Jesus Sought Me

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I think it’s only fair that I tell you that I have history with this story in Luke. When I was ordained and installed at my first call back in November of 2013, this was the scripture that was preached by Rev. Bob Murphy. I had never met him, but one of the church members said he was a good preacher, and they were right. He talked about how tired Peter and the other disciples were after a whole night of fishing, but instead of giving up like they wanted to, they listened to Jesus when he said, “Go into deeper water and let down your nets.” Then Bob talked about how tired we get in life and in ministry, but Jesus says, “Let down your nets.” That was the refrain throughout his message. “Let down your nets.”

A few years later, when Bob was called to another church, he asked me to preach at his installation. I used this same scripture. I knew by then that Bob had been a pastor all his life and had led churches all across the southeast, and that he was already making plans for retirement, but had agreed to lead one last church. So I reminded him of what he had told me, that Jesus says, “Let down your nets” one more time.

Bob was still pastor of that church when we moved to Kansas, but about a year later he went on dialysis and was put on the donor waiting list for a new kidney. He died before one was found. He didn’t get to do what he was planning for retirement, which was to train dogs to be emotional support and visit hospitals, but he did leave a legacy of love and joy, faith and service with many churches and people, including me.

In Luke 5, Jesus is at the beginning of his public ministry but he’s already preparing his legacy, calling disciples to follow him and learn and carry on after his death. At the end of today’s reading, Jesus tells them the plan, “From now on you will fish for people.” In other words, I sought you out and I’m going to help you seek out others. Fishing was a fitting metaphor for these new disciples. Out of the twelve, at least four were fishermen, and of the others, several were likely employed in fishing-related jobs since they were mostly from this area around the Sea of Galilee, or as Luke calls it, the Sea of Gennesaret.[1]

In what we read today from Luke 5, Peter and his buddies had been fishing all night and caught nothing. Then Jesus says, “try it one more time.” Go out to the deep water and let down the nets one more time.

Peter points out the futility of trying again. He was a seasoned fisherman, and he knew that trying one more time wasn’t likely to produce any different result. It meant putting off going home and getting rest. It meant setting aside all the reasons it shouldn’t work. But Peter does what Jesus asks and puts the net out again anyway, and the blessing was a huge haul of fish, a miraculous catch. And the realization that Jesus is someone special, the Messiah and that God blesses our trust in him.

Peter’s response to seeing the miracle of the full nets was humility. He said, “I’m too much of a sinner for you to have around” (Luke 5:8 TLB). Peter’s reaction is reminiscent of other prophets when they were called. Isaiah met God and said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6:5) Or Moses who met God in the burning bush and said, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)

I imagine a lot of us resonate with these responses. I know I do. I think we’ll find as we walk with Peter for the next six weeks on our journey through Lent that Peter is a lot like us.

Rev. Garrity, the one who created this picture, says that “there are so many messages within Peter’s protest: ‘I’m not prepared. I’m not capable. I’m not deserving. I’m not faithful enough. I’m not smart enough. I’m not the type you’re looking for.’”[2]

God’s response to our protests is a river of grace. That’s the title of this art. The river of grace is the water full of fish flowing through the hands. It’s beautiful and amazing and wonderful, and also hard to accept and hard to pass on. We aren’t supposed to try to hold on to it. We’re supposed to pass it on.

This story reminds us that sometimes we give up too soon. There are probably a million examples of this. One is prayer. We get tired of asking God the same questions or telling God about the same problems over and over. I’ve prayed the same prayer a thousand times. For awhile it was my only prayer. And one day God showed me that he’d heard me.

Or we get tired of praying altogether. In the depths of despair, or grief, or depression, prayer is really hard. But through the Holy Spirit, God hears the groanings of our hearts, and sends people to pray with us and for us.

God gives us grace for the endless prayers and the absent prayers and sticks with us through it all.

Sometimes we give up because we’ve been at it for a long time. We have a different perspective on time than God does. And although God doesn’t get tired, we do. That’s why Bob’s ordination sermon was so perfect. He was talking to that church as much he was to me, a church that was over a hundred years old and like so many churches had fond memories of how things used to be. Bob didn’t know then that the church would have to face the challenge of rebuilding after a fire, or finding a new pastor after I left to come here, or that all of us would be struggling to keep going through a pandemic. When time drags on, we wander off, tempted to give up. God gives us grace for all that too.

