TRINITY V

​

Friends, I tell you truly, we live in a rebellious age. In the midst of so much abundance and in such safety, when called to Christ, so many will say “No. I don’t want to. I don’t have to.” Herein lies the quintessential reality of our salvation.

God has offered us more than we can possibly imagine. And He, who truly knows, tells us it is of greater value than everything we can ever attain in this life. We can have this great gift, if we simply follow Him, and walk in His ways.

Yet so many will hear this gracious offer and say, “No. I don’t want to. I don’t have to.”  And we must understand them. For God does ask much of us.

God will interrupt our day and our plans. As we saw in our reading today:

“And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,

And saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets.

And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.” (Luke 5:1-3)

They were washing their nets. Preparing to go home. Carrying out their own plans, when Jesus comes to them, who they do not know, and he simply gets in their boat. He then asks Peter to be pushed out from the land, so that He may teach. Coming as a stranger and asking this of them, when they had other plans. Is not this just like when God first comes to us, interrupting our day and our plans?

What do I mean by interruption? Is it not an interruption when we are asked to come to church? Is it not an interruption when we are asked to read the scriptures, or to say our prayers? If we are honest, these were not our own plans. For Christians we do not live by their own plans, but by plans and beckoning’s of our God. He has plans for us, and it is up to us to trust in His plans, and not to rely on our own.

Still, from time to time, we too mays say, “No. I don’t want to. I don’t have to.” And we are right. We do not have to. We are to choose.

Instead, some will choose pleasure. Some will choose knowledge. Some will choose plenty. They (and at times we) will choose many other things than what our heavenly Father has asked of us. But when we do, we should not be surprised to learn what great Kiing Solomon did in his own days. As he says in Ecclesiastes:

 “And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 2:10-11)

Yes, our God interrupts our plans. Sometimes He ask us to alter them. Sometimes He ask us to give them up entirely. To do what? To follow Him. To trust Him. To live in Him.

We are called to give up all that we have, including our life. As He died for us, we are to die to ourselves and to this world, for Him. That is what He desires of us all.

