I wonder how
many of us have felt as Simon Peter did in today’s gospel when he complains “Master,
we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing . . . .” Hard work never guarantees success. In fact, Peter had lent Jesus the use of his
boat as a platform for preaching because the crowds along the shore grew so
large. He did this after a long night of
unsuccessful fishing. But Peter’s comment that began with despair ended with “…but at your command I will lower the
nets.” What faith! Jesus wasn’t even a fisherman! Of course the story ends with the boat being
almost swamped with fish, to the extent that other boats needed to assist in
recovering the catch. Jesus remarks that
he will make them “fishers of men.” Peter, and the two brothers James and John
left their nets to follow Jesus. What a
remarkable morning, and what a remarkable insight into our life in Christ.
Our calling is not to
success, but is to a life of faith, to paraphrase Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Just as last week’s gospel suggested a path
of “seeking” rather than “building” the Kingdom of God, this week’s gospel
suggests obedience to Christ over obedience to tradition, because tradition
wants to use the status quo, to
reference the past to guide the future; the Spirit, on the other hand, wants to use
the energy and drive of the present to work with God to create the future; “Behold, I am doing something new” (Isaiah 43:19).
What propels us forward in the life of faith isn’t concern with success,
but responsiveness to a lover---God loves us!
We are called to a living, dynamic relationship, where God is asking us
to be a part of His creating acts.
Too often our
evangelical efforts to be good news become subject to cost-benefit analysis,
but such a model is foreign to a God who courts His own creation and actively
seeks communion with us who, like the priest of Isaiah proclaims
“Woe is me, I am doomed!
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
For I am a man of unclean lips,
living among a people of unclean lips;
yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
What can we do
when we have experienced God’s great grace and love and realize we are no
worthier than the rest of humanity to merit God’s favor? We love others as God has loved us. We see God’s
universal love poured out, in the elegant words of William Sloane Coffin “…universally
for everyone from Pope to the loneliest wino on the planet. . . .”(Credo). In this model of love, we don't love from fear or shame, but from the awesome realization of being loved.
The conversion
of the fishermen to fishers-of-men didn’t begin with Jesus excoriating them but loving them.
It was from that grace-filled love that Peter and the priest in Isaiah dropped to their knees
Too often the church shames people to their knees; however, God's universal love doesn't send the faithful to their knees out of shame, but out of awe.
The message to
the Church is clear: put out into the deeper waters of grace and stop messing around in the
tide pools of shame.
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