Preached on the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany, February 9 2025, at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Seattle, Washington by The Reverend Phillip Lienau.
Isaiah 6:19-13
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
Psalm 138
Plaque with the Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew, ca. 1160-80
Things are off balance, not all right. There is a feeling in the air of there not being enough. Whether it’s time, or space, or food, it’s not enough.
I could be referring to our world today. There is a haunted quality to many of my interactions with people today. But in fact I am referring mostly to the Gospel of Luke, right where we find ourselves this morning.
Today’s Gospel is Luke’s version of the call of Peter, and James and John. This episode follows several vignettes, all of which have this in common: a pervading sense of uncomfortability.
The first three chapters of Luke all set up Jesus’ ministry. We have the Nativity, the Presentation (last week), Jesus in the Temple as a twelve-year old, and the ministry of John the Baptist.
The ministry of Jesus begins properly in chapter four, and it’s trouble right away, and all the way down the line through to today’s Gospel. In Chapter four, Jesus is tested in the wilderness, then he goes to his hometown of Nazareth, and they become so angry with him that they try to kill him.
Then for a little while things might be looking up. He does some healing and word spreads. But, he directs people to not speak of these things, and what do they do - they talk about it, and soon many people know about it. At the very end of chapter 4, right before today’s passage, he has gone to a deserted place to be alone, but the crowds found him, and then “they wanted to prevent him from leaving them.”
Think about that for a moment. The people need Jesus so much they try to, essentially, keep him prisoner. There is such a need in the people to have Jesus with them, to possess Jesus. He’s just started his ministry, and already there is a feeling in the air that there is not enough of him. He is a miracle-worker. He exorcises demons, he heals sickness, he saves lives, and it’s not enough. The need for his healing is overwhelming.
But here is his response, in the last verses of chapter four: “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.” He is telling them that he is not going to be able to stay and fix everything, at least not in the way they want. His physical presence in the world is going to feel, for some of these people, not enough, because he has to proclaim the good news in other places.
In the meantime, we now find ourselves at the lakeshore. As usual, there is not enough Jesus to go around. “The crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God.” The crowd is so needy, that he is forced to go into the water. Not enough space. Jesus gets into Simon’s boat.
It is here that the story takes a curious turn. Jesus has a response to there not being enough space, enough time, enough of him. He doesn’t address these things directly, but as he very often does, he addresses something parallel, or from another point of view. There is another scarcity at play here, and that is the fish. Simon reports that he and his coworkers “have worked all night but have caught nothing.” There is not enough fish.
Yet again in these first chapters of the ministry of Jesus there is not enough of something. Something’s gotta give.
Jesus’ response is to send Simon out to fish again. Simon patiently explains that there aren’t enough fish, but then he does what Jesus asks, and suddenly there are not only enough fish, but much more than enough fish. In fact there are so many fish, that the scarcity transfers. The scarcity transfers from there not being enough fish to there being not enough space in the boats or the nets. “They caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break.” “And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.”
Perhaps you are like me and you are used to hearing this about the boats sinking and the nets breaking simply as colorful ways to convey plenty, and miracle. You might think that Simon’s best response in this moment is joy, and gratitude.
But I invite you this morning to consider with me how stressful this could have been. These boats and nets are precious, expensive things. They take many hundreds of hours to make, and many hundreds more to maintain. Without the boats or the nets these folks have no livelihood, and the community loses some of its source of food. It would be very bad for any of the boats to sink, or the nets to break.
Jesus’ involvement in Simon’s life here has created something of a crisis. Jesus has revealed overwhelming blessing, but Simon’s life, in the form of the boats and nets, isn’t set up to receive that blessing. Perhaps it is understandable, then, that Simon’s response to Jesus in this moment is not so much joy and gratitude as a plea for Jesus to create some distance. Suddenly there isn’t quite enough room for Simon between him and Jesus. “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
We aren’t told exactly why Simon says this. But I think we can profitably consider some possibilities. Simon could just be hoping that Jesus takes himself, his crowds, even the too much fish, and leave, go off to some other neighborhood and leave Simon and his life in peace. Or, Simon could be thinking that Jesus being here is the best thing ever, but Simon is afraid that Jesus has mistaken Simon for a holy person, someone worthy of such amazing blessings from God. This could lead Simon to be afraid that Jesus will find out that Simon is not all that holy, at least not all the time, and then turn the blessings to curses, and that’s probably the last thing Simon needs in his life right now. So maybe it’s better just to drive Jesus away, lest Simon get his hopes up that things are really going to permanently change for the better.
Either way, we are in a scene of extremes. The crowds can’t get enough of Jesus, Jesus is running out of space. There aren’t fish. Then suddenly there is an amazing amount of fish. There is a kind of breathless quality to the story here. It’s just one thing after another.
This breathlessness, this experience of one extreme thing after another, reminds me of how I often feel nowadays. Maybe you do too sometimes. When can we get a break?
