Luke 5:1-11

William F. Schnell

February 7, 2010

 

A minister passing through his church in the middle of the day, decided to pause by the altar and see who had come to pray.  Just then the back door opened, a man came down the aisle, the minister frowned as he saw the man hadn't shaved in a while.  His shirt was kind a shabby and his coat was worn and frayed, the man knelt, he bowed his head, then rose and walked away.  In the days that followed, each noon time came this chap, each time he knelt just for a moment, a lunch pail in his lap. 

Well, the minister's suspicions grew, with robbery a main fear, he decided to stop the man and ask him, "What are you doing here?"  The old man said he worked down the road, lunch was half an hour.  Lunchtime was his prayer time, for finding strength and power.  "I stay only moments, see, because the factory is so far away; as I kneel here talking to the Lord, this is kind a what I say: "I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.  DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.  SO, JESUS, THIS IS JIM CHECKING IN TODAY.' 

The minister feeling foolish, told Jim that was fine.  He told the man he was welcome to come and pray just anytime.  "Time to go," Jim smiled, said 'Thanks.'  He hurried to the door.  The minister knelt at the altar, he'd never done it before.  His cold heart melted, warmed with love, and met with Jesus there.  As the tears flowed, in his heart, he repeated old Jim's prayer: "I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, LORD, HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.  I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY, BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.  SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME CHECKING IN TODAY." 

Past noon one day, the minister noticed that old Jim hadn't come.  As more days passed without Jim, he began to worry some.  At the factory, he asked about him, learning he was ill.  The hospital staff was worried, but he'd given them a thrill.  The week that Jim was with them, brought changes in the ward.  His smiles, a joy that was contagious.  Changed people were his reward. The head nurse couldn't understand why Jim was so glad, when no flowers, calls or cards came.  Not a visitor he had. 

The minister stayed by his bed, he voiced the nurse's concern: No friends came to show they cared.  He had nowhere to turn.  Looking surprised, old Jim spoke up and with a winsome smile; "the nurse is wrong, she couldn't know, that He's in here all the while.  Everyday at noon He's here, a dear Friend of mine, you see, he sits right down, takes my hand, leans over and says to me: "I JUST CAME AGAIN TO TELL YOU, JIM, HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN, SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP, AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN.  ALWAYS LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY, I THINK ABOUT YOU EACH DAY, AND SO JIM, THIS IS JESUS CHECKING IN TODAY.'    

 

I was wondering how I was going to start this sermon yesterday when I opened an email from a crusty old bird from around these parts.  He goes to another church, but I had a chance to make his acquaintance years ago when he worked on a broken mower of mine.  He sends me emails all the time, and one of them finally came in handy.  Having been raised in an extended family of gen-u-ine characters like this fellow, I tend to relate pretty well with them.

 

Another gen-u-ine character stopped by this past week all excited.  He launched into my office with a CD and told me to put it in my computer.  "You've got to hear this," he said.  Unfortunately my computer was in a persnickety mood and we couldn't get it to play, so he said, "Let's get in my car and drive around.  You can listen to it there."  So we went nowhere in particular while this soulful self-confessed sinner whaled out a rendition of Amazing Grace like you've never heard it sung before—complete with the story of how this song came to be written and even a personal testimony thrown in for good measure.

 

When the track ended I said to him, "You know the reason you like that so much?  It's about you."  He said, "I know."  And then I said, "It's about all of us."  "Us" being anyone who has recognized in themselves the singular, unsettling word of that song: "wretch."  Most of us would rather not think of ourselves in such terms as wretch or sinner.  Why be so negative, so down on ourselves?  And yet there is something that rings true about the shabby man whose sin has been taken away by Jesus, or the wretch who has been saved from sin by God's amazing grace.  There is something of us in poems and hymns like that.

 

Today we are going to learn that, as Louis Evely puts it in the quote at the top of our bulletin, The closer one is to God, the more one feels a sinner.  Or, to state it inversely, the more one feels a sinner, the closer one is to God.  The irony is that those who come off as so self-righteous and judgmental are, by this understanding, furthest away from God.  A further irony, supported by several texts of scripture we will look at today, is that the more one feels a sinner the more one is called by the Lord to service in his kingdom.  Hence the title of our message is, "Calling All Sinners."

 

In our New Testament lesson Jesus is calling Peter to be a disciple, along with two of his partners, James and John.  All three are fishermen by trade, working with boats and nets on the Sea of Galilee, here called the Lake of Gennesaret.  We have a wonderful depiction of this lake in one of our Promise Land Rooms (Port Promise).  I have been to his giant bowl-shaped depression in the earth which contains a fresh water lake approximately 8 miles long by 4 miles wide, and I must commend our artists for their geological accuracy.

