Luke 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” 5Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
We’ve embarked on a 5-week Discipleship series and this week’s is being a Disciple takes ownership. What is a disciple? Merriam-Webster defines it this way “someone who accepts and helps to spread the teachings of a teacher” or “one of a group of 12 men who were sent out to spread the teachings of Jesus Christ.” The Greek word generally refers to a student or apprentice or devoted follower.
Some may not know what a big deal this was to invite ordinary, uneducated fishermen to be disciples. As Rob Bell shares in his Nooma video “Dust,”
“Jewish education was made up of three primary sections: Bet Safar – Usually from the ages five to ten, it is a time taught in the synagogue by the Rabbi. During this time, good Jewish boys memorized Torah – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. In Bet Talmud, it continues from the age of ten on to fourteen. During this time, the student would memorize the Psalms, prophets, and the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament). In Bet Midrash, at the age of fourteen, the best of the best would continue to apply oral and written law from the Talmud, the Mishna, Sages, and years and years of commentary on the scriptures. Each Rabbi would have their own interpretation of how to live out the Torah. The Rabbi’s rules were called his yoke. When you studied under a Rabbi, you took his yoke upon you.
But Jesus came and said His yoke was easy. In Matthew 11, he says He isn’t about endless lists of rules and regulations. You see, when Jesus is speaking, He’s not just picking words out of the air; He’s speaking as a Rabbi would.
One of the Sages from the Mishna is quoted as this, “May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi.” Rabbis are passionate and animated. They would spend their days taking their disciples around teaching them, and as they traveled from place to place, they would literally kick up a cloud of dust. And because the disciples were following the Rabbi, at the end of the day, they would actually be covered in the dust their Rabbi kicked up – May you be covered in the dust of your Rabbi….
Where does this come in the context of Jesus’ earthly ministry? Jesus has been tempted by the Devil, he’s read the scroll where Isaiah alludes to him saying he’ll proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, but they ran him off and tried to hurl him off a cliff. So much for being welcomed in your hometown. He set about proving his message – he healed people and preached in the synagogues doing what he said he would do. In chapter 5 Jesus calls his first disciples – a group of smelly fishermen. Mark and Matthew have him passing by the fishermen while they are casting their nets, but Luke has him actually going out on the boat. In a way, this is more powerful, though the calling is still the same.
Can the world see from our “dust” who we follow? Who our Master is? Jesus constantly issued a personal call to people to simply follow him. It was always an open-ended call, and they were free to choose to do so or not, and just as free to bail out on following him when things got tough. The same is true for us. Even in Mount Pleasant, this life is still a choice, and we all need to check ourselves on whether or not we are actually followers of Jesus. Not just if we once were, but if we are currently “in the making,” in process of growing in the Lord and in grace. If we are, we need to own it boldly. If not, it’s okay, but it’s a life that goes through the motions from point a to b to c. God doesn’t want that lukewarm faith for us but God lets us make the choice. God is not a puppet master. We have free will to choose.
The sun had just risen when the Boy Scouts began their trek up Baldy Mountain. At 12,441 feet, Baldy is the highest peak in the Philmont Scout Ranch, a high-adventure backpacking camp run by the Boy Scouts of America. From the summit, hikers can enjoy spectacular views of the mountains, forests and lakes of northern New Mexico.
But the summit was still a dream when the crew of eight Scouts and two adults started out, hiking through a dense pine forest in the early-morning light. Reaching a gorgeous, gurgling mountain stream, they took a turn and headed down a wide and comfortable trail for about a mile.
Turned out to be the wrong trail.
Realizing their mistake, they turned around and hiked back. This detour added an extra two miles to their trip, and you might think they would be discouraged by it. But the extra distance had a surprising benefit. One Scout who had been struggling at the start of the hike gained confidence throughout the detour, and when the group got back on track, he felt strong enough to hike to the summit.
His success required venturing out, beyond his comfort zone. And so does ours.
The Boy Scouts of America have been challenging boys to push their limits for over a century now. So just exactly who has been a Boy Scout? Two-thirds of all astronauts and 11 of the 12 men to walk on the moon. 191 members of the 113th Congress have been involved in Scouting. Ten of the 100 members of the United States Senate are Eagle Scouts. Eagle Scouts were disproportionately represented among Hurricane Katrina’s volunteer relief workers. Steven Spielberg, Jon Tesh, George W. Bush, Harrison Ford, JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jim Morrison, Jimmy Buffett, Jimmy Stewart, Bill Gates and even Sir Paul McCartney were scouts.
Mike and Enoch participated in a Cub Scout Clean Up at the Park yesterday and Enoch’s super excited to participate in all that scouting has to offer. It got Enoch out of the house when he normally would have been playing videogames or watching TV. That’s the beauty of the Scouts, to get us out of our comfort zone, and on our feet, doing good in the world. Do all the good you can, in all the ways you can, as long as ever you can.
We’re called to deep water, not shallow water. To experience the fullness of the adventure of being a disciple of Jesus Christ who walks in the way that leads to life. To own our failings and to own that we are sometimes scared to take that next step, to even cast a vision for the future because we’re so afraid of getting lost or of failing.
When Jesus finishes his speech to the crowd, he decides to extend his lesson with a dramatic illustration. He challenges Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (v. 4).
“Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing,” whines Simon. He sounds like he wants to stay close to shore, safe and comfortable because his time on the water hasn’t yielded any fish.
Put out into the deep water, says Jesus. He invites us to venture out, take a chance, be active and adventurous.
