Trinity V
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts, be always acceptable unto Thee, 0 Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
From the Gospel: "And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him." (Luke 5:11)
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
When I was a child, my father was in the cinderblock business. Because of this, we never took family vacations in the Summer.
My mother would often take us kids to one of the State Parks in the Summer, but Dad couldn't go.
It was at Christmastime we had our family vacations.
We almost always went to Florida, usually in the Ft. Lauderdale area.
One of the things I most looked forward to when we went to Florida was deep sea fishing.
The Gulf Stream comes very close to the land in that part of Florida, less than a mile offshore.
We went out on a boat called the Helen S.
The Helen S is what is known as a "party boat." (That doesn’t mean what you might think it means!)
It means that there are benches down one side of the boat from which you fish.
The captain sets the boat up at a right angle to the current, so the drift of the boat carries the lines away from the boat.
When the fishing was good, it was fantastic.
There were some times when it was all you could do to keep a line in the water.
At such times, you would end up with a tremendous haul of wonderful fish: Pompano, Snapper, Mackerel, and the like.
Of course, there were other times when you didn't even get a bite.
That's fishing.
If you want to catch fish every time you go fishing, go to a hatchery.
You catch a fish every time you put a line in the water, but they taste like mud.
All in all, I'd rather put up with the vagaries of fishing in the wild.
In our Gospel Lesson for today, Peter, Andrew, James, and John had just had one of those bad times fishing.
Of course, they weren't angling, fishing with a hook, they were netting, but the results had been nil.
When Jesus tells Peter to put his nets back in the water, Peter tells him, "Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing."
As an experienced fisherman, Peter knew that trying again was useless.
On Lake Gennesaret, in the day the fish move into the deep, colder waters to avoid the heat, which is why they had been fishing at night.
Even more to the point, they had already cleaned their nets and prepared them for storage.
They were tired, hungry, wet, dispirited; they had already extended more than a little courtesy to this itinerant preacher, letting him preach from one of their boats because of the huge crowd which could not fit into the local synagogue.
Had this request been made to most of us, I suspect we would have smiled indulgently and said something like, "thanks, but I think we'd better just go get our breakfast."
Yet, Peter and his partners must have seen or heard something in Jesus's preaching and manner which led them to obey his word.
Likely his fame had spread abroad sufficiently that they knew he was someone special.
At any rate, in what was to be the most significant event in their lives, Peter responds to Jesus' telling him to let down the nets again, "nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net."
"Nevertheless." What a powerful word that is!
Jesus himself would use it in the garden, speaking to his Father.
"O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt."
The essence of "nevertheless" is "regardless of all that."
Having considered all the perfectly reasonable and even compelling objections, I choose obedience.
The result of their obedience was a miraculous draught of fishes.
"When they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink." (Luke 5:6-7)
Peter's reaction to this was surprising.
A lesser man might have simply been grateful for the fish.
Peter, however, instantly became aware of the fact that he stood in the presence of true holiness.
In the light of that holiness, he saw himself for what he was, a sinner.
I do not imagine that Peter was more spectacularly sinful that other men, but in that moment, Peter was not comparing himself to anyone but Jesus, and he felt very exposed.
"He fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord." (Luke 5:8)
In that moment he experienced what some have called "the horror of the holy."
When we are in a dark room, a few spots and smudges on our clothes are not particularly noticeable or embarrassing, but when we go out into the bright sunlight every spot and smudge stands out.
In the same way, when we live our lives in the company of ordinary men, our sinfulness doesn't seem all that bad, but when we come into the presence of a truly holy person, we stand convicted in our own eyes.
There are three possible reactions to the "honor of the holy."
First, some men will seek to escape from the holy one, to avoid the pain of seeing themselves in the light of that holiness; "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, 0 Lord." (Luke 5:8)
This is why so many people avoid God and His Church.
Second, some men will seek kill the holy one, to extinguish the painful light, which is what happened to Jesus and the prophets; "For every one that doeth evil
hateth the light." (John 3:20)
Or third, some men will repent and seek the power to change.
Jesus saw Peter and his partners as the third kind; he offered them his gracious invitation, "Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men."
"And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all and followed him." (Luke 5:11)
In following him, they would become the sort of men who would one day challenge other men with the "horror of the holy."
Some would flee from them.
Some would seek to kill them; ultimately all of them, save John, were martyred.
As Saint John wrote, "this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (St. John 3: 19)
But some would respond with repentance and seeking that same holiness for themselves.
Peter and his partners, and ultimately, all who respond positively become the bearers of the light of Christ and fishers of men.
And so, we come to this Holy Eucharist.
Here, we stand in the pure light of holiness.
There is a good reason we begin the service with "Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires are known, and from whom no secrets are hid.”
We see ourselves as we are in the light of that holiness, and we respond by saying, "Lord have mercy."
But the fact we keep coming back, daring to experience the "horror of the holy," shows we have chosen the path of holiness.
We know we have not yet fully arrived, but we keep coming back.
A very real, even essential, part of that path is to accept Jesus' invitation to become "fishers of men," bearers, however imperfect, of the light of holiness.
Of course, we can expect the same responses as Jesus faced, and the Apostles faced, and indeed every Christian who has sought to "catch men" has faced.
Some will flee from us.
While we presently need not fear having to pay the last full measure of devotion, at least in this country, nevertheless, some will say, or at least think, bad things about us.
"He's a Holy Joe", or, the current unforgivable sin, he or she is "judgmental."
To be sure, standing in whatever dim light of holiness we may bear, they may indeed feel judged, but it is not we who judge them; rather it is they who judge themselves.
There will be times we want to say to Jesus, "Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing."
But when we do, we need to remember what comes next. “Nevertheless."
Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net."
Because some will respond, we will, in due season, catch men.
Amen.
And now we ascribe, as is most justly due, unto Thee, O Lord, all might, majesty, power, and dominion, both now and forever. Amen.