I think today’s Gospel gives those of us who might feel this way some good news. The good news is found in how Simon responds to Jesus. His response is threefold, and I think we are called to follow Simon’s example here.
First, say yes to Jesus. Say yes. Jesus tells Simon to fish. Simon has already fished, all night, and caught nothing. But Jesus tells Simon to fish anyway. Simon’s response should be our response. Yes. Yes, Lord, I will do the thing you ask of me, even if I feel like I’ve already done it, or it feels silly, or maybe I’m afraid people will think less of me because I’m doing something the world considers foolish.
In Simon’s world, just as in ours, there can be very serious consequences to looking foolish, to doing something upon which conventional wisdom frowns. Simon took a risk going out again in the water to fish. Simon took a risk when he said yes to Jesus. But he said yes. Be like Simon.
Second, be prepared to change your perspective about what is important, and especially, about what you think you need. The Gospel starts today with there not being enough space, or enough Jesus to go around. Jesus offers the crowd, and us, a chance to change our perspective about what we want, and what we need. What the crowd thinks they need is miracles, or someone to tell them what to do every minute of their lives. What Jesus knows they need is a change or heart, to realize that the true miracle of healing, available to all people, all of the time, is reconciliation with each other, and with God. In the midst of extreme need, Simon gets it right when he falls to his knees and recognizes that he needs reconciliation. Simon accepted a change in perspective about what is important, about what he needs. It was never about the fish. It’s not about enough space, or time, or even which town Jesus happens to be in at any given moment. This is because we are finite creatures, living in a vast, but essentially finite creation. We run out of time because we are mortal. We can run out of space because our bodies can only do so much.
But we always have more than enough of what we really need, which is the grace of God. This does not mean that the material things aren’t important. They are. Our bodies are important, this place we set aside for worship, the bread, the wine, the table, the baptismal water – all these things are important. But they aren’t everything, on their own. They are important to the extent that they reveal to us the grace of God. Whether there are not enough fish, or more than enough fish, either way, we are called to give thanks to God for fish, to enjoy the fish, or whatever aspect of the material world has our attention at the moment, and shift our perspective to center God in our consciousness. That is how we get to the point of there being enough. There is enough body and blood of Jesus at this table to include all of us in God’s feast.
Third, and this is the most important, and is required for the other two, practice a posture of humility. Only in humility can we perceive what Jesus asks of us, so that only in humility can we say yes to Jesus. Only in humility can we be ready to change our perspective about what’s important. Humility before God prepares us to see our lives less from our point of view, and more from God’s point of view.
When Simon falls to his knees, in humility, Jesus says to him, “Do not be afraid.” I know that we all long to hear Jesus say to us, “Do not be afraid.” There is much that is uncertain, and distressing, and extreme right now in our world. Who among us does not long to hear God say to us, “Do not be afraid”?
The good news is that God is saying that to us. God is always reaching out to draw us away from a place of fear. But if we are not hearing it, it’s not because God isn’t saying it. It’s because we are not really listening the way we are called to. If we are not hearing God, it’s probably because we have work to do on our humility, on our listening skills. Not to listen for what we want to hear, but for what God is actually saying, which may surprise us.
From our vantage point, we know the story of Simon who is later called Peter. Of course he’s going to follow Jesus. But put yourselves in his position at the lakeshore for a moment. He has fallen to his knees in humility. He knows himself to be sinful, he is ready to repent, to reconcile. It would be reasonable to expect Jesus to grant that reconciliation, and then go on his way. What Jesus does, is call Simon to a new way of life. Jesus doesn’t remove all extremes from Simon’s life, but he reframes Simon’s perspective, and shows the way forward to a life that centers on Jesus.
And that is the call for all of us. We are say yes to Jesus, we are to be ready to change our perspective, and we are called, in humility, to center our lives around Jesus. If we do these things, following Simon’s example, we are sure to hear in our hearts, clear as a bell, Jesus say to us, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
This catching people business is not about getting people into church. It might involve that (I hope it does!), but it’s not a numbers game. Catching people means catching each other up in the good news, the good news of the kingdom of God. It means catching people up in joy, catching people up in the love of God that shines through you when you practice humility before God and neighbor.
Yes, Simon left his boats and his nets and followed Jesus. In our time, your call might involve leaving one thing and doing another. But often enough it’s more subtle than that. Leaving boats and nets and following Jesus can mean leaving behind our self-centered perspectives about what’s important. It can mean leaving behind attachments that distract us from the work of love and reconciliation.
So, say yes to Jesus, especially if saying yes means changing your perspective. Practice humility, seek reconciliation, and look around and wonder, are their any boats or nets to which you are particularly attached, and around which you could loosen your grip?
If we can do these things, I trust that together we will hear Jesus say to us, “Do not be afraid”; from now on you will shine with the light of the Gospel.