Jesus is looking for commitment. The idea of doing the same thing expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity, so when Jesus asks Simon and his fishing buddies James and John to continue doing what they were already doing, they get a surprise – an unexpected, amazing and overwhelmingly abundant catch. All because they’re willing to follow Jesus’ words and scout the deep water. This story reminds us that Jesus may use significant force to overcome our reluctance. The only reason for the huge catch of fish was to open the hearts of these men who had not previously considered themselves disciple material. And it worked, too, because as soon as Peter saw the size of the catch, it knocked him off his feet. He prostrated himself before Jesus and said, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
If we fish in the deep waters without Jesus, we will always come up empty, but if we fish the deep waters with Jesus and the Holy Spirit guiding us, we can fish for people. That miraculous catch opened these fishermen’s hearts to respond when Jesus asked them to do something they had never done: “From now on you will be catching people.” No thought to how much money that great catch would bring, Luke says they left everything on the shore and followed Jesus.
That’s the challenge for us today: to venture beyond our comfort zones and put out into the deep water in lives of Christian discipleship. Too often we stay close to shore, safe and comfortable, when Jesus is calling us to be active, adventurous and willing to explore new territory. That’s where the fish are. That’s where the growth happens. That’s where we can make surprising discoveries about ourselves and the world around us. We scout the deep water when we venture out to share the Christian faith with our neighbors. Jesus challenges us to reach out to our friends and neighbors with the Good News of the Gospel.
In her book Unbinding the Gospel, Martha Grace Reese says that “our most important discovery is that a vivid relationship with God lies at the heart of real evangelism.” You have to ask yourself, “Has being a Christian made any difference in my life?” If so, then you’re going to want to share this reality with other people. Quite simply, evangelism is grounded in the realization that your life is better because of your relationship with God, and this is a relationship that can benefit others as well.
Reese says evangelism is all about relationships. Not high-pressure conversion programs — relationships. We need to reflect on our relationship with God, and then find natural, authentic and sincere ways to share that relationship with others.
We’re all disciples in the making. It’s an unfolding discipleship. We are being formed into something, something new and different from when we started. We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto, gone is the black and white and hello the technicolor. Jesus has called us to the mission field of our community – Park West, Mount Pleasant, the city of Charleston, South Carolina…Proverbs 29:18 says where there is no vision, the people perish. Helen Keller says it in a different way. She says, “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
What is God’s vision for the Church? What is God’s vision for this church – Point Hope UMC? How does God want us to shape our community by being salt and light bearers and loving the people with an agape love? If we put it off as a vision of the “church,” we can take out our personal accountability. What is God calling YOU to do as you follow Jesus? What is God asking you to bring to the table, the altar? Your doubts, your fears, your excuses? There is no one “good enough.” As Roman 8 says we’ve all fallen short of the glory of God.
We don’t get the walk of Christian discipleship “right” all the time. No one does. Billy Graham shares on July 18, 2016, “”In God’s eyes all sin is equally serious, because all sin is an act of rebellion against God. This includes not only doing wrong, but also failing to do right. God also sees our hearts, and he knows the sins of greed and jealousy and selfishness that lurk there.” Jesus knows everything about us, and yet, he STILL calls us. Being in the making, is a Wesleyan understanding. The first phase in that journey is to own this reality, to acknowledge (1) that Jesus has revealed himself to me, personally, in a powerful way through the different channels of God’s grace, (2) the point of that revealing is to draw me in, attract my attention/curiosity/hope, and prepare in me the desire for more, and (3) this desire is meant to open the door for calling, for Jesus to invite me to head down a very brand new pathway. It’s by sanctifying grace that God doesn’t let us wallow around in our own muck. God keeps growing us in grace, transforming us, making us new.
For many of us, our being disciples doesn’t get off the ground, or doesn’t take clear form, or stays in a nebulous “whatever” or “blah” kind of place, because we don’t own what Jesus is trying to do, what he’s calling us to, and what it asks of us. Peter and James and John had a moment like this by the Sea. There was no doubt who Jesus was, or what he had done, or that something special was going on. And Simon left no doubt that he was changed and ready to change, ready to embark after following the Lord’s direction. And then Jesus leaves no doubt that this is exactly what he’s there for, and what he calls us each to do – go to the deep, dangerous depths. He doesn’t promise it will be easy, but he promises to be FAITHFUL.
We need to own where we are in the process, wherever it might be. Some of us need to own that we answered God’s call and then never took another step. Some of us, we followed, but then petered out. Some of us, we’re still struggling to follow and not sure anymore where we are or what we’re about. Some of us, we’re faithfully following and ready for more. Some of us, we never answered the original call, or have claimed that we never heard one. Whatever the case, wherever we are today, we have to start by owning where we are and then deciding whether or not to own that we’re meant to be active, intentional disciples.
We are good in the United Methodist Church about talking about grace. When I was a campus minister, we often would set up in the student center a place for all of the campus ministries to share a brochure and a sticker. The Catholics and the Baptists would get the majority of students. At Emory and the University of Florida, we had a great many Jewish people that wanted info. Methodists rarely came up to the table. I would wager that we taught “grace” so well, that they knew if they took a hiatus from church, God’s grace would be enough to cover a multitude of sins in college/grad school/young adulthood. And in fact, that’s true, but it’s a half-life or a shadow life from the one Christ seeks to give us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about this cheap grace in The Cost of Discipleship,
“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble; it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
What if we believed in that kind of “costly grace”? Surely our world would be different. Surely it would be. The ball is in your court, will you follow Jesus and be fishers of people? Bringing God’s kingdom to earth, meeting the needs of those in our community, and sharing the God’s love and grace with everyone you meet? Or will you wait on the sidelines, being non-committal as ever? It’s your choice, as this walking the talk of discipleship always is. Do you have the dust of your rabbi? Are you going into the deeper waters? Are you going to rock the world as a disciple of Jesus? I hope so.
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Blessings on the Journey 