A sermon by the Rev. Benjamin J. Newland on the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany
“Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
-Isaiah 6:5
“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
-Luke 5:8
In the Gospels of Mark and Matthew, there are short descriptions of the calling of the first Disciples. Jesus walks along the shores of Lake Galilee and finds Andrew and Peter, James and John, fishing. He says, “come, follow me.” And they do.
In the Gospel of John, after Jesus had been crucified, Peter and the Disciples are again at the shores of Lake Galilee. “I’m going fishing,” says Peter. So they went out, but they caught nothing. Just at dawn, a strange man appears and tells them to cast their nets again, on the other side of the boat. Despite misgivings, they do so, and a huge abundance of fish are caught.
In another place, Jesus comes upon a great crowd. Taking pity on them, he climbs a hill, or goes out on a boat, or sits down, and he teaches them.
In another place, Jesus takes just a few fish, and makes them into many.
The first eleven verses of the fifth chapter of the Gospel of Luke contains all of these stories, all mashed up together. What is going on in this morning’s Gospel reading? Is this a story of the calling of Disciples? Is this a miracle of abundance? Is it a foreshadowing of resurrection? Is it a tale of Jesus as the great teacher of the people? In short, yes. It is. All of those things.
I have decided that I like this story. I wasn’t sure at the beginning of the week, but now I have decided. The story is kind of a pain, honestly. It’s hard to figure out what to say about a passage that has so many different things going on. What does one preach on? The miracle? Peter’s confession? Discipleship or Resurrection? But in the end I decided I liked this story for just that reason: it’s complicated. The story is an amalgamation (which is a fun word), a mash-up of Jesus themes all muddled about together, which is a pretty accurate description of my faith life when you get right down to it.
Does Jesus call us to discipleship? Yes, Jesus does. Usually while he’s also teaching and halfway through a miracle. Does Jesus do miracles? Yes, Jesus does. Usually only so someone nearby will realize that God is present and have an Epiphany of their own.
There are many things to say about this passage. I’m going to limit myself to three for right now.
First, is there even a miracle going on here? I mean, it’s not like Jesus turned the lake water into wine, or even multiplied any fish. The Disciples are fishing and they don’t catch much. Then Jesus says to try again. Then they catch a bunch of fish. A miracle? Maybe, but as any fisherman can tell you there’s more than a bit of luck involved in how many fish you catch at any given time. Besides which, saying Jesus knew when and where to catch a lot of fish makes him seem less divine and more like fish-finding radar.
The thing that really makes this a miracle story is how Peter responds to the fish. Whatever just happened, Peter sees in Jesus for the first time (in the Gospel of Luke anyways) the presence of something beyond the merely human. Peter responds in his own typically grandiose and bumbling way, by yelling at Jesus to get away, for he, Peter, is not worthy. This miracle story ranks high on the list of miracle stories for me precisely because of Peter’s reaction. For once Jesus doesn’t follow up a miracle by saying, “Don’t you understand?” Peter does understand. Peter gets the miracle right away. This miracle isn’t a reward for existing faith, it’s a sign meant to terrify the casually faithful into repentance and Discipleship.
Second, and this is minor, but I feel there’s something here. Jesus doesn’t ask for well rested Disciples. We aren’t given the exact time of day like we are in John’s version of this fish tale, but we are told that the soon-to-be Disciples are done fishing. They’ve been at it all night, and now they’re done. Then Jesus comes along and commandeers their boats for his lecture. Then, after all that, he suggests they go back to fishing. At that point Peter complains, and rightly so. Again, this is minor, but I think significant. Jesus waits until the Disciples are done, and spent, and tired, and then he asks them for more. They give it, and are presented with an abundance they didn’t expect to find. I think that if we asked people who could tell us their own clear and vivid stories of being called to discipleship, they would tell us that it often works that way: Jesus waits until we’ve given all that we think we can, and then asks for more. And somehow, we find that we have more to give; there is abundance in faith that we cannot normally see.
Third, and finally, a word about that whole “fishers of men” thing. They’ve cleaned up the gender specific language in the modern version, so that now Jesus says, “from now on you will be catching people”. If you were an expert at ancient Greek and had studied the scriptures in their original language, or if you’re not but you own a book by someone who is, then you would realize that the verb in that sentence is tricking us. Jesus says that the Disciples will “catch” people, and to us it seems the same kind of thing that they had been doing to the fish just a minute ago. But the Greek verb translated as “catch” means something closer to “to rescue from the peril of death” than it does “capture”. To apply this verb to fish that are dying is ridiculous. To apply it to living people called into God’s Kingdom is something else altogether.
In the year that King Uzziah died, Isaiah had a vision. He was called. His first response, upon realize what he was dealing with, was despair. “Woe is me!” he said, “for I am a man of unclean lips.” Peter had the same reaction. As the fish were pulled into the now overloaded boat, he realized what he was dealing with. And he said “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” The Isaiah story is cleaner. Three verses later Isaiah has arrived at, “Here am I; send me!” Peter would need all of the rest of Luke’s Gospel and some of the Book of Acts to get to the same place.
These are the great stories of being called. First of all you recognize, somehow, the presence of the divine—the intersection of the holy with your life. Then you feel unworthy. Then God, or Jesus, or a six winged Seraph bearing a burning coal held in metal tongs says that your unworthiness is not real. Then you follow. Here am I; send me. Jesus said come, follow me. And he was sent. And they followed. AMEN.
