What do you do when you have a bad day? We all have them. Maybe you’re like me and you like to read about other peoples’ bad days. At least you know that it could have been worse.
If you’ve had a bad day recently where
nothing seemed to go your way, maybe these examples of bad days will make you
feel a little better.
You know you had a bad day when your twin
sister forgets your birthday. That would
be a bad day, wouldn’t it?
Or, if your birthday cake collapses from
the weight of the candles.
The bird singing outside your house is a
vulture.
Your doctor tells you that you’re allergic
to chocolate.
The worst player on the golf course wants
to play you for money.
Did anyone have all of these things happen
to you this past week? See – maybe
things aren’t so bad after all.
I can’t think of a more frustrating thing
than fishing. My dad took me fishing a
few times, and I never really got into it.
And I know that some of you love to fish and you’re quite good at
it. Maybe you can help me understand our
Gospel reading this morning because it’s about fishing.
The disciples were having a really bad
day. Check that. Actually they had a bad night. Fished all night and didn’t catch a thing.
I understand from people who know a little
about fishing, that night time fishing is the way to go, but not that night for
some reason. The disciples didn’t catch
a thing, Luke tells us.
When fishing is your hobby, that’s one
thing. But when it’s your livelihood,
it’s quite another. So I would think
that the disciples were pretty discouraged when morning finally came. Tired, grumpy, disappointed.
Have you ever been there? We all have.
Who hasn’t been discouraged at some point or who hasn’t had a bad day
when nothing went right?
Have you ever had one of those “nothing
but net” days? You know, one of
those days where you throw out the net, and it always seems to come back empty? No fish, but plenty of net!
Jesus, sensing the discouragement of the
disciples after a long night of fishing, goes against conventional wisdom by
telling Simon, one of the disciples to give it another try.
“I
know it’s broad daylight, but go out to the deep water again, and let your nets
down again, and see if you won’t catch some fish this time.”
And believe it or not, Simon takes Jesus
up on this offer. What? Is he crazy?
He knows they’re probably not going to catch any fish, especially at
that time of the day!
Have you ever had someone do this for
you? Someone who was able to reach into
your discouragement and help you look at the same situation in a whole new
light?
That’s why consultants can be really
helpful to a business or an organization.
A good consultant will come in, and maybe all it takes is one little
comment about something, but that’s all that company needs to turn things
around.
And pretty soon, people start getting
excited again. “Yeah. Why not? Let’s give it a try!”
And just like that Simon and
the disciples reluctantly shove off from the shore.
I guess, to understand why these tired and
discouraged disciples would have been willing to do such a crazy thing, you
have to think about the typical amateur golfer.
I consider myself a typical average golfer. My scores aren’t that great. And no, the worst player on the course has
never made a wager with me, just in case you were wondering.
But only golfers will appreciate
this. Why do amateur golfers who aren’t
that good keep playing this silly game? Because
somewhere in those 100 swings during your last round of golf, you actually hit one
pretty good shot.
It’s that one shot that keeps you coming
back. Golf is like caffeine! It’s very addictive!
So maybe this is why those fishermen were
willing to get their nets ready again, and give it one more try. They can remember how they felt the last time
they had a big catch.
There’s nothing like it in the world. Am I right, fishermen? Sure! That’s what
keeps you coming back to your favorite hobby.
And of course, you know the story. The disciples put down their nets and
surprise, surprise. Jesus was
right! They had the biggest catch of
their lives.
Even their nets were breaking because of
all the fish. Signaling for some help,
some other fishermen came out and they ended up filling two boats with all the
fish they caught.
I think Jesus made his point. Hook, line, and sinker. I totally apologize for that really, really
bad pun, but you did fall for the bait. Alright, moving on…
Here’s another part of Luke’s gospel which
has us stop in our tracks, scratch our heads, and say to ourselves, “Who is this man we have been following?”
