Luke
5:1-11
“Following
Grace”
22 January 2017 St. Andrew’s
Military Chapel Singapore
Have you
ever had a really bad day at work where you had second thoughts about the
wisdom of staying in the job? A day in which it wasn’t your co-workers causing
the second guessing, but one where you just couldn’t do anything right? Or
perhaps you may have a hobby in which you know you’ll never be remembered for
having mastered. And yes, I am talking about my singing and dancing skills.
Those days
or ventures that frustrate us the gates are wide-open for grace to come rolling
through. Grace of an understanding congregation suffering through a tone-deaf
chaplain when he has to lead music. Or the entire Sembawang community deciding
silence is golden when they see the same chaplain trying to dance at Navy Ball
with limited, if any, success.
It’s a
weird thing, this whole grace of God. More often than not, it’s when we get a
feeling or indication that something may have gone off the rails that we notice
grace around us. When we start to doubt ourselves Christ, through some divine
intervention of events or the appearance or word from a fellow sojourner of
life, provides a spark of something greater, something beyond.
Granted,
sometimes when that blip of hope arrives it can be almost imperceptible as
during a hearing test. You are sitting in a small, mostly soundproof box with
cheap, uncomfortable headphones, and a push button. It’s fine when the noise is
loud or on a frequency that we hear every day. It’s when the machine tests the
limits of our hearing that we start to question if we’ve heard a set of three tones
or not. We may start pushing the button just to make sure we acknowledge the
noise, real or imagined.
When it comes to grace, we need to
strive to accept it, no matter how faint the noise. If and when that small
spark of hope arrives, we have to make sure we don’t ignore quiet nudge of
grace. If grace isn’t there and we are pushing the acceptance button just to
make sure, we aren’t doing anything wrong. It’s better to assume grace is there
for the taking than to think grace is a finite resource that needs to be given
or received sparingly.
Luckily for the frustrated
fishermen in our passage today, grace came in a big way. In fact, there was so
much grace that they couldn’t receive it all. These three fishermen were
wearily cleaning their nets from a long night of backbreaking work with nothing
to bring home except for some blisters on their hands, completely soaked
clothes, disappointment, worry about how to feed their families, frayed nerves,
and probably some strained friendships.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the
actual scene had the three fishermen, who happened to be good friends, not
getting along particularly well this bleak morning. Between long bouts of
silence during the clean-up there are moments of yelling, blame, and
accusations about who did what to prevent the catch. Probably a bit of
self-anger at their poor choice of fishing grounds or a net thrown too far or
not far enough, just missing the school that would have let them at least break
even for the night and get some food to eat. There may have even been an upset
boat owner on the shore glaring at these three men the entire time adding to
the stress and frustration of the morning.
Then a rabbi walks up and asks to
use the boat as an escape from the crowds that are following him. What a way to
add insult to injury from the previous night. The Jesus guy everyone is talking
about and following all over the place asks to use their boat because it’s the
one boat that doesn’t have a catch to clean and sell. They’ve got nothing
better to do so why not let him use the boat. Maybe he’ll offer something in
way of a charter fee, but from the looks of him that doesn’t seem likely.
Simon agrees to go back out on the
water that has caused him so much pain this day. That couldn’t have been an
easy decision. He probably felt a bit humiliated at having to resort to
ferrying a wandering rabbi away from the throng of people that followed him
everywhere.
When they had gone slightly
offshore, Jesus began to preach to the crowd, and Simon listened. I mean what
else did he have to do at that moment? Though he can’t remember the exact words
Jesus spoke that day, it was a decisive moment in Simon’s life. And ours. On
that day, based on a short message from a wandering rabbi, Simon made a
decision to follow this man regardless of the cost. Sure, Simon would later
have doubts and questions, we all do when we follow Christ. It is on this day
when he demonstrated trust and faith in Christ, that Simon began down a road
that would lead to a name change and appointment as the rock of a movement
built on the foundation of the words he heard Christ speak that morning.
Christ didn’t make it easy for
Simon to follow him. After teaching the crowd, Jesus tells them to go to some
deeper water to catch some fish. Simon balks at that, probably a bit offended
that some carpenter turned rabbi is telling him how to fish. He wearily tells
Jesus, “We spent all night right where you are pointing and came home with
empty nets. Plus, it’s the middle of the morning, not the best time to haul in
a catch.”
I doubt Simon was as angry as we
would get when someone outside our career field tries to tell us how best to do
our jobs. He’s probably just tired and resigned to the fact that today will be
a miserable one all around. Especially as he will have to stay late at work
pleasing a VIP.
Then the craziest thing happens.
The catch is so large that the nets begin to break. So, they wave to their
partners in the nearest boat to share in the bountiful catch. Before they knew
it, both boats are so heavy with fish they begin to sink. What was the worst
day of fishing just turned into a huge financial windfall for Simon and his
partners. Life took a wonderful turn. In that moment he knew Jesus was
something special, but he had his doubts.
This story begs so many questions?
Would you leave everything you’ve ever known to follow a call on your life? How
would things change if you just landed the biggest professional or personal
achievement in recent memory? How loud or obvious a call does each of us need
to recognize it? What do we do if we feel unworthy about the call on our lives?
If you wrestle with any of these
questions, you are in good company. Many of our Biblical heroes asked these
same questions. Listen to anyone’s testimony and you’ll hear different shades
of this story within theirs.
None of us are worthy of grace,
that’s what makes grace so special. It’s hard to accept grace. We see Simon
struggle when he tells Jesus to get away from Simon’s sin. Like us, Simon has a
notion that Christ wants only the perfect in his Kingdom. Nothing could be
farther from the truth. Christ wants sinners, those who will accept and
understand the grace. Those who need grace are thankful and spread that grace
throughout the world. We need only to look at Paul’s life to understand the
infectious nature of grace.
We aren’t called to spread the
Gospel and be Christ’s ambassadors here on earth because we will be good at the
task. We are called so Jesus can work though us. When we feel we aren’t worthy
to walk alongside Christ, that may be the very moment Christ is beginning to
use us in ways beyond our comprehension and imagination. Jesus has a way of
turning things upside down. If he can turn a terrible, horrible, no good, very
bad day into something extraordinary, just imagine what he can do through you
if you only let him.
