Feb. 9, 2025: So Many Fish!

Old Testament Reading Isaiah 6: 1-8
The Gospel  Luke 5: 1-11               

It’s not often that we can open our minds and hearts wide enough to see God working in our midst, let alone appearing before us. How would we react if God appeared right here on our altar in a cloud of smoke with heavenly seraphs encircling him as the earth shook? Might we fall prostrate on the ground thinking it was our time of judgment as Isaiah did? Or what if we suddenly had a prophet before us who spoke of God and then presented us with some incredibly abundant gift of fish like Simon Peter or like a farmer being presented with a full harvest after the crops failed, like someone being restored to health after a terrible illness or someone whose life savings were lost in a stock market crash who suddenly, somehow, has all of them restored? Would we cry out about our unworthiness but also believe?

There are three parts to this reaction that we see both from Isaiah and Simon Peter. The first is the recognition that this gift whether a vision or some act of abundance is a confirmation of God with them that brings a sense of overwhelming awe. The second is a humble statement in reaction both to the gift and awe that they, just like us, are flawed humans and are not worthy of God’s abundant love and favor. And, finally, the third part comes after God asserts God’s call to them, thus noting that they are indeed worthy of it, this time it is a gracious submission. Isaiah says, “ Here am I, send me” not even knowing what the mission is but empowered by God’s belief in him. Simon Peter responds similarly but in action more than words. When they got to the shore, he and the other fisherman, James and John, left everything - walking away from their boats and their lives to follow Jesus. 

I want to look more closely at the Luke passage to see all that was involved in the miracles and in Simon Peter, James and John’s response to them. Let’s do so by weaving in some beautiful poems written by Pastor Poet Steve Garnaas-Holmes who prophet-like shares not only the miracles for the fisherman but the miracle of God in our own lives if we can just open our eyes to see.

“ Little Boat” is inspired by this scripture: Luke 5.3

            Jesus got into one of the boats,
            the one belonging to Simon,
            and asked him to put out a little way from the shore.
            Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
                        —Luke 5.3

A little boat, not grand,
grimy with fish scales,
the patina of sweat and gunk.

Simon didn't see it coming,
the sudden request to commandeer
his ordinary little boat,

from which the rabbi spoke words
that healed hearts,
that ignited miracles,

Simon noodling the oars
to keep the boat steady,
staring at Jesus' back.

Was he already feeling out of place,
his boat a divine oracle,
like he shouldn't be in it?

What was it like, to be inspired,
or convicted, or merely outclassed
in front of all those people?

It would take him longer
than that afternoon's miracle
to truly get on board.

You never know how the Beloved
may climb into your plain, messed-up life
to birth blessing for strangers,

or how long it might take you
to come to accept
that it ought to be so.

How might God be climbing into our imperfect lives, asking us to move over on the couch, to listen? God does not always show up as a physical presence, but is present nonetheless. Jesus’ first action in the boat was not for Simon Peter. He first asked Simon Peter for a ride so he could talk to the crowd without being jostled by them. He asked Simon Peter to row out so he could talk to the people crowded on the shore. 

Note that Simon Peter was not in that crowd - he had just gotten back from an unsuccessful fishing trip and was cleaning his nets. But Jesus, commandeering the boat in this manner, got Simon Peter’s attention and he responded both by rowing and by listening. I mean, how could he help but hear him in his little boat? We don’t know what Jesus was teaching that day, but Simon Peter was touched by it even before the miracle of the fish.

Consider when you feel the quiet nudge to help others. Maybe it comes from watching the news or hearing of a person in need. That nudge to do something, even something small, may just be God climbing into your life and asking you to be a blessing to others.

Our second poem by Pastor Garnaas-Holmes is “Willingness” inspired by Luke 5:5

            Simon said, “Boss, we worked all night long
            and caught nothing.
            Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”
                        —Luke 5.5

A beckoning deeper than words
comes to you, an incoming tide,
a hunger not your own,
a hankering greater than all of us.
Love asks something of you,
innocent, outlandish,
like an expectant child.
You don't need to know or understand,
you needn't calculate outcomes
or judge whether you are able,
you only need to be willing.

A great shoal of possibilities
swims just beneath your knowing.
You cast your control of things
into the mysterious waters.
The net of holiness
is not belief or understanding
but willingness.

This was actually the second thing that Simon Peter agreed to. First, he rowed out as Jesus asked him but now, his experience as a fisherman is being questioned. He was the expert, not Jesus. Yet, Simon Peter did not respond to Jesus with hubris stating - who are you to question my ability? Instead, he emphasizes that they had already tried- had fished all night without success, but he humbles himself to follow what Jesus said anyway rather than to assert any authority he has. 

What might we need to let go of to follow the direction that Jesus is nudging us towards? It is easy to be logical, to rely on our own expertise, what we are sure is fact. We want to lead, but sometimes we actually have to let go of power and control in order to gain it. It’s scary to let go of control, to follow the nudge without fully understanding it and yet by doing so, there could be a whole shoal of possibilities, a whole lot of fish out there just waiting for us to catch them. Suspending our disbelief is a way to let God in, which opens up a bigger net of opportunity. 

Pastor Garnaas-Holmes’s final poem in this series “Catching People” reflects on Simon Peter’s new mission from Luke 5.10

            “Do not be afraid;
            from now on you will be catching people.”
                        —Luke 5.10


The way you look at water and see what's beneath.
The way you know the need and habits
of unseen fish,
live your life by their rhythms,
think about them all the time,
and think they're beautiful.
The way you gather them, the joy
not just of a fish but a shoal, a netful.
And how, if it's people you're gathering,
you're one of them, not different or above,
brought near to each other in something greater,
a web cast in vast steadiness--
all of us caught up together.
Brought close not just to a boat
but a bosom.
Not recruited, but joined,
woven into the net that catches us all,
returning us to each other.

“Catching up alive,” the Greek means,
not snagged, not used,
but drawn, as we are, in love.
Like caught up in a dance.
Something is breathed into us.

We catch by being caught.

The thing about miracles from God is that they are not an end in themselves. Jesus was not just paying for the boat ride with so many fish, Jesus was calling Simon Peter and James and John to a different kind of vocation, a different kind of fishing: fishing for people in Jesus’ name. 
He was also calling them into community with him and all the other believers. In a community of faith we are stronger as individuals and as a group. In a community of faith we support one another in good times and in challenging times. In a community of faith we cast our net of love out wide like Jesus did in an abundant welcome to all in God’s creation. In a community of faith, we show our love by helping our neighbors and our enemies. In a community of faith we accept that God is still speaking and we try our best to listen. In a community of faith, we know that God will sustain us even when the seas are rocky.

And while Simon Peter caught so many fish, miracles do not always have to be big.

 Each Sunday that you join me here feels like a miracle in my call that nourishes and blesses me. God calling me here was a miracle in my life that made me walk away from the uncomplicated safety of the high school teaching boat that I was in. God gave me a bigger boat - one that allowed me to do two vocations. Like Peter, I had to learn a new way of fishing - from teaching students to read and write, to teaching people about God. Like Peter and Isaiah, I initially felt unworthy yet, like them, I quickly realized that all things are possible with God and humbly climbed into the new boat.

God finds ways in our lives to get our attention through the gift of so many fish. What might Jesus be calling you to do? How will you move over to make room for him in the boat? Just remember that when you do, you cast wide the net of possibility. Amen. 

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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