Epiphany 5 C
Transcribed from a sermon by
Valerie Ann Hart
On February 7, 2010
St. Barnabas Episcopal Church
I know many of you have served on various boards or committees either within the church or outside the church, and I’m wondering if any of you have ever experienced the following. Someone in the group has an idea, there’s a lot of excitement, people are interested and then someone says the ancient traditional words, “We tried that and it didn’t work.”
Today in the reading we find out when that tradition began. The first Christian who ever spoke those words was Peter. It’s a powerful tradition and it’s in all the denominations.
When Jesus says ‘Go out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch,’ Peter’s response is, ‘We’ve been fishing all night. We did that, it didn’t work.’ But even though he said that, he continues, ‘but if you say so I’ll go out.’ Lo and behold there is a huge catch.
Then Peter demonstrates another tradition in the church. He didn’t begin it; it began with Isaiah. That’s the tradition of when we’re called to do something saying, “I’m unworthy.” We feel an inner call from God, or your priest or deacon calls on the phone, or the senior warden asks us to do something and we say, “I’m not worthy.” Just like Isaiah said, “I have unclean lips,” which means he’s a sinner. And Peter says, “Get away from me, I’m a sinner, I couldn’t possibly be being called by You, I’m not perfect.”
We have all kinds of reasons why we consider ourselves unworthy. I’m too old. I’m too young. I don’t have enough education. I have too much education. I’m too fat. I’m too thin. I’m too busy. I’m retired. I have to care for the kids. There’s so many reasons why we think we’re not enough. But the truth is that God can make any of us enough for anything. As Paul says, “It’s not I that do it, but God working through me that does it.”
We’re at the beginning of a new year at the church. We have a new vestry and a new senior warden. I want to challenge everybody that this year in this congregation, as we look to try and listen to what God is calling us to do and be, that nobody is going to say, “We did it before and it didn’t work.”
Now all our excuses are gone. We’re not going to say, “We’ve already done it, didn’t work,” and we’re not going to say, “we’re unworthy.” That covers it pretty well, doesn’t it?
Today is the high holy day of football. It is Superbowl Sunday. The preparations are great. Families and friends come together. They eat. It’s a traditional holiday. Now let’s think about those teams that made it to the Superbowl. I bet that the ones who made it to the Superbowl didn’t say to their coach, “We tried that last year and it didn’t work.” And I bet that those teams didn’t say, “Ah, we’re not good enough for the Superbowl.” Instead they believed that if they worked hard, they could be champions.
There’s one more thing about this story of Peter. Jesus tells Peter to go out into the deep water. Those who fish know that most of the time you catch more fish along the edge of the lake or sea where there’s brush than you do in deep water. Also the boats that Peter and those other fishermen had were small unstable boats. And the Sea of Gennesaret, or the Sea of Galilee, was very shallow. If the wind came up the waves could be very large, so it’s a lot safer to stay along the coast where the water isn’t too deep and where you can swim to shore if you get capsized. It’s scarier to go out into the deep water. But Jesus told them to go into the deep water, to go where it’s uncomfortable. Don’t stay safe along the shore, but go out where you have to trust in God. Go deeper.
You can be pretty sure that those teams that made it to the superbowl went into some deep water. You can be pretty sure that those players were uncomfortable sometimes. You don’t make it to the Superbowl if you don’t push the edges.
If you’re not into football, think of the Winter Olympics that are starting real soon. Think about the skaters. If a skater’s coach says, “Do a triple,” and they go, “huh, I tried the triple last week and it didn’t work,” they’ll never go to the Olympics. The ones who make it to the Olympics go out there and they’ll keep trying. They’ll fall down and they’ll keep trying. They’ll fall down again and they keep trying. The ones who make it to the Olympics don’t stay in their comfort zone. They don’t say, “Ah, I’ve got this program down, I’m really comfortable with what I’m doing, let’s stay there.” They come to their coach and say, “I’m really comfortable with the program I’m doing, let’s make it a little harder, let’s make it a little better, let’s do a little something more, let’s get outside the comfort zone.
You know the deep water. We look out the window and we see the ocean. We all know of visitors who come down to the ocean a couple times a year, maybe Christmastime and Easter. They come and they look at the ocean and they appreciate the ocean and how vast it is and how beautiful it is, and they’ll say they just love the ocean. Then there are other people who live down here and once a week, every Sunday afternoon, they go over to the ocean and they tiptoe and they wade and get their feet wet, and they talk about how much they love the ocean and how they know the ocean. But if you really want to know the ocean, if you really want to get to appreciate it fully, you’ve got to go out into the water – like those crazy people who on a painted piece of wood fight their way through the waves and ride them back on the surf – they know the power of the ocean. They have an appreciation for the power of the waves that those of us who put our toes in can never have. Or the ones who go out in the ships and explore to find out what’s out there. And the ones who dive deep down into the ocean and they see all the various fish, the coral and all the amazing things that are in the ocean. Those who go out into the deep water have an experience of the ocean that is beyond what any of those who are putting their toes in the water can imagine.
It’s kind of like that with God. We can visit God a couple times a year, come to church on Christmas and Easter, say we love God, appreciate the magnificence of creation and then go home. Or we can come every Sunday, which is wonderful and noble thing to do. It’s great, I’d like everybody to come every Sunday, where we can wade around in God, appreciate the words and the music, and learn a little bit about God like we get a sense of the beauty of the ocean. But if you really want to have a relationship with God, if you really want to know the depths of what that creation is, if you want to experience the awesome power of God’s love in your life, the transformative power of that love, you’ve got to go out into the deep water. You’ve got to go to where it’s uncomfortable. You have to challenge yourself. You have to expose yourself to ideas that may make you squirm a little bit. You need to come to a class. You need to read books that will challenge you. You need to listen to things on the iPod that will challenge you. You need to pick up scripture and read it.
I had a seminary professor who said that when you’re reading the bible and you read a passage where you think ‘yeah, that’s right,’ just keep reading. But when you get to a passage where you think, ‘no, this can’t be right,’ that’s when you should stop and think about it and sit with it and struggle with it. When you start to get a little bit uncomfortable that’s when you go into the deep water. That’s when you can be transformed and really get to know God.
This year we’re going to be looking at what God is calling us to do and be as a community. As we listen, let’s forget about the, “We did it before.” Let’s forget about, “Well I invited somebody to come to church three years ago and they didn’t come so I don’t need to invite anybody ever again.” Let’s forget that. And let’s forget any sense of unworthiness. Let’s not talk about how our church is too small or our church is too old or our church is too whatever, because God calls us and uses us in our weakness, in our limitations. Let’s step into the deep water. Let’s explore the depth of God. It is the ones who’ve gone deep into the ocean who realize that the ocean is vaster than we can imagine. They know they’ll never fully understand it. Together let’s plummet the depths to learn about God and to appreciate God’s love for us.
And let us each recommit to be like Peter at the end of that reading where it says he left his boat by the shore and followed Christ. Amen.