 

Jesus is standing by the lake teaching a crowd of people pressing around him.  Now it is one thing for me to address a crowd of you in this organized setting, but nearly impossible to do so while everyone is pressed around in Fellowship Hall.  Jesus, wanting to reach all in the crowd, sees two boats tied up at the water's edge while the fishermen are washing their nets and trying to listen at the same time.  One of the boats belongs to a fellow named Simon, whom Jesus has previously visited at the formers home. 

 

Jesus asks if Peter can row him out a little from the shore so that he can speak to the people more effectively in the natural amphitheater created by the rising shoreline.  Now all the people can hear Jesus teaching and preaching.  When he is finished, he tells Peter to row further out into deeper water where he can put down the nets to catch some fish.  All of a sudden, this preacher fancies himself a fisherman.  Peter tries to tell him that they have fished all night with no success, but that he will drop the nets if Jesus wants to see how it is done.

 

All of a sudden there is a tug on the nets, but when Peter tries to pull them in they are too heavy to handle.  He calls to his fishing partners on shore, James and John, to get in their boat and come help him haul in the nets.  When the second boat arrives all hands begin pulling the fish from the overflowing net and loading them in the two boats.  But before they can get all the fish out of the net, both boats are so full of fish that they begin to sink.  In short, we are not just talking about a big catch of fish; we are talking about a miraculous catch of fish.

 

Now I want you to notice two things about Peter's response to all of this.  First, he refers to Jesus as Lord for the first time because the miracle he has witnessed is of God—there is not other explanation.  Second, having recognized God in Jesus, notice what he recognizes in himself.  When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" (Verse 8).  Again, to quote Louis Evely, The closer one is to God, the more one feels a sinner.

 

This is just the self-understanding Jesus requires in order to call people to follow him as disciples.  Then Jesus said to Simon, "Don't be afraid; from now on you will catch men."  So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him" (Verses 10-11).  Let the crowds keep the fish, there is a better catch awaiting these disciples—these fishers of men.  But before they were able to follow the Lord, they had to understand the truth about themselves.

 

And so it went for Isaiah when God called him to be a prophet as recounted in our Call to Worship.  Finding himself, as did Peter, in the presence of God, notice his response.  "Woe to me!" I cried.  "I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty."  Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."  Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"  And I said, "Here am I.  Send me!" (Isaiah 6:5-8).  So we see this progression at work: nearness to God, awareness of sin, forgiveness, call to service.

 

And so it went for Paul, who testified: Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst.  But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life (I Timothy 1:15-16).  In other words, if Jesus can save the worst of sinners and then call them to his service, then he can save and call anyone. 

 

But like Paul, and Peter and Isaiah, we must recognize the liberating truth about ourselves.  I say that it is the liberating truth because this truth will set you free according to Jesus (John 8:32).  Always having to live up to perfection is a real draining exercise in futility.  One of the things that enables me to stand up here and field questions from the pew is the liberating option I have to say, "I don't know.  I don't know the answer to that question.  I will have to research that and see if I can find out."  If I had to have all the answers to field questions from the pew I would be a nervous wreck.  Indeed, I would be a sham that you would quickly see through because nobody has all the answers. 

 

Nobody is perfect.  Why waste the effort always pretending.  Why not just admit the liberating truth so that Jesus can use us as he sees fit.  Even I am sometimes impressed with what the Holy Spirit utters through my lips when I stand up here without any well-prepared remarks.  Even more impressive is what the Holy Spirit speaks to you that I did not intend—that makes more sense than what I intended.  I am happy to give all the credit to the Holy Spirit because if anything gets in the way of God using us it is the delusion that we are something when in fact we are less than nothing.

 

We are sinners, like that old crusty fellow in our opening poem.  He knows what he is, and he also knows what we are.  We are no better than him because we wear better clothes or drive better cars or otherwise project the image of being somehow being better than somebody else.  Neither are those obnoxious, self-righteous, excessively judgmental religious types who parade around as somehow being spiritually superior to you.  Don't buy that nonsense.  Indeed the irony of that attitude is that it is belies a distance from God and not a closeness.  Remember, the closer we are to God the more acutely we feel our sinfulness.

 

The reason we call the Lord's Supper "Communion" is because Jesus desires a closer communion with us.  But the closer we get to Jesus' perfection, the more acutely we feel our own imperfection—our own sinfulness.  That is why "Communion" includes a prayer of confession where we may confess the truth about ourselves—not so that Jesus can browbeat us, but so that he can forgive us and then call us to follow him as disciples.

 

As the Lord called to his service a woeful Isaiah, and a sinful Peter, and the worst of sinners Paul, so he continues "Calling All Sinners" like a wretched me and you.  Let us answer the call by taking the first needful step--acknowledging the liberating truth about ourselves.  Then let us go forth as living testimonies to catch others up in God's Amazing Grace.