Good morning, my name's Tommy.
I'm the rector of Church of the Advent.
So on behalf of our church, welcome.
Especially if you're joining us for the first time,
welcome to you.
I have heard reports from the women's retreat
that's currently underway.
I think many of our, some have come back,
but many are still there.
But I've just heard rave reports,
just incredible times spent in the Psalms,
incredible times of prayer and fellowship.
So we should just give thanks for that,
be praying for them as they make their way
back today, but I think it's just been
an extraordinary time.
My wife is there.
She just said it was fantastic.
So next time there's an opportunity,
if you didn't go this year,
I strongly encourage you to go
the next time there is an opportunity.
Once we go beyond the essentials,
like food, water, shelter,
there's a growing consensus
that perhaps our greatest need as human beings
is the need for meaning.
The need for purpose.
Viktor Frankl famously discovered this
in his experiences in a concentration camp
during the Holocaust.
He discovered that the thing that made the difference,
the thing that determined whether or not
people could endure the horrors of the concentration camp
was whether or not they were able to find meaning.
Was there something that gave their life meaning
in the midst of that meaningless suffering?
Carl Jung, not a Christian,
discovered something similar.
He famously wrote that out of the hundreds of patients,
adult patients he treated,
he says every single one of them
had problems stemming from the fact
that they had lost what he called
a religious outlook on life.
And by that he means
they had lost any sense of greater meaning
or purpose.
He said every single patient
had problems stemming from that
and every single patient required a solution
that included recovering
that sense of meaning in life.
The point is this,
if we want to be resilient,
if we want to psychologically
and emotionally thrive and flourish,
we need a sense of meaning.
We need something to aim our lives at,
something bigger than ourselves.
Now, of course, people find meaning
in all kinds of things,
in social causes, in politics,
family, kids.
But the reason that we have this longing for meaning,
the underlying reason,
is because God created us
with a purpose in mind.
And our problem as human beings
is that we have become disconnected
from God's purposes for our lives.
All of that leads us to the account
that we're looking at this morning
in Luke chapter 5.
Because when we see a conversion story
in the Bible,
like the one we see here in Luke chapter 5,
we need to understand
that this is about much more
than just someone adopting a new belief system
or a new way of life.
It's about much more
than someone simply getting saved individually.
This is what it looks like
when someone regains their sense of purpose.
It looks like,
this is what it looks like
when someone is reconnected
to their God-given purpose.
This is a story of a normal,
sinful human being
who gets swept up
into the great unfolding story
of God's renewal of all things.
And the New Testament writers
include stories like this
in their accounts
partly to show us
what is possible
for people like us.
So we're gonna look at this account
this morning
and we're gonna focus on
aspects of this experience,
this encounter,
that would apply
to anyone in this room.
Four aspects of Peter's call
that would apply
to every single person
in this room.
So let's pray
and ask God to help us
as we seek to understand his word.
Lord, we thank you for your word
and we thank you
that we're not just dealing
with human wisdom here.
We're not just looking
at good advice.
These are the words
of the living God.
These are words
that you as our creator
speak to us
and that because of your Holy Spirit,
through your son Jesus Christ,
Lord,
these words have the ability
to recreate us,
to remake us
and renew us
from the inside out
and to bring us face to face
with the living word,
Jesus Christ.
That's what we need
this morning, Lord.
We pray that by your spirit
it would happen.
In Jesus' name,
amen.
So the first thing
that I want us to notice
as we look at this encounter
between Jesus and Peter
is this.
Now this is a quick point,
but I think it's
an extremely important one.
This is not Peter's
first encounter with Jesus.
It's easy to miss that
because what you have to do
is you have to line up
the chronology
between the four gospels,
between the synoptic gospels
and the gospel of John.
And when you line them up,
you realize that actually
Jesus and Peter
met a year earlier.
We read about that
in chapter one
of John's gospel.
Peter's brother Andrew
gets to spend
a full day with Jesus.
At the end of that day,
he's freaking out.
He's like,
I've never met anybody
like this.
And he runs
and he finds his brother,
Peter,
who's at this time
going by the name Simon.
And he says,
Simon, you got to come
meet this guy.
He's going to change your life.
And he brings Peter
to meet Jesus.
