Service for February 9

Sermon for February 9, 2025 Fifth Sunday of Epiphany

If You Say So, I Will

Have you ever seen something that is so overwhelming you can do little more than stand in awe? Some people describe entering one of the great European Cathedrals this way.

My first experience like this came unexpectedly. During my first year of college, I was part of a group crossing the country performing with a Symphonic Wind Ensemble. We had not been on the road long when we had a chance to stop by the southern rim of the Grand Canyon. Now up to that point, if you had asked me do I want to go to the Grand Canyon, I would have said no. But when we got there, all I could do was to stand there, looking out over the expanse in silence, awestruck with God’s glory.

There have been other experiences like that for me, mostly having been overcome by the beauty of Symphonic music. To this day, I cannot listen to Gustav Mahler’s Second Symphony, called the “Resurrection” without breaking down in tears of joy at its conclusion. These experiences have been for me epiphanies, the intuitive grasp of reality far beyond explanation or investigative means.

Such describes the case in our first reading this morning, when Isaiah is brought into the Temple, not the one made with human hands which must have been glorious enough, but the true Temple, the location of God’s throne. The description Isaiah offers of necessity pales to his experience. If you can even come close to comprehending what he heard and saw, you can probably comprehend Isaish’s response, Isaiah 6:5 (NRSV) “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’s response to the vision is repeated at different times and in different ways throughout Scripture. You may remember the visions of Daniel and Ezekiel. The encounters David had with God, encounters of chastisement, grace, healing, and restoration. And of course, the vision of John called the Revelation of Jesus Christ, truly an epiphany for all who have eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to follow.

It may not appear that way on the surface, but our Gospel text is an epiphany to the same degree as these others. The simplicity of the story Luke tells may not seem to be as dramatic, but I think it is.

Luke presents Jesus standing on the shore beside the Lake of Gennesaret proclaiming God’s word to the crowds that had gathered to hear. Luke says the crowd “was pressing in on” Jesus.

If you have ever seen paintings of famous teachers like Plato or Aristotle, you may have noticed that when they taught, they were sitting, and their audience was standing. Well here, Jesus is not sitting and the bigger the crowd, the more you can imagine people moving closer to hear better.

While this is going on, there are professional fishermen who are washing their nets following a very unsatisfying night of catching nothing. Jesus got into one of the two boats there, Luke says it is the one belonging to Simon, and he asked Simon to take him out from the shore a bit (a nice break for Simon who has been working so hard all night). Jesus then finishes addressing the crowds.

Luke is a great storyteller, but so far there is nothing he has described that is anything but ordinary. Except, when Jesus is finished with the crowd, he turns his attention to Simon. “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”

What!? Simon objects. The fishermen are the experts. They know where to let down their nets and when to let them down. They’ve been making their living fishing for a long time. Some nights are good, some are not. Every job has its ups and downs. But they have been up all night and have not caught anything.

Who is this “carpenter” that thinks this is a good time to fish? Everyone knows you don’t fish the deep waters.

Are you ready for it? Simon responds, “If you say so, I will let down the nets.” This was the exact moment Jesus was waiting for. R.C.H. Lenski, a good Lutheran theologian, said of Simon’s response, “He intends to say, ‘The fact that thou hast spoken commands my will.’ That is exactly what Jesus wanted: Peter was to drop everything else and to throw himself absolutely on his Lord’s utterance alone. Yea, he was to go counter to all his own experience, science, wisdom, reason, or what not, including all that men might say and to hold to only one thing, his Lord’s word.”

Simon submits his will to the word of Jesus, and what happens? They catch such a haul of fish they can’t get all in the boat. They signal for the second boat to come and help and even then, they filled both boats to the point they were both starting to sink.

Simon Peter’s obedience to Jesus’ words reveals something about the reality of life and that sudden awareness resulted in humility, confession, and worship.

There are two sides to Peter’s new understanding: First, the Lord teaches us to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is imperative for us to recognize that the provision of our needs is the result of FAITH, not work. As Lenski wrote, “The fact that you have spoken, commands my will.”

Interestingly, these men all left their boats, nets, and their biggest catch ever behind them. Fishermen are notorious for their fishing stories. No one would believe this one.

Second, and here is the real epiphany: “Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’”

This one encounter that started with a frustrating night on the job and a sense of failure, Jesus began the transformation of these men from mere fishermen into heavenly fishers of men.

Maybe next time you have a hard time at work, next time things seem to be useless and fruitless, try turning away from all you think you know and simply pray, “As you have spoken, so I will do.”

Amen.

R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. Luke’s Gospel, (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing House, 1961), 279.