February 6, 2022 – Epiphany 5C

“Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 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. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”  Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people” Luke 5:1ff

There’s a scene from the movie “There’s Something About Mary” starring Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz where Ben and Cameron are standing by the sea, and her movie brother is fishing. He takes his rod and brings it back to cast it out, when the lure on the end of his rod gets stuck in Ben Stiller’s mouth. It is an uncomfortable scene – you see Cameron standing above Ben with her foot on his head trying to get the hook out of his mouth with people standing around. It is uncomfortable, yet I find is uncommonly funny. This is the image I get in my head when Jesus turns to Peter, James and John and tells them they are going to be fishing for people. Of course, this is not the image Jesus intends…..what with the blood, the hook and the pain.

Let’s do a recap. Jesus has come to the Lake of Gennesaret (which is just another name for the Sea of Galilee) and so many people are coming to hear him speak. He looks around and sees two boats, those belonging to Simon Peter and his business partners James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and he asks if he can use one of the boats as a pulpit. When he is done speaking from the shallow water, he tells Peter to take the boat into the deeper water and to put down his nets for a catch of fish. We know the story—Peter tells him that they have been fishing all night long and have caught nothing. But he says he will do what Jesus suggests.

You see, we are sent out to catch people for Jesus because Jesus wants to catch all people—when he was lifted up on the cross, he was lifted up to bring all people to himself….but Jesus cannot do that on his own—he needs disciples like you and me to go out and do some fishing for people. And there is no distinction between which fish Jesus keeps—in fact he doesn’t throw anyone back. It doesn’t matter how big, or how small—how long or how short—how beautiful or how plain—Jesus wants to catch us in his net of love and his lure of limitless forgiveness and Grace. And once Jesus catches us, there is nothing we can do that will make Jesus release his grasp on us. Oh, we might swim away once in a while, but Jesus still has us in his net of love, mercy and Grace.

Pastor Dave