Trinity
5 – Luke 5:1-11 – July 15th and 16th,
2017
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
I’m
not sure if we understand just how foolish our Lord’s instructions
to Simon Peter, the instructions to cast out his nets, must have
sounded. We are used to the story, we know what happens, so it seems
so clear, but pause for a moment, and consider what Simon Peter’s
day had been. He had been up all night, working, toiling, for
nothing. Empty net after empty net, doing nothing but hauling by
hand wet, rough, net. All night long. A lousy day. And then, when
he is tired – Jesus commandeers his boat, and then Jesus sits down
and teaches from the boat. So after a long day of work, then you get
a morning’s worth of teaching – a trip to Church as it were. And
then, Jesus tells Simon Peter to cast out the nets. In the daylight,
when the fish would be swimming deeper to avoid the heat – when it
was foolish to try to fish – which is why the fishermen had been
out all night. And you can almost hear the sigh that Simon Peter
must have given. Master, we toiled all
night and took nothing! But at Your Word I will let down the nets.
Tired, worn, and weary, Peter casts out the nets again. Do you know
what this would be like? Imagine that one of our farmers has just
finished going over a field that was a complete loss. Nothing on it.
And after the service I were to say to him, “Why don’t you go
run your combine-thingy over that field again.” A completely
stupid and foolish idea. I highly doubt that any farmer would humor
me on that – and as well they shouldn’t – I’m not God. But
Simon Peter does cast down the nets at our Lord’s Word, and we know
what happens – the miraculous catch of fish – miraculous in terms
of size, in terms of time and timing – a number of fish that is
unbelievable.
What
we see here is a perfect and wonderful demonstration of a truth that
impacts everything. The wisdom of God seems utterly foolish to
sinful man. Plain and simple. Quite often what God plans, what God
says, seems to us like sheer stupidity. This is true of both God’s
Law and Gospel. Consider God’s Law. What does God teach us to do?
Love your enemy. Put your neighbor’s need ahead of your own.
Turn the other check. Never take advantage of your neighbor in
business deals. Always give of yourself. From the world’s
perspective, from the perspective of our sinful flesh, these are all
utterly foolish – these have absolutely nothing to do with looking
out for number 1! And when we are tempted, every temptation is
nothing more than Satan slithering on up to us and saying, “Look,
this stuff that God wants you to do – doesn’t it just seem so
foolish?” To sinful man, God’s law looks foolish.
Same
thing with the Gospel. Same thing with the Cross. That God Almighty
would come down from heaven and suffer for the very people who
spurned Him and rebelled against Him, who constantly sin and flout
His commands. And more than that – the fact that the benefits
Christ wins are given freely, the fact that we are forgiven for
Christ’s sake and that we don’t have to do anything, indeed, that
we can’t do anything, that there is no way we could make it up to
Him, and more over God doesn’t even want us to think about making
things up to Him – that God would say, “No, I Myself will handle
this, I will take your sin from you and Crucify it Myself and restore
you unto Myself.” Do you see why St. Paul can say that the world
views this as utter folly? It’s so opposite of what the world
expects. And yet, by faith, we know God’s acting for what it is –
the power of salvation.
Simon
Peter, in that moment when he sees the nets full of fish, when he
sees the wisdom of the world so utterly and completely throw upon its
head, knows that he is in the presence of God. “Depart
from me, for I am a sinful man, O LORD.”
Simon Peter doesn’t call Jesus “Master” anymore; he doesn’t
just humor a slightly nutty preacher – rather, this Jesus is LORD,
is God Almighty, is Jehovah. And Simon Peter knows he is a sinner,
and Simon Peter knows that he’s got no business being this close to
a Holy God. . . by rights, by all earthly wisdom, there should be
nothing for sinful man but punishment and wrath, condemnation and the
curse of death, nothing but the wages of sin, the burden of the
expulsion from the garden to come crashing down on Simon Peter right
then and there. But again, Jesus in His utter and true wisdom
decides to do something the world would see as foolish.
Do
not be afraid. Do not be afraid. Put
away your fear. Do not worry about any punishment, do not worry
about any judgment coming from Me against you. Do you hear how
foolish that sounds? Why, even to American Christians – we love
our fire and brimstone sermons. The most famous sermon in American
History, and a classic of literature, is “Sinners in the Hands of
Angry God.” You can turn on the TV and hear preachers shouting
until they are blue in the face about how there will be Judgment for
this, for that, watch out, God’s gonna getcha! And right there is
one of those sinners – right in front Christ – expecting the
worst – thinking the best he can hope for is that God will go and
leave him alone. Think about that – Peter’s only hope was that
Jesus would go away. Depart from me! Yet what does our Lord say?
