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Sermon for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany – February 9, 2025
Luke 5:1-11
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Simon Peter got skunked. He had spent all night working that lake and came up empty. Not a single fish. Not even a sardine to show for all his efforts.
When my oldest son was home last summer working his last summer job with the Port of Anacortes, the salmon started running and he wanted so badly to catch one. He would go out just about every evening after work and sit on the Stilly, pole in his hand. And despite all his efforts, despite the couple hundred bucks he spent on licenses and gear and gas, despite all the time he spent, he never caught a single fish. He loves being on the water, so I don’t think he regretted it, but you could hear the dejection in his voice when he came home night after night and said, “Skunked again.” You could see the disappointment on his face, especially as the summer came to an end and he still came up empty.
For Simon Peter the stakes were much higher. This was his livelihood. This was how he paid the bills. Getting skunked after a whole night was a real concern. Coming up empty was an even deeper disappointment.
Whether you fish or not, we all have experiences in life where no matter how hard we try, no matter how much effort we put into something, we come up short. We all have experiences where no matter how much we want something to happen and how hard we work towards making it happen, we get skunked. We find ourselves empty-handed. We all know this disappointment. We all know that discouraging feeling of coming up empty.
Maybe your efforts at work haven’t been noticed or rewarded. Maybe it is a relationship that you’ve put so much into, that you’ve invested yourself in so deeply, but it still feels like it’s slipping away. Maybe it’s a parenting situation, where you’ve been working on a kid and praying for a kid, and you just don’t seem to be seeing any results. Maybe it is a health condition that you’ve done everything within your power to remedy, but the test results just keep on going the wrong way. Maybe it is a financial situation, where you feel like no matter what you do you just can’t get ahead. It could be any number of problems or challenges where no matter how hard you work or how much you try, you just keep coming up empty.
We certainly experience this in the church. We experience it individually as Christians in our struggle against sin as we can’t seem to escape the old disobedient Adam or Eve in us who keeps tripping us up, despite our best efforts. We experience it collectively as a congregation when we work so hard to draw people in with an invitation or an event or an opportunity, with results that are sometimes disappointing and discouraging.
In this midst of Simon Peter’s deep disappointment, Jesus came to him. In the midst of his discouragement, Christ spoke to him. “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch,” Jesus said.
Now imagine you are a professional fisherman. You’ve been fishing for years. You know the lake like the back of your hand. You know the techniques. You know the strategies. It is your job, your area of expertise! And now a carpenter starts giving you fishing advice! Even worse, a preacher starts telling you how to fish! This had to have been hard for Peter to listen to. In fact, he does grumble a bit. He gets a little passive-aggressive, saying, “Well, we did just fish all night long and caught nothing – but if you say so!” But to Peter’s credit, he did listen to Jesus’ word. He did do what he said. He did follow his command. He trusted Jesus. He went out to the deep water and let down his nets. And as he did so, they were soon filled so full that they were beginning to break! They needed to bring in another boat to bring them all in!
You would think this would be cause for celebration. You’d think Peter would be high-fiving Jesus, thanking him for the tip. But instead, Peter falls down before Jesus. He says to Jesus, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” In the face of that power, that abundance, that miraculous love which has just delivered a motherlode of grace into his boat, he feels small and unworthy. And he is! But this is precisely why Jesus has come. He has come to bring good things to sinners. He has come to the unworthy to bring them something of tremendous worth. He has come to bring them forgiveness, life, and salvation. He has come to bring them a boatload of abundant grace.
“Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man,” Peter pleaded. But Jesus didn’t go away. He stayed right there with him. Jesus didn’t say, “Oh, you’re a sinner? I must have the wrong guy! Sorry!” No, he stayed with Peter. He already knew that about him. He already knew he was a sinner. Instead, Jesus said to Peter, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
It has been said that we become afraid when we believe that everything depends on us. I heard that recently and, to be honest, it convicted me. I think that’s exactly why I get anxious at times. We become afraid when we believe that everything depends on us. We have agency, to be sure. We have responsibilities to tend to, no doubt about it. Some things do depend on us. But there is so much fear that comes from thinking that everything depends on us.
Peter thought everything depended on him. He thought that his status as a sinner disqualified him from the blessings Jesus had come to bring, that he didn’t deserve it. Peter stood in the presence of pure, divine love, and it scared him. But the Lord Jesus said to him, “Do not be afraid.” Of course he didn’t deserve it. But it wasn’t up to him. This was Christ’s work. They were his abundant blessings to give. And with Christ’s blessings came Christ’s call: “From now on you will be catching people.”
We too are invited to trust in Christ’s word to us. When he says you are loved, believe it. When he says you are his, trust him. When he says you are forgiven, believe him. None of this depends on you. His abundant blessings are his to give, and he gives them to you by grace.
I can’t promise that trusting his word will solve every source of disappointment or discouragement in your life, but it will take some of the anxiety out of it. It will ease your fears because it will remind you that not everything depends on you. In fact, the most important thing about you – that you are a forgiven and beloved child of God – doesn’t depend on you at all. So do not be afraid. When it comes to all those other situations in life where you’re getting skunked, hand them over to him. In all those situations where it feels like you’re always coming up empty, lay them at his feet, and do not be afraid.
This is especially true in our lives specifically as Christians. When we have those moments when we know we are sinners, that we keep coming up empty, we can just tell the truth. We can just admit it. We can confess it. And when we do so, Jesus doesn’t leave us. You think he doesn’t already know that about you? Why do you think he came? Why do you think he called you here? He doesn’t budge from our side. Instead, he says to us, “Do not be afraid.” Instead, he says, “Your sin is forgiven.” Instead, he blesses us with an abundance of grace. And with the blessing comes the call to go out and catch people, so that others, too, might be brought into the boat of his holy church and come to know his blessings.
This catching people business can become yet another source of disappointment and discouragement when it feels like we’re always getting skunked. But here too we are called to trust his word and leave the results to him.
I remember a few years ago our congregation made a big effort to cast a wide net and bring people in at Christmastime. We spent a few hundred dollars on a couple hundred copies of a little book explaining the meaning of Christmas in a simple, but intelligent way. We encouraged our members to read it, and then to give it away, along with an invitation to our church we printed up and tucked into the book which included our address and worship times. It was a big outreach effort. All the books were distributed. And do you know how many new members we received through that effort? Zero. Not one. We were skunked!
In 2024 we didn’t do anything specific as an outreach effort. Nothing! Do you know how many people we received into membership? Twenty-three! We had 8 baptisms and received 15 new adults!
Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. I’m not saying that doing nothing should be our permanent evangelism strategy! I’m not saying we should never have a more formal outreach effort ever again. In fact, we haven’t exactly been doing nothing. Many of those people who came to us in 2024 did so because they were invited by other church members. There was still an effort involved. In most cases someone was putting down a net somewhere.
The point I’m trying to make is that just because our efforts don’t always produce results, just because we sometimes end up skunked, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t listen to Jesus and trust what he says to us. Not everything depends on us. Sometimes he brings in a haul we aren’t expecting. Sometimes he blesses us apart from our efforts. In fact, the blessing of our salvation has come in precisely this way.
So do not be discouraged, and do not be afraid. Not everything depends on you. Christ Jesus has spoken to you, and his word will not return to him empty. Our Lord Jesus has caught us up the abundant blessings of his grace – and with the blessings comes the call:
“Go out to the deep waters and let down your nets,” Jesus says. “Trust me.”
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church