Scripture Lesson:
From the Gospel of Luke, Chapters 5:
1Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
"The Deep Water of Decipleship"
A
Communion Meditation Preached by
Rev. Jean Niven Lenk
at
the First
Congregational Church of Stoughton
United
Church of Christ
I want to mention again that this coming Thursday, February 11, we will be hosting an Emergency Haiti Response Event. We continue to collect contributions of materials for hygiene and baby kits, and we invite you to come from 6:30 to 8:30 pm on Thursday to assemble the kits, which will be shipped by Church World Service to Haiti. Other churches from the area will be joining us, as well as representatives from Church World Service who will update us on their disaster response in Haiti. Feel free to invite your friends and neighbors, and all ages are welcome!
This coming Thursday is a follow-up to the Emergency Haiti Response event that took place a couple of weeks ago at St. Mark Congregational Church in Dorchester. A number of United Church of Christ churches from the Boston area were represented that evening, mostly by only one or two people from their congregation. But it was two churches that counted for 80% of the people there that night; I am proud to say one of them was the First Congregational Church of Stoughton, with 12. And the other was the United Church of Christ in Medfield, with about 20.
I will tell you that I have a soft spot in my heart for the UCC Medfield. Many of you have heard my story about not attending church for the first 20 years of my adult life. And even after I thought that maybe I’d give church another try, I spent two more years just driving past the beautiful white church in town where I was living, saying, “That’s the church I’m going to go to, when I start going to church.” Well that church I kept passing was the UCC Medfield. And when I finally did go, entering its doors for the first time became for me the pivotal, transformative moment of my life. It was at the UCC Medfield that I found my passion, discovered my joy, and heard my call to ministry. And it was almost eleven years ago at the UCC Medfield that I was ordained.
But you know, even though we’re just a few towns apart, Stoughton and Medfield are pretty different churches. Medfield has about 450 members and gets over 300 in worship each Sunday. Well over 100 youngsters are in the Sunday school. A few years ago, the church was able to raise over a million dollars for an extensive renovation. And the pastor, my colleague Phil Bauman, is a cerebral Ph.D.
But, Medfield and Stoughton have something important in common: we are both discipleship churches. As wonderful as Medfield’s membership, attendance, and financial “numbers” are, that’s not where that church’s focus is, nor is it ours. We both focus on making disciples of Jesus Christ. We both emphasize six spiritual practices, or “marks of discipleship,”1 which nurture an individual’s journey of faith and help us to make a deeper connection with God. And I believe it is that relationship with God through Christ, and our focus on serving within and beyond God’s church, that inspired the hearts of all the people from these two churches to come out in response to the disaster in Haiti.
Now, you might be thinking: shouldn’t all churches be discipleship churches? Isn’t following Christ the main reason people go to a church in the first place? Well, you’d be surprised.
A pastor was interviewed by a search team from a congregation in the Northeast. The committee chair asked her, "Do you use the "J" word very often?" The pastor wondered what the "J" word could be: Jerk? Justice? Jehosaphat? The committee chair continued, "Well, you know, do you talk about Jesus often?" Somewhat surprised by the question, she ventured that yes, she did talk about Jesus – in fact, whenever she could work him into the conversation. The search committee was not amused, and that pastor did not get the call to that church.2
But it’s different here in this church, and at the Medfield church, and at the few but growing number of other discipleship churches. We preach Christ. We follow Christ. We serve Christ. In discipleship churches, it’s about moving beyond the shallow water of civic faith, which encourages people to be caring, considerate, helpful and responsible without ever mentioning Jesus or lifting him us as our model, our inspiration, and our Savior. In discipleship churches, it’s about moving into the deep water of relationship with God through Christ.
The scene from this morning’s Gospel lesson from Luke takes places after Jesus has begun his Galilean ministry but before he has called his first disciples. Peter, James and John have returned to shore with empty nets after a long night of fishing. Seeing their lack of success, Jesus tells Peter, “Put out into deep water and let down your nets for a catch.”
Peter is skeptical. “Master,” he says to Jesus, “we have worked all night long and caught nothing.” We can imagine that Peter hesitates here before continuing. “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they do, they catch so many fish that their nets start to break.
Jesus tells his disciples to go out into the deep water because that is where they will find abundance. And that advice is not just for those fishermen. It is meant for us, too. Jesus calls us to go out into the deep water of our faith, the deep water of his love, the deep water of discipleship.
But leaving the safety of the shallows to go out into the deep water can be frightening. It involves going beyond our comfort zone. It requires faith. It means making a commitment to Jesus. And that can be a scary thing.
A pastor3 tells the story of being asked by a friend, "I've been thinking about coming to your church. Do you talk about Jesus and Christ and God and all that?" The pastor laughed. "Well, yes, we try to talk about Jesus as often as possible." Then, more seriously, he added: "You know, he is central to everything we're about." His friend never showed up at the church.
Discipleship requires dedication, loyalty, devotion, commitment. You can’t just sit in a pew, sing a couple of hymns, say a couple of prayers, listen to a sermon and call yourself a disciple; that’s only putting your toes into the shallow water. To follow Jesus means putting out into deep water of not just of worship but also of prayer, and of reading the bible. It means putting out into the deep water of serving, and giving, and developing spiritual relationships.
Staying in shallow water is a temptation because it doesn’t ask much of us; it doesn’t take a whole lot of commitment or faithfulness. But when Peter stays in the shallow water, his nets come up empty.
And yes, he is initially hesitant when Jesus calls him out into the deep water. At first, he lacks faith. But then he and James and John follow; they are willing to go back into the boat, willing to put out into deep water, to put down their nets. And when they experience the abundance that comes from following Jesus, they leave everything to become his disciples.
The story of the Christian church tells of Jesus, time and time again, inviting people to go into the deep water of discipleship. Some, like the rich young man, aren’t willing to make the sacrifice and commitment necessary. But others, like the first disciples, risk everything, including their very lives, to follow: Mary Magdalene, Zacchaeus, Bartimaeus, the apostles, and countless others in scripture, not to mention – through the generations since – the mystics, the martyrs, the saints, and untold others right up to the present day who have said “yes” to Jesus’ call to “follow me.”
And Jesus extends to us his invitation to go into the water of discipleship. We can accept the invitation he puts before us – to have a significant, meaningful relationship with him – or we can choose to remain in the safe and shallow water, saying no the abundant and joy-filled life he promises. Jesus is calling. How are you going to answer?
Amen.
1 Michael W. Foss, Power Surge: Six Marks of Discipleship for a Changing Church (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000), especially pp. 90ff.
2 Kyle Childress, “It’s about God,” Christian Century, January 23, 2007.
3 Ibid.
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