At a meeting of church leaders yesterday afternoon, our Congregational President and Worship Team Leader, Regina Crenshaw shared three leadership insights she discovered over the last few days. The first was to stay focused on the tasks in front of us. The second was to maintain a ray of hope and light, even when it is dark; and the third one is from the gospel lesson for today – we have to fish in deep water for the kind of harvest God calls us to produce. Those insights are good for leaders and they are good for each of us as we pay attention to what Jesus says.

About twenty years ago there was a TV commercial about a brokerage firm. People are talking in a crowded, noisy restaurant, and above the hum and murmur of conversation, a voice is heard to say, "my broker is EF Hutton, and EF Hutton says…" Every thing comes to a halt, people lean in to the speaker to hear and to take in the pearl of wisdom that is about to be shared. The tagline says, "when EF Hutton talks, people listen."

I do not know how many people invested their money with EF Hutton, based on those commercials, but I know from the witness of scripture and from the witness of the numbers of changed lives, including our own, that when Jesus speaks, people listen.

People listen, we listen even as we while deal with the realities of work and family, war and turmoil, sickness of mind, body, and spirit because when Jesus says so, we want to hear what he has to say.

Peter and his fishing partners were dealing with the reality of a frustrating night’s work when they heard Jesus speak. There they were at Lake Gennesaret, also known as the Sea of Galilee, cleaning up after a night of casting nets but catching no fish.

Luke tells us about Jesus preaching and teaching in Galilee because it reminds us that people trusted Jesus as one with authority from God, and it helps move us from last Sunday’s gospel lesson when Jesus’ preaching so enraged his neighbors that they wanted to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4. 21-30).

We do not know what Jesus was teaching that day. We do know that people were interested enough to listen to him. In fact, Jesus has become so popular that his sea side teaching spot has drawn a crowd so large that when

he finds himself backed so far toward the water that the hem of his robe and backs of his feet are wet.

And we know that Simon Peter has been watching, listening, hearing every word Jesus has said all the while cleaning his nets and trying not to become too frustrated at having nothing to show for a long night’s work. He likely is a little startled when Jesus climbs into his boat and asks him to go out in the water, just a bit so that he could be better seen and heard.

But here he is now, at the Galilean shore, having passed through an angry crowd, into a friendlier setting, and we learn that when Jesus says so, things happen.

We would understand if Peter would have said, I am done for the day, the nets are cleaned and drying, it is time for me to go home and take a nap. But what he says is, "Master, Jesus, if you say so, we will go out once more. And that is when Peter’s life changes. "if you say so". Jesus says so, and Peter’s life is never going to be the same again.

"When Jesus speaks, the disciples realize astounding, net-bursting success... Now Jesus is master not only of the word of God, but also of fish. We who so often feel powerless over the elusiveness of language, the scarcity of natural resources, the horror of world hunger, are thrilled to witness the unveiled, magical power of Jesus.

"It’s too soon in Luke or in the new year for an Easter story. Still, any time we’re working the night shift with Jesus, we must be prepared for an outbreak of Easter. We witness what it’s like to be astounded by a death-defying Jesus, moved from failure and scarcity to life and triumph. It’s wonderful.

"Or is it? The reaction of Peter, the premier, impulsive disciple, the first of the church, to all this abundance-producing power? ‘Get out of here, I’m a sinner!’ Last Sunday they wanted Jesus out of Nazareth because of his preaching. Now they want Jesus out of Galilee because of his fishing.

"Peter moves from the security of fixed, failed reality – ‘We fished all night and have nothing’ into full, uncontained reality. The water is deep and dark, spurring Peter to sense the gap between his world and Jesus’ new creation. Peter moves from calling Jesus "Master" to the even more exalted, ‘O Lord!’ Then things become unmanageable and scary. Peter sees his situation as a lack of faith rather than a lack of fish, and he blurts out, ‘Get out of here, Jesus,’ literally in the Greek, ‘Get out of my neighborhood!" (William Willimon, "Get Out of Here" www.christiancentury.org/article.lasso?id=2839).

