First Presbyterian Church, Cottonwood Falls, KS

Captivated by the Divine: Luke 5:1-11

Rev. Pat Ireland, Pastor

Feb. 7, 2010

Luke 5:1-11

¹Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, ²he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³He 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. ⁴When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." ⁵Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." ⁶When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. ⁷So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them.  And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" ⁹For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; ¹⁰and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.  Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."  ¹¹When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

There was a group that called themselves The Fisherfolk Club.  They started out as a gathering of people who earned their living fishing in the ocean.   At first, only real fisherfolk could join.  But not wanting to be selfish, and because they had nice facilities that needed to be paid for, they invited others to come in too.

In the club headquarters there were fish symbols galore, hooks, nets, and floats and rods.  All the members of the club, even those who were not fishers, wore old hats with lures stuck in them and tall wading boots which got quite uncomfortable on warm days.  But they were proud to be fishers and so never took them off.

They had a well-stocked library of books about fishing.  And several times a year they ran seminars to which world-renounced fishers were invited to come and deliver learned lectures.  All the talk and all the activities of the club centered around fishing but as the years went by, fewer and fewer of the members actually went out fishing.

Then one day, the club had a new member.  They had not had a new member for some time, so this was an interesting experience.  And the new member asked an interesting question. “When do you go fishing?”

Well, it turned out that members of The Fisherfolk Club had never caught a fish.  In fact, they had never actually seen a live fish.  And the idea that they should go out there in a boat or wade into the water came as quite a shock to them.

They had long meetings on the subject and finally came to the conclusion that the new member would have to leave.  The new member obviously knew very little about what it really meant to be a member of The Fisherfolk Club.

Today’s lesson is often referred to as the Call of Peter (and the rest).  However in Luke’s telling of this story, Jesus doesn’t utter the familiar words, “Follow me.”  Jesus announces that from now on the fishermen will be catching people rather than fish.

Let us Pray:  Holy Spirit guide the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts that we might become that which Jesus needs and desires.  Amen

I was all ready to parallel and contrast the call stories of Isaiah and Peter, when one of the scholars rightly pointed out that, as Luke tells the story, Jesus does not call Peter, James and John.  Instead, much like the those folks in Genesis who get a new name- Abram becomes Abraham, Sari becomes Sarah, and Jacob becomes Israel- Jesus announces what Simon and the others are to become.  They are to be fishers of people.

Now that image could be very negative if I focus on pulling fish from the water into the air to die and be eaten.  That is hardly good news for the fish.  And when you hear someone speak of being a recovering Mormon, Catholic or whatever, you understand that being caught by the church might has not always been good news.  Jesus, however, was not talking about building a church.

Jesus was talking about gathering folks to live under the reign of God.  Jesus was saying that Peter and James and John were to round up the folks for the kingdom.  And like many other stories of the kingdom, this is a story of abundance.  There are so many fish that they need help pulling them all into the boat without swamping it.

Now, there are congregations who really don’t want more folks in their boat.  New folks might not like the same hymns or respect our traditions.   But surely we are not like that!...

Now…I don’t mean to bog us down, but we need to go back to the Greek to appreciate the meaning of this gathering into the kingdom of God.  Remember that Jesus, being a good Jew, enjoyed word play.  And Luke uses a different vocabulary than Matthew and Mark in telling this story.

Where we read catch in verses 4 and 9 it is generic term for any type of hunting or catching.  However, when Jesus says in verse 10, “from now on you will be catching people,” he is using a different term, which translates literally:  “from the now, you shall be catching alive people.”

The Greek is a compound verb zogreo:  Zo (as in zoology) meaning alive or living and agreo meaning to capture or catch.  When used in other texts of the time it means: “to restore to life and strength, to revive.”   One scholar suggests that Jesus’ words should be translated:  “From now on, you will be restoring people to life and strength.”  You have to admit it sounds a lot better than be caught up in a net but it destroys the word play!

We do talk, however about being ‘caught in his or her love’ or ‘captured by love’.

Someone suggested that rather than use the word "catch" or "capture," we use "captivated” as in: "captivated" by beauty or charm or excellence.   It seems obvious that at the end of our lesson Peter and some of his friends are captivated by Jesus.   It's almost like they are "swept off their feet" by him.  They leave everything and follow him.

