Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

Luke 5:1-11

Pastor Delmer Chilton, a Lutheran pastor who’s served congregations throughout the southeast, tells people when he’s asked about his call story that when he was a boy, he had been in the tobacco field on a hot summer day, after a pop-up thunderstorm. There was steam coming off the tobacco leaves, and he was up to his knees in red mud when he saw a preacher drive by in an air-conditioned Ford Fairlane. Right then, Delmer told God, “Yes, Lord, I can do that. I will do that. I will become a preacher.”[i]

It turns out the story isn’t true, but Delmer tells it because people have an expectation about what a call story should be. We expect call stories to center around a single moment of clarity, like the one Paul experiences on the Damascus Road when he is blinded by a light from heaven that flashed around him.[ii]  Or the one that Martin Luther had when he was caught out in a ferocious storm and lighting struck nearby. The story goes that the terrified Luther called out and vowed to become a monk if God delivered him safely.

From stories like these, we expect call stories to show a person’s unquestioned and immediate obedience to God.

But there are far more people in Scripture who follow God’s call imperfectly, stumbling along the Way.

In Exodus we hear the story of Moses who argues with God, saying that he isn’t comfortable speaking in public, so he couldn’t possibly lead God’s people.

Jonah also argues with God when he is sent to Nineveh. First he tries to hide and then he tells God he doesn’t like the Good News he’s been given. He doesn’t want God to save the Ninevites.

When Jeremiah is called, he too argues, telling God he is just a boy and in today’s Old Testament reading, when Isaiah is called, he argues that he is not qualified to be a prophet because has unclean lips.

In today’s gospel, we have Luke’s account of Jesus calling Simon Peter, James and John to follow him. Now, time has passed since he preached in the synagogue in Nazareth where the crowd wanted to throw him off a cliff. In the verses immediately before these, Luke tells us that Jesus left there and traveled to Capernaum and preached in more of the synagogues of Judea.[iii] He’s a popular teacher and there is a crowd with him when he reaches the lakeshore of Gennesaret or the Sea of Galilee.

People who have been there say there is a rise in the shoreline so when Jesus got into Simon Peter’s boat and went a little bit away from the shore, it would have provided a platform for Jesus, similar to an amphitheater stage.

First he teaches and then, after he finishes, he commands Simon Peter to go farther out to sea, into the deep water. And once they are there, he tells them to let down their nets, and they are overwhelmed by the abundance of fish that they catch.

Suddenly, instead of being afraid of going hungry or not having a catch to sell, the fishermen have more than they can handle and just as it looks like their nets will burst and their boats will sink under the weight of the haul, they call others over to help with the catch and to share in the abundance.

We don’t know exactly what prompts Simon Peter at that moment to fall down and repent at the feet of Jesus, but Luke tells us that when he sees the scene on the boats, Simon Peter drops to his knees and cries out, confessing his sinfulness and calling Jesus not only Master, but Lord.

We can speculate that Simon Peter didn’t think he deserved to be with Jesus because he was a sinner. But Jesus doesn’t shun him or cast him away. Instead, he commands him, “Do not fear.”

They are the same words the angel says to Zechariah at the announcement that Elizabeth will bear a son (1:13); the same words Gabriel speaks to Mary when he tells her she will be the mother of the Son of God. (1:30) They are the same words that later in Luke, Jesus will speak to Jairus whose daughter is ill (8:50) and to the crowds when he addresses them as his flock. (12:32)

In each of these human encounters with the holy, God speaks these words.

When God calls you to a task or a place, Jesus’ words here are a reminder that God is with you in that kingdom work and you do not need to be afraid.

Importantly, Jesus never tells Peter, “Don’t make mistakes.” Or “Don’t bother if you can’t do it perfectly.” Jesus knows who Peter is; we know that this is the same man who will deny Jesus three times on the night before his execution. But God calls him anyway.

Like Delmer Chilton, my call story doesn’t have a lightning bolt moment. When I returned to the Church in college, I was in a tradition that didn’t ordain women but I thought I would pursue a masters degree in biblical studies. I was accepted to a graduate program, but at the time, I was living in Virginia and I couldn’t afford to move and to pay tuition, so deferred my admission and I moved an hour south and got a job waiting tables, and that’s where Jamie and I met. Four years later, when Casey was thirteen months old, I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, and in the midst of the chemotherapy and radiation treatments, I was cared for by an amazing chaplain at the local hospital. She was one of the first female pastors I had met. A few years after that, we became ELCA Lutherans when we joined our neighborhood congregation outside Philadelphia, and our associate pastor was another woman. By the time I returned to the idea of a call to ministry in 2006, I had been in four different congregations, and every one of them was served by women in ministry. The witness of those women and my conversations with other pastors who identified gifts for ministry in me helped me hear God’s call to congregation ministry.

I still remember some of the earliest conversations I had about ministry. I am very grateful that I had already learned it was okay to say, “I don’t know.” I didn’t have to try to be the expert; I just had to be faithful, putting one foot in front of the other and taking the next step forward. There’s still a lot that I don’t know about God, the Bible and about ministry, but through all of it, I hear what Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Do not fear.”

The Good News is that God who created and loves you knows where you’ve been broken and where you in turn have broken others, and this same God is calling you to participate in the kingdom’s work. Not perfectly, but faithfully.  And to every one of us, God says, “You are not alone. I am with you. Do not fear.”

Let us pray…
Holy God,
We give You thanks for your mercy and love that you see each one of us as we are and invite us into your Kingdom work anyway.
May your Holy Spirit give us courage and strength to answer your call to follow Your Son Jesus and cast wide the net of Your love for the world.
Amen.

[i] Chilton, Delmer. The Gospel According to Aunt Mildred: Stories of Family and Faith (p. 45). Brasstown Publishing. Kindle Edition.
[ii] Acts 9
[iii] Luke 4:31,44