Sunday Service | Following Jesus, part 2: November 22, 2020
Whitney opens today's service with asking us a question: What are we cultivating? She challenge us to remember that we are cultivating something already - giving energy and hard work to different areas of our lives. But if we want to receive a healthy harvest, we have to be very careful what it is we are cultivating in our lives.
Brian continued some of the thoughts from last week's message on wandering versus following Christ by examining a story in the Bible that we can relate to in Luke 5.1-11. Are we living haphazardly or intentionally? Are we hoping to find meaning or trying to make sense of the Kingdom of God, but not opening ourselves up to experiencing what it means to follow God in the midst of life?
This year, we are feeling disconnected more than ever from God & other people that it can result in a loss of expectancy--like fishermen without a catch. We’re looking for divine intervention, waiting for it in our day-to-day routines, but it’s not happening how we expect it to.
Luke 5.1-11 tells this kind of story.
One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.
We’re like these fishermen. We know what to do, we know how to do it, but life is harder right now, so we’re trying to move on. These men were cleaning their nets; they had given up also. Jesus interrupts that process. He wants to engage with them right where they are at. He meets them in the middle of their story.
The divine intervention was not the miracle; the fish they caught was not the miracle.
The miracle was Jesus meeting them as they were packing up. Right where they were.
Questions to ponder:
What divine interventions does God have for you?
Are you willing to respond right where you are--even with your pain, hurt, and frustration?
Jesus used what they knew, he calls them in who they are as fishermen. He wants us exactly where we are, and will use exactly who we are. Responding to his voice and giving witness to Jesus with no pretense, just with who we are right now--that is what it means to follow Jesus.
This is radical. It will look different for all of us: in our poverty, our marriages, our anger issues, our service in the secular world, or our secluded prayer lives.
He will meet us and he calls us to respond. Whatever the response, it will be out of love.
Following Jesus isn’t about making us loveable or pleasing to God. We are loved and pleasing right where he calls us. Following Jesus does not create a sense of belonging, affirmation, or belovedness; following Jesus means we believe those are true despite our shortcomings, because they are true long before we follow.
We also see in this story Jesus enlarging the disciples’ perspective. Peter’s repentance came out of recognizing that the provision in his life had been coming out of his own hand’s efforts--instead of from God. He was living in survival mode, doing what he could to survive. Jesus met these fishermen where they couldn’t provide for themselves, and he provided.
Life is not about survival. There is a bigger story that Jesus connects us to.
This radically affects how we interact with others. These fishermen had to call in their partners to share in the abundance of fish being hauled in. But it’s not about the fish or about being fishermen; it’s about being who you are but with a bigger purpose: from fishermen to fishers-of-men. These were called into ministry by following him.
Jesus followed God because he loved God. And we are called to the same.
More questions to ponder:
Where is Jesus trying to interrupt your day?
How is he engaging with you where you already are?
How is he enlarging your perspective?
Bottom line: the purpose of following Jesus is to experience love--to receive and to give away.