Putting together a sermon is an interesting task. It’s more than an exercise in creative writing or constructing a history lesson or a theology lecture. In a sermon I need to be able to accurately communicate what a particular passage of Scripture says and prayerfully hope God somehow speaks through it. I have to avoid the temptation of the sermon just being something I want to say and backed it up with a passage or two from the Bible. It's a form of spiritual abuse when a preacher spouts out agenda-ed opinions with a couple of verses to back it up instead of a sermon that's based in Scripture.
In seminary, I was taught that the surest way to go when preparing a sermon was, to the best of my ability, try to determine what a passage of Scripture said to the original hearers and then try to find a creative way to convey that message to my congregation in its current context today. Being honest, I try to do that, but too often it’s not a straightforward exercise for it is rare that a passage of Scripture says just one thing. Every passage is wonderfully multi-faceted. So, I have to approach the Scripture with a bit of humility asking “Lord, what would you have me to say?” Then I read the passage over and over, work with it in its original language, and listen and wait. Usually, there’s something in the passage that sticks out to me. I hear the Word of God so to speak and feel the nudge. Something inside just gives me the feeling of, “Yeah, that’s it. Amen.”
This week it has something to do with hearing the word. There in the first verse, it says that Jesus was standing there on the lakeshore and the crowd began to press in on him “to hear the word of God.” The Greek word for “press in on” means simply to lie down. My child-like imagination then saw a huge crowd wanting to lie down on Jesus, you know, reposing on him like it’s the Sabbath or the seventh day of Creation, when God rested. But you folks can just go with the image Luke has here of a very excited huge mass of people crowding up against Jesus and each other like a huge catch of fish in a net. They are excited to be with Jesus wanting him to speak because they just know that when Jesus speaks, somehow God is speaking through him.
This crowd of people really, truly needed to hear God speak. This was a huge crowd of Galileans. Just everyday people...but people who had had enough. Roman soldiers bullying them. Those traitorous tax collectors were overtaxing them to get rich. Everybody owed. Everybody knew the slavery of having too much debt. Then on top of the Romans. The religious authorities would come up from Jerusalem and police them about the silliest things all the while offering them no hope. They would say, “God will get you if you do that and if we catch you doing that, there will be a heavy penalty fee to pay to the Temple.” This crowd of people were done. They needed God to intervene.
In the midst of those oppressive circumstances, Jesus showed up healing people and casting out demons. Things only God could do. Jesus would also say things like “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me” and that the Kingdom of God is at hand, things for which he was kicked out of his hometown synagogue for saying. The people, crowds of people, just had this sense that God had heard them crying out and somehow through this Jesus God was speaking and acting.
Well, Jesus commandeered Peter’s boat and sat down and to teach from it, just like the rabbis did in the synagogues. They fluffed their frilly robes and sat down to teach. There’s no mention of what Jesus said, but for his “sermon illustration” he sent Peter out on a little fishing trip. Jesus told him to put out into the deep water and let down his nets for a catch. You know, go out to where you can’t see the bottom or whether there is fish down there. Go out to where it just seems you’re looking into a greenish black void and there do what you do...fish. Let down your nets for a catch.
Peter was reluctant but respectful. He said to Jesus, “Sir, we’ve been fishing all night and…nothing...got skunked.” I imagine Peter, that he was exhausted, discouraged, and like everybody else there…up to his eyeballs in tax debt to the Romans. Here he has worked all night long throwing the nets out and pulling them in, throwing them out and pulling them in and they were wet and heavy like December snow. On the plus side, it may have been beautiful on the lake that night, looking up at the billions of stars and the moon as it rose and set, and then the sunrise.
And here’s something else to consider…that he was fishing at night may have meant that he was fishing on the Sabbath and not wanting to be seen. Getting caught doing that would just get him in trouble with the religious authorities only to be punished with fines and public shaming. Peter likely needed that extra outing of fishing to help pay the Roman taxes. I can’t help but imagine Peter as being demoralized, hopeless, and borderline dysphoric. “Why am I here?” There was nothing meaningful to all that working for nothing. Why live? But you keep going because you have responsibilities, you keep going even though life seems to be nothing…a deep void like the deep water."
