15^th February 2010

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley (Sunday 7 February 2010)

Lessons -- Psalm 138; Luke 5:1-11

And Peter replied, 'We toiled all night and caught nothing! But at
your word I will let down the nets.' (Luke 5:5)

The scene is familiar. Jesus' teaching by the sea and the miraculous catch
are etched on our minds by centuries of Christian art. As fishing stories
go it is up there with the best! A profitless night is followed by a
bountiful catch -- so plentiful that extra nets are needed and two boats
almost sink. It has all the marks of exaggeration common with fishermen!

But this is no ordinary fisherman's tale. Peter and co. don't brag about
their catch at the pub. Far from being ecstatic Peter is distraught.
Nothing is said about a financial windfall. They don't plan early
retirement on proceeds. They walk away from the trade that has provided
their livelihood.

There is something very 'fishy' about the story. That's because it has
nothing to do with fishing. It pictures the Church at mission. Jesus is
teaching the people. Peter is told to put out the boat (symbol of the
Church) into the depth of the sea (symbol of chaos in the world) and to
trust Jesus to draw all people into its net (symbol of successful
mission).

The story is a parable of the missionary Church. It is a calling to
disciples to hear the word of grace, to confess that the being of God is
present in Jesus and to 'leave everything and follow him' (v11) -- to
participate in the covenant community that exists in and for the world.

This doesn't mean that it all depends on us. The emphasis is not on what
we should do, but on what God has done for the world in Christ. Those in
the 'little boat of the Church' are trying to get results by their own
wisdom and effort. They are so self-confident about their own faith and
good works.

Here is the self-sufficient Church, confident of its own powers to 'make
mission happen' -- but a Church working in the dark without success
(symbolised by the futile night's fishing).

The image of the Church isn't very attractive. Peter becomes dispirited,
resigned and sceptical in response to Jesus' instruction to 'let down the
nets for a catch' (v5). All his efforts have come to nought! He only does
what Jesus says out of respect for his 'Lord'.

Even his reaction to the catch is very negative. Surely a keen fisherman
would leap with joy. Instead, he (improbably) prostrates himself at
Jesus' knees and says: 'Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.'
Wouldn't we have expected him to be so overjoyed that he couldn't restrain
his enthusiasm for this miracle-worker and his desire for all to share in
the material benefits of his power? But no! Utter astonishment (v9) is
accompanied by a sense of 'holy awe' (v10) and confession (v8).

Although the Uniting Church in its Basis of Union is a Church which
confesses faith in Jesus Christ as attested in Scripture and classical
tradition, I suspect that we are uncomfortable with 'confessing our
faith'. Perhaps it seems too religious or too negative or, with the
formation of the 'Assembly of Confessing Congregations', too disruptive?

It is important, therefore, to realise that 'confessing' means
'acknowledging' that in Christ God has decisively and uniquely embodied
his goodness and mercy for flawed human beings like us.

This is what happens in this dramatic story. When Peter says, 'Depart from
me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord,' the bystanders would naturally think
of the calling of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:1f). 'Woe is me! For I am lost, for I
am a man of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
hosts! (v5)'

How astonishing that these 'men of God', whom we expect to have a strong,
confident faith, react to God's presence by confessing their own sin and
the sovereign grace of God.

Confession here has nothing to do with moral lapses. Peter is so shaken by
God's presence in Jesus that he can't help but confess his lack of faith
in the power of God's goodness and graciousness. His sin (and the Church's
sin) is to take God for granted and to trust himself to build the Kingdom
of God. Self-reliance is a barrier to God's mission!

The attitude that it all depends on us is widespread among Christians
today. We are desperate to find new methods and programs to revitalise the
Church and make ourselves more relevant. Religious entrepreneurs, like the
prominent Melbourne minister now pictured on a huge billboard on the SE
Freeway near the city, rely on psychological manipulation and blatant self-
promotion to coerce people's allegiance to their successful church.