But rather than leave Peter’s neighborhood, Jesus invites him to go deep into his own spirit, to seize the opportunity to let the nets down deep. It is a strange request. In those days, fishermen worked at night because fish did not readily come near the surface of the water during the day; it was too warm them. Once the night’s fishing was over, Peter and his partners would have hauled their nets into their boats, waited hours for them to dry and then rolled the nets up. No wonder when Jesus says, "go out a little further, cast a bit deeper."

When Jesus says so, our comfortable routines are disrupted and we can, if we will begin to see ourselves in a new way. Peter knew how to fish, he is about to learn how to follow, and we are going to learn again that when Jesus says so, amazing things happen.

"Notice also that Peter’s response to the power and knowledge of Jesus is not a fisherman’s response; that is, he did not say, ‘why did I not know where the fish were? Rather, his response is that of a human being in the presence of one he now calls Lord. Peter’s skill is not the issue; the issue is his life. Yet in Jesus’s eyes his sin does not disqualify him; the same power that prompted Simon to fall at Jesus’ knees now lifts him into God’s service" (Interpretation series. Luke. Fred Craddock. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990; p.70).

A conversation about fishing gives birth, at a word from Jesus to an invitation to work with Jesus Christ. So it is with us when we follow Simon Peter as he follows Jesus by doing these four things.

First, like Peter, we can trust and obey the words we hear Jesus say. We don’t make our living fishing, but I believe the voice and spirit of Jesus calls us to focus a bit more and to move out a bit farther and a lot deeper from where we are to where we can do even more. I know it feels like we’ve been out all night with little to show for it, and we’ve just cleaned up, but Jesus calls us to let the nets down again so that we might benefit from what God wants to give us.

Second, like Peter we can be surprised by the superabundance God provides. When they unroll the nets, and cast them into the water the second time, there are so many fish two boats can barely hold them. When we do evangelism and education and stewardship this time, let’s do it not asking what we have to give up, but rather what abundance God will show us and show us how to grasp it, because we believed God’s word that we are not called to scarcity, but to the abundance God has for us, when we go deeper and cast out one more time.

Third, we trust God’s abundance and then let go of all that holds us back. "The story ends with the dramatic and abrupt note that ‘when they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him’. In view of the vast load of fish included in that word, ‘everything,’ we can imagine that the net full of fish would be apparent along the lake shore over the next few days. But that is not Luke’s concern. What he portrays here is the radical unconcern for possessions that is central to our understanding of discipleship. The disciples leave their boats, their workers, presumably even this astonishing catch, and go off after someone they cannot comprehend on a mission they do not yet fully understand.

"Later Luke will tell of the early church’s practice of sharing possessions with one another, of the selling of property and distribution of food to the widows. Later also he will demonstrate what happens to those whose own greed prevents them from hearing the gospel and prompts them even to stand in the way of others who wish to hear. For now, the point is more subtle and suggestive: wherever Jesus is and wherever he leads, he merits the casting aside even of one’s livelihood.

"Fourth, we are aware always of the presence of God. In some circles, Jesus’ action would have led to debates about who Jesus is and what is the source of his power. Simon Peter rightly recognizes Jesus…he recognizes that the power of Jesus is God’s own power, and he responds with the awe that is appropriate before that power" (Texts for Preaching – Year C. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, pgs. 139-140).

We feel the tension, we hear the invitation to follow Jesus, and we respond because Jesus says so. When he speaks of love and justice, of money and mercy, of death and new life, we pay attention. When he speaks of a new way of being, of respecting authority enough to give Caesar his due, while knowing that his ultimate faith and reverence, and ours belong only to God, we listen. So we say no to fear and terror, crushing poverty and the chaos of war, the tyranny of intolerance and all that rains down death and destruction upon us.

We say yes to courage and all that makes for peace: a good quality of life for everyone, a time of true shalom, not only peace, but justice and reconciliation; we says yes to life and yes to building up what has been torn down.

Listen for when Jesus asks us, will we stay focused on the ministries to which God is calling us? (yes), will we hold on to the ray of hope that a word from Jesus brings? (yes), and then will we unroll out nets, cast out far and deep, bring people close, love them as God loves us? (yes). We will say yes, because Jesus says so. Thanks be to God. Amen.