And when Jesus sees him,
he says,
you are Simon,
son of John.
You shall,
and then he says,
from now on,
you shall be called Cephas,
which means Peter,
rock, right?
He renames him.
And at that encounter,
it's very clear
that Jesus is speaking
prophetically
about Peter's future
as a leader
among the apostles.
apostles.
And there's clearly
an invitation
to follow him there.
But from everything
that we know,
Peter doesn't respond
right away.
And a full year passes.
And then Jesus
comes back into town.
He goes to Simon Peter's
mother-in-law's house.
She's sick.
He heals her.
And then he comes down
to the shore
where Peter
has just wrapped up
a long,
fruitless night
of fishing.
encounters him
once again.
And then he gets
into his boat.
Right?
A year has passed.
So it's no coincidence
that it's Peter's boat
that Jesus gets into.
Jesus is pursuing Peter.
He's gently,
graciously
pursuing him.
And so the first thing
that we want to notice
about Peter's call
is this,
is that when someone
comes to faith in Jesus,
when someone is converted,
as we say,
that is always
a response
to God's gracious pursuit.
It is always
a response
to God's gracious pursuit.
What we need
to understand is
even though Peter
commits to following
Jesus here,
he leaves everything
to follow him.
If you look down
the road in Peter's life
to Jesus' crucifixion,
Peter abandons him
once more.
He abandons him
once more.
He goes back
to his old life.
He denies knowing him.
But even then,
Jesus doesn't give up
on Peter.
He appears after his resurrection
on the beach
after another long,
fruitless night
of fishing
and catching nothing.
And then Jesus does what?
He reenacts
the exact same miracle.
The parallels
are striking.
And he forgives Peter
and he reinstates him
as an apostle.
So here's what this means
and why it's so important.
I think this gives
tremendous hope,
at least to people like me
and maybe people like you.
Some people have
dramatic conversion stories
like Paul on the road
to Damascus
where Jesus appears,
blinding, flashing light.
Entire life changes
in a moment.
And if you have had
that kind of experience
and I know people who have,
then praise God.
That is amazing for you.
But quite honestly,
that has not been my experience.
My own journey
has been a bit of a mess
to be totally honest.
It's been a lot of switchbacks,
a lot of curves,
a lot of fits and starts.
I grew up
and as a young child,
I considered myself a Christian,
was baptized at age 12,
but then I walked away
from the faith.
I lived and called myself
an agnostic
all through high school,
all through college.
Then I came back to faith.
God brought me back to faith
in a very powerful way.
But even since then,
you know,
I've had times
where God felt
unbearably real and close
and I've had long periods
of doubt,
dark nights of the soul
as we call them,
where frankly,
I had times
where I wasn't sure
what I believed.
Now I'm a priest.
I can't imagine
doing anything else
with my life.
I love what I do.
But as I look back,
no matter how far
I drifted,
no matter how many doubts
crept in,
no matter how much
I struggled
to figure out
what I believed
in the face of something
that I had experienced,
Jesus was always there.
He was always with me.
He has always pursued me
and he has always
called me back
to himself.
And here's the point
I want to make.
Unlike other religions
and philosophies,
our hope as Christians
doesn't rest
in the strength
of our commitment
to Jesus.
All of our hope
rests in his
unwavering commitment
to us.
Right?
So if you're here
and you're not a Christian,
like it or not,
Jesus is pursuing you.
If you're here
and you were a Christian
but you're leaving the faith,
you're deconstructing,
you're not sure
what you believe,
you're in a period
of doubt,
a dark night of the soul,
Jesus is pursuing.
And he will not give up.
Even if you've rejected him,
he's not going to reject you.
Even if you've given up on him,
he's never going to give up
on you.
He's going to continue pursuing.
Anytime somebody comes
to faith in Jesus,
it's a response
to God's gracious pursuit
of us.
That's the first thing
we want to see here.
The second thing
we see in this account
flows out of that.
At some point,
a response from us
is called forth.
Verse one tells us
that the reason Jesus
gets into the boat
to teach
is because people
are pressing in
all around him.
They want to hear his words.
Imagine he's down
on the shore of the lake
and people are pushing in
so much
that he's starting
to get into the water.
There's no room
to stand on the shore
because everybody
wants to hear.