Why in the light of this story anybody would worship at the shrines of
these self-promoters is a mystery. Perhaps, after centuries of taking God
for granted, the invitation to be part of a 'confessing community' of
people who are humbled in the presence of God now falls on deaf ears?

In a recent article (First Things, No 200 Feb 2010, 21ff) Mary Eberstadt
reflects on the corrosive effect on Western Protestantism of 'Christianity
Lite': a watered down version of robust, Christ-centred faith that
rejects the hard parts -- like cross-and-resurrection, conversion and
costly faith -- and settles for a faith that is tailor-made to suit the
self. Disciples of Christianity Lite settle for the lowest common
denominator and are reluctant to claim too much for what God has done in
Jesus. In such a climate, the call to mission has become an embarrassment
to us.

In this episode, the image of living fish being caught in the Church's net
does suggest what many critics have said about Christianity: that faith in
Jesus as Lord kills the life in previously happy, life-affirming people.

Unhappily, this has been true of some fervent disciples who have 'left
everything' and 'toiled' to catch others 'hook, line and sinker' in their
narrow 'nets'. Elsewhere Jesus addresses this terrible error. But here he
speaks to those who think the Church's mission means being confident in
their own charisma and goodness to get results. Blind to the awesome
splendour of God's presence in Christ, they have nothing to confess and no-
one in whom to confess. Self-reliance and self-promotion, not reliance on
God's mercy and promoting the word of grace, is their key to success!

As disciples of Christ we are called to relinquish our self-sufficiency
and promote the Gospel of life. We must learn to say, with Peter, 'at
your word Lord, I will try again' (v5). Instead of trusting our own
goodness, we need to let ourselves be shaken to the foundations so that,
like Peter, we will be astounded at the glory of God's mercy embodied in
Christ. If that happens we shall know what it is to confess 'the Risen,
Crucified Christ as Lord to the glory of the Father . . . and to confess
Him as Lord over her own life . . . and Head over all things, the
beginning of a new creation, of a new humanity the hands of the living
God' (Basis of Union para. 3). Then, and only then, we shall be free to
confess the Church's pride (including our own) in taking God for granted.

We don't like talk of confessing our pride and humbling ourselves before
God. We think it harms a healthy sense of self. However, properly
understood Peter's heartfelt confession -- 'Depart from me, O Lord, for I
am a sinful man' (v8) -- is the condition of robust mission which points
away from our (arrogant) self-sufficiency to the all-sufficient grace of
God for all who have fallen short of the glory of God.

The story of Jesus calling disciples to be 'fishers of men and women'
(v10) shows us that the sole purpose of mission is to invite our fellow
sinners -- who also take God for granted -- into the covenant community
which (albeit falteringly) acknowledges Christ's goodness and mercy for
all. Our goal is that they too may confess the reconciling love of God who
is at the heart of the universe and so live life to the full.

Apart from this shared confession, mission would be an arrogant act of
self-promotion where we assert our superiority over 'sinners' or rely on
our own charisma and goodness. The magnitude of God's love for the world
(indicated by the size of the catch) and the recognition that 'all people'
are 'beneficiaries of grace' would be neglected or scorned!

As we participate in Christ's mission it is impossible, as the story
shows, to exaggerate the overwhelming grace of God for all. It is
impossible too to avoid the consequences of grace in our own lives. In
being called to 'leave everything', we must learn to pray that we shall
'not be afraid' (v10) to confess the unpopular but ultimately liberating
word that, in Christ alone, God has disclosed his purpose for humanity. In
that confession is hope for the world and the Church.

We don't know whether many will be drawn into the net of God's love in our
time. But regardless of numerical success, we are called to be a community
where, because Christ is confessed as Lord of the Church and the Head of
all things, sins are confessed and intercession made for the world in
response to the grace of God embodied in Christ for all.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt
Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of
Confessing Congregations within the UCA.