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The Rev. Dr. Dennis E. Morey, Pastor
Scripture: Luke 5:1-11
Crisis or Opportunity
It was hopeless. Peter and his brothers had been in the boat all night and there just wasn’t a fish to be caught. Were all the fish gone? None of their techniques worked. It was getting daylight and they gave up and went ashore. The fishermen decided to wash the sea gunk off their nets and go over them completely to make sure there were no holes allowing the fish to escape. A whole night with no fish at all? Something was wrong.
They had to produce a steady supply to the market. One night with no catch meant a crisis in the chain of supply and demand. If they didn’t keep a steady supply of fish coming, then the vendors unable to count on the supply would begin buying from someone else.
Jesus was on the shore teaching, and the people were so interested they kept moving in closer so they could hear him better. It came to the point that Jesus was either going to have to back the crowd up or stand in the water. There were a couple of boats there, and suddenly Jesus had an idea.
He looked around and saw those fishermen folding up their nets. He asked if they would allow him to sit in the boat and if they could row out a little so he could continue teaching. Peter got the nets together and got into the boat with Jesus. It worked wonderfully.
After Jesus had finished his teaching, he sent the crowd on its way and told Peter to continue out further from the shore into the lake. The fishermen went out further, thinking perhaps Jesus wanted a ride across the lake.
After they had heard Jesus speak, they were all attentive to whatever Jesus said. They had learned so much. Jesus had so much to offer in his teaching. It was like a breath of fresh air from the religion they had grown up with.
When they got out into the deeper water, Jesus said, “O.K. Put down your nets in this place for your next catch.”
Peter could have said, “No offense, but we have been fishing all night and there are just no fish to be caught. We can’t waste our energy fishing at this time of day. And besides, the nets are all folded and ready for our night fishing. Now it’s daytime and you want us to try to catch fish? That isn’t how it works.” Instead, he said, “If you insist, we will honor your advice.”
They threw out their nets with a chuckle, wondering, “What does a rabbi know about fishing? We just got these nets cleaned and folded in preparation for the way we know is the best way to fish, at night; then he comes along. Oh, well.”
Suddenly the nets filled with fish, more fish than they had caught the whole past week, so many fish that the boats were going to sink. Peter needed the help of his partners, and the other boat joined them and no one could believe the huge catch.
How did that huge catch happen? As I was reading this passage during the week, it occurred to me that Peter and the others had been listening to Jesus teach while they mended and cleaned their nets. After they were finished and had folded the nets, they boarded the boat and went where Jesus directed them. The result was a tremendous catch of fish.
Jesus said that, if they could commit to following his direction, they would catch people for the Kingdom of God.
Catching people for the Kingdom of God, helping someone to become part of God’s family, that is what the church is all about. That is what we are supposed to be doing with our time left on this earth and with our resources both as individuals and collectively as this part of Christ’s church.
Catching people for the Kingdom of God is to be the direction of Christ’s Church. That is our focus.
Some churches are focused on crisis. We haven’t caught any fish, we haven’t attracted enough new people, and so there is a shortage of help and, worse yet, a shortage of money.
In the crisis mode, everything must first be looked at in terms of “What is it going to cost us?” I was with a church session lately that was going over the monthly expenses so intently that someone asked, “Why did we spend $21.73 last month on donuts?”
Someone replied, “Don’t you remember we had fellowship time one Sunday after worship?”
He replied, “Well once in a while may be all right, but we can’t afford to be spending money on donuts. We better not have fellowship time too often.”
The sad reality of that congregation is that he was right. That congregation, with its lack of fellowship and its lack of focus on catching people for the Kingdom of God, is in a crisis mode and it can barely afford to pay its bills. The church is run by, “We are in a crisis here. We can’t afford that.”
Some churches are run by tradition. Only those things that have been done before can be attempted. Nothing new fits. “What do you mean you are sending kids to church camp? My kids never went to camp and they turned out just fine. I think families are busy enough without the church taking the kids away for a whole week during the summer. Families are falling apart. They need to spend more time together.”
Some churches are run by a community mindset. “We are Scottish and the Scots are always looking for a bargain. Show us how we can do it cheaper and we might be interested. Why does the church buy two-ply toilet paper when we can buy single ply for half the price? Besides, I’d think the two-ply just uses up trees faster. You know the day is coming when there won’t be any trees. What are you going to do then?”
