Following Grace

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.