Actually, Simon does something
even better. He goes a step further. After the catch of fish, he falls down at
Jesus’ feet, and he says, “Go away from
me Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
Words that remind us of what a
prophet said centuries before Simon as he stood in the presence of God’s
holiness. “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am
a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Being in the presence of God
has that effect, doesn’t it?
God’s holiness caught me by surprise when
I attended a community Thanksgiving service that was held at an Episcopal
church one year. I was sitting near the
front of the sanctuary all by myself, when they began the liturgy for the
Sacrament of Holy Communion.
The words that were being shared were
familiar to me even though I was in a different setting. Everything was going
as I expected until…
…until an usher stood next to me and
invited me to go forward and kneel at the altar railing to receive the Sacrament.
This took me off guard since I was new to the church and I was the first person
to go forward.
I nervously got up, walked toward the
altar, and knelt down, all the time wondering if I was doing this the right way.
I felt so humbled in that moment. I was out of my comfort zone.
But just like that, I wasn’t
self-conscious anymore, because I could sense that this had become a holy
moment. I, a sinner, an outsider, was in the very presence of a holy God.
And when the communion steward gave me the
piece of bread and the cup to drink, I also realized in that moment that I was
unconditionally loved by this holy God.
Whenever we come face to face with our
sinfulness, our feelings of being out of place, and gaze upon God’s holiness,
how can this not lead us to confession and worship and praise?
Perhaps the best part of our Gospel
reading this morning is in what Jesus does next. He says to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on,
you will be catching people.”
While Simon’s response to the
miracle of the large catch of fish was a very appropriate one, that is, to
remove himself from the presence of God’s holiness, the bigger point of the
miracle was to help the disciples to follow Jesus in reaching out to a world of
great need and to be prepared for surprises of some large catches along the
way.
Have you noticed how like the disciples in
this Gospel reading, we too, continue to be surprised by this God who makes all
things possible?
Every year, I spend a few days up at a
cottage along Lake Erie for a sermon planning retreat. It’s a great time to
just get away from my daily routine to pray and plan out my sermons for the
coming year.
I stay at a friend’s cottage and Lake Erie
is only about thirty yards from the back of my friend’s house. It’s a
beautiful, beautiful setting.
During those days at his cottage, I like
to sit at a table near his sliding glass doors. As I sit there with my bible,
laptop, and notepad, I have a great view of the Lake. I love to see the
sailboats go by and I often think about the many stories of when Jesus was with
his disciples along the Sea of Galilee, like the one from our Gospel reading
today.
During my time at Lake Erie this past
August, it was time for me to leave and come back to Athens. My friend was
leaving at the same time to go back to Cincinnati, so he was closing windows
and locking up the house. As he was getting in his car to go home, I told him
that I wanted to spend some quiet time by the lake before leaving.
As he drove off, I walked down to my
friend’s beautiful stone patio that overlooks the lake. And I just stood there
taking in the fresh breeze and the mist of the water that was splashing up at
me from the rocks below.
I stared ahead at the beautiful vast lake
with no end in sight. It was in that holy moment that God was telling me that there
is no limit to what our church can do. There is no limit to the great things we
can do for God as long as we let down our fishing nets into the deep waters.
I just stood there for a few minutes
looking at that huge body of water and thinking, “There is really no limit to what God will accomplish through our
church. There is no limit.” Many of you know that I like to use the phrase,
“Thin place moment.”
A thin place moment is when heaven and
earth mysteriously overlap and we experience the presence of God in a powerful
moment. Looking out over the lake that day was a “Thin Place” moment for me.
The prophet Isaiah had a thin place moment
as he heard a heavenly chorus of “Holy, holy, holy.” There is no limit to what
God wants to accomplish through our church. No limit, if we simply let down our
nets into the deep waters.
Several years ago, I was surprised to
learn that Sports Illustrated and the United Methodist Church had formed a
partnership. What could we possibly have in common, I wondered.
Rick Reilly, a sports writer for Sports
Illustrated at the time, had written an article about a campaign to save the lives
of children in Africa who were stricken by Malaria.