There's no microphones
back then
and everybody wants
to hear what he's saying.
And so,
for very practical reasons,
he gets into the boat
and turns it into
a floating pulpit,
goes out in the lake
so he can teach
from the lake.
But what we see
in these crowds
is interesting here.
These crowds
kind of represent,
these are people
who are curious,
these are people,
they've heard things
that Jesus has done,
they're wanting
to see for themselves.
But we know
the context
if you look
at the broader story
and we know
that these crowds
are very fickle.
And as soon
as Jesus begins
to say things
that they don't
want to hear,
many of them
are going to leave
and turn on him.
So after Jesus
is done teaching,
he turns to Peter
and he wants to know
what is Peter's response
to my word going to be?
So he tells Peter,
put out into the deep
and let down your nets
for a catch.
Now this is daytime.
Everybody who knew
anything about fishing
knew that nighttime
was the best time
to catch fish.
By this time,
Peter is discouraged,
he's exhausted,
he's been out fishing
all night,
he's not caught
a single fish.
Now I'll tell you this,
I love to fish.
I'm not good at fishing,
but I love it.
I love going out there,
I love throwing a line
in the water.
But I can tell you this,
if you ever encounter
someone who has been
fishing for hours
and caught nothing,
the absolute worst thing
that you can do
is to offer them
unsolicited advice
about how to catch a fish.
The worst thing you can do,
especially if you're talking
to a career fisherman
and you're not
a career fisherman,
right?
You're a carpenter,
you're a rabbi,
you're not a fisherman.
So Jesus offers
this unsolicited advice
and based on everything
Peter knows
as a career fisherman,
Jesus' request
makes absolutely no sense.
It's the worst time
to catch a fish
and you want me
to go out
in the deepest part
of the lake
and drop my net
down there.
These are heavy nets,
at least 100 feet long,
super heavy.
This is backbreaking work.
This makes no sense.
You know,
in fishing,
there's the 90-10 rule,
right?
90% of the feeding fish
are in 10% of the water,
meaning most of the water
out there is empty.
There are no fish.
And Jesus is like,
go right there.
Makes no sense.
But look what Peter says.
He says,
Master,
we toiled all night long
and took nothing.
But,
at your word,
I'll let down the nets.
And then end up
catching more fish
than they can possibly handle.
Takes multiple boats.
See,
there comes a time
when if you want
to grow in your faith,
if you want to go beyond
what you see in the crowds,
this kind of fickle interest
in Jesus' words,
this noncommittal,
fair-weather faith,
you have to recognize
that the words of Jesus
are not simply advice.
They're not just food for thought
to go into the hopper
along with all of the other
input we get
about how to live our lives.
You have to begin to recognize
these are the words
of the one who made us,
the author of history,
the one who knows
infinitely more than we do
about what we need.
And so there comes a point
when you have to decide,
am I willing to say yes
to Jesus
even when it doesn't
make sense to me?
Even when what he's asking me
to do
doesn't make sense
from my perspective at all?
Even when it's inconvenient,
even when it's costly.
Am I willing to say yes anyway?
Now,
that can look a lot
of different ways.
Maybe it means
you forgive somebody
who has not asked
for your forgiveness
simply because Jesus says,
I've forgiven you
and I want you to go
and do the same.
Doesn't make sense,
but Jesus,
if you only knew
what they did to me.
But you do it.
You say,
at your word,
I will forgive.
You know,
maybe it means
giving money to somebody
who needs help
when it puts you
at greater financial risk
simply because Jesus
calls us to do that.
You know,
we were talking this morning
in our adult Sunday school class
about the fact
that there are people
in our community
who are gay
and because of their
relationship with Jesus
have committed themselves
to living a celibate life.
And we were talking about this
and we were saying,
you know,
in the eyes of the world,
that doesn't make sense at all.
It sounds crazy.
And it's incredibly costly.
But you know,
a person who has made that kind of,
said that kind of yes to Jesus,
quite frankly,
knows a heck of a lot more
about what it means
to follow and trust Jesus
than most pastors.
Now sometimes,
saying yes to Jesus,
that leads to immediate blessing.
Right?
You say yes to Jesus
and immediately you get
the big catch of fish.
