Today begins not so much a sermon series, but three sermons in a row that take place near or in the water. Water is important to our physical and our spiritual lives. We know that we need to drink water to feel hydrated, to keep cool, to replenish water that our bodies lose in the course of exercise, or in the course of a day. We know that one sign of our spiritual growth occurs when we come to the waters of baptism, and are immersed in the symbolic death and new life in Jesus Christ. Today we are invited to hear Jesus says to Simon Peter and the other fishermen words that will lead them to leave their boats and become his disciples. And as we hear, we are invited to listen to what Jesus is calling us to do. And, if this lesson seems familiar to you, a version of it was presented as the homily at our church picnic and worship in the part last year.

In these verses, Jesus makes two requests and offers one promise.

As Luke tells the story, Jesus has been announced by the ministry of John the Baptist (chapter 3); he has faced down temptation and responded to the Spirit’s movement upon him when he said that he has been sent by God to bring good news to the poor…(chapter 4.1-19). Now, he has become so well-known that great crowds are coming to see and hear him. This particular time, the crowd is so great that Jesus finds himself at the water’s edge; he can feel the water lapping around his heels. He gets into a boat in order to be seen and heard by the people who long to follow him and become his disciples.

Isn’t that what we want too? Like that crowd around Jesus, we are here because we want to be further renewed, made more alive, made open to every possibility so that we can take our seat at Christ’s table, and make room for others beside us. We want ours to be a welcoming place. The good news that Jesus is calling to us, and invites us to hear what he says to us.

"When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long, but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets" (Luke 5.4-5).

That is the first instruction. In it, I hear Jesus say to us, reach out beyond where you are; take a risk. I spent yesterday morning at a BREAD sponsored "Rethinking Justice" workshop. There will be another workshop on September 23, and I encourage as many of you as can to attend it. The focus of the workshop is to help congregations understand that we may not have much power as individual congregations, but when we work together, sometimes taking risks that will benefit the communities in which we sit, we can move this city and the world. Advocacy and action on behalf of the affordable housing, county wide health care for the uninsured, continuing efforts to lessen crime and improve education have happened because Christian and Jewish congregations have worked together to make it so.

That is what our first reading was about this morning. It illustrates what happens when we match what we do with what we say we believe, when our ministry reflects our values. There is no living faith without works, without doing whatever we can to say to people that they matter to God and to us. We cannot just say what ought to happen, especially when we have it within us, through the grace of God, to make it happen.

"The issue is how to be a doer of the word, how to combine attitude and action. The point is not that the actions substitute for the attitude. It is, rather, that our actions reflect our attitudes. When we see people in need, their condition cannot be missed; according to James, the believer sees them and speaks to them. But it is not enough to dismiss them with kind wishes and religious jargon. James calls it ‘empty religion’; it combines self-indulgence, failure to control the tongue, an a refusal to care about the poor. It is therefore, not ‘unstained by the world’, or ‘pure and undefiled before God.’ James declares such purported faith to be simply, ‘dead’" (New Interpreters Bible, volume XII. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1988, p. 197).

So it is for us. When we can see a person in need and wish them well, send them on in peace, and tell them to stay warm and be well fed. But if they are hungry, and ill-clothed, and we do nothing to help, our words and our faith are meaningless.

We want to have a meaningful faith and one way to find it, is to believe Jesus when he shows us what to do with what we have been given. The boat Jesus got into belonged to Simon Peter, who as Luke tells us, was not looking for Jesus. He was just trying to recover from a long and frustrating night. He had been out all night long and had caught no fish. We understand. We have worked hard all of our adult lives, but have not made enough money to feel secure about the present or the future. We have raised children the best we knew how, yet grieve as they are lost to addictions, and bad judgment, and difficult experiences from which we cannot save them. We do well on the job, but are passed over for promotion, we do well in school, but do not get admitted to our first choice in college. We bump and bruise and cut our heads on those glass ceilings and learn that because of age, of race, of gender, of anything else that people can abuse, we have gone as far as we can go. We take care of our bodies but the medical report still devastates us. We pray fervently, but there is no movement that we can see in the church. We have been out here all night, and it seems we have caught nothing.

But Jesus says, "yes I believe you are tired, I believe you are frustrated, I believe this night has been long and hard. But I also believe this. I believe that there is more for you. Go out and let down your nets again." What nets do we need to let down into the deep water? How about the net that holds our hope, our desires for the health of this congregation, for our families and friends, for our own lives? We are followers of the living God, and by God’s grace, we cast our nets and remember that we get our power from the power of God who has in fact empowered Jesus, and, so every now and then when we are convinced that there is nothing we can do, Jesus says, cast your net one more time.

Because Jesus says so, the disciples put their trust in the one who called them to cast a little bit deeper, to trust a little more completely. First, they had to let go of low expectations, they had to get over any thought that their efforts would be futile, and we do too. They had to believe that there were more fish in the lake for them. We have to believe that there is more for us too. It is no mere egotism to think of ourselves as a people who can stretch and grow and commit ourselves, as we have done, fully to the church and to the one on whom our hope and church are built, to hear the voice of Jesus calling us to work and faithfulness.

He called those fishermen to go out deeper. We are called as disciples of his to go deeper too. He calls us to move more deeply into faith, as spiritual people. He calls us to go deeper into relationships as loving people. Jesus calls us to invest in each other’s lives and to commit ourselves to being a justice seeking people. If we will deepen who we say we are, people of faith who at our core are a people of spirit, relationships, and justice, we will be a deeply serving people, ready to offer ourselves to others as Jesus offered himself to us.

"When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink" (Luke 5. 6-7).

After the harvest, Simon Peter fell on his knees to worship Jesus, and to express his unworthiness to stand before him. "Simon’s response to the power and knowledge of Jesus is not a fisherman’s responses; 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. Simon’s skill is not the issue; the issue is his life. Yet in Jesus’ 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).

Then comes the second request, and the promise. Jesus says to Peter, "do not be afraid." Do not fear that trust in me will bring blessings you have not imagined. Stay open to the promise. Then he invites Peter and his fishing partners to join him. "Come I’ll make you fishers of men" is how many of us first learned this story. "Come", Jesus says to Simon Peter and to us, "come and be a gatherer of the people who need the good news you will share with them.

We have by now figured out that Jesus isn’t really talking about fishing. He is talking about making disciples. "In the Old Testament, fishing is a way of talking about gathering people (Amos 4.2; Habakkuk 1.14-15; Jeremiah 16.16). The metaphor of fishing was also common in Greek literature as the activity of philosopher-teachers. In the Gospels, however, the call to become fishers of men and women becomes a call to gather people for the kingdom of God" (New Interpreter’s Bible, volume IX. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 1995, p. 117-118).

When we put down our nets, they may not always be as full as we would like. But the promise is made to us, one day, they will be filled in ways so wonderful, we can hardly imagine. Just because Jesus says so, good things can happen. People begin to work together in ways they have not before, they invite their friends to see what is going on, and they are captured by the vision that is being lived out. And they want to be part of the vision.

Because, Jesus said so to Simon Peter and his companions, and because he says so to us, we are called to act in a way that will change our lives. They were ready to leave their work and follow Jesus. Are we ready to put out our nets, bring in the harvest that Jesus promises and then leave everything to follow him?

As we let down our nets, cast out in new ways, go deeper, because Jesus says so, we will be disciples blessed indeed, God will be glorified, and Jesus Christ will be praised. Thanks be to God. Amen.