But all hope is never lost. Peter was willing to give Jesus a chance. He said to Jesus, “…yet, if you say so, I will let down the nets.” If “you” say so. Peter was hearing something more than words here. He was hearing Jesus, hearing Jesus, and against all the physical and emotional fatigue he was feeling, he went and did what Jesus said do…Jesus, the one the crowds were flocking to, the one the Spirit of the Lord was upon, the one kicked out by his own synagogue, the one who was healing people and casting out demons, the one who was the peaceful, calming presence sitting in his boat talking about God whom he called “Father”. There was just something there that Peter wanted.
Out to the deep water they go and over into that greenish, blackish void they let down the nets for a catch. When they began to draw the nets in, it suddenly became clear that they needed some help or the nets would burst. The catch was unbelievably huge to the point of almost sinking their boats. This catch would likely get him and his friends out of debt. Peter heard the voice of Jesus and as an act of loyalty, did what Jesus said to do. Just like the hoards of people thronged to Jesus to hear the word of God so also even the fish in the deep, dark void of the lake heeded him.
Suddenly, Peter realized who Jesus is. Luke points this out by calling him Simon Peter instead of just Simon. He fell at Jesus’ knees (an act of worship) and exclaimed, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” What else are you supposed to do and say when you suddenly realize that you are in the presence of G_d? Peter went from calling Jesus, a respectful, “Sir”, to calling him "Lord". G_d is the only One a Jew will address as "Lord". And so, Peter, his brother Andrew, and their two friends James and John left everything…their boats, their nets, even family…to follow Jesus.
Turning the camera onto us, what do you do when you get that sense that God is speaking to you? It’s probably the case that for most of us when we think about hearing the word of God we approach it more like, “Just tell me what it says in the Bible and I’ll do it or at least take it into consideration.” Yet, this approach reduces Scripture to being nothing more than a manual of moral truths for do-gooder’s and presumes that God just speaks generically and not to us personally. That would be crazy. Yet, one thing the Bible clearly and adamantly indicates is that God is directly involved in his Creation and in each of our lives. We are each part of God’s purposes for his Creation. I remember reading somewhere, maybe in Proverbs, something that said God created us with two holes in our heads, meaning two ears, so that we can hear him when he speaks. Please do not underestimate the importance the Bible places on our hearing God personally. God created us for that.
But anyway, I guess the question we really need to ask is how does God speak? How does God speak so that we may hear? I will confess my insanity here. I wouldn’t have come to Canada to be a minister had God not spoken an audible word to me to that effect. Then, there’s the countless number of times when in my daily Bible readings, a verse or verses have stuck out to me that addressed me and the situations of my life in a very specific manner and in time what was said proved true . There have also been times when I’ve actually had the opportunity to sit in church like you folks and God has spoken to me through the sermon or a hymn. There have also been times when something as weird as a hawk showing up at a moment that was more than coincidental and seemed to me to be God speaking to me. God speaks.
And, let’s set the record straight here. Because I am a minister, does not deal differently with me than he does with each of you. Since each of us is indwelt with the Holy Spirit who opens our ears to hear, God will speak and it does us well to give him opportunity. I think, heck I know, that for the most part our problem with hearing God speak is in our not giving ourselves opportunity to hear. Speaking from the testimony of the Scriptures themselves and my own personal experience, God does and will speak specifically and personally to us particularly when we are at a low point or in the midst of crisis, when we are in need of being turned around, when we need guidance. God has not hung us out to walk through life on our own hoping we get it right. Our God loves us. Our God is faithful. Therefore, he speaks and he speaks lovingly to us that which is best for us. Therefore, his word is nothing to fear, but rather the thing upon which we should place our hope. Jesus told Peter, “Do not be afraid.” So let us not be afraid that God speaks. If God doesn’t speak then life really is just our staring over the side of a boat into a greenish, black void not knowing what lurks there. I find that scary. Lie down on Jesus, repose on Jesus, press in on Jesus and listen for God to speak. Amen.
