Sermon: "Windows of Opportunity"

4th in the "Reframing Our Perspective on Jesus" series.
Delivered October 4, 2009 by Rev. George Antonakos.
Sermon Text: Luke 5:1-11

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Good morning. It's good to see you all this morning. I'm going to share something I didn't share at the other two services, and I'll just take a second because I know there is a game today. There is a game. Okay.

Every minister has a barrel. Do you know what that means... every minister has a barrel? If you've been preaching for 20 years, you have a barrel. You have a barrel of sermons. Okay? Sometimes it's really tempting just to use an old sermon, you know. But I was looking through my barrel, and on 10/15/00 (October 15, 2000) just a few months into when I came for the interim after Ron left, I preached from this text, and at the end, I was looking at the end. How did I end that sermon? I ended it. I said, "Do you know what?" And this was at a time when this building was not here. There were not three services; there were only two. And I said, "You know, here we are." We were worshipping about 400 or 500 at the time. I said, "God wants us to trust him, to follow him."

I thought about that as I came up. It is nine years ago and here we are worshipping about 800, but the same message is there. God still wants us to follow him and to see what else God wants to do, and great things. So that ability to have some hindsight on that and to see where God has taken the church has been so encouraging as I come to the same text, but I'm preaching it in a very, very different way as I did then.

We have come to our final week of a four-week series called "Reframing Our Perspective on Jesus". And Pastor John and the worship team have done a wonderful job in these previous three weeks helping us to strip away some stereotypes.

By the way, when you see Pastor John again, tell him congratulations. He's up in New York baptizing his granddaughter this weekend. That's why he's not with us today, so that's exciting for his family.

But anyway, in the past three weeks we've been looking at the heart of Jesus. We've tried to strip away stereotypes and see Jesus for who he is and why he came to minister to us in this world. And just as a quick recap, three weeks ago we talked about Jesus saying that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him that he might preach Good News to the poor, release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind. And so there was a sense that when we really see Jesus for who he really is freedom happens. And that's what the Scripture says, "Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty... there is freedom."

Then two weeks ago it was welcoming the marginalized... that those who are outcast and on the outside you'd think would never get in the inside, those folks are welcome. So there is a belonging nature of seeing Jesus as he really is. When we see him as he is, we will be part of a loving community and kingdom. Then last week was about healing the hurts of the suffering and the wounded, and so there is a sense that Christ, when we see him, wants our wholeness as best as we can have it on this side of eternity.

All of those weeks are intended to bring our hearts back into alignment with God the Father. Well in today's text in Luke, chapter 5, following the last three Sundays in Luke, chapter 4, the ministry of making us whole people and all those other things continues as Jesus teaches at the seaside. As he does, a man who was to become one of his closest friends and most committed followers, not only has his perspective of Jesus radically reframed, but his whole life is changed as well.

So today our focus is this as we conclude this series... when we reframe our perspective of Jesus and see him for who he really is, it will lead to a reframing of our perspective of ourselves. We will see ourselves differently when we really see Jesus for who he is. We'll not only see ourselves differently, but we'll see that life was meant to be a certain way and that God has a design for each and every one of us.

Not too long ago I brought home a children's book that Ellen asked me to bring home called Read Aloud Bible Stories, Volume 2, Ella Lindvall. And the first story is from the Scripture that we're reading from today. And I was very, very tempted to use, to just read right from this story because it is very close, but to avoid any hint of condescension, I decided not to do that. And however, I do want to show you the first page, and there it is. It's not in color on the screen, but there it is.

And it says, "Simon had a boat, and every day Simon got into his boat and went splish splash out into the water to catch fish." Now I know you probably want me to continue with this, but it's going to lead us into the grown-up Bible version of Luke, chapter 5, verses 1-11 which can be found on page 939. But I do promise to show you the last page of the story at the end. Okay?

We're going to read the passage together, and to add some flavor to our reading, since we're all trying to be children of God, when we get to the places in this passage that are in quotes, it's either Jesus speaking or Simon speaking, then I want you to ask you to read along with me. Pay careful attention because there are some places where there are no quotes between quotes and you might find yourself reading alone out there. Okay.

So let's pray first: Lord, thank you for this passage of Scripture that helps us to see your continued intent in this world. You are the same yesterday and today and forever. And so help us to hear your Word and to follow in the power of the Holy Spirit. To the glory of God the father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

"One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the Word of God, he saw at the water's edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.' Simon answered, 'Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.'

When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, 'Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!' For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, 'Don't be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.' So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him."

