Sermon "Directing Your
Discouragements"
Rev. Lonnie Richardson
Sunday, February 8, 1998
Luke 5:1-11
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Directing Your Discouragement's
An atheist was spending a quiet day fishing when suddenly his boat was attacked by the Loch Ness monster. In one easy flip, the beast tossed him and his boat high into the air. Then it opened its mouth to swallow both. As the man sailed head over heels, he cried out, "Oh, my God! Help me!" At once, the ferocious attack scene froze in place, and as the atheist hung in mid-air, a booming voice came down from the clouds, "I thought you didn't believe in me!" "Come on God, give me a break!!," The man pleaded. "Two minutes ago I didn't believe in the Loch Ness monster either!" It's intriguing how our life experiences shape our ability to believe. The same could be said about fish stories.
The two little words "fish story" are synonymous in our minds with -- how shall we put it? -- creative embellishment of the truth. "If you think this fish is big...Why, you should have seen the one that got away!" The one that got away can't be dredged up out of the deep to dangle from a scale -- or to be laid out, tail twisting and flapping, against a ruler. It's the fisherman's word alone that measures the length of "the one that got away," and enters its weight in the logbook. Let's just say that a fisherman's account of such an event isn't a byword for reliability.
Today's Gospel lesson is a fish story -- but not of the usual, unreliable sort. Luke, after all is not a fisherman, but a physician. The biggest fish Jesus bagged that day wasn't plucked from the net at all. It was Peter, the fisherman himself who was hooked at a very discouraging time.
The disciples have been fishing all night. They have caught nothing. Jesus tells them, "Put out into the deep water, let down your nets for a catch." Peter informs Jesus, "We've worked all night but have caught nothing.....But if you give the word, we'll give it another try." And they caught so many fish that they thought the net would break.
As I prepared for this message, I wanted to end the reading there. "You stop at verse 6," I thought to myself. "This congregation will love that verse about how many fish they caught after they had the good sense to listen to Jesus."
And well we should. Because, every time the church gathers, we're here to listen to Jesus. "At your word, Lord, we'll let down the nets." At your
word. "Stop at verse 6," I thought to myself. "That part about, after a night of fishing failure, when they did what jesus told them, launched on out into the deep, they had such success, they could hardly pull the catch into the boat ... preach on that." If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
And well we should, because, if you've ever spent much time in the church, you know there are those times of failure and one must keep trying to get it right. Jesus has called you and me to be "fishers of people." "Follow me," he promises his disciples, "I'll teach you to catch people." But....so much is asked of the church, and yet we could show much more for our efforts.
Master, we've worked all night long; we've caught nothing. I've led this Bible study for two quarters now, without anybody ever saying, "Thanks." ... I tutored that kid for two years, two years, every Tuesday, and she's still flunking out of school. Master, we've worked all night long; we've caught nothing. "You stop at verse 6," I thought to myself, "the verse about their success."
But, I read on. The story of Jesus' fishing trip doesn't end simply with the great catch of fish. Go on to verse 8. "But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, 'Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man!' for he and everybody with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken."
Here's my question: why would Peter have said, "Get away from me, Jesus, I'm a sinful man!"? You'd think he would have been delighted, with this huge catch of fish after a futile night. Why this, "Get away from me, Jesus..." If you don't know why, then you don't know about the dangers of fishing with Jesus.
There's something about us which knows how to handle fishing failure, which wouldn't mind if this story ended in fishing futility. Something about us is downright comfortable with fishing all night without a bite, or being at church all day with little to show for it, something in you, something in me, content with Good Friday, but scared half out of our wits with the easter faith and hope. That God is among us invigorating the lives we live.
It could be that when encountering the very source of our hope, as these fishermen did with Jesus, that even temporal successes are dwarfed and we become discouraged that success has not been all that great. Our lives then become entrenched on a discouraging path.
The good news of the Gospel is that we do not have to settle to live discouraged lives. Discouragement can be directed! We can move from mending the nets of defeat to mending lives of faith in Christ.
So then, how do we get discouraged? An expectation didn't happen. Something we hoped would happen didn't quite make it and we get discouraged. But discouragement can become an opportunity to perfect a hope as it was for Peter.
There is a story of a Christian who complained about the hardness of life and circumstances that surrounded him. "I wish that God had never made me" he angrily stated. But a friend replied, "You are not yet made, you are only being made, and you are quarreling with God's process!"
Here are some ways to direct the discouragement following a disastrous experience, like fishing all night for your livelihood with nothing to show for it. Or achieving a goal and then realizing that's there's really more important things that matter.
1. Renew your willingness to serve God regardless of your current situation.
In our readings today we encounter persons who were called by God in very different ways to do things which they felt unworthy to do. In the first reading, Isaiah goes to the temple to pray and mourn the loss of the good King Uzziah when God comes to him in a vision. He is afraid and cries out "I am a man of unclean lips". He feels unworthy of God's call, but is purified by an angel and then answers the lord's call by saying: "Here I am, send me!" In all of the scriptures, this is one of the most classic examples of the use of these words as a response by those who are called by God to serve in a special way, but it is by no means the only one.
In the book of Genesis, God called Jacob in a dream and he responded "Here I am". When God called out to Moses from the burning bush, he too responded with the words "Here I am." Then there is that wonderful episode between Eli and Samuel when Samuel believes that Eli has called him three times when actually God is calling him. Each time he answers "Here I am." And then in the gospel, Jesus calls his first disciples: Peter, James and John.
2. Refine your expectations. I believe in medicine, even when some die. Adjust your expectations to reality. How does experience, reason and the scriptures affect what you hope for in the future.
3. Remember, God is with you. Even when you have gone through a disastrous situation you are never abandoned by God. John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
