“Jesus in Our Midst”
February 9, 2025
Rev. Rebecca Migliore
Jesus in Our Midst, a sermon about how Jesus calls us in the middle of “what we are doing now.” A perfect sermonette for an annual Meeting Sunday. Ahhhh, the best laid plans…But here we are, in the midst of real life which includes badly timed snowstorms (at least for Sunday morning worship services). And here is Jesus. Jesus in Our Midst.
I’m loving the opportunity to preach somewhat chronologically through the front part of Luke. It isn’t until we are immersed inside a gospel for a while that we can appreciate its own voice. For instance, in Luke, Simon Peter knows Jesus before he is called. How do we know this? Because in chapter 4, after Jesus has begun his own ministry, after he has preached in Nazareth, and after he then goes to Capernaum and heals the man with the unclean spirit during worship, what does he do? “After leaving the synagogue he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them… (Luke 4:38-39).
Somehow Jesus and Simon know each other. But Jesus has been wandering around the area preaching and teaching. Simon has been fishing off the waters of Capernaum with his brother, Andrew, and his friends James and John. It is a story of two paths in life, two different worlds. And sometimes those world intersect, like when Jesus comes over for a Sabbath meal and Simon’s mother-in-law is ill. And Jesus heals her.
So Simon knows that Jesus is something special. We can assume that Simon has heard Jesus speak, and is aware of his power.
He does call him “Master” and is willing to do as he says (putting out into deep water at midday), no matter how crazy it seems. But Simon hasn’t left his day job. And we have no indication that Jesus has asked him to, yet.
In the gospels of Matthew and Mark, this calling of the disciples is right at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. We get no inkling that there might have been a prior relationship between Simon and Jesus. And it could just be that this is another consequence of Luke shifting the order of stories about Nazareth and Capernaum. But it creates an interesting vision of Simon’s call that I don’t think I’ve thought about much. And I give credit to Matthew Myer Boulton from SALT for pointing me in this direction.
We often think that there were the fishermen, doing their thing, and boom, Jesus arrives, Jesus calls, and they follow. Just like that. Almost a miraculous thing. And very unlike the lives of most of us. But what if Luke is giving us another window into the calling of the fisherman. What if it wasn’t all of a sudden? What if they got to know Jesus over time? What if Simon (and Andrew and James and John) got to hear about this preacher? Got to listen to some of his teachings? Got to rub elbows with him? Got into heated conversations with him? Invited him over for family dinner? Yes, he did some amazing, weird stuff—exorcism, and healing. But that was just Jesus. We know him. We like him.
And then comes that morning when Jesus shows up on the shore, being trailed by all these people. And he comes up to Simon and asks if Simon will take him out away from the shore so he can be heard and seen by more people. Now Simon (and his brother and friends) were done for the day. They were washing their nets. And they probably weren’t in a great mood because as we find out, they’ve been out all-night fishing and have caught nothing. But Jesus asks and Simon takes him a little ways off shore so he can teach. Finally, Jesus is finished and they think can get back to cleaning up and some shut eye!
But Jesus has other ideas—to go out and do some deep-water fishing. And even though it is a ridiculous idea, even though they are tired and probably sick at heart (they haven’t caught anything that night—does that mean there is nothing to put on the table?), even though THEY are the fishermen and Jesus isn’t, they are willing to go out with him. Is this just because he asked? Because they hope against hope that having Jesus with them will give them good luck? Is it because they will be seen as being close to the great teacher, the Master—bragging rights with the other fishermen? Whatever it is, they go out there and they hit the jackpot. There are so many fish they have to call over their friends just to try to get the nets into the boat.
They especially need help because Simon Peter (when did he get this second name in this gospel?) has fallen to his knees, saying “I’m not worthy” and “Woe is me” and “Leave this sinner alone.” You would almost think that Simon is possessed, he speaks like the unclean spirits! But his possession is by the Holy Spirit that allows him to truly “see” Jesus. And Jesus responds, “Don’t be afraid. From now on you will be catching people.” Notice that in this version Jesus doesn’t say “Come follow me.” Jesus just assumes that they, or at least Simon, will leave his/their fishing lives to come and catch people.
Let’s pause here for a moment. The SALT commentary provides us with some food for thought about these “fishermen fishing for men.” They point to the Hebrew prophets who also use fishing examples, but with a different twist. Listen to these passages:
Jeremiah 16:16-17—"16 I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them, and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight.”
Amos 4:1-2—"Hear this word, [those] …who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, … 2 The Lord God has sworn by [God’s] holiness: The time is surely coming upon you when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.”
And Habakkuk 1:14-15--14 You have made people like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler. [God] brings all of them up with a hook; [The Lord] drags them out with [God’s] net; [God] gathers them in [God’s] seine, so [The Lord] rejoices and exults.”
In these words from Jesus’ Scripture the message is clear. The fishing is done by God; the nets scoop up the unrighteous and sinners, and WATCH OUT. We all know what can happen to fish that are caught. Jesus takes this image (that would certainly have been known to him, and most probably known to anyone who attended synagogue regularly) and turns it inside out. Now it is not God who is the great fisherman, but you, the actual fisherman who are needed. Now it is not terrible justice and retribution that the nets bring, but mercy and shalom. Now the emphasis is not on how unworthy we might think we are, but how much use God can make of the specific gifts that we bring.
Last week I pointed out that Luke doesn’t give us lots of examples of the “gracious words” that come from Jesus’ mouth (so say all the people). Here we get a glimpse of how Jesus is picturing God’s grace and mercy using a familiar image of God—but seen in a new light. They were surely “amazed.” And when they arrive at the shore, boats low in the water from the weight, they leave everything and follow him. One final note: when they leave everything, it means that the poor and anyone else in the vicinity had a feast that night. Jubilee came that day for them.
What does this story have to say to us? It leaves us with very little wiggle room. When God comes, there are no more excuses. You can’t use “I’m too young” like Jeremiah. You can’t use “I’m a sinful man” like Isaiah. You can’t use “I’m just a fisherman…insert your own line of work.”
Each of us has gifts, and those gifts can be used for service to others and for God. Those gifts can be big or they can be (what we think of as) small. God can use them, God can use us—for the work of grace and mercy, peace and shalom in our world.
Here is Emmanuel, God with us, standing in our very lives. Not just in church (in the synagogue). Not just at the head table at feasts, or praying the prayers, or shouting from the mountaintop. God sitting down to eat the daily meal. God showing up where we work. God showing up where we play. God showing up in our lives. In the midst of us. I have to say that is an unnerving thought. Because then there is no place to hide. No way of getting around the call of God. It doesn’t just come to the special few. It comes to us all.
Is that what Luke is getting at when the fish haul is so great, Simon and Andrew and James and John can barely get it into their boats? Is the writer Luke trying to give us a brief snapshot of the abundance in God’s world of Jubilee? No wonder ancient Christians used the fish symbol as a secret marker of their status. Yes, I know that fish in Greek contains consonants that point to the Greek for “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” But couldn’t it also be that they knew they had been swept up in God’s nets like fish? That they were part of the “catching” that Jesus predicted? Instead of fishermen catching people, they were fish transformed into fishers of people?
Today, Jesus comes to us. Jesus is in our midst. What gifts do we have to offer? What ways can we be of use in God’s kin[g]dom? What are we willing to leave behind so we might follow?
With God’s help, may we have the courage and the wisdom to find out. May it be so, Alleluia, Amen.