We give up because we’re overwhelmed by the size of the problem. In an episode of the video series Mythical Kitchen, Hank Green and Josh

Sherer get to talking about how much it feels like we are asked to care about everything. Hank says we try to care too much, and we go from this bad news, to that bad news, and get dragged down. Instead, Hank says we should pick what we want to pay attention to, and know that “If it’s a big deal there are people working on it.” We can find out who those people are and learn about what they’re doing and go deeper in learning about that topic.[3]

Instead of focusing on the problem, learn about the people working on the problem. I think it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the challenges of gun violence, or eradicating structural poverty and systemic racism. There are lots of people who have been working on these problems in different ways. One of them was Julian Bond.

Bond is remembered as being one of America’s great fighters for civil rights. He was one of the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a Georgia State Senator (1975-1986), co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center, was chairman and chairman emeritus of the NAACP, and taught at several colleges including Harvard. Maybe you already know about Julian Bond. If not, it’s easy to find out more about him on the internet. He wrote books and articles, and gave interviews. There are websites for the organizations he helped get started. A good one to check out, if you haven’t already, the Southern Poverty Law Center, especially their database of hate groups in the United States.

You may already be familiar with Shane Claiborne. He’s an activist, pastor, and author. He wrote a book called The Awakening of Hope: Why We Practice a Common Faiththat we read in one of our small groups a few years ago. Another of his books is on my “to be read” list, Beating Guns: Hope for People Who are Weary of Violence. The book description says “This book is for people who believe the world doesn’t have to be this way. Inspired by the prophetic image of beating swords into plows…” The co-author, Michael Martin, is a Mennonite pastor and blacksmith who leads a ministry called Raw Tools that turns guns into garden tools, musical instruments, and other useful things.

In our Lenten devotional booklet, we have commentary on today’s scripture written by Dr. Terence Lester, a pastor and community leader who was a high-school dropout and a gang member living on the streets at sixteen. At twenty, he was arrested. In jail, he met a man who talked to him about life decisions and the good news of the gospel. By the following year, he was answering a call to share his testimony to change the lives of others.

In 2016 Terence led the March Against Poverty, walking from Atlanta to the White House (over 800 miles) to bring attention to homelessness in the U.S. He founded a non-profit called Love Beyond Walls to advocate for the unhoused. During the pandemic, LBW provided handwashing stations for the homeless so they could be less afraid of dying from COVID-19.

On his website, Terence lists his three ideals: (1) anyone can make a difference, (2) we don’t live forever, (3), and it’s worth dedicating one’s life to ensuring no one feels invisible.[4]

How can we get into deeper water and seek out the less visible?

The answers to that question are different depending on where you live or work or go to school. Here in Sterling the library controversy brought out a variety of voices and stances about people who are LGBTQ. In the media, Sterling didn’t sound like a very welcoming place. Some say the media got it wrong, but those who are careful not to let their true selves show here would say they got it right. Standing with our LGBTQ friends and neighbors is one way we can go deeper and seek out the less visible. Being a safe and inclusive place for those who are not included in other churches is a great way to make a difference.

Terence Lester has a quote on his website that says, “‘Everyone is welcome’ is drastically different from “we built this with you in mind.” People do not want to go where they are merely tolerated; they want to go where they are included.”

Jesus sought us out — Psalm 23 says God pursues us — not just so that we can know God’s abundant grace, but so that we can also share it with those who’ve been told they’re not welcome, not worthy, not enough.

As we follow Peter and Jesus through lent in the coming weeks, let’s keep our eyes and ears open to see and hear God’s call to seek out people who need to know God’s abundant love and grace. And when it seems too hard or like it’s not working, don’t give up.

Let down those nets one more time. And may our prayer be:

“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long” (Psalm 25:4-5).

[1] The Life and Witness of Peter, by Larry R. Helyer. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012).

[2] Rev. Lisle Gwinn Garrity, Sanctified Art Wandering Heart Lenten Devotional

[3] https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxPxCBZZx4Yx_mYZpIALr665pMjNiTfIbs?si=nd88abYWVXJ4i086

[4] https://terencelester.org/about