Jeromy Key, I baptise you ...
Samuel, God has called you out of darkness ...
Samuel Jeffrey, I baptise you ...
... sanctify this water ...
We give you thanks ...
Texts (Year C):
Isaiah 55:1-11 An invitation to abundant life
Ezekiel 36:24-28 The renewal of Israel
Matthew 28:1-10 The resurrection of Jesus
Do not be afraid .,.. do not be afraid …
This twofold refrain, announced by an angel and then again declared reassuringly by Jesus to the women at the tomb, is one that is echoed throughout the gospel of Matthew.
To Joseph as he contemplated dismissing Mary when he found her to be pregnant with Jesus, an angel appeared to him in a dream and said, “Do not be afraid.”
To the disciples terrified by the storm at sea Jesus said, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?”
To the apostles being sent on their mission to proclaim the good news that the kingdom of heaven is near, Jesus said, “Do not fear …”
To the disciples being buffeted by natures tempest while out at sea and seeing Jesus walking towards them on the water, we hear the familiar refrain, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
To Peter, James and John, immobilised by fear after having just witnessed the transfiguration Jesus said, “Get up and do not be afraid.”
Do not be afraid …. do not be afraid …
It is the Easter refrain, the clarion call to Christians who truly believe that Jesus Christ reveals the care and compassion, the energy and the feistiness, the love and the mercy, the humility and the glory of God.
Imagine that … believing in a mighty God, all-powerful, all knowing and ever-present on the one hand, yet on the other hand a God who, through Jesus Christ, sought to enter into an intimate relationship with men and women by becoming flesh and blood and who continues to seek a connection with us through the community of the Church, the Body of Christ on earth … a connection made possible only through a lonely death on a cross … and through the mystery and the glory of resurrection.
God seeks to enter into a relationship with us, as Christians through Jesus Christ and the Church, and yet we balk at the very thought of such a connection.
Why, because we are afraid.
We are governed by our fears. Fears that we allow to accumulate and build up in our lives, fears that act as barriers to a whole hearted, unreserved, uninhibited and extravagant connection with God.
What are these fears I wonder, these fears that somehow stop us from plunging into the cool, calm and tranquil depths of God’s very being?
What are these fears?
We fear being alone so we gather about us a virtual world of avatars and facebook friendships that keep our loneliness at bay.
We fear difference in others and ourselves and so we become boring and monochromatic and unadventurous in our efforts to fit in with everyone else.
We fear rejection and so we become “yes” people, we join in the chorus of societies dominant voices, or worse we say nothing.
We fear being without and so we aspire to accumulate those many useless possessions that we think will make us happy.
We fear boredom and so we make ourselves busy, shopping, working, renovating, playing and partying.
We fear pain, so we self –medicate with food, with alcohol, and with drugs.
We fear silence so we fill our lives with noise, ipods, radios and tvs, dvds and cds, ceaseless chatter and white noise.
We fear inferiority so we look for ways that we can build ourselves up put others down through gossip or indifference.
We fear old age and death so we scrabble for antidotes, creams, gels, diets and surgery to fend off that, which is inevitable.
We fear the unknown, the mysterious, that which can’t be explained and so we build up for ourselves hard and fast rules, facts and formulae, the opinions of experts that (we think) can’t be disputed.
The facts and the formulae, the diets and the surgery, facebook and frippery and obsessive activity all these things that we employ to mask our fears become like a layer of calcium that hardens us, our hearts, our minds and our souls to the presence of God in our lives … perhaps our ultimate fear. This God who for many of us first entered our lives unbidden through infant baptism, through the faith or social compulsion of our parents, or for others of us through some other unexpected or surprising way (for that is often how God can work), this God will challenge us and nag us and poke us and prod us to become the people he seeks us to be. A people not bound by fear but rather a people resourceful enough to withstand the desert wilderness, strong enough to ride out the storms at sea, tough enough to scale a mountain top, wild enough to up turn a table or two, generous enough to affirm the gifts of others, loving enough to bear with another’s faults, smart enough to know that we can’t prove everything, secure enough to recognise that we are unique and that others are too … and that that’s ok … calm enough to sit with silence and stillness and occasional inactivity, brave enough to accept pain and suffering, courageous enough to recognise our own mortality, humble enough to accept the will of God for us.
And we have a great mentor in all of this … a God-given mentor in Jesus Christ who was resourceful and strong, and tough and wild, who was generous and loving, smart and secure, calm, brave, courageous and humble.
We have a great mentor in Jesus Christ … who feared for a moment in a garden but who instead of seeking to escape his fear entered into it fully and in so doing was transformed.
We have a great mentor in Jesus Christ who reveals to us in a very earthy way the glory and the majesty, the kindness and compassion, the love and the generosity of God and who stood by an empty tomb and said, “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid.”