Many times though,
it's not so easy.
Many times that blessing
that comes from saying yes to Jesus,
it doesn't come for a long time.
In some cases,
it may not come in this lifetime.
But if you have never said yes to Jesus,
even when it didn't make sense,
if you look back on your time
as a Christian,
for those of you who are Christians,
and there was never a point
where you said yes,
not because it also aligned
with what you wanted to do,
but you simply said yes,
even though you didn't
understand the command.
If you've never experienced that,
then I guarantee you
have never experienced
that kind of profound peace
that comes from letting go
of our attempts to control
what we can't control
and handing our lives over
to the one we can trust.
Right?
Even better than ourselves
to know what we need.
There's a peace that comes
with stopping the attempts
to control the uncontrollable
that can only be found
when you say yes to him.
So following Jesus
is a response
to God's gracious,
gentle pursuit of us.
And it means saying yes
even in the cases
where it doesn't make sense
to say yes.
And then along with this,
the third thing that we see
in Peter's journey
is that as we get
into relationship with Jesus,
as we follow Jesus,
part of the journey
means a growing awareness of sin.
You know, Peter says yes to Jesus.
He ends up catching more fish
than he's ever caught in his life.
And his reaction is fascinating.
See, I would be jumping up and down,
cheering, yelling,
taking a bunch of pictures,
telling everybody I know.
That's what you think
he'd be doing,
but he's terrified.
He falls to his knees
and he says,
depart from me
for I'm a sinful man,
oh Lord.
This is the same reaction,
by the way,
that we see in the Old Testament reading.
If you remember
a little while ago,
we read about Gideon
when he sees a manifestation of God
and he recognizes
that this isn't just a prophet,
this is actually
a manifestation of God's presence.
His response is to say,
alas, oh Lord God,
for now I have seen
the angel of the Lord face to face.
He's terrified.
He thinks he's gonna die.
And God responds,
peace, you're not gonna die.
Think of the prophet Isaiah,
same thing.
Isaiah sees God
and then cries out,
woe is me
for I'm lost,
for I'm a man of unclean lips
and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips.
For my eyes have seen the King,
the Lord of hosts.
He thinks he's gonna die.
The point is this,
the holiness of God
illuminates
the truth about our sin.
In the presence
of that kind of holiness,
everything about us
is exposed.
and that is terrifying.
It's terrifying
to be in the presence
of a holy God.
Peter realizes
he's in the presence
of someone far,
far beyond
a mere human
and he's terrified.
Only God
has that kind of authority
over nature.
The holiness of God
illuminates the truth
about our sin,
which means
the more we grow
in our relationship
with Jesus,
the more clearly
we see his holiness,
the more clearly
we see our sin.
See, it goes together.
The more you see the holiness,
the more you see
your own sin.
And what you begin
to realize is that sin
is a lot like an onion.
When you become aware
of sin in your life,
you become aware
of some way
that you're rebelling
against God,
then ideally
if you're a Christian,
you repent.
You turn away from it.
You give it up
and you embrace
the grace of Jesus.
So ideally,
that's how you respond.
When you do that,
you're peeling back
a layer of the onion.
But in time,
the holiness of Jesus
begins to expose
the fact that
there's more sin
underneath.
There's another
deeper layer.
And that's where
you need to go.
And there's more
repenting that's required.
So I'll give you
an example,
not from our church,
from some other church.
Here's an example
from another church.
A guy who,
not a Christian,
but friends with some people
who go to the church.
And he's kind of known
as a player,
womanizer.
He has this pattern
of pursuing,
flirting,
giving lots of attention
to a woman.
Then he physically
hooks up with her.
And then once that happens,
he ghosts her.
And he moves on.
And he has a pretty
bad reputation
for this kind of behavior.
Then this guy
comes to faith.
And almost immediately,
he repents
of all of that behavior.
I shouldn't have been
treating women that way.
I shouldn't have been
doing that.
And he repents of it.
So all the hooking up,
all the sexual stuff,
he repents of all of that.
And he gets really involved
in the church.
He gets really involved
in the ministries
of the church.
Gets really involved,
dives fully in,
joins a small group.
But then over time,
people in the church
begin to realize,
people who are friends
with this guy
begin to realize,
you know,
he's given up
all the sexual stuff.
