Every summer my family and I like to go to Pensacola, Florida. There we gather with Mickey’s other siblings and their families. We
see each other only at such special times, for they live all over the country. One
summer several years ago, several of the men in the family decided to take my brother-in-law’s new boat out to the barrier
reef for a day of fishing. They left at first light. They were full of excitement and expectation of a great catch that day.
They fished all day long. After a while, the horrible truth began to set
in—they had caught only one small fish the whole day. At dust they
returned, exhausted, some seasick, with their one small fish. Of course, they could take consolation in the fact that they
were fishing for entertainment. However if they had been fishing for a
living they would have been in despair.
Despair — that is how Simon Peter and his business partners were feeling that day.
They had been out fishing all night long—casting and pulling in nets—but
no fish. And at dawn they rowed back to shore. However, the work was not over. For now, they had to repair and clean out the fishing nets—nets that had become
torn and filled with debris from being dragged across the bottom of the sea.
While repairing and cleaning their nets, one of them looked up—he looked in the distance
down the shoreline. There stood Jesus, a traveling rabbi, admiring the beauty
of the morning light as it broke across the sea. Other people that morning also
had seen him. Soon, like a hungry
mob they ran toward him, pushing and shoving to get near him.
Peter previously had gotten to know Jesus when he had preached in Peter’s synagogue,
and then had healed his mother-in-law. Therefore, when Peter saw Jesus down the
beach being pushed around by the crowd, Peter wanted to help him. About
the same time, Jesus must have seen Peter and his boat. Jesus began walking toward
him. Jesus then asked Peter if he would row his boat out a little bit from the
shore. That way, the water would serve as an amplifier of Jesus’ voice.
After Jesus had finished speaking to the crowd that morning—he asked Peter if he
would row out into deeper water. There he was to put down his nets to catch fish. Peter was tired from working all night.
To ask him to put out into the water a little ways for a sermon was one thing—but to ask him to again put down his nets
for fishing, that was another thing. He just wanted to go home and get some sleep. For him to put down his nets would mean
more hours of repairing and cleaning them. Besides, Peter knew the realities of fishing. He
knew that fish just did not bite that time of day. Nevertheless, he did as Jesus
asked him.
No sooner than the nets sank into the water, he began to feel a tug on them. He began to pull them in and discovered that he had caught an unbelievable catch of fish. There were so many fish that the nets were threatening to break! He
called out for his brother Andrew to come help him haul them in. When they got
them into their boats, the boats themselves threatened to sink! The men then
realized that suddenly they had hit the financial jackpot. They now were very
wealthy men! Their fishing business now could be expanded. They could purchase better boats. Perhaps they could purchase
a bigger home. They could purchase some luxury items for their home. Financially the world lay at their feet!
At that point in the story, that most of us stop reading the story. We like to read about winners—especially winners in the success gospel. However, that is not the end of the story. For Peter suddenly
fell down on his knees in the middle of the boat—fish flopping all about him—and he cried out in fear, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” At that moment, Peter realized that he was in God’s presence.
The Old Testament reading for the day was from Isaiah 6. That story tells of Isaiah going into the temple—perhaps as Isaiah had done many times. However, that day would be different from all his other days. That day, amidst
the smoke, the incense, the smell of the burning sacrifice—amidst all the smoke and smells—he realized that he
was in God’s presence. And like Peter, he too cried out in fear, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Although almost 800 years separated these two events—they are the same story. For
both of these men were caught up in God’s larger story for creation. Both
of these men felt great fear because of God’s presence. Both of these men
responded to God’s call with repentance and commitment to God’s larger story.
Isaiah stood upright and cried out, “Here
I am, send me.” And when Peter and his business partners John and
Simon, the sons of Zebedee had brought their boats to shore—boats filled to the brim with potential riches—we
are told, “they left everything and followed
him.” Having met God face to face, their lives were changed. For them, fishing no longer was the most important priority of their lives!
