St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Fifth Sunday after The Epiphany – Feb. 7, 2010
“Catching Up on Catching People!”
Text: Luke 5:10,11
On this Super Bowl Sunday when all the world’s attention is supposedly focused on the annual, ultimate, biggest football game of the year, and leading up to this Sunday when so much of the hype & hoopla that surrounds the Super Bowl is for the entertainment & exaltation of men, lo and behold, in the Gospel reading from Luke for this Sunday, there is an all-together different focus on the unworthiness & humility of some ordinary, everyday fisherman and how they were good to go where no Super Bowls have ever gone; not entertaining and exalting men but catching men!
When I look up the word “catch” in my “New World Dictionary”, I see that there are about a dozen different ways one can use the word “catch” beginning with “to seize and hold on to, capture,” as in what the producers & sponsors of Super Bowl 44 are anticipating later today, to seize & hold on to, catch, capture the largest viewing audience in the history of televised sports - which to some companies is worth millions & millions of $$$ in commercials.
Other uses for the word “catch” later today will be to catch the football, catch of a life-time, catch the Super Bowl half-time show, catch a nap if it’s a one-sided game but be sure to wake up & catch the newest, craziest, Super Bowl commercials.
As for other Monday to Saturday uses of “catch”; how about when you catch it for saying something dumb/something uncalled for; or you catch the flu; catch the latest news on Haiti; catch the meaning of something; catch your breath, catch on and/or catch up on. These are all familiar, everyday uses of the word catch.
But then there is Jesus’ use of the word “catch” that leaves some of us in the church feeling a little uneasy, a little uncomfortable, and that’s when Jesus speaks of, “catching men, catching people.”
Personally, although I am fond of fishing, fond of catching Large-mouth Bass & nice-sized Walleyes, hooking them, reeling them in, landing them, admiring them, and releasing them, I have never been very big on using this terminology on people; hooking them, reeling them in, landing them, admiring them, adding them to a stringer.
Some “conversion-minded” churches do that you know. They don’t care for people so much as they count how many souls or how many new converts they can add to their membership. Or there’s the other extreme, like the note I found many years ago that the previous pastor had left in an empty desk, a note from a family who left this church to move on to another church. The note said, “The trouble with Lutherans is that we’re good at digging for worms but we never go fishing.”
Well, somewhere between these two extreme metaphors of “adding fish to a stringer” and “digging for worms,” there IS something in this story of Jesus and Peter about catching people that I can relate to, that we can all relate to
I saw a Christian bumper-sticker once with the symbol of a fish on it and words from Jesus that said, “You catch them, I’ll clean them.”
In light of this story of Jesus and Simon Peter, what that said to me is, “You reach out to them, you get in touch with them, you get to know them, you speak God’s word to them, you invite them, you welcome them, you be gracious to them, you speak well of them, you pray for them, you encourage them. I’ll forgive them, I’ll clean them.”
You see, this is what happened to Simon Peter. For me, the point of this miracle story is not first & foremost that Peter & the others brought their boats loaded down with fish back to land, emptied them, sold all those fish, then left everything, fishing, families, and followed Jesus. The point of this story is first & foremost what comes a few verses earlier.
Listen to it again.
When Jesus had finished speaking & teaching the people from boat, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”
And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”
And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink.
Then what happened? I think this is the key. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For Simon and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
That’s when Jesus said Peter and the others were not to be afraid; that from now on they would be catching men.
In other words, Jesus needed helpers reaching out to others who were loaded down, living with all manner of sin & guilt & stubbornness & defensiveness & feelings of unworthiness in their lives. Jesus needed helpers reaching out with the Good News of forgiveness just as Jesus had reached out to Simon Peter who knew he was a sinful man, full of guilt & unworthiness.
The heart of true evangelism is not first figuring out the right steps to take or the right “bait” to go out and “catch” someone. The heart of evangelism is first & foremost experiencing forgiveness and freedom from all sin & guilt & unworthiness before God through faith in Jesus Christ as Savior & Lord.
Not every man, woman, and child we know as family, relatives, friends, people in our community, people everywhere may feel a need to go to church, but every man, woman, and child no matter who they are or where they are need redeeming, need rescuing from the devil, the world and their own sinful flesh; need to know & hear & receive God’s full & free forgiveness in Christ.
There isn’t a one of us, no, not one of us, who is any different than Simon Peter. When we see the miracle of the Lord’s abundance at work in our lives; when we see the net of daily needs being filled like we can’t believe, more food, more blessings, more grace, more of us making it than not making it, we too must be amazed and humbled and say with Peter, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
Jump ahead in any of the four Gospels to what we know about Peter as he followed Jesus. We know how weak Peter was in his faith; how full of good intentions Peter was; how sure of himself Peter was; how bold Peter was to promise complete allegiance & loyalty to Jesus; yet on the night when Jesus was shamefully betrayed by Judas, that very same night 3 times Peter openly, angrily denied ever knowing Jesus. When Peter realized his denial, once again, disciple of Jesus that he was, fisher of men that he was supposed to be, Peter could not bear to be in the presence of Jesus. Although he didn’t say it, he surely felt it in His heart: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord, and Peter ran out into the night a wept bitterly.
Fast forward to John 21 after Jesus’ crucifixion, death & burial! Not knowing what to do, Simon Peter & the others go back to their nets & their fishing. That’s when risen Lord Jesus showed up on the beach early in the morning. Hearing that Peter & the others had been fishing all night and caught nothing Jesus told them to lower their net on the opposite side of the boat. Immediately their net was filled with large fish. When Peter realized it was Jesus standing on the beach, Peter dove into the water, swan ashore as quick as he could, and wound up having a breakfast of fresh caught fish & bread with Jesus and the other disciples. So glad, so relieved, was Peter, so thankful to see Jesus alive again.
The rest of that story is: 3 times Jesus asked Peter, ”Do you love me?” & 3 times Peter said, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” 3 times Jesus said, “Feed my lambs, feed my sheep, feed my sheep.”
This was all about forgiveness! 3x Peter denied Jesus; 3x Jesus said to Simon Peter, “I forgive you!” Jesus was also telling him “Simon you’ve got some catching up to do on reaching out to, catching up with other people who need to be caught up on forgiveness just as you have been caught.
That’s the kind of catching up on a gracious & grace-filled, cross-centered catching people that you and I need to do too.
Super Bowls come and go. Costly, creative, goofy Super Bowl commercials try to hook people on buying stuff they may or may not think they need. But reaching out to people with the Good News of God’s forgiveness in Jesus Christ; rescuing people who are forever getting lost or distracted or disoriented; catching up with people who are dis-satisfied with things they say & do, things they’re not happy with nor do they find easy to face, what could be more super than that.
If we’re going to get caught up in something super, let it be this. Where there is forgiveness of sin, there is life and salvation.
Where there is forgiveness in Christ, forgiveness that flows from the cross of Christ, there is no entertaining men and exalting men, no condemning men or cutting them down, but there is a genuine reaching out & rescuing men, sharing the Good News of redemption, reconciliation. Jesus called that “catching men.”
And when those disciples had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed Him. May we do likewise.
