Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 5thChapter of the Gospel according to St Luke: Verses 1 – 11:
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” 11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Nobody likes being told how to do their job! Nobody enjoys someone telling them how they’re not doing their job correctly, especially when the person doing all the talking and criticising knows very little about the job they so arrogantly criticise. Even when the advice is actually coming from someone who may have experience in that particular job and actually knows what they’re talking about, we can still feel deflated. When you think about it, the deflating, annoying advice doesn’t even have to be career or vocation-specific. Being told how to do the “little things”in life can sometimes be moreirritating and trying than anything else. “Here’s how you should load the dishwasher. You’re mowing the lawn the wrong way. This is the best way to wash clothes. That’s not the best way to paint”. The fact isthat it’s often these little “constructive criticisms” that cause the greatest tension and create the biggest problems.
Now, with this in mind, let’s put ourselves in Simon Peter’s shoes for a moment. Here was a man who made his living and supported his family as a fisherman. I know quite a few professional fishermen and theyare “all weather” hard, tough men who know how to do their job. They brave the elements, know the tides and weather, and often confront all sorts of danger to eke out a living. I’ve been fishing around creeks and oceans since I was a little kid, but that certainly does not qualify me to give professional fishermen advice. If someone who had never wet a line or net in their life came to professional fishermen with challenging advice, they may well find themselves under the threat of physical danger. Yet, Jesus has the nerve to tell a boatload of fishermen—tired professional fishermen who had already fished all night long and didn’t catch a thing—how to do their job. “Put out to deep waters and let down your nets for a catch.”
The fact that a “land-loving” carpenter’s son is giving professional fishermen advice is enough in itself. However, one must also consider the very advice that Jesus was giving.Not being a ‘Middle Eastern’ professional fishermen ourselves, we tend to miss the sheer foolishness of Christ’s words. Put out into deepwater and let down your nets? That’s not how they did it! The type of fishing these men engaged in with the nets was performed in relatively shallow water. This wasn’t a deep-sea sort of venture. This wasn’t like the commercial fishing we see nowadays where crews put out and recover miles of deep-sea nets with heavy machinery. Their tackle and their equipment was made for close-to-shore fishing. If you wanted to catch fish as a first-century fisherman, you tried to cast your nets where the most fish would be, which is typically in shallower, warmer water at night, when the fish are most active.
Think about that for a moment! Jesus was telling these professionals to do the exact opposite of what everyone else has always done. Jesus is telling these professionals to do something completely outside the norm!“Put out into the deep waterin the middle of the dayand cast your shallow-fishing netsout for a catch.”…….. Yet, here’s the thing. They did it!! You don’t hear Simon Peter say, “No offence, Jesus, but I’m the captain of this ship. I know fishing. I’ve been fishing this lake since I was old enough to walk, and I don’t think this is a good idea. We don’t have the right equipment. We’re not in the best spot. We’re not out at the right time of the day. I know this lake better than you do.” You don’t hear any of that. Instead, we simply hear, “Master, we’ve toiled all night and didn’t catch a thing! But because You say so, I will let down the nets.” I think we often miss just how profound this statement of faith really is, so profound, in fact, that eminent theologians over the ages have called this a greater miracle than the miraculous catch of fish itself.
You see, we have a distinct advantage that Simon Peter and the rest of the disciples didn’t have. We have the gift of hindsight.We know how the story ends. The story, however, was still being written with these men. They didn’t know or understand that Jesus was preparing them to do the work of evangelism and outreachby teaching them a very important lesson through something as simple as fishing. How could they know? They weren’t even called yet to be His apostles. They were just ordinary, everyday fishermen. They couldn’t see the future. They couldn’t know that Christ’s lesson would have great meaning and profound symbolismuntil well after all this had transpired and they could look back and say, “Oh...it all makes so much sense now!”
Does this make sense to us? In the challenges and confusion of our lives the meaning and symbolism of Jesus’ lesson as written in our text is a message from which we can derive a source of comfort and reassurance; so what is it that Jesus is telling us.
Well...it should come as no surprise that the image of the church—the image of God’s people—has always been that of a boat or a ship, going all the way back to Noah, but especially made clear in this particular Gospel lesson.Traditionally the pew seating area of a church, from the front door to the Alter or Chancel (where applicable in cathedrals) is called the ‘Nave’ derived from the Latin ‘Navis or ship’.
And then there is the nets? In Christian Parishes everywhere including here in the Mackay Anglican Cluster, we have what could be termed as “net- fishing events” – community events like Kids Club, the Spring Festival and Charlie’s Children’s Fridays etc. These are mission related events to attract people to our churches and congregations in the hope that they get ‘caught up in our evangelistic nets’. However, those are human nets that are being cast, and that’s how we endeavour to be a successful fisherman of people.As good and effective those activities are, they aren’t the nets that Jesus was teaching about. That’s not the catch Christ is looking to teach us about in this case.
The nets in this lesson have alwaysbeen understood to symbolise God’s means of grace—His Word and His Sacraments.That’s what Christ was teaching His future apostles. That’s what Christ still teaches us today. He is saying “I know itsounds foolish. I know that the rest of the world says different. They have better tackle, better equipment, better methods, and different spots to fish, all in the name of worldly success. That’s not My way. That’s not My will. I give you all you need to make disciples of all nations. Listen to Me. Use what I give you. Cast those simple nets of Law and Gospel; those simple nets of Word and Sacrament out into all the world when and where I command—even into those seemingly senseless, most unproductive spots, and let Me provide.”
The fact is that by many worldly standards, doing what we do here seems as foolish as casting out shallow fishing nets in the middle of the day in the deepest, coldest water. Yet, we do it. Why? “Because You say so, Lord. Because of Your Word and command, we fish Your way.” This has been our modus operandi, and our Lord has richly provided! We often feel that we don’t have much to give here. We don’t have what everyone else has. However, as baptised, Spirit filled Christians, we are called to freely give all that Christ gives. In our love, peace for and our forgiveness of each other, we give Christ. In the Word from the pulpit and our Bibles we are given His full counsel—His Law, which says that each and every one of us are sinful and deserve nothing but death and damnation, followed by His Gospel message of grace and salvation. In public and private confession and absolution we are given the full gift of His life-giving Gospel, in which our Lord declares that each and every one of us are completely redeemed and forgiven because of His all-atoning death and resurrection. In the Holy Sacrament of the Alter we are given His very body and blood, not because we’ve earned it, but because our Lord says, “take and eat for the forgiveness of all your sins.”
It is because of these humble, yet powerful, life-giving gifts of Christ that we can be assured by the simple Gospel proclamation that we are God’s greatest catch. He loved us so much that He willingly ransomed His own Son’s life for ours. It is this Gospel net which He used, through the working of His Holy Spirit, to catch Simon Peter, enabling him to respond to Christ’s outlandish command in unquestioning and obedient faith. It is the same Gospel net that He used to bring us into the life and salvation of His ark—the Church, and with the same Gospel net He continues to use to strengthen us and keep us in the ark of all believers. It is with this same holy net of Gospel that He arms and equips us in our daily vocations as baptised children of God to be faithful fishers of mankind.
May God grant us the humble, peaceful obedience of unquestioning, saving faith so that we, too, can confidently cast out His Gospel net, when and where He calls us to do so in our daily lives. “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men. Do not be afraid, for I am with you always, even to the very end of the age. Let go, let down My nets, and let Me work through you.” –Like Peter we can only reply “at your word I will let down the nets” Amen.
The love and peace of our Great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