When my son was in first grade in 1981, he had a teacher whose name was Ms. Shenk. I don't think I remember any other of his teacher's names, but I remember hers because she, in her infinite kindness in dealing with her students who did not always behave, said something that has not only stuck in my mind, but has probably become part of my vocabulary when I am trying to encourage others.

And her phrase that she said was (when we would go to a conference and we wouldn't get such a great report), she would say, "Everyone is entitled to a bad day." Everyone is entitled to a bad day. She was trying to let us down easy, but this reframe of her student's misbehavior was an expression, I think, of her general outlook toward people. She was always smiling, and she was my son's favorite elementary school teacher because of her loving attitude and her patient spirit.

Well in Luke 5, we open up with a focus on a very, very loving, patient teacher. He's being crowded around by lots of people. I don't know about you, but when people crowd me it kind of freaks me out and I don't get very patient... stay very patient. But he is not that way. The reason is because he sees they're eager to hear a word from God.

In Luke's gospel you don't hear what you hear in Matthew and Mark's gospel when it says that Jesus came onto the scene preaching, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent." This is Luke's version. It says that the people were crowding around, listening to the Word of God, listening to the message of the kingdom.

And so he is there teaching the people, and he patiently is teaching them. He asks Simon who owns a boat to use his boat as a pulpit. And he pushes away a little bit from shore and he uses that whole setting as an amphitheatre so his voice can project and people are listening to this word about the kingdom.

And as important as all these things are in the first three verses of Luke, chapter 5, it's really preliminary to what Luke wants us to really see and what he wants to emphasize in this passage. It's no question that he wants us to get and hear ourselves the Word of God, the message of the kingdom, but in this story, there is an individual in the crowd. And his name is Simon, and Simon is having a really bad day. I don't know if he was entitled to the bad day, but he was having a really bad one because all night long, working to exhaustion... It's not like pleasure fishing. It is casting nets over and over again, all night long... heavy nets, trying to catch it... then nothing. He comes up empty.

It leads to a day of disappointment when Jesus is standing and preaching to everybody else. He's kind of tuned out, I think. Well it's my guess that any number of us at the start of this day, October 4, 2009, it's possible that maybe some of us have had a bad day this past week. Maybe even last night there was an argument or some frustration or something even worse... trying to cope with a loss or with difficulty.

From what I know of some of the wounds in our congregation, to say that some of you have had a bad day in the recent past would be grossly understating what's going on. On Thursday, before this mosaic was placed up where it is, it was here where I am standing. And I took a moment to read what people had written on the tiles. It almost just about brought me to tears to see what some of the broken places in our lives are and where we need the healing of Jesus.

Then when I came in and I saw it like it is now in the shape of a dove, it did cause me to cry because it's such a beautiful image that God can take the broken places and mend them and use them for his glory. But what we learn about Jesus here in this text is that while he is interested in a crowd, he is also interested in individuals. He loves the whole world, but he loves you.

And we'll see that a bad day can become your best day or one of your best days when Jesus is in it. However, for that to happen it requires a shift, a shift in listening to the Lord's voice at a different level because after he teaches, after he finishes speaking in verse 4, he says to Simon, "Okay Simon, put out into the deep water and let down the nets for a catch."

Now for Simon who was an expert fisherman, this made no sense. Even today people who go fishing... they'll go at night and they'll go with lanterns to try to draw the fish in near to the shore and try to get a haul that way. But Jesus says, "Go out into the deep water and try and throw down your nets there."

More than just challenging him to faith about time and location of his fishing, something more important is going on here. Jesus is speaking right into Simon's point of frustration and failure. He is addressing him right at the moment, perhaps, of one of his most difficult days. Jesus not only cares for us as an individual, he'll come to us at the moments that we most need him even many times when we're not even aware that we need him.

So Jesus not only cares about us individually, he can take the lowest moments of our frustration and use them to challenge how we normally look at life. I think we've all heard testimonies of people who are just going along just fine. Then something hits and it reorients everything. Other people go through that and it reorients nothing. Some people are softened. Some people are hardened by life's circumstances.

But it's in the stressful moments of life that our Lord can turn our thinking, can start to shift us. I remember in my college years when I was feeling a tremendous sense of aimlessness, not really sure what I was going to be doing after I was graduated, I knew I'd get a job somewhere. At least I thought I would. And I didn't know what it was, and frankly, I wasn't very clear on what it should be. And so as a symptom of that many times, I would start to do what other college students do... start drinking. And we would drink excessively and all of that.

