Called out into deep waters

 ‘…Put out into the deep water..’ (Luke 5:4)

Luke 5:1-11 (Year C: Lent-1)

                                           

The choice of Gospel reading for this Sunday – 7^th February 2016 – is aligned with the cycle of readings used in the Roman Catholic church. This differs from other cycles such as the Revised Common Lectionary.  For most of the year the various cycles in use coincide for the purposes of the Gospel reading.

The starting point of this story is the teaching of Jesus and the pressure from, and eagerness of, the crowds to hear his words – ultimately the Word of God.  There is an urgency here. The occasion is characterised by teaching, miracle, call and following – in that order. The story is unique to Luke among the four gospels although some parts of the story such as Jesus’ preaching from a boat and references to fishing echo other passages in the gospels.

Leaving everything is a choice some make to pursue goal in life. Often it is associated with someone who senses a call to a religious life (or a ‘vocation’ to same) and this call is confirmed after suitable trial by the appropriate persons or community. It is said that someone ‘leaves everything’ behind as in family, job, community or in some cases country.  Applied to other walks of life someone may decide to leave most things behind at least for some years pursue a line of action – parenting, an education course or a programme of physical training related to sport.

To choose the better part

In an important step such as marriage the couple making vows promise to ‘forsake all others’.  In this way, a person decides on a way of life or a relationship or a goal to the exclusion of something else – often very good things. However, something precious is chosen over other good things. This is the nature of human choice and it is based on our freedom and rationality as human beings to make informed choices and undertake commitments that last many years or – in the case of marriage as a lifelong union or commitment ‘until death do us part’.

In this story of ordinary fishermen going about their work we get glimpse of how very ordinary people can be called to do extraordinary things in a very ordinary way.  The fisherman were not graduates of a rabbinic theological school (yes they were all men but it is also true that they were Jews living in the first century which means that various forms of Christian service is broader than ethnic identity or gender). They were not polished professionals, soldiers or learned academics. They were not well-to-do nobles. They were not even particularly pious devotees or heroic desert ascetics. They were ordinary guys with lots of warts, baggage and passions. The key point is that they were prepared to trust Jesus in going out for a second attempt at a fish catch though it seemed completely useless and beyond their capacities.

Trust and surrender are the foundations of an answer to a call. Trust and surrender spell courage and decision. Because courage is involved Jesus says to his hearers ‘Do not be afraid’. He is also saying that to you and me today.

We travel not alone

A detail in the story concerns a call for help by those disciples who went out to fish a second time. So overwhelmed by the catch of fish were they that they shouted for help from their other companions in ‘the other boat’. There are times when we need to ‘shout for help’. And this also has relevance when considering which path to follow. There is more than one boat and there is more than just a solitary individual. We are called together to walk together and to support each other on this journey. We live in the shadow of each’s others ‘response-ability’ (responsibility being an amalgam of two words).

So big was the catch that Peter and his companions feared that their boat would capsize and they would be drowned. In a way, we are, today, part of that large catch on Lake Gennesaret. Because Peter and his companions were ready to trust and to follow they were led to win many peoples to Christ and the story and the electric current of life spread as far east as China within a few generations (as the archaeological evidence now suggests) and as far west as Fanad peninsula in Ireland.  Who knows what happens when very ordinary people trust, surrender and follow?

Discipleship and family values.

We don’t know how many were married but the scriptural sources indicate that Simon Peter was married (for example reference is made to the healing of his mother-in-law). We know from the gospel of Matthew (4:21) that the father of the disciples James and John was present with them (and it seems that he too engaged in fishing). The evangelist Mark (1:20) tell us that ‘they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him’. There was no time to lose. There was an urgency and a pressure to move on, to seek out, to heal, to explain and to announce. But, who were the sons of Zebedee to leave their ageing father behind? And might Simon Peter have been better advised to go home and look after his family including his mother-in-law? And were the twelve who were called particularly suitable in the first place?  What about ‘family values’?  Indeed, family values and sacred commitments must come first.  But, the world then and the world now is a lot less tidy, dualistic and compartmentalised as our rationalistic Western minds suppose.  We find it difficult to deal with ‘both and’ rather than ‘either or’.

As things turned out we learn that the initial band of apostles (the twelve) were not particularly reliable or solid. At least some of them ran for the hills when the chips were down. In summary, these guys were not obvious ‘vocational material’ and would hardly have made it through a battery of tests and discernment processes for selection to follow Jesus to the cross and beyond.

Why did Jesus call them? How did they respond?  We note the following:

• As far as we know there was nothing particularly exemplary in the lives of those chosen (‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ said Peter in verse 8)
• Social status and/or learning were not evidently a condition for being called (fishing did not require a university degree even though it calls for amazing human strength, intuition, stamina etc.).

What does emerge is that ordinary people going about their daily business made a personal encounter with someone who had a profound effect on them at that moment in their lives.  There was no hanging around when the disciples reached the shore after their fishing expedition.  They just simply ‘left everything and followed him’. We are not told that they went for counselling or assessment or that they had to go back to their villages or homes to explain themselves –  important and necessary as these things are in good measure nowadays. True, anyone embarking on a path of special ministry or mission needs to be trained and equipped intellectually, morally and physically and they need to know and understand that and, not least of all, their proposed service needs to be discerned in the community of disciples. We must trust the Holy Spirit in the community even if at times it is hard to understand why and what.  It took two millennia for Christians to open up the threefold ministry of episcopoi, presbuteroi and diakonai (bishop, priest and deacon) to women and there is still progress to be made….  Whereas the Holy Spirit can be a quick mover and teacher perhaps the churches can be slow learners!

So what…?

Scholar and bishop Tom Wright asks a relevant question:

It is all the more important that we ask ourselves, perhaps with pencil and paper at the ready: what have we to be thankful for? What gifts have we received at God’s generous hands? What are the signs of God’s strange work in our own day, our own place, our own churches? (Wright, Paul for everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, page142)

Transposed 2,000 years we see many people called to many different forms of service in the church. It’s not all about taking the lead in some act of worship or announcing the good news. Most forms of heroic service are at kitchen table, the baby’s crib, the bedside where one is holding the hand of another who is dying, the shanty towns, the dangerous places in city centres and in underground of political resistance to evil regimes. However, there is scope and room for people to step forward and answer a call to service in those places where the need arises. Age, sex, gender, status, CV, family history and theological training are not the primary determining factors in God’s call. Rather, the sacrament of baptism and the huge and amazing ‘response-ability’ it places on us is the primary drive.  But, those called need to be equipped and trained and they need to really live out the Word of God that they announce to others. The harvest is plentiful but many people are starving. Some urgency tempered by prudence and discretion and testing of the spirits is necessary.  But, as one commentator on this passage of the Gospel put it:

‘Put out into the deep. Take a risk; allow him to love you and see where it leads!’(Úna Allen, Furrow, January 2016)