February 9, 2025
Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany

“Finding Your Feet”

Luke 5:1-11

The fishers were out all night, and came home with nothing but sweat and hunger pangs. Yet again, their kids would go hungry. Yet again, the tax collectors and their thugs would come calling. But then Jesus shows up, and sends them back out to sea. It’s the wrong time of day for fishing. Everyone knows fish don’t run in the middle of the day! But, miracle of miracles, the nets start to break with the haul.

We ask the wrong questions about this story. Our scientific brains want to know how something like this could happen. How did Jesus know the fish would come? How did Jesus set it up so the fish would appear on cue? How could you repeat this, so that no one would ever go hungry again? And how could a God, who presumably loves fish as well as people, send a swarm of innocent creatures into those nets, just to make a point? All our “hows” poke holes in the story, and make us doubt its value.

Well … I don’t know whether it happened! Or at least, I don’t know whether it happened exactly as narrated, or whether the story has been modified in the telling and re-telling. There were at least 50 years between whatever events gave rise to this tale, and the time that Luke noted it down for posterity. 50 years of preaching; 50 years of this story being used as a sermon illustration; 50 years of this story being passed down in oral tradition from one preacher to the next. Preachers aren’t newspaper reporters; we don’t usually let the “facts” get in the way of a good moral. And Luke’s purpose here is not to tell us something scientific. He doesn't care about "how." He’s trying to tell us about God.

So here are some of the things I learn about God and Jesus from this tale:

• In Jesus’ presence, scarcity turns into abundance.
• In Jesus’ presence, the fishers’ kids don’t go hungry.
• In Jesus’ presence, the tax collector’s thugs don’t have a pretext to beat up the fishers.
• In Jesus’ presence, you get a taste of what it means not simply to eke out a basic living, but actually to thrive.
• In Jesus’ presence, ordinary people turn out to be capable of far more than even they could ever have imagined.
• In Jesus’ presence, working class folks with callouses on their hands, are valued, and needed by God, who has bigger fish to fry than just feeding their kids for a day.

I don’t have magical powers to make fish swim into empty nets, but I can sure get behind all of those outcomes in this story. Those outcomes really do describe the kind of world I want to live in: one where there’s enough and more than enough for everyone; where thugs don’t get their way; where ordinary folk get their needs met; and where people like each of us are not just beneficiaries of a charitable God, but necessary partners – empowered to use our God-given skills and talents in ways we might never have expected, for tasks that blow past our wildest imaginings.

I know nothing about the “how” of this story, but I don’t need to. The world it describes, and the ways it urges me to trust my ability to complete the actions I’m being called to, are inspiring. What can I do to partner with God, so the world looks even a bit more like the world those fishers experienced?