February 8, 2004
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Mindekirken, February 8, 2004 Go away from me, Lord… Luke 5.1-11 We often hear about the lake of Gennesaret in the Bible. It’s not big, only 13 miles long and 8 miles wide. To the north east lie the Golan Heights, and in the distance, one might see the snowcap of Mt. Hermon on clear days. To the south, the river Jordan flows through a valley towards the Dead Sea. The hometown of Jesus is up is the mountains, east of the lake. The lake of Gennesaret in incredibly beautiful. It’s located approximately 600 feet below sea level. The climate there is almost tropical. At the time of Jesus a lot of people lived on the slopes by the lake. No less than nine towns were located around the sea. Capernaum, where Jesus did so many miracles, is one of them. Even today one might see the ruins of the synagogue where Jesus preached. We know that Jesus attended the synagogue service every Sabbath, even though he was critical of quite a few things there. Last Sunday, we heard what happened when Jesus preached in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth. There would come a time when Jesus no longer was welcome in the synagogue. The pulpit would be closed to him. But Jesus continued preaching in the open air. Isn’t his most famous sermon the Sermon on the Mount? Today we meet Jesus on the shore of the lake of Gennesaret. Here too, people were pressing in on him to hear the word of God. Some men were washing their nets there after the night’s fishing. Jesus asked for permission, and Simon rowed Jesus a little way out from the shore. And from the boat, Jesus taught the people on the beach. What he said, we don’t know. Luke is only concerned about telling us what happened after the sermon. Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch, Jesus said. Maybe he wanted fried fish for church coffee? Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing, Peter said, and shook his head resignedly. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets. Here we see faith at work. Yet if you say so… We don’t always understand, but still we may trust Jesus’ words. A little child doesn’t understand his parents fully, but he is confident because he has experienced love and care from his parents. That’s the case with Jesus and us, too. We may trust his words, even though we don’t understand all the mysteries of the faith. The day when Peter rowed Jesus a little way out from the shore would be the beginning of a totally new life for him. He would leave both boat and net to follow Jesus as his disciple. In some way it’s strange that Peter quit the job as a fisherman on the day he got the biggest catch. For there, on the sunny morning, against all odds, Peter got his nets filled with wriggling fish. He even had to get help from his friends in the other boat, and when the catch was secured, the boats were so full that they almost sank. What a fabulous success! We might have expected that Peter would have recruited Jesus for a permanent job on board his fishing boat. Peter, the fisherman, might have no days of sadness after this. But the opposite happened. Instead of joy, we get to hear about sadness, grief over sin and failures. Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man! That’s what Peter said. There and then he perceived that Jesus was a man of God. They didn’t fit together. Peter felt dirty, unclean, unworthy: Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Peter’s reaction is similar to the one we heard about in the first reading today, where Isaiah was called to be a prophet. He met the Lord in an overwhelming vision in the temple. To see God made such an impression that he fell down with the words: Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Isaiah 6.5. It was a tremendous experience of unworthiness faced with the holy one. But God provided cleansing and forgiveness. Then the call to service came: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And I said: Here I am; send me! When we read the history of the church, we see a lot of examples that the call of the Lord begins with a reminder of one’s own unworthiness and sin. John the Baptist preached repentance from sin. Jesus said: Turn around, the kingdom of God is near. The Holy Spirit will prove the world wrong about sin… Jesus continued John 16.8 When Martin Luther fought his fight of faith, the question which overshadowed everything was this: Where may I find a merciful God? He was painfully aware of his own sin, and he felt condemned by God’s law. The biggest treasure of the reformation was the rediscovery of justification by faith alone. We’re all sinners, but God declares us just because of the work of Jesus for our sake. When the law has showed us our sins, we really need a savior. Then the gospel becomes precious. That’s also how the Norwegian farmers felt when Hans Nielsen Hauge went from place to place, preaching the word of God. People gathered at the farms. Many cried when they realized their sin and unworthiness in relation to God. The gospel of forgiveness became their biggest treasure. Revival preaching aims at touching the conscience. Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. I’m not sure, but it might be that we have lost some of the awareness of the holy today, or maybe we should say the holy one. Do we dare to sing as with the words of a hymn: Show me my own pervert abyss. That was the hymn Hauge sang when he met God in the fields of Rolvsøy on a spring morning of April 1796. Maybe we should pray to God for a stronger awareness of sin? Not in order to press us down, but in order to feel that we are lifted up by the freeing word of the gospel. We begin our services with the confession of our sins. We tell God that we have sinned with thoughts, words and deeds, and we recognize the desire to do evil things in our hearts. Sometimes people say we talk too much about sin. All the talk about sin made me depressed. I felt sick.. someone said. We can deny that Christianity to some has been experienced as the dark man’s rule. But is the confession of sin the same as to say that we are worthless? No. Adam tried to get away from his responsibility
by blaming somebody else. The woman you gave me, Lord… But God didn’t
accept his excuses. The responsibility is ours. In that, our greatness lies: Yet
you made them a little lower than God…it is said about man in Psalm 8.6.
We are God’s valuable creation. That’s also how we may fall so deep. But the
fall of sin didn’t take away our value. Jesus gave his life for sinners. We
are valued by him. The good news in today’s text is that Jesus didn’t answer Peter’s prayer. He asked Jesus to leave, but Jesus remained beside Peter. Peter was not rejected for his sins. Quite the opposite, he was forgiven, loved and accepted. And at the same time he got the call to serve. He, whose whole life had been spent fishing at the lake of Gennesaret, would become a fisher of men. We are also called to catch people for Jesus, witness about him who forgives and sets people free. May God give us grace to do like Peter and the other apostles; follow the call of Jesus Christ. Glory be to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen. |
The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church · 924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 · (612)874-0716 |