Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 2009

Text: St. Luke 5:1-11

The Rev. Jerry Kistler

St. Stephen’s Reformed Episcopal Church

Montrose, Colorado

“Launch Out Into the Deep”

When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish…

Jesus was constantly calling his disciples out beyond their depth –out beyond the shallows of their faith into the deep water. “Launch out into the deep,” he said, “and let down your nets for a catch.”

For some of you, it’s probably been a good long time since you really launched out in faith. What’s held you back? Is it that the shallows are just such a comfortable place to be, or that you fear getting out beyond where you think you can stand – getting in over your head, so to speak?

I grew up around the ocean down in Southern California. Down there you can actually swim in the ocean without getting hypothermia in 15 minutes, and you don’t have to wear a parka to the beach in the summertime because it’s actually sunny and warm, unlike Northern California. It took me several times of freezing my you-know-what off to finally realize that difference! But in Southern Cal I used to love to swim in the ocean, but I was terrified of the waves, and I was terrified of getting out beyond where I could stand. But not my friends; they used to swim out beyond the waves, and they’d try to convince me to come out with them because it was so wonderful and calm, and I wasn’t going to automatically drown, or get eaten by a shark. But I wasn’t buying it. I used to hate to go to the beach with my friends, because I’d feel like such a wimp. So I’d rather get pummeled by the waves in the waste deep water then go out into the calm of what I thought was beyond my depth.

I think maybe there’s a metaphor in there somewhere of where we need to be in terms of our faith: not in the shallows where we’re bounced around and buffeted by every little swell and shore-breaker in life, but in the calm and peace of the deep places of faith. The point is, we need to get out beyond where we think we can stand, and launch out in faith to where Christ calls us to be.

The key point that we need to take away from our Gospel lesson this morning is that, when you feel like you’ve come to the limits of your faith, then do what the disciples did: simply obey the word of Christ, and get out beyond your depth to where he calls you, and see if he will not stretch your faith to new heights and depths.

Just look at how the disciples faith was stretched by their obedience to Jesus call. Jesus said, “Get out there into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” And Peter, always the one to pipe up first, responded, “[But] Master, we’ve toiled all night and caught nothing.” You’ve got to imagine what Peter’s thinking at this point. “Listen Jesus, you’re a great preacher and all, and you can make a fine table, but what do you know about fishing? I know my job! I know this lake like the back of my hand. I know were all the good holes are. I know that the best times for catching fish are in the hours before dawn. And now it’s mid-morning, and I’ve just cleaned my nets; I’ve been up all night and I haven’t got a minnow to bring to market so I can buy some bread for my family. I’m tired, and I just want to go home and go to bed. And now you’re telling me you want me to get in the boat and sail out to the deep water and throw in my net again. Jesus, I don’t know what could possibly be different this time, so forget it; I’m going home.” Is that what he said? No. He said, “Nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.”

I love that word “nevertheless” there. It means, “I haven’t got the foggiest idea why I should be doing this, but if you say so, Jesus, I’ll go out and do what you’ve called me to do.” That’s faith being stretched beyond its limits through obedience to the call of Christ.

And perhaps you’re being called in the same way. Perhaps Christ is calling you out beyond your depth. Maybe you’re being called to some new ministry in the church and you haven’t got a clue as to why Christ would want you in the first place, and you have serious misgivings about whether you can actually pull off what He’s asking you to do. That’s okay; you’re in good company. I constantly feel like I’m in over my head. I constantly feel like I’m way out beyond my depth. Every truly called minister of Christ does. I have serious doubts about those who don’t. Because Christ doesn’t call us to stand on our own two feet and accomplish what we think we can handle on our own. He calls us to hang all our hopes and all our aspirations for effective ministry upon His Word, and upon obedience to his calling on our lives. For Jesus never fails to equip those whom He calls, and those who trust Him to do the work. It’s when I get to the point that I feel like I can stand on my own two feet that I am most in danger of being bowled over by the waves of the ministry – and, believe me, there are waves.

Remember when Peter stepped off the boat and began to walk on the water out to where Jesus stood? Jesus gave him just one word to give him confidence beyond all rational expectation that he could do what was otherwise impossible. And that one word was “Come.” “Come.” That’s all Jesus said. And Peter was fine as long as he continued forward in obedience to that word and kept his eyes focused on Christ. It was only when he began to fixate on the wind and the waves; it was only he began to say to himself, “Hey, wait a minute; I don’t have enough faith for this. This is impossible;” it’s only when he ceased to obey, and began to think about the situation in terms of what he thought he was capable of – that’s when he began to sink.

So do you get the point? When you don’t think you have enough faith, just obey. Obey the call of Christ on your life and he will stretch your faith beyond your self-imposed limits. In other words, stop putting your faith in your faith, and start putting your faith in the One who calls you, because it is He who will supply everything you need to do what it is He’s calling you to.

So get out of the shallows of your faith, and get out beyond your depth, that your faith may not be in your faith, but that your faith may be in Christ who calls you.

Maybe you’re being called into the scary deeps of evangelism. I believe that we are all being called anew to this task today – to re-evangelize our post-Christian nation. It is scary. It is getting out beyond the comfort of the shallows, where we can simply bask in the sunshine of God’s grace to us, and out into the deep places where people are drowning without hope and without God in the world. But that’s where Jesus calls his followers to be. He told his disciples to launch out into the deep and to throw in their nets for a catch to illustrate to them what their true calling was to be. They were called to be fishers of men. And that is true of every one of us as well.

You know, there’s got to be a time when we stop cleaning and mending our nets, and we get out there and start using them to catch fish. What I mean is, there’s got to be some point in time when we stop preparing and start doing, not again because we think we’re capable of it, but because that’s what Christ has called us to do. Again our obedience needs to bring us beyond our faith, that our faith may grow to the level of Christ’s call. If we wait till we think we’re really prepared to go out and share the gospel and give a defense for the hope that lies within us, we’ll never go. Obey, and see your faith grow to levels you never thought possible.

And here’s the wonderful thing: if this is the calling of Christ on our lives – and we know it is – then we also know that He will prosper our labors. At the word of Christ Peter threw in the net and caught so many fish that their boats began to sink. Think about it. They’d been throwing in the net all night. Over here, over there, all over the place, and they hadn’t caught a thing. Then Jesus says, throw it in one more time over here. And their first reaction is: How is this time going to be any different? Nevertheless at your word we’ll do it this one more time.

Our vocation is to be fishers of men. That means our vocation is to keep throwing in the net no matter what the outcome, because from our perspective the only thing that is important is faithfulness to the call of Christ. And even if we’ve thrown in our nets hundreds of times and haven’t hauled in a single soul, Jesus may say one day, “Throw it in one more time over in this direction,” and he’ll give us a catch. He will do it. But our nets have to be in the water.

If you haven’t launched out in faith in a long time, then perhaps God is calling you today to get out beyond the shallows, out beyond your depth, that you faith may grow to the level of His calling. What should you do in that situation? What till you have enough faith to do it? No. Simply obey. Simply obey the call and see your faith grow to a whole new level.

So get out of the shallows; launch out into the deep. +