Reflection:

If we had been there that morning on the shore of the Lake of Galilee listening to Jesus preach to the people about the love of God for all mankind, the coming of the Kingdom and what it means to live in community and in communion with those whom we share the world, we would have seen a man sitting offshore in a boat surrounded by a crowd of attentive listeners.  Nearby, were some tired and discouraged fishermen who after an unsuccessful night of fishing, were cleaning and mending their nets before going home to eat and sleep.  As they worked, perhaps they listened to what was being taught and wondered; who is this man preaching to us about the Kingdom that is to come?  Was He the one creating all the uproar in Nazareth lately?  Is He the Messiah we have been waiting for?

We are told that Jesus stopped speaking to the people and spoke to Simon Peter in whose boat he was seated, saying to him “Simon push out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch”.  Simon hesitated momentarily because he was sure there were no fish to be caught, and he may even have been thinking   Hold on there for one moment, don’t you think I know how to catch fish?  But what he did was act with trust and obedience when he heard the request and the authority with which it was spoken.  Soon Simon was overwhelmed with the amount of fish in the net and called out to the other fishermen for help because his boat was in danger of sinking. At this point in the scripture we are told Simon Peter confesses his sinfulness and calls Jesus “Lord”.  In response Jesus asks Simon to follow him and become a fisher of men.

Some of the best stories are fish stories and living on the ocean as we do here in Vancouver many of you may have gone fishing at one time or another.  If so, you will know fishing is hard work requiring a great deal of patience, hope and uncertainty.  I suspect that if you don’t have a fish story of your own you will have heard one at sometime.  I too have some fish stories I can attest to.

The story that comes to my mind took place when I was about ten years of age and living in Northern Ontario.  That morning as I had often done, I went ice fishing with my mother.  We walked nearly two miles to Herman Lake and once there my mother chose a spot not too far off shore where she chopped two holes through the ice and then set up two lines.  Next we cleared a space nearby, collected some broken branches and started a fire on the ice within easy access of the lines.  After that, we watched and waited for the dip of the pole and line to indicate a fish had taken the bait. We waited a long time. The holes my mother had cut seemed big enough in the beginning but by the time we caught the fish that cold winter day the hole had begun to freeze over and was no longer wide enough to pull the fish through. My mother let the line down again and began to enlarge the hole. When she pulled up the line for the second time the fish was gone.  I remember being very disappointed.

In my world, in the world of the People of the Book and in the world of Indigenous people, storytelling is important and fishing stories are high on the list of favourites.   Usually these stories are about the fish that got away, the fish that was never caught, sometimes about a lucky strike and lately even reconciliation stories about the fishermen of the East Coast.  But the story we have heard today is very different. It is a story about the many fish that were caught and the promise that there are many more waiting to be caught by Simon, his friends and fishermen today.

So who was Simon Peter and what do we know about him and why was he chosen?   It is safe to say that he was a leader of men who employed others to work with and for him. As a fisherman he held an important position as a supplier of the food for the people, but in many ways he was an ordinary person without prestige and position in society.  As a Jew he would have been involved in the life of the synagogue and believed in the coming of a Messiah. But from the Gospel of Luke we don’t know if he was he at the wedding in Cana or if he was in the synagogue on the Sabbath when Jesus read Isaiah from the Scroll and said the scripture had been fulfilled or if he had seen Jesus cast out demons?    We are told though that Jesus made Simon’s mother-in-law feel well enough to attend to her duties when he came to Simon’s house as a visitor, so it seems he was not a stranger. Perhaps Jesus was the manifestation in person of the God Simon worshipped, the God he knew who loved him and would save his people. We just don’t know.

Of this we can be sure, that on the day when Simon was asked to cast out his net, and later to follow Jesus he knew his life was about to change.  He was obedient, willing and aware of his limitations. If he had doubts they did not hold him back from action.  Jesus was looking for men like himself and not men who were rich or powerful.  Simon saw himself reflected in the eyes of someone he revered.  Jesus made Simon feel special, needed and even worthy enough to leave the life he was living as a fisherman and to become a fisher of men.  Did Jesus see in Simon Peter a man who would make a great effort and not give up too soon, a man who would attempt what at first seemed hopeless even to the point of waiting for a miracle.

We know that later in his discipleship Peter would say when asked  “Who do you say I am?” he had replied “You are the Son of God”  We also know in a moment of weakness Peter would deny Jesus and run away and later be ashamed of his actions.  So how did it happen that such an ordinary person came to be the Rock on which the Christian church would be built and what was it that Jesus saw in Simon Peter that he might see in you and me.

In the broad scope of our faith, we claim as ours the Commandments of Moses, The Lord’s Prayer, The Sermon on the Mount and the Apostles Creed and we know for certain these are all vital to our faith but how does that understanding translate into simple action, between us and our neighbors? Can we demonstrate Christ’s message of love and sacrifice as a way of living?  I believe we can.

If we doubt God’s love for us, in spite of our insignificance, we show our lack of faith in a loving Creator. We need to put aside the jealousy and the sadness we feel that our life compared to that of a more successful person either in the eyes of society or in the mind of God is less worthy.  We need to believe we are special and we have been given a free will to become who we want to be.

Most people think of themselves as successful and special because others have led them to believe they are. We can if we try make all those we meet feel special, because that is the power of love that has been given to us in the Spirit.  When we don’t make people feel special in any way we deny them the love of God that dwells in us as Christians who are here to live in communion with others in our world.  Love for one another changes both us and those whom we love.

Thanks be to God.