I remember, even though I didn't do that often, I remember one day after one of those nights in the midst of a hangover and a really smelly room saying to myself, almost like standing outside of myself, or hearing a voice like, "What are you doing? What on earth are you doing? What?" I wasn't thinking like in great philosophical terms like what is the meaning of my life, or anything like that. But it was in the same ballpark. It was...

And I think... I think what happens that's one of the greatest blessing of all in disguise is when we can stand back from ourselves and evaluate what's going on.

I was sharing with someone else not too long ago, Scott Peck wrote a book called People of the Lie. And his theme in People of the Lie is that people who are the unhealthiest are not able to see their own fault in anything. They can't see their own part in anything that goes wrong. It's everybody else's fault. And so when people are able to step back and question themselves, that's a fortunate moment even though it may not feel that way in the moment. But those are nudges from God's spirit when we say things to ourselves like, "What in the world are you doing? What's going on in your life? Why? What? There has to be something more," that kind of thing. I think maybe Peter was in that place.

In the past week or so, a rabbi who had conversations with Michael Jackson released some of those taped sessions. Did anybody hear any of those taped sessions of Michael Jackson speaking to this rabbi? Well in them was a portrait, I think, of a tortured and tormented person. I think we all know that from the snippets of information we have, and as kind and good as part of him was, I found myself thinking how much I wished he could have been rescued from himself. I wish he could have just... somebody could have just reached in there and said, "Michael this distorted frame of reference about who you see yourself to be... it's all wrong. Let me share with you how you can see it differently."

If there is anyone here even remotely on that continuum of distortion, getting a new perspective begins with hearing the Lord's voice prompting us to a new frame of reference about ourselves and about what life can be. Not in spite of our failure and stress, but right in the midst of our failure and stress.

I came across a quote I would like to share with you by John Fischer. Pardon the non-inclusive language here, but it's probably a pretty old quote. He said:

"A good man is not a perfect man. A good man is an honest man, faithful and unhesitatingly responsive to the voice of God in his life."

Now I would like to debate with Mr. Fischer that I don't know about the unhesitating part because I think many times we do hesitate, but I think the responsive part is what's in view. That we are to respond to the voice of God in our life.

That's exactly what Simon does. He listens. He says, in verse 5, Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and we haven't caught anything, but because you say so, I will let down the nets." And in those six words, "... because you say so, I will... " is a turning point.

Whenever we come to that place, "Because you say so, I will," and we do what God wants us to do, there is a turning point in our life. It begins a turning toward a more whole, free, full existence. If we can take the next step, according to Christ's command, even if it doesn't make sense, even if we're not sure about the outcome, the results will amaze us, and that's what occurs.

There is this miraculous catch of fish. But the miracle was designed to catch something else. It caught Peter's heart. It caught Peter's heart because in a single moment, he realized he was in the presence of the holy. That his rabbi and his master and his teacher and his friend was so much more than all of that because he said, "Lord," when he saw all this. He calls him "Lord...Kurios," depart from me because I'm a sinful man.

In that moment, in the presence of the holy he realized how unworthy he was to be in that presence. But in verse 8, there is a theological hint about something good that's coming. Through these 11 verses, the name "Simon" is used many times, but only in verse 8, is the old name and his new name, Simon Peter, mentioned. See the gospels were written long after all these events took place. And they're not only historical chronologies, they are theological treatises of how God has worked. And so that's why you have "Simon Peter" right here in Luke's gospel.

What's that saying? It's saying that the old is around, but the new is starting to happen. It's a reorientation call from God. Simon Peter is theologically hinting at what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 when he says, "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old has gone, the new is here!"

In other words, our identity and purpose are most certainly and clearly understood through an honest relationship with Jesus Christ. In that relationship, it's there that we realize the worst about ourselves and the best about ourselves in a single moment. That we can be different. It doesn't have to be the same. Jesus meets Simon at the point of his frustration at his level, and shows him that he can be fully trusted with every detail of his life.

Which leads me to ask this... what does that have to do with us? Well, frankly, everything. I mean it's an amazing thing that the Lord of glory would break into this life in his incarnation and provide a voice of healing and provide a voice of belonging and provide a voice of inclusion. But the more amazing thing to me is that in spite of our brokenness, in spite of our weakness, he wants to enlist us in his enterprise of being wounded healers to a world in need.

And so what he says to Simon he says to us in verse 10, the second part of verse 10. Three things very quickly to those who will follow Christ, to those who will put him first, make his priority their priority.