“Do not be afraid. I’m not going anywhere – in fact, you will
be coming with Me. I will be with you and you will be with Me, and I
will forgive you and be with you always.”
Do you
see, do you understand who God is? God is no longer out to get you.
God is not seeking to punish you. Why? The Cross. Every sin ever
was carried by Christ to that Cross and done away with, punished in
full. God’s wrath was completely and fully poured out upon Christ
– there’s no wrath left for you, there is no more condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. God really and truly isn’t out
to get you – Christ stepped up to the Cross and took that bullet
for us. And so He can say even to us today, “Do not be afraid.
Know My forgiveness. Your sins can no longer condemn you, for I have
borne them for you.” Do you realize that, do you understand that –
there is no sin that you do that can condemn you – the only thing
that condemns is unbelief, is spurning the Cross, is saying, “No
thank you” to God and His mercy. In Christ there is life and
salvation, and apart from Christ there is not. The question isn't
how good or how bad you are, what you've done bad or what good you've
done to make it up. That doesn't matter before God. The question is
are you in Christ?
But
here is the wonder and joy that we have. God has called us to faith
by His Word, we have heard the message of Christ Crucified, and by
the Grace and power of God we know it for what it is – our
salvation, our hope, that to which we cling. And we know how God
bolsters that faith, by the gift of Holy Baptism, by the repeated
preaching of that same Word, by His repeatedly giving us His own Body
and Blood to strengthen us. By the fact that Christ has created His
Church, has over and over called men to be fishers of other men, to
cast out the Net of God’s Word and Sacraments to catch and bring
people into Church.
And
again, this is a place where the wisdom of God is so much greater
than the wisdom of men, and this is something we always need to bear
in mind. I will be honest with you – there are a lot of worldly
ideas out there about how to grow the church, how to “catch men”
as it were. And they are creeping into the Missouri Synod – and
the bureaucrats who simply sit in an office and see nothing but
numbers and dollar signs, who think like worldly businessmen can take
a strong, strong liking to them. Some of the stuff that comes down
the pike is utter worldly, utterly stupid – treating people who
don’t know Jesus like they are mere consumers ready to buy
something. Let’s market this, let’s advertise this. I’ve been
out in the parish for 13 years, and it seems like some new plan or
model shows up every 2 years, but three years later it’s outdated
and cliché. Utter foolishness of men. What is forgotten is that
the Church of God is not a business of the world, and it doesn’t
run by the world’s dog eat dog rules.
How
does Simon Peter catch the fish? Is it because of his hard work?
He’d been fishing all night and hadn’t caught anything. Is it
because of his wonderful plans? They had fallen flat. Was it a neat
7 step plan, or 40 day commitment to fill in the blank? Nope. But
at Your Word I will let down the nets.
The catch comes simple and solely because Christ said so – because
of God’s Word. If Simon Peter becomes a great fisher of fish by
God’s Word, doesn’t it stand to follow that Simon Peter will be a
fisher of men by. . . God’s Word? And what do we see Peter doing
on Pentecost? He’s. . . preaching. He quotes, and then even later
on ends up writing, Scripture. When he’s good he’s all about the
Word of God. The same thing is upon us. The Church is always to be
about the Word of God, Law and Gospel, and when we abandon that Word,
we are no longer Church. We, as long as we desire to remain
“Church”, must be devoted not to our plans, not to our goals, not
to what we’d like to see, not to dreams of full pews and fuller
offering plates, not to how many people show up at the latest pep
talk or concert that pretends it’s Church – rather this. We are
to be devoted solely and only to Christ and His Word, to know nothing
but Christ and Him Crucified – to be in the Word and to proclaim
that same Word and nothing else to others. And then we will dwell in
the House of the Lord all our days. As for others, the folks out
there – hopefully through our lips God’s Word will work upon them
– we can't force that though - the Holy Spirit works when and where
He wills. However we remain in the Word, we continue to trust in His
Wisdom while the world laughs at our folly – for we know God’s
Word for what it is, we know the Cross for what it is – the power
and wisdom of God for salvation. While others will demand signs in
the pocketbook and nifty plans – we will preach Christ Crucified,
that stumbling block and folly to the world, and we will rest
securely and comfortably in His love, His forgiveness, His
righteousness. He has told us that we need not be afraid – all
that remains then is for us to receive the His gifts and give thanks.
O give thanks unto the Lord for He is good, and His mercy to us, in
spite of the blustering of the world, endures forever. In the Name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit +
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