He's given up
all the hooking up
and all that's gone
now that he's a Christian.
But they start to notice
that every time
this guy gets into a group,
whether it's a ministry team
or a small group,
he always has to dominate.
He talks the most.
He always has the answers.
Right?
He always wants to be the one
to come up with a plan.
He tries to force himself
into leadership
at every opportunity.
And these people
begin to realize,
you know,
it was never really
about the sex
and the hooking up.
Under that,
there was an idolatry
of power and control.
Right?
You peel back one layer,
but underneath,
you realize,
all that behavior
with women,
it was about conquest.
It was about control.
And you begin to realize,
this guy has a deeper layer.
He peeled away
an outer layer,
but there's a deeper
idolatry of power
that needs to be torn down.
It needs to be torn out.
Now,
that kind of thing
is true for all of us.
The specifics differ.
The idols differ.
The behaviors differ.
But that kind of thing,
the layer
that you peel back
and you see a deeper layer
and you peel that back
and you see a deeper layer,
that dynamic is true
of every human being.
So the more we follow Jesus,
which means seeing more
of his holiness
and more of our sin,
the more we have to peel back
the layers
and go deeper and deeper
into the reality of our sin.
This is why the great
Frederica Matthews Green,
Eastern Orthodox
spiritual leader,
says this,
the first time Jesus appears
in the first gospel,
the first instruction
he gives is repent.
From then on,
it's his most consistent message.
In all times
and every situation,
his advice is to repent.
Not just the scribes
and Pharisees,
not just the powerful,
he tells even the poor
and oppressed
that repentance
is the key
to eternal life.
The more we see
the holiness of Christ,
the more we see
our own sin.
The more we see
our own sin,
the more we repent.
And that means
we experience
more and more
of the grace of Christ.
Right?
That's how we grow.
We see sin,
we repent,
we experience grace.
And then it goes deeper
and deeper and deeper.
And guess what?
The grace goes deeper
and deeper and deeper
as well.
So mature Christians
who have been at this
for a long time
are eager to repent
because there is nothing
like that experience
of grace
on the other side
of repentance.
So we see
that this is a response.
Peter is responding
to God's gracious pursuit.
Peter reaches a point
in his relationship
with Jesus
where he's willing
to say yes
even when it doesn't
make sense.
And then in the presence
of the holiness
of Jesus,
he grows in his awareness
of sin
which prepares him
to be a recipient
of grace.
Jesus responds
with tremendous grace.
And in Jesus' response,
he doesn't just
forgive him,
say peace,
say don't be afraid.
We see the fourth thing.
Jesus then gives him
an entirely new understanding
of his purpose in life.
What we might call
a kingdom-centered vocation.
A kingdom-centered vocation.
See, this encounter
ends with Jesus saying
do not be afraid.
From now on,
you will be catching men.
Or he literally says
you will be catching
people alive.
You will be catching lives.
And Peter, James, and John
leave everything
and follow him.
And we need to be
really careful here
that we don't miss
the meaning
of what's happening here.
This doesn't mean
that when you become
a follower of Jesus,
you have to leave
your career behind
and go become
a full-time missionary.
Now, some people
read it that way.
But there's nothing
in the Bible,
I would say,
that suggests
that that would be
normative for Christians.
Certainly, all Christians
are called to share
the gospel, right?
But I don't think
this is about
leaving our career behind.
I think this is a challenge
and it challenges us
to rethink
our own vocations
in light of the kingdom.
Jesus says,
I'm here.
I am the kingdom of God.
Come.
I'm breaking into this world.
And as a result,
your job,
your role,
your vocation
is going to be transformed.
It's going to be expanded.
It's going to be deepened.
You're going to get hitched
to something
so much bigger than yourself
that you're going to have
to entirely reimagine
your vocation
in light of the kingdom.
That's what's happening here.
You know,
God had created
and gifted Peter
to be a fisherman.
But Jesus challenges him
to go beyond
simply focusing on fish.
How can your gifts
and talents
and abilities
be used in service
of the kingdom of God?
You know,
I had lunch with someone
just this week
in our church.
This is a person
who's gifted
and wired
to create
and implement systems.
