“Master, we have worked all night long, but have caught nothing” (Lk. 5:5).
Our Gospel today tells the story of Peter’s call to discipleship, but in truth, it’s a story about the nature of ministry. In other words, when Jesus tells him to go out into the deep water, Peter’s not engaged in ministry, he’s just fishing; but the Church from earliest times understood that the story has everything to do with the proclamation of the good news. Jesus tells Peter, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (Lk. 5:4). Those who heard this Gospel realized that he wasn’t really talking about fishing, but about the ministry that they were engaged in. They were to leave the shallows near the shore and head out into the deep, and the results would be amazing.
Given its later context of ministry, we might be surprised that the Gospel includes Peter’s less than enthusiastic response. “Master, we have worked all night long, but have caught nothing” (Lk. 5:5). In other words, you are sending us out to do what we have already been doing all night long: what’s the sense of that? Peter and his crew head back out, of course, but they do so pretty grudgingly. “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets” (Lk. 5:5): that is, I will proclaim the Gospel and try to share the good news.
I don’t think we should be too surprised that this detail is included by our Gospel writer, because it rings true to life and true to ministry. Anyone who has ever prepared a bible study attended by two people will know what I’m talking about. Laboring as the annual stewardship chair and being underwhelmed at the number of pledges is a regular part of congregational life. You deliver a sermon, and people draw a conclusion from it that is directly opposed to the point you were trying to make! This happens more than you think (I wrote this last week, so don’t think I’m referring to any recent sermon). Well, Jesus, in spite of it all, if you insist, I will get back in the boat and let down the nets.
I have a hunch that the point of this story is not that we need to be better fishermen or even better disciples, to “get with the Jesus program” and start getting results. Rather, like the poet says, “The fault lies not in the stars but in ourselves.” The challenge is an internal one. When Jesus invites Peter and his crew to head back out, he’s telling them to get on with it, in spite of their natural resistance, and to continue in the same course. God needs faithful disciples who have a sense of the huge catch that the two people at the bible study represent; or who can recognize the cumulative long term effect of the stewardship campaign; or who have the humility to acknowledge that the brilliant point you were trying to make in your sermon may not have been the good news that everyone needed to hear.
Much of the effect of the ministry we’re engaged in is concealed from us. The fruit of our labor is incalculable. To vary the metaphor, we’re in a seed planting business, as St. Paul says, where one plants, and another waters, but it is God who gives the growth (1 Cor. 3:7). If we continue to let down our nets, Jesus tells us in our Gospel today, then the catch will be enormous.
Today we commemorate Florence Li Tim-Oi, ordained to the priesthood by her bishop in the midst of enemy occupation and the violence of the Second World War. She was the first woman ordained to the priesthood in the Anglican Communion. After the war was over she surrendered her license as a priest, since her Church was not ready to endorse her bishop’s action. She continued her ministry in China under very difficult circumstances during the time when the Communist government closed the churches; as a Christian she was sent to a “reeducation camp.” I don’t know if there were moments when she thought, “Master, we have worked all night long, but have caught nothing” (Lk. 5:5), but she might have. Yet in the scales of obedience, and with the eyes of faith, we can see that there was a mighty catch prepared.
One last detail from the story that’s worth noting: when the catch exceeds Peter’s expectations, and the boat begins to sink, he falls at Jesus’ knees and says, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Lk. 5:8). Truly, the fault lies not in the stars but in ourselves. Do we have the vision to see what God is doing in our midst, or are we blinkered by our own expectations? Are we looking for our own results and not seeing the abundant catch that lies all around us? I have a sense that all true renewal begins with confession of sin, and the longing to draw near to God. If these things are present, then God will be glorified. As Jesus says, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (Lk. 5:4).