Children busily engaged during the sermon
Studying the Transfiguration from on high (in the loft)
Texts:
1. Isaiah 6:1-13 – A vision of God in the temple
2. Psalm 138 – Thanksgiving and praise
3. 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 - The resurrection of Christ
4. Luke 5:1-11– Jesus calls the first disciples
“Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
If we view Scripture as the living Word of God that can speak to us here and now in our present condition, then we can only view today’s gospel passage in which the first disciples are commissioned for ministry, as an urgent call for us too to engage in the risky task of following Jesus and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God outside of our comfort zones.
Jesus was not in the business of “nest feathering.” He did not aspire to creating for himself a comfortable lounge chair type of life. Nor did he promise this to or seek this for those who answered his call to “follow me.”
The proclamation of the gospel was to Jesus an urgent mission that demanded of him the strength and the courage to refuse the temptation to sit still in one place, to avoid conflict, to be a yes person, to wrap himself up in the cotton wool environment of hearth and home and kith and kin, to get sucked in to the vortex of adulation and hero-worship created by the swirling crowds of sycophants and fair-weather fans. We see this clearly in the chapter that precedes the one read this morning in which Jesus responding to an enthusiastic crowd who wanted him to stay-put says, “I must proclaim the good news of the Kingdom of God to other cities also; for I was sent for this purpose.” Jesus here insists on a wider mission, a mission that must constantly break new ground that must constantly move beyond the confines of family, hometown, and locality and even, as in the case of Jesus, country and culture.
In the gospel read today we see this programme of radical missionary activity in direct action. Having moved on from Nazareth to Capernaum, Jesus finds himself in friendly territory where his ministry of teaching, preaching and healing is well received – demons are exorcised, the sick are cured and the curious are taught – Jesus busily reclaims for God human lives stunted by demonic forces, by illness and by ignorance.
Impeded by the crowds thirsting for the sort of life and knowledge that he has come to share, Jesus finds himself in a boat out on Lake Gen-nes-aret watching fishermen at work. It is interesting to note here that when Luke was writing his gospel the boat had become a symbol for the Church. So we might recognise in this scene that Jesus sitting in the boat is not only the foundation of the Church, but by its very nature, the Church as boat could be expected to set out on unchartered waters taking the message of the gospel to distant lands and peoples. It would seem to follow then that these first disciples called by Jesus, these fishermen, were selected for their ability to steer the boat, to take the boat out into those waters.
They do need a bit of encouragement though. After an unfruitful night of fishing, Simon and his fellow workers sit and mend their nets. Obviously, as professional fishermen, they knew the tides; they had an idea when conditions were best suited to catching fish. Little wonder then that Simon, knowing full well Jesus’ background as a land-lubber carpenter, views his request to, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” with some scepticism. But having witnessed Jesus cure his mother-in-law Simon agrees and is immediately rewarded with a catch so abundant that the nets, just mended, threaten to break and the boats housing this amazing catch are in danger of sinking.
Standing in the light of this miracle emphasises for Simon the shadows in his own life. Like the prophet Isaiah he confesses to his sinfulness and inadequacy. But, it is at this moment of painful self-knowledge that the call to follow Jesus comes. It’s almost as if a condition for following Jesus is the laying bare, the willingness to expose the dark corners of our lives to God’s loving, light-filled, forgiving gaze and in so doing free ourselves of the fear, the timidity, the apathy, all those things that bind us to destructive forms of living, all those things that can prevent us from living our lives to the full.
Simon-Peter in acquiescing to Jesus’ request to, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” conquers his fear, his doubt and his uncertainty. Simon trusts Jesus and in so doing is rewarded with an abundant catch.
Like Simon-Peter we too are being asked to, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” What we need to reflect upon is what this can mean for us as both individuals and as a parish. Are we being asked to take greater risks in our Christian witness, in the way we pray, in the time we give to God, in the attitudes and values that we express, in our personal responses to crises in our community, our nation and our world? As a parish, I have absolutely no doubt that we are being asked to, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” We are being asked to take a risk, to set sail in unchartered waters for the scary, unknown places, the places where we don’t feel secure … we are being asked to travel outside of our comfort zones for the sake of the gospel.
We are in good company though. This commission to cast our nets into the deep, beginning with Simon – Peter and reflected in the lives of the countless men and women who over the centuries have taken enormous risks for the sake of the gospel, this commission to cast our nets into deep waters must continue with us. How do we do this? In what ways must we cast out our nets - through street stalls, through Saturday night services, through tea dances and choral festivals, through our service to the poor, the sick and the ignorant? Through tackling the difficult issues … letting go of that which ties us down, which saps our time and energy and finances, which prevents us from resourcing our mission to take the gospel out into our community in new and different ways. All of this will require energy, enthusiasm, creativity, commitment and absolute trust that our work will not be in vain.
And we have nothing to fear, Jesus tells us not to be afraid, Jesus tells us to trust and to act immediately upon his word and if we have the courage to do as Simon-Peter did, if we have the courage to cast our nets into those deep and unchartered waters beyond these doors we will undoubtedly be rewarded with nets full to overflowing, straining with an abundant catch of great depth and variety.
In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
