Disciples

Disciples

Luke 5:1-11

I’m terrible at “selling” religion.  Think about it.  I’ve told you for years that God’s going to love you, whether you come to church or not.  What kind of a marketing strategy is that right?  I’m not going to shame you or guilt you or try to scare you into becoming a member of “my team.” If you don’t want to be here, you don’t have to be here.  When I say that, I’m defying centuries of messaging from organized religion which mostly boils down to, “You better be here…or else!” (It’s the institutional version of “mothering” decades ago when the message was, “You just wait until your father gets home!”  Dad would get home and have no idea why the children looked so terrified!)

Here’s my second great marketing message:  “If you do take what Jesus of Nazareth is teaching us to heart, if you live in this “Way” that he’s showing us, you’re life is actually going to get harder.” If all you’re looking for is a way to float through your days without a care in the world, this is not your plan.  If you take Jesus seriously, pretty soon you’re going to start worrying about other people’s feelings. You’re going to feel other people’s pain.  You’re going to turn on this mysterious capacity for “empathy” and only then will you realize that there is no “off” switch.  When people are suffering, you won’t be able to ignore it.  When people are in need (and this is the “killer” part) their needs are actually going to matter more to you than your own needs.  And, to top things off, the world of hurts and needs is going to far exceed your ability to soothe and heal those hurts and needs.

I will say that there is a sense of purpose and a profound meaning that becomes possible when you open yourself to the world around you.  You get to feel like you made a difference.  You might even have someone look you in the eye and tell you how much it mattered that you were here when they needed you.  However, most people, when they see that pain coming, check out before they ever have the chance to discover that meaning.  The pain is too frightening, too personal, too real.

Honestly, we all know, at some level that this pain will come for us some day and come for the folks we love.  Maybe we think that if we can avoid it long enough we can change that script.  Maybe we think we’ll keep our distance  and not “catch it,” as if it were a cold.

So, you don’t have to be here at all if you don’t want to.  You have a choice.  And, if you do choose to be here and you actually do choose to live the way Jesus is calling us to live, then your life is going to be harder.  You’re not going to get “paid back.” There’s nothing in it for you, nothing that the world is going to count as a gain.  Some really faithful people have suffered mightily in their lives and God wasn’t waiting for them with the winning Lotto numbers or even that good parking place we’ve all prayed for every now and then.  Nope…the only “pay off” is the internal satisfaction of feeling like your life mattered. If your lucky, someone might actual tell you this before your memorial service.

Here is the other really complicating factor.  The opportunity to make the choice to follow Jesus and live the life he’s calling you to live is going to come up in real time in the form of a real person who needs your help.  It could be a family member or a friend or a fellow church member.  It could be someone you never really liked or someone from a group of people you’ve never really liked.  It could be a complete and total stranger who shows up out of nowhere.  God only knows. (Really!) What I can tell you is that you will be unprepared.  You will not have time to think everything through.  However, if you are open and listening, if you are available, somewhere deep inside of you you’re going to know, “I’m supposed to help this person!”  Here’s the thing…you can miss it completely because you are simply not listening.  You’re unavailable.  Or, you have all the power in the world to ignore the calling even though you heard it, clear as a bell.

You don’t have to help.  You don’t have to pay attention or be available at all.  You can always say you were too busy.  You can always argue that there was something more important to do.  However, if you don’t respond, that opportunity will pass, that ship will sail, that chance to take whatever it is that you say you believe and actually live it, will be gone.  And, I have to say, that in this complicated world, we probably don’t want to miss too many chances that come our way to live with some shred of integrity.

Callings are time stamped.  They expire fast.  If we are going to actually live what we say matters, we have to act…now.  You don’t have to notice the calling at all. You don’t have to choose to respond, but, if you’re going to do this, you better do it now! (I have to tell you that I feel so strongly about what I’m saying to you this morning.  This may be one of the most important shifts that happened for me in ministry—moving from “I’ll think about it” to “If you see something, do something.  If you feel called, just go.”  Most of the truly spiritually powerful moments in my life have required that kind of reflexive response.  And I honestly wouldn’t trade those moments for anything.)

If you think I’m making this stuff up, just consider our text for this morning.  In the fourth chapter of Luke, before our text, Jesus is making the rounds.  He preaches in his home synagogue and gets rejected.  He works his way through the countryside, teaching and preaching and healing.  The word is passing fast among the people, there’s someone out there with a whole different kind of power.  Jesus of Nazareth is becoming quite the sensation.