A person who's really good
at setting goals
and then leading teams
of people
to accomplish
those goals.
He's done this
professionally for years.
Now he's asking
this amazing question,
what would it look like
for me to use
these gifts
and talents
and abilities
to put them to use
creating systems
that will help
our church
become more effective
in our mercy ministry
once we move to Shaw?
Right?
That's a wonderful
question to ask.
God has given me
this vocation.
What does it look like
to think of this vocation
in light of the kingdom
and what God is doing
here in the city?
We all have
a God-given vocation.
Whether or not
you have a job,
paying job,
or a career,
you have a vocation.
You know,
you have a particular way
that God has wired
and gifted you
to serve in this world
simply by virtue
of the fact
that you're a human being.
For most of us,
I would say
that leaving everything
to follow Jesus
doesn't mean
quitting our jobs.
It means,
here's the leave everything part,
it means you no longer
focus only on
financial security
or status
or achievement
as the goal.
it means
that you begin
to aim higher than that.
It means
that you begin
to see your vocation
as a way to serve
and bring glory to Jesus,
a way to put
the gospel on display.
You know,
this is what
the apostle Paul
is talking about
in Colossians chapter 3.
Whatever you do,
work heartily.
Ask for the Lord
and not for men.
Knowing that from the Lord
you will receive
the inheritance
as your reward.
You are serving
the Lord Christ.
And listen,
I know some of you
really need to hear this.
Some of you
have struggled
with unemployment.
You're looking
for a job right now.
And if you don't have a job,
especially in a place
like D.C.,
you can feel like
your whole life
lacks meaning.
You know,
regardless of your politics
on what's happening
right now
in the federal government,
I know a lot of you
work for the federal government.
And I know some of you
have either lost your jobs
or you're worried
about losing your job.
And I know that some of you
have received communications
that are calling into question
the legitimacy
of your vocation.
Right?
Some of you
are weathering people
who are asking,
questioning whether or not
what you've given your life to
has any meaning
or value whatsoever.
And when that happens,
regardless of the circumstances,
when somebody questions
your vocation,
right?
Somebody,
people move to D.C.
and work for Peanuts
because they want to feel
like they're making a difference.
And when somebody
comes along and says,
I don't see any value
or worth in anything
that you've given your life to,
that is extremely wounding.
Right?
So for anyone here
who for any reason
doubts the value
of the work that you do,
the value of your vocation,
I want you to know this.
God sees everything that you do.
And God delights
in seeing people do
what he created them to do.
He delights in that.
And by the way,
his opinion is the only one
that really matters.
So this is what it looks like,
friends,
when someone,
a normal,
sinful human being,
gets caught up
in the great unfolding story
of God's renewal.
It means recognizing
that Christ is pursuing us
even now,
no matter where you are
in your faith.
It means at some point
there has to be a willingness
to obey Christ
even when it doesn't make sense.
It means a growing awareness
of sin,
which is the hard part,
but that also leads
to greater experiences
of grace.
There's nothing like it.
And then it means
a kingdom-centered vocation,
reimagining your vocation
in light of the fact
that the kingdom is here
breaking into this world
and Jesus is making
all things new.
And how are you called
to be a part of that?
We were made
for something bigger
than ourselves.
And that purpose
can only be found in Christ.
Let's pray.
Our Lord,
Heavenly Father,
we thank you
for these truths.
And we ask,
Lord,
we pray that
these wouldn't just be ideas
that we consider,
but that this would be truth
that sinks into our heart,
whatever is of you,
through your spirit,
and that it would renew us
from the inside out.
Lord,
that it would kindle in us
a hope and a passion,
that it would awaken in us
a desire to rethink
and reimagine
all of our lives.
Lord,
to see what it means
to be enfolded
into your great purposes,
to be connected in,
to rediscover
why human beings are here
and what we were made for.
Lord,
we pray that in that
we would find
our deepest,
truest meaning.
Lord,
I pray that you would give us
each a vision
for what it looks like
for us to participate
in your renewal.
Lord,
in our lives,
here and now,
in this place.
I pray that you would give us
a clear vision
of what that means.
We pray this,
that not only for our good,
but that we might glorify you,
that we might bring praise
to your name.
And it's in the name of Jesus
that we pray.
Amen.