Rick Reilly called the campaign “Nothing
but Net.” It was the precursor for what
would later become known as “Imagine No Malaria.”
For every $10 that is donated to this
cause, an insecticide treated bed net can be purchased to cut down on mosquito
bites while children sleep at night.
Malaria has been the leading cause of death in Africa and one of the most
preventable diseases world-wide.
Thanks to Rick Reilly’s article and his
partnership with the United Methodist Church, over 1.2 million dollars had been
raised to help purchase 120,000 nets for the people of Nigeria. That was back
in 2006.
Fast forward to today. The United
Methodist Church continues to be generous in raising money for Imagine No
Malaria. In the past three years alone, our West Ohio Conference has raised over 3.6 million dollars to help save the lives of children from the deadly
disease of Malaria.
Who would have ever thought that Sports
Illustrated and the United Methodist Church would come together as partners to
help stop the spread of Malaria in Africa?
God never ceases to surprise us.
Just when we’re discouraged and it seems
like there’s nothing but net, Jesus says, “I
can do something with those empty nets, thank you.” To think that we can help prevent the
leading cause of death on a whole continent by purchasing nets, gives an
entirely new meaning to the phrase, “Nothing But Net.”
When Jesus told the disciples to let down
their nets again, they were shocked when they caught an incredible amount of
fish. Their catch of fish was so great that their nets were breaking!
Jesus turned a bad day of empty fishing
nets into a really awesome day of nets filled with fish. Jesus wasn’t just
offering the disciples practical fishing tips. He was helping them to see that
by following and trusting him, they would have a hand in helping God’s kingdom
to grow. Jesus tells them, “From now on,
you’ll be catching people.”
In the early 1900s, an
Episcopal Priest by the name of Sam Shoemaker was sent to serve a big church in
New York City. Sam immediately began to
help the congregation claim every person in that area of the city for Christ,
especially those who were struggling with alcohol addiction.
One of those persons was Bill Wilson. Through the outreach of this Episcopal
parish, Bill was able to stay sober.
With Sam, they developed what is now known as “The Twelve Steps” which
Alcoholics Anonymous uses to help people stay sober.
Sam Shoemaker saw himself as a fisher of
people. His desire was for all people to
come to know the saving and healing grace of Jesus Christ for their lives. All people.
He wrote a poem entitled “I Stand by the Door” and I’d like to read it.
“I
admire the people who go way in. But I
wish they would not forget how it was before they got in. Then they would be able to help the people
who have not yet even found the door, or the people who want to run away again
from God. You can go in too deeply, and
stay in too long, And forget the people outside the door.”
“As for me, I shall take my old accustomed
place, near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there, but not so far
away from people as not to hear them, and remember they are there, too. Where?
Outside the door – thousands of them, millions of them. But – more importantly for me – One of them,
two of them, ten of them, whose hands I am intended to put on the latch. So I shall stand by the door and wait for
those who seek it. I had rather be a
door keeper…So I stand by the door.”
This poem reminds us of the heart and soul
of the mission of the church – To make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation
of the world. That’s why our church
exists. People need Jesus. It’s that simple.
To borrow from Rick Reilly’s Sport’s
Illustrated article, he writes, “We need
nets. Not hoop nets, soccer nets, or
lacrosse nets. Not New Jersey Nets, or
dot-nets, or clarinets.”
He’s right. We need nets. And we are part
of a church that is providing those nets to save lives.
Jesus wants our nets. To be used to stop
the spread of malaria. To reach people
outside the doors of the church. To share
God’s love with our university community. To help build homes with Habitat for
Humanity. To share God’s love through our prison ministry. To provide food for
children at Trimble Elementary School. To help stock our local food pantry. To include more people in our church through our small group ministry.
To walk with Good Works on behalf of the
homeless. To offer a kind word to the person working at the restaurant. To invite
a neighbor to join you for church. To speak out against injustice. To serve
meals for Monday lunch. To buy a meal
for the person behind you in the drive-through lane. To turn someone’s bad day
into a really good day.
Church – Let down your nets!