First he says, "Don't be afraid." The translation is... And every time you see, "Don't be afraid, don't fear," from somebody who is not of this world, like the angel to the shepherds in the fields when he said, "Don't be afraid. Do not fear," ...forgiveness is on the way. New hope is on the way. "Don't be afraid." Because he said, "Lord, depart from me. I'm a sinful man." "Don't be afraid, Peter, you're forgiven." Then he says, "From now on," that's the second thing, "From now on." Translation, "You are destined for a new way of life; it doesn't have to be the way it's been. It can be something different and meaningful."

Then lastly, he says, "From now on you'll be catching people. You'll be fishing. You will fish for people." Translation, "You can be involved in work with eternal results." You know the literal meaning of the word "fish" here. Again, from a fish's perspective, fishing isn't good. Okay? From our perspective it means... the meaning of the word "fish" or "catch," you will be catching people alive, means "to take alive, to save alive from danger."

Are there any EMTs here? Any emergency medical technicians? Joey, my friend Joey is an EMT. Any doctors here? Doctors? A few doctors. There is one doctor, Peter, Dr. Mark. I love this because if something happens to me, I'm covered. Right? If I go down, they're right here. That's what it means. It means you will be rescuing somebody from death. There is another doctor right over there, Dr. Bob.

Their heart is not working right. Their life isn't zeroed in. You'll be able to rescue them out of that difficult situation. You'll be like holy Rambo. Okay? You'll rescue people who are caught and hopeless. Jesus calls us to that.

Paul to Timothy was expressing this in 2 Timothy 2:24-26 when later on he started to define... what is it like to be somebody who is a rescuer of people, who is a minister, who is a servant of the Lord? He says, "The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful." Opponents must be gently instructed in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the Devil who has taken them captive to do his will.

Only God can grant repentance, but we can be people who like loosen the bear trap, you know, and say, "Come on. You don't have to stay stuck. You can be walking with the risen Christ."

Were the disciples totally clear about what lay ahead when they left everything and followed him? No. They didn't understand everything. They were just ordinary people like you and me, but they were listening to his voice. But he calls them and us to follow him even with doubts and fears. C. S. Lewis, great quote. I love this quote. "If we only have the will to walk then God is pleased with our stumbles." If you just take the step toward him, even if we stumble, he loves us. He holds our hand. He's going to keep us moving in the right direction.

I mentioned ending with the last page of the children's book, and I'm sorry it has no pictures. But here are the words. They're right here. It's on the blank page, but these are great words. And these are words that we should hear.

"Simon wanted to please Jesus.
He did just what Jesus said.
Do you want to please Jesus?
Then what will you do?"

The reason that you got a Post-it note on your order of service today is because that's a way of allowing you to answer that question. For some of you, you may have never taken a step of faith toward Jesus in the sense of asking him to take over and be the authority in your life. Maybe you believe you have a certain sense of belief. You're not arguing that maybe Jesus was the Son of God from a theological sense, but you've never taken that step personally in his individual call to you. And so maybe your note on the Post-it note would just be your name, or I'm coming. I hear. Your initials, whatever you want to put down.

For others, it may be following Christ in a way that is different. You know one time in the four gospels, Jesus said, "You must be born again." Forty times he said, "Follow me." So you get the idea that following him... Because even when we follow him, they were following him and then they probably were born again. So keep following him.

At one point in the text, following Jesus meant drop your nets in the deep water. In another part of the text, following him meant leave them behind. So I don't know what you would write on your Post-it note to respond to following Jesus today, but no matter how illogical it might be to fill in this blank, "Because you say so, I will." No matter how uncertain the step might seem, if you will do it by faith, you will find that God is there for you.

I'm going to give you just a minute of silence so that you can think through the answer to what you would put on that Post-it. If you don't want to put it, fine. But as you come forward for communion today, and you partake of communion, then you're invited to take that Post-it and stick it on the colored-glass windows as a sign of your willingness to take another step to follow Christ. Also, as part of that, we will have prayer ministers by the pillars. And they too will be there standing, if you would like to take advantage of their presence to pray with you in whatever steps and struggles you may have.

So let's take a minute of silence to respond to this word.

Benediction: Here is the charge. I hope by now in these four weeks you've understood that being a believer in Jesus is not about following a set of rules, being rigid or that kind of thing. But it's about following the person who is the ruler of all, and he wants you to walk with him in this world to touch other people, to make a difference in spite of anything and everything that you've been through, to parlay that into grace for another person. Walk with him; he'll change you.

And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forever, Amen.

© 2009, Rev. George Antonakos
Central Presbyterian Church, Baltimore, MD 21204 410/823-6145
www.centralpc.org