But, I have jumped to the end of the story already.  Let’s back up and notice some details.

This is not the first time Jesus has met Peter.  It is likely they met when they were with John the Baptist.  Luke tells us in the previous chapter that Jesus went to Peter’s house after synagogue and healed Peter’s mother-in-law.

Some time later, when Jesus is again in Capernaum, he comes down to the shore and the crowd is following so he decides it is a good teaching moment.

Now, Peter and his crew have been fishing all night and haven’t caught anything.  They must be tired and discouraged, in a hurry to finish the clean up and get home to eat and rest.  Jesus asks them to stop what they are doing and take him out in the boat.  Peter, indebted to Jesus, obliges.

I suppose Peter must have listened to Jesus’ teachings that day but I also think that he was ready to get home and rest, so when Jesus asked him to put out into the deep to do some more fishing he must have said to himself: “oh man!”   Peter knows Jesus is a great guy but, “he is after all a carpenter, and he’s telling me to fish in the deep water when any fisherman worth his salt knows that fish hide under the rocks in the shallows during the day.  That’s why we fish at night!”

So, get this, Peter, tired and discouraged is told by Jesus to do something that he knows won’t work… but he does it anyway.  It makes me wonder how many times we ignore the nudging of God in our hearts because we know it won’t work.  How many of God’s ideas have we set aside because they were impractical or unlikely to bear fruit?

Maybe that’s why Peter is so upset when they start hauling in the fish.  Not only was he proved wrong, like Isaiah he is fearful when confronted with the divine presence.   Make no mistake, controlling fish is meant to demonstrate that we are in the presence of the divine!

Those fishermen were themselves caught by Jesus.  They are amazed and terrified and know themselves as unworthy.  Nevertheless, they were given a new calling.  They have experienced Jesus' power on the lake and they are changed people.  They have been captivated by God’s love and power in Jesus of Nazareth.

I think there is hope for us in this story.  Many of us are tired and discouraged, having working long hours with no visible results, our nets are empty.  Yet, Jesus, whom we’ve met before- and indeed who has touched and healed those we love- this same Jesus comes to us again and again.  Jesus asks us to stop, to change directions, to listen anew.  And, as if that were not enough, Jesus asks us to go out again.

On this day, in this story, Jesus is not saying, come and follow me, Jesus says; “Go out again.  Let down your nets and see what I have prepared for you.”    Jesus knows we are tired and discouraged.  Maybe that is because we were out working and Jesus wasn’t with us.

John Dominic Crossan suggests that the point of this story is simply: “to fish all night without Jesus is to catch nothing.”  Perhaps we’ve been too quick to follow our own ways and too slow to take time to discern where Jesus is … and to be with him.

I would suggest that, lest we too continuing fishing without result, that we stop to pray seriously to glimpse God’s desires for this congregation.  If we are to be captivated by Jesus charms, we must spend time with him.  I sort of like the image of sitting in the boat on a still lake just enjoying the warm sun and time together.   Then, head over heels in love with him, we too can let down our nets once again and gather together those whom God is preparing.

Enough of talking about fishing:  it is time to be captivated by an image of creation living in peace and harmony, a kingdom of abundance where all are fed and clothed and healed and loved.   Jesus doesn’t call us to join a club, but to enter into the reign of God and to demonstrate and share God’s reign with others.  That means we love and enjoy one another so much that others want to be a part of the fellowship.  It means that we are captivated by the endless possibilities of divine imagination and love.  It means we are freed of all that binds us, free to leave it all behind to be with Jesus.

It is an outrageous and amazing suggestion that in God’s love and forgiveness and presence we can be free to become heirs to the reign of God.  It is just about as outrageous as hauling up fish or winning the lottery at the wrong place and the wrong time.  But that is exactly what this story is suggesting to us today.  We, like Peter and James and John, are invited to once again encounter Jesus, and to allow him to free us from all that binds.  We, like Peter and James and John, are to be so captivated by divine possibilities that we can’t help but want others to join us in them.

We are talking about love, and forgiveness, about acceptance and abundance, about eternity here with us today.  Can you imagine it?   Can your receive it?   Can you share it?