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Sermon - February 4th, 2007
The Unexpected Catch
Rev. Gwen Drake
Scripture: Luke 5:1-11
When I got married in 1985 to Andy, it was supposed to be for the rest of my life. So, when he called me at Annual Conference in Boise three and a half years ago to let me know that by the time I got home from Annual Conference, he would be moved out. I was devastated to say the least, even though we had been in and out of marriage counseling most of the 18 years of our marriage and we were making each other miserable. I came home from Annual Conference feeling like a failure, wondering how I was going to break the news to the church, knowing that I couldn’t wait very long to do that because Dallas is a small town with an efficient grapevine. For a few days I didn’t tell anyone in the church. This was so I could get through two Sundays. Then I met with two key leaders of the church and together we decided that I would write a letter to the congregation and we would find someone to preach the next Sunday who could address how they could minister to each other and my family in this situation. Not only did I feel responsible for the failure of my marriage, I felt responsible for putting a church through it as well. The church was full that Sunday in late June. When I heard that I had to feel their overwhelming concern and love in the midst of the chaos. A few weeks later, Andy announced he was in another relationship and I started filing for divorce.
That’s the short story of my divorce. I want you to know that I don’t mind talking about my divorce. I just don’t want it to define me, even though, it is one of those landmarks in my life that will always be a landmark. Anyone who has had an experience like that, where they feel as if they have failed as a human being has to find a way of processing it. I have looked back and looked back to figure out what went wrong. I have agonized over many of my choices in the past. I have even wondered why I married Andy in the first place because all the signs of possible failure were there from the very beginning. And, I have spent a lot of time beating myself up.
The choices we make in life are all very important, and we would be crazy to take them lightly, as if they did not really matter. Being children of God, being loved by God, belonging to God is not a matter of going limp in God’s arms, after all. We are called to make choices with our lives.
However, when we agonize too much over them, especially the ones we have already made, we fall into that ancient trap of works-righteousness—that comfortable old delusion that we can, by our good decisions and good deeds alone, save ourselves. I am very good at talking myself into that trap--if only I had been more assertive in my marriage or less assertive, paid more attention, if only I had been a better cook, if only I had read one more book about saving your marriage, if only, if only I hadn’t of married him in the first place. The trap is telling myself that if I had just worked hard enough, if I had prayed hard enough, if I had given more, then I could have saved our marriage, or God could have. Gosh, one time we were discussing our problems in a coffee shop and a person at the table next to us felt compelled to pray for us out loud right there in downtown Dallas.
If only I had been good enough! May God help us all with this kind of thinking and believing! It is a form of idolatry, and it is very American. We have so many choices. We have it drilled into our minds that God helps those who help themselves. What we lose along the way when we believe this way, when we believe in works/righteousness is a full sense of the grace and the power of God. The truth is God recruits people who have made terrible choices. God invades the most hapless lives and fills them with light. God sneaks up on people who are thinking about lunch, not God, and smacks them up side the head with glory and grace.
That’s what happened to Simon Peter, James and John. They had been out fishing all night and had caught nothing—a night of failure. Jesus came along with a crowd of people and asked for a boat to stand in so he could go on teaching the crowd without getting his feet wet. When Jesus finished with his lesson, he told Simon Peter to put out the nets again. Simon protested. “We worked all night long and caught nothing.” The nets were clean, the work was done, and what did Jesus know about fishing anyway? Would you have listened to Jesus that day? Would you had put out the nets one more time when what you really wanted to do was go find some breakfast? So Simon let down the nets one more time and they caught so many fish they almost sunk two boats trying to haul in the catch. Peter Simon made another exclamation NOT about the fish and the boats. Peter’s explanation was about his life, his sinful life. Jesus doesn’t seem too concerned. He said to Peter, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching people.” And they left everything and followed him just as it is told in Matthew and Mark, except Luke includes this unexpected, miraculous catch of fish. Jesus called them and immediately, they followed him.
He called, they followed. We tend to say, what strength, what courage, what faith those fishermen had! I couldn’t do that! They sacrificed everything to follow Jesus! What heroes! However, this is not a hero story; it’s a miracle story. And the miracle was not the unexpected catch of fish; it was that those fishermen dropped what was in their hands and went after him, without saying a single word, except Peter, who instantly said what we would say, “I’m not worthy, I’m a sinful man.” It was not a decision that they ponder, weighing the pros and cons. It was as if something happened to them, something very spiritual and compelling beyond their control. This is a story full of God’s power and glory and grace. Can you hear it? Can you imagine it? Jesus walked right up to these fishermen and worked a miracle, creating faith where there was no faith, creating disciples where there were none just a moment before.
This is a story about God, and about God’s ability not only to call us but also to create us as people who are able to follow—able to follow because we cannot take our eyes off the one who calls us, because God interests us more than anything else in our lives, because God seems to know what we hunger for, because God seems to be the food that we need.
It is a miracle story. The unexpected catch was not the fish; it was the hearts and lives of Peter, James and John. If they did anything under their own power at all, it was simply that they allowed themselves to fall in love. Jesus showed up, they took one look at each other, and the rest is history. God acted, and the disciples left the unexpected catch in their boats, for something better—learning to catch people with Jesus.
Now, before you start believing that you need to leave what you are doing to follow Jesus, let me tell you that that would be reading the story too narrowly. If the story is about being swept into the flow of God’s will and giving ourselves over to it, then it seems to me that it will be a different story for every one of us in our own particular lives. Sometimes following may mean staying at home. Sometimes following may mean casting the same old nets in a new way, or for new reasons. It may mean doing something different with the fish you catch, or spending the money they bring at market in a different way, It may mean reorganizing the whole fishing business so the drifters down at the pier have work to do, and so that everyone who works receives a decent wage. It may mean doing less every day, not more, so that there is time to watch how the light changes on the water.
The possibilities for following are endless, sometimes big possibilities, sometimes small. No matter what I think about the failure of my marriage, there is one thing for sure. I have two miracles in my life who came from my marriage.. Their names are Abbe and Emma. They are, for me, evidence of the presence of God in my marriage which is no longer. And the last three years have been years filled with the grace and love and power of God in ways I could never have imagined.
It would be a mistake, I believe, to focus too hard on our own parts in the miracle of finding god and following God. For the God who called you and me can be counted on to create us as people who are able to follow. That is the miracle.
Amen.