That’s probably the first that Peter would have heard of Jesus—by word of mouth in a, “Hey, did you hear…” sort of way.  Nothing personal, just a topic for casual conversation to pass some time in his boat.  Sometimes, we, too, get an early “heads up.”  For me, that’s when someone says to me, “Did you hear about that accident in Lake Forest today?”  Or someone says, “Do you remember Mike?  I just heard he’s sick.”  You get an early warning.  And 90 percent of the time, that’s the last you hear of that.

Or…it’s not.  In Peter’s case, having heard about this “Jesus of Nazareth,” this Jesus guy actually shows up at Peter’s house.  (I bet you haven’t heard this part of the story too often, right?).  Peter’s mother-in-law is sick with a high fever.  Having heard Jesus was a healer, someone asks Jesus to see what he can do.  Luke doesn’t say that it was Peter who made that request.  The impression, though, is that he was there and this was happening to someone he cared about.  His mother-in-law is healed. In fact, Luke tells us, she was up and around and making dinner in a flash.

Peter had heard about Jesus.  Now, things were getting personal.  He had sees the man in action.  Suddenly, though, Jesus was gone.  It’s not like they hung out together and got to know one another.  “Well, that’s that…” Peter might have thought to himself.

Again, sometimes, we get this second, more personal, “heads up.”  “You know that accident in Lake Forest this morning, I was there…” Or, “I was there and I really need to talk about this.  Do you have a minute?”  Or, “That accident, in Lake Forest…I was driving and I’m afraid it was my fault and I have no idea what to do.”  Things get closer.  Things get more personal.  Are you an observer or are you in?

For Peter, the really nuanced moments come in a third step.  Having heard Jesus was out there, having seen the man in action, Peter is finishing up a long night of fruitless fishing.  (Trust me, this happens, even if you’re just fishing for fun.  Just come fishing with me some time!). Peter is a pro, though, so he doesn’t get stiffed often, and when he does, the disappointment carries the extra weight of knowing that there will be no food for all the mouths he’s supposed to feed.  He has failed which, for a proud man like Peter, is a real blow.  Fish or no fish, though, the nets needed to be cleaned.  The boat needed to be put in order.  In fact, he was almost done with all that work when who should show up but Jesus.  “What’s the deal?  Is this guy following me?

Jesus wasn’t following him.  He was speaking to a crowd of people on shore, a crowd that seemed to be growing by the minute.  In the hopes of using the lake to amplify his words and maybe give himself a little breathing room, Jesus calls out to Peter, “Hey…can we use your boat?”  (If you’ve ever spent time on a lake then you know that you can hear the whole conversation of a boat on the other side! So you know, this is why many pulpits look like the bow of a boat—as a nod to Jesus teaching from a boat at the beginning of his ministry.) Peter takes Jesus out.  Jesus teaches.  He dismisses the crowd.  Then, he turns to Peter and basically says, “Now…how about we go fishing?”

Understand what this means to Peter.  His ego is thoroughly bruised from a bad night’s work already.  He had failed at the thing that he was supposed to be the best at.  No one fails and likes to try again, immediately!  Besides his ego, he’s sore and tired from cleaning the nets and the boat and getting everything put away.  As soon as he lowers the nets, he’s guaranteed to have to go through that whole routine again.  Besides, what does this Jesus guy know about fishing? 

This is Peter’s moment.  He has every reason in the world to say, “No way!”  He knows the fish aren’t there.  He knows he doesn’t want to have to clean everything up again.  He knows he doesn’t want to bear the weight of failing again right after finishing a giant flop of a night.  

However, in real time— right here, right now— Peter chooses differently.  There’s something about this man. He’s got to find out.  He lowers the nets…and almost instantly, his nets are so full that he calls to the other boat, who’s nets are filled almost instantly, too.  Looking at those two boats full of fish—a catch that on any other day would have filled Peter with pride—Peter feels humbled.  He feels awe.  He feels afraid.  

Jesus looks him in the eye and says this:  “There is nothing to fear. From now on you’ll be fishing for men and women.” At which point, Peter makes his choice.  He drops the nets and leaves his boats.  He follows him.  In an instant, Peter’s life is changed.

Peter makes his decision to follow Jesus in an instant.  We’d love to believe that if we met Jesus, we’d do the same, right?  The problem is that Jesus can show up in any form:  as a person who needs someone who will listen; as a person who needs a meal; as a person who really needs to know that there is someone who cares.  It’s not like we will only be given one chance but it is likely there we will never be given the same chance twice.  The person will show up and we will sense that voice inside that might just be Jesus and might just be calling us:  “See that person?  Let’s do something together.  Come on!  Follow me…”