Sisters and brothers in Christ,
Look at what God can do when we are tired!
What strikes me about this fantastic lesson of Jesus calling his disciples is that he does it in the morning after a sleepless, fruitless, hopeless night!
Peter was ready to pack up and go home -- no energy, no fish, no hope -- and that’s precisely when Christ shows up, sends him back out, and calls him into new mission fields.
Look at what God can do when we are tired!
At the end of our rope, without direction or energy -- hopeless, fruitless, even sleepless. That’s precisely when Christ shows up, sends us back out and into new mission.
This is our God.
So what task is God calling you into now? Us here at BLC? No matter your age. No matter your status, no matter how long you’ve been “at this” already. Now is when Christ appears in your midst and says, “Well, try this: try something new, go deeper” and “Come, follow me”.
Jesus meets us in our grayness, when the clouds are heavy, and the days and the years (and our faces) are long, just as we’re about throw in the towel, give up, sell out, and isolate ourselves from others. Just as we’re really getting really frustrated with each other or the world around us. Just as we’re about to close the door and blow out the candle, Jesus says, “Hey, go back out there, go deeper.”
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This has always been seen as a text about vocation. Martin Luther taught that we all have a vocation. And theologian Frederick Buechner said that vocation is a term for that intersection...“where our deep gladness meets the world's deep need.” x2 Go deeper, Jesus says.
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But sometimes our great passions are squelched: The saddest stories, I think, are the stories of loved ones in my life, who never followed their deep gladness (perhaps their vocations) because someone told them it was stupid, or a waste of time, or too daunting a task for them to ever realize such a goal or a calling. Had a friend in college who wanted to study marine biology, but her parents wanted her to be practical and study business. Or another family member who always wanted to be a nurse and take care of sick children, but was even mocked by her husband, saying that her “dream” was too expensive, and she’d never be able to pass the classes. Passions, deep gladness, even callings: squelched.
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Friends, Christ finds us, just as he found Peter, in that moment of “squelch”. Sometimes, it’s our own “shadow voices”, the negative self-talk that crushes us. Often we squelch ourselves. Peter, I’m sure, was feeling pretty squelched/empty (wonder what he was saying to himself in those wee morning hours), when Christ showed up, told him to try something different, and filled his nets. Christ is our hope. Jesus sends us and calls us to try again...even to try something new.
“Try going deeper,” Jesus says. When we go deeper, we discover even more...and find ourselves on a path that we never dreamed.
Look at what God can do when we are tired!
See, and here’s what I both love and hate about this text:
It’s not just about “following our dreams” -- those might be well and good, or they might be misguided. No, vocation is about God’s voice. The word vocation literally means “calling” (from Latin vocare). So there’s got to be a call-er here. Someone directing us, nudging us, beckoning us. “Vocation-ing” us...
So who’s doing the calling? Our own hearts? Our parents? Our legislators and recruiters? Our friends? Sometimes God works through these and other people or experiences.
But ultimately, is is Christ Jesus who calls us out. And he’s not just saying, “Hey, whatever you want…what ever you need...just follow your passion...”
Rather, just like in our passage for today, Jesus is asking us to look at something new, to stir -- from our drowsiness, fatigue and even despair -- to tasks and adventures we never even imagined.
It’s not about “following our dreams”; it’s about following God’s dream. Going deeper. Discovering and living into God’s dream. We are called into that profound, challenging, joy-filled -- and at the same time life-threatening -- call to follow Jesus. We are called into that call.
Catching fish was a little dangerous...catching people? That is, preaching the Gospel...with our words and more importantly our actions? Proclaiming release to those who are locked up in all kinds of ways? Recovery of sight to those who can’t see clearly? Forgiveness to those who deem themselves unforgivable?…
remember all those things that Jesus laid out in his “Inaugural Address” two Sundays ago?
Catching fish is a little dangerous, catching people?: you might wind up face-to-face with the powers, just like John the Baptist…or Jesus himself. Going deeper is not without risk.
So who’s in?! Like Jerry Maguire: “Who’s coming with me?” Jesus “vocations” us. What strange waters, or strange lands, is Christ calling you into this new week? This new season? This new year?
(Peter executed in Rome. South gate-Appian Way-Quo Vadis...He knew how dangerous it was and yet he went anyway.)
This may be where Christ calls you, even this day! -- into a deeper life, a fuller love, a complete vocation, God’s dream...not just yours. And in that is the greatest joy! (Can you imagine if Peter never left his nets? What he would have missed?)
This is a good day, it is a good week, it is a hopeful moment — even in the midst of our fatigue and even aguish — for, friends, Christ himself stands on the shore of our lives and bids us come and follow, let go, and go even deeper.
Today is a good day for Christ Jesus stays with us, fills our nets...and loves us into a new and even more expansive vocation.
Friends, Jesus loves us into God’s dream! AMEN.
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