Sermon, February 4, 2001

5th Sunday after Epiphany, Year C

The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham,

St. Paul's Episcopal Church Fayetteville, Arkansas

Gospel ‹ Luke 5:1-11 The catch of fish & calling of the fishermen

Peter and his friends were businessmen. They had their own company, an established firm from at least as far back as his partners' father Zebedee. They had equipment, inventory, overhead and taxes. They probably did pretty well. Successful, upper-middle-class business people. Let's go a little further.

They were probably good religious people, too. They learned the traditions of their parents, worshiped every week, lived up to the moral standards of good, solid citizens of their day. Change the scene by a few centuries, and we've got some people who are living the American Dream. They own their own business and their own home, they have provided for their families, and they have a place of respect in their community. It just doesn't get any better than that. Until Jesus showed up and started messing with their minds.

They're at work. They've just finished a grueling and unsuccessful business day. They are probably ready to shut the place down and relax in front of the TV. From the midst of the teeming docks comes a man who beguiles the impetuous Peter into letting him sit in the boat and talk from there to the people on the hillside shore. We don't know what Jesus said, but we can guess from what we've got from other places. He probably told them some stories. He probably told them some things about God. He probably told them about what Verna Dozier calls "the Dream of God." That's what our translators usually refer to as the Kingdom of God. But we don't know about kingdoms anymore. The Dream of God is how it would be if things were as God wants them to be. What it would be like if we all lived "God's Dream."

Listening to Jesus making picture stories of that world, Peter would have felt some of the differences between "God's Dream" and, say, the "American Dream." This comfortable middle-class businessman who seems to have it made, might have felt some twinges of discomfort or maybe just a sense of wonder. Then Jesus makes it personal. He takes Peter out into the deep water - literally and spiritually. And Peter gets exactly what he wishes for every day. His nets fill with money. Yes, money. For a fisherman, fish means money. He's been in this business long enough to know what he's looking at. He can calculate weight of what he's got, and it's a loadstone. This is that new addition to the house they¹ve been dreaming of. This is the money that guarantees his child's good start. This is what the business has been needing in order to expand to the next level. This is the retirement nest egg that secures his family for good. This is every businessman's dream. And suddenly, he's out of his depths. Peter realizes there is something more than business-as-usual here. There is something more at stake than what he deals with every day of his life. In some profound sense, every day of his life is at stake here. Is he going to take this amazing catch of fish just like he would on any other day? Will he simply come home and tell his wife proudly, "Honey, I made a killing today. We're rich." Or is there something else from another frame of reference happening here? It sticks in his throat. Something about this Jesus touches a sensitive, tender place inside him. There's a place inside him that he doesn't visit very often. It's a place that tells him he's not a good as he appears. Sometimes that gets reinforced by the preachers. His religion is a religion of law and morality, and even though he does pretty well by the community standards, he knows he's not perfect. And the ones who aren't perfect are sinners. There is something about this Jesus that reminds him of the Bible lessons and the demands and the guilt. The feeling is so strong that he lets go of the nets full of money, lowers his head to his knees and says, "Go away from me. I'm a sinful man." Now my picture of Christ tells me he just smiled back at Peter. He knows Peter doesn't get it. But also knows, he's just got Peter's attention. And this is the beginning of something good. "Don't be afraid, Peter. We've got bigger fish to fry."

At that moment, I think something profound happened. I think Peter¹s whole frame of reference changed. I think for the first time he believed something he¹d never known before. That he's not a sinner. Oh, yeah, he sins. But that's not who he is. For the first time he senses, that at the deepest place of life, there's nothing to be afraid of. There's no monster-God counting offenses and judging with an absolute divine rigor. There is nothing to be afraid of. And so, he's free to follow his heart. And that feels so much better than just making a living. And so, Peter leaves his business to Zebedee, and follows Jesus.

There's a moment toward the end of Susan Howatch's fine new novel The High Flyer, when an English priest is trying to help the main character let go of some fears from the Calvinism of her childhood. She's inherited an image of God that haunts so many people. God as the perfect, implacable Judge. Speaking carefully to her, the priest says, "You can't talk about judgement without talking about justice - and justice is the other side of love. If we love someone we want justice for them. We don¹t want them to be treated unfairly; we want them to be treated with love and understanding. People so often think of judgement as something severe, but a great judge will weigh up the good points as well as the bad; a great judge will see that real justice is done..." ³You know what I mean by sheepdog trials, don¹t you?² he said. "They're open-air exhibitions of the skills dogs show when herding sheep, and the judge has to decide which dog is the most skillful. Well, once upon a time, ...a man and his small son were on holiday in the Lake District and they saw a sign directing them along a road to some sheepdog trials which were being held on a nearby hillside. The little boy said: "Oh, I'd like to see a trial!"- so his father agreed to take him, but when they arrived at the scene the little boy was very disappointed. He said to his father: "But where's the jury? And where's the judge in the black cap, like the judge at the Old Bailey who sentences murderers to hang?- ...Then the father had to explain that it wasn't that kind of trial. No dog was going to be condemned to death or sentenced to prison. Every one of them was there to be affirmed and valued and encouraged, and if some of them didn't come up to the mark they were always told they were welcome to come back later on when the had learned how to be more skillful." (Susan Howatch, The High Flyer, p. 477-8; in the credits the author thanks the Very Rev. Alex Wedderspoon, Dean of Guildford, for his sermon about the sheepdog trials).

Some time after Jesus' crucifixion, after Peter had betrayed his teacher three times, after Peter had returned to his job as a fisherman, on a morning that may have been a little like this one in today's Gospel, Peter sat in his boat at daybreak following a futile night's work. John's Gospel tells it this way: Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!"... When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast.".... When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him,"Feed my lambs." A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep." John 21:4f Justice as the other side of love speaks to the fisherman who has been through the trials and now has three marks of betrayal. There is no condemnation, but rather affirmation, value, and encouragement. The now more skillful Peter is commissioned to try again to herd the sheep. And once more he leaves the boat, a fearless man.