon Peter, at that
moment, had a real sense of just who this ‘master’ was. That he, Simon Peter a plain man, a
fisher man, a sinful man was in the presence of the divine.
We can understand this as a
Biblical call story because certainly it has those elements; lowly mortals
being drafted away from their usual tasks in life into God’s mission in the
world. In fact this is the call
story of Simon Peter, later known simply as Peter and also the call story of
some of the disciples being called to God’s mission of fishing for men and
women. One of the lessons that we can take from this passage is that we need to
be open to the call upon our lives that God places on us, no matter how far out
or how deep the way sounds.
But to do that requires us to
be like Simon Peter and be willing to let down the nets into the deep waters of
our soul. His initial reaction is
fear. He fears his unworthiness or
maybe there is something else that the Bible doesn’t name that he’s afraid of,
whatever it is he wants distance from Jesus, he is skeptical, he doesn’t want
to do the work, he is afraid of what he might find. Sounds just about right, doesn’t it?
Perhaps fear is our
underlying obstacle too. Going
deep within yourself is not easy, and for some it may be quite difficult. It’s really hard work and it’s a
challenge because we bury hurtful experiences, or anger, or cruel and unkind
words hoping not to deal with them again.
But it is here that Jesus tells us to go, to face our fears, and why? Because it is an invitation for us to
live more fully as beloved children of God because it is below the surface and
in fact in the depths of our lives that we find healing and abundance. It is a place where we will get to know
ourselves and experience a sense of the divine.
That’s where Simon Peter
found the greatest catch and it changed his life, and that’s where we will find
this transformation also.
It is within the deep, deep
waters of our lives that we can mend our wounded souls and accept forgiveness,
of ourselves, and of others.
Therein lies God’s plentiful healing, mercy and grace.
Look, I know it’s not
easy. And you may need to fish
deep more than once in your lifetime.
That’s OK. Simon Peter had
help and if you need help there are many ways and plenty of people who can be
there with you. And most
importantly remember that the Christ who stood by Peter at that boat stands by
you. You are not alone in this endeavor.
Go deep, be the expert of
your soul and then live your beautiful called life just as you are meant to
be. Beloved and sanctified by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
