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Sermon February 6, 2022
The Rev. Rebecca S. Myers, MSW
The Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen’s
The Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany Year C
http://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Epiphany/CEpi5_RCL.html
Audio: /documents/Eucharist__February_6__2022
Video: https://youtu.be/kXbP8TKBQrU
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. Luke 5:5-6
Please be seated.
One time I was looking in my medicine cabinet for band-aids. I didn’t use them often, but I had them. I was looking for something resembling that little white tin can with some blue print and some red on it. Did you have those?? Well, I finally gave up, because I just couldn’t find them.
Lo and behold, I tried again later, and there was a cardboard box with bandaids right in front of me! It looked different from what I remembered and I literally did not see it.
In our Gospel today, Jesus goes fishing. First he commandeers Simon’s boat so he can preach and teach to the crowds on the shoreline. Simon was probably really tired. He’d been fishing and was trying to take care of his nets so he could go home and rest. In addition, we learn that the catch that night had not been good. He was probably pretty frustrated.
Then, here comes this stranger and asks him to stop what he’s doing and allow him to use his boat to address the people who had gathered on the shoreline. I wonder if Simon was peeved, wondering how long that would take.
Yet, it seems from all accounts that Jesus was a fantastic teacher and really great to listen to. The crowd stayed to hear him and it doesn’t seem that Simon was upset about listening.
Then when he was done speaking to the crowd, he told Simon to set out fishing once again. I imagine Simon was so tired at this point. He tells Jesus that this is futile. In other words, they were experts at fishing and they’d done everything they were skilled at doing that night and had caught nothing. The fish just were not biting.
Yet, Simon had listened to Jesus and heard Jesus and trusted him. Do you know people like that, that you just don’t argue with, but go on to do what they ask of you?
So, they go out once again and there are so many fish, they have to call their friends in the nearby boats to come help with some of the catch. Simon feels so badly for even having doubted Jesus or having questioned Jesus. He is bereft and feels like he is not worthy to be in Jesus’ presence.
But Jesus has another surprise for Simon and the others in the boat. They will no longer fish for fish; they will fish for people. They will study with Jesus and teach and help people connect to God.
And get this…they actually leave everything and accept this new call.
Simon, James and John were doing things the way they had always done them. They were fisherfolk as had been passed down, probably, for a number of generations.
And then along comes Jesus. Jesus provides a new way of looking at the world. Jesus sees new ways for them to work. Jesus gives them a new call.
My band-aid story is not of the intensity as a complete life shift; however, sometimes, we just keep looking for what we are used to and we miss the new thing right in front of us.
Simon gives us some guidance, though.
When Jesus asks Simon to go out once again, Simon does it. He does show his skepticism, but he still does what Jesus asks. We can do that too…try something new that we are feeling called to, even when we are skeptical.
Then, in what I think is especially challenging, following through with the new way or task or call. Don’t you wish we could talk to Simon a little more about that? I mean, Simon after hearing Jesus speak and having the experience of the abundance of fish caught, agrees to totally leave his livelihood and follow Jesus. He totally trusts Jesus.
Wouldn’t you want to go home and think about it for awhile; maybe talk to some friends or family first? Try to decide if this is really a good decision? Consider all of the pros and cons?
Isn’t that the prudent and wise thing to do?
Yet in Luke’s account, there is no hesitation. Simon, James and John choose to follow Jesus, do so without question.
Jesus’ call was that compelling. I imagine there are some decisions in your life that were that compelling, so you might have an inkling about what Simon, James and John experienced.
And we do have each other. We usually can take some time to discern to what we are being called and talk to each other about it.
Listen carefully. Look closely. Is there something we are being called to do? Can we leave everything and follow Jesus more clearly and closely?
Amen