The church is called by God to first focus unconditionally on the Kingdom of God. That means, regardless of our tradition, regardless of the price, regardless of what we used to be, or who used to think what, if this is what God is calling us to do to move God’s Kingdom forward we will do it.
We must throw out the nets, even though it may seem to us an inopportune time. We will do what Christ leads us to do. We are in this boat with him. We have pushed out into the deep at his command, and we are not going to let what looks like a present crisis cause us to miss our opportunity.
Sessions, church members, and often pastors protest, “But these are hard times. We have to scale back on our mission giving. We have to stop having evening Bible studies. The cost of materials and heating the church, it is just not worth it for that handful of people.
“I tell you we can no longer put so much effort into Vacation Bible School. It takes just as much work to do it for ten kids as it does for fifty. We just don’t have enough people interested in throwing out that net. Kids are too messy, they are disrespectful, they are loud and usually late, we get about half of the lesson accomplished and the time is over. I tell you it is just asking too much. Besides we don’t have fifty kids, so let’s skip it this year. When we get at least fifty of our own kids signed up, then we can do it.”
Everything that is happening as a part of the life of the church must be focused on God’s Kingdom. That means the whole budget, the kitchen project coming soon, the whole mission budget are part of the way we throw out the net, the resources God has given us, to catch people for God’s Kingdom.
Throwing out the net is not about doing what we think is going to accomplish the optimum result. If we wait until we think everything is just right, we will always see the crisis and never the opportunity. Throwing out the net is about following Christ’s command to focus on catching people for the Kingdom of God, regardless of our view of what we interpret as a crisis.
Vacation Bible School is not the goal; it is the tool that helps achieve the goal of reaching children with the good news of God’s love.
No church can continue to move forward unless its purpose is not dodging the crisis so it can continue to exist, but going for the opportunity to attract others to God’s love. Anything that would threaten to pollute that focus must be excluded from the life of the church.
When there is something that pulls us down, when there is something that says this is a crisis, our efforts for the Kingdom of God are insignificant, or the job is too big or we are too few, our net gets holes in it. Our doubts about our ministry here cause us to doubt what God is doing and, when God draws someone to himself and they come to this place, we have nothing to offer.
The fishermen were able to catch the fish God put in just the right spot because their nets were clean and in good shape. They went with mended nets. The nets were ready for their intended purpose.
If we want to be the church that is growing closer to what God has called us to be, then we need to understand that our business is fishing. We can’t just stay on the shore and clean the nets and mend the nets, getting our building and our materials all in place, as we wait for the crisis of supply and demand to vanish.
We have to get into the boat. We have to actually get into ministry, commit ourselves to what God has for us to do. Following the command of Jesus, we cast out that clean, mended net in the spot where God has put the fish.
Often as the church we whine about the crisis: Our net is too small, not enough people, not enough teachers, not a big enough budget, the building is too small, the building is too big, we are missing the opportunity.
The decline in church attendance has much to do with our attitude. We haven’t prepared the nets we have, and we haven’t even got near the boat. We have made no investment of our time and we aren’t ready to go when Christ says, “Go out into the deep a little further.”
We don’t like that idea. The deep water is frightening. We want to stay where it is safe, near the shore with our mended, clean nets. Can’t Jesus bring the fish up closer to the shore? Do we have to go where the fish are?
Perhaps we are more focused on fixing the nets and cleaning the nets in preparation for the time when the crisis will pass, when things are more convenient. Besides, we just don’t want to throw out the net and catch anyone. We want to attract certain people.
I have worked with two sessions in this Presbytery whose congregations do not live in their neighborhood. Now those neighborhoods are mostly Hispanic. When I talked about some ideas to attract the people who live nearest to the church, both sessions said, “What? We don’t want those people coming. This church has traditionally attracted professionals. We need more professors and business owners.”
One of those congregations has closed and the other is down to 18 and spending its savings quickly.
Those congregations will die; they must die. They should close, for they have ceased being Christ’s church.
They are no longer interested in throwing out the net and catching those God has put in just the right spot at just the right time. They have let what they see as a crisis rob them of their opportunity to catch people for the Kingdom of God.
In this congregation, in all our committee work, and all our planning, in our work in this New Year, in our planning for the kitchen, and our participations to work in the life of the church, let our focus be on what Christ has called us to do. If we will follow his direction we will not be in crisis, but flooded with opportunities.
Amen.
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Luke 5:1-11 (From the
New Revised Standard Version of the
Bible) |
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