The Second Sunday after Epiphany (CL)

Luke 5:1-11

On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, ² and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³ Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. ⁴ And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” ⁶ And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. ⁷ They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” ⁹ For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.” ¹¹ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

It always seems like when you have been working for hours on a problem, someone else comes along and provides an immediate solution. Or maybe nobody comes along and you just continue to struggle. Jesus makes fishing so easy. He just tells them to let down their nets and there are all the fish. This sounds a lot like a Big Fish Story.

Each of struggle with the problems of life. Some of you may even be struggling day and night trying to figure out how to get more people to show up to church. But just remember it takes Jesus sitting in the boat, and these fishermen catch two boatloads of fish.

Simon, Andrew, James, and John will become fishers of men. They will spend the next couple of years following Jesus. They will bear witness to many more fish stories. They will even witness the biggest fish story of them all, Jesus Christ's resurrection (the fulfillment of the sign of Jonah). Jesus has given us his word full of eye witness accounts of the things God has and is doing for you. He has saved you from your sins, and is catching you his net.