Do you remember when you first realized God’s presence in your life? Do you remember when God first tapped you on the shoulder, and you turned around, and discovered God standing
there? Do you remember when you heard God’s voice speaking to you clearer and louder than all the other voices that
were clamoring for your attention?
Perhaps for some of you—you were too busy with all the things you had to do—with
all the goals you had for your life. Then, something happened in your life. Perhaps
you were terrified by an illness, an accident, or an addiction. Perhaps life
shook you to the core of your very being. At that moment, you knew that you needed
something more—some more than all the purposes that were in your life. You
realized that you needed God in your life.
Or perhaps for you your faith journey has taken a different path. Perhaps for you there has not been any blinding light, emotional outburst, or sudden turning around in your
life. Perhaps for you, your faith journey has been a gradual awareness of God’s
presence as you attended Sunday school, VBS, and worship. Perhaps for you there
was a Sunday school teacher, or other member of the church that helped you to continue to grow in your faith.
Each of our faith journeys has taken a different path. Yet
for all of us, there has been some point in our lives when we had to claim for ourselves, our relationship with Christ. No longer was it simply our parents’ faith, our teacher’s faith, or our
spouse’s faith. At some point, we claimed it as our faith. From that point onward, we allowed Christ to lead us in how we spent our time, our energy, and our financial
resources. At some point each one of us decided it was important for us to be
in worship on Sunday morning.
For John Wesley, it came
when he was in despair over his seeming failures in life. He already was a committed Christian and an Anglican Priest. While
living in England, he had accepted God’s call to brave a crossing of the Atlantic Ocean
in order to begin a new ministry in Georgia. After
he arrived, he sought to fulfill his calling to convert the Native Americans to Christianity, and to be a pastor to the colonists
that lived in the new world. Yet, everything that he attempted to do seemed to
fail. The Native Americans did not convert to Christianity in great numbers.
Even the colonists were accusing him of not respecting their religious traditions
in his attempting to change their order of worship. In addition, a love affair with a young lady had gone sour. Disillusioned, after three years in America, he caught
the next ship back to England.
As he traveled back to
England, he was reminded of his journey over to America three years earlier. On that voyage, a terrible storm had come up at sea.
The mast of the ship had been broken by the winds, and the ship was foundering
and threatening to sink. The passengers had been terrified. That is, all of the passengers except for the Moravians that were on board. These
Moravians calmly had began singing hymns and praying for God’s deliverance in the midst of the wind and the waves. Wesley had been touched by the sincerity and sustaining power of their faith.
After arriving back in London, on May 24, 1738, John Wesley attended a Moravian worship service on Aldersgate Street.
During that worship service, the worship leaders read from Luther’s preface
to the Epistle to the Romans. John Wesley later wrote that during that service
his heart was “strangely warmed” as never before. Throughout his
ministry, John Wesley would have other spiritual encounters in his life. Nevertheless,
he always remembered that first time when his heart has been “strangely warmed.”
I want to give you some homework to do this week.
I want for you this week to reread these texts. As you read them, I want
you to listen for the awe, wonder and fear that Isaiah felt when he realized that he was in God’s presence. I want for you also to listen for how Peter felt when he realized that God was with him in the middle of
that fishing boat. In addition, I want you to listen for how God is present in
your life. God called Isaiah to be a Prophet. God
called Simon Peter to be an Apostle. God called John Wesley to preach his faith
anew with passion and conviction. And, God calls you to be his disciple and to
witness to him through your daily lives.
This evening many of us will be watching the “Super Bowl.”
During that game, the running backs will be seeking to carry the ball to the goal line.
Yet, facing every running back is a defensive line whose goal is to seek to prevent him from getting there. Most running backs simply see the defensive line, and they are tackled. However, the great ones see the
holes that are opening up in the line, and they skillfully run through those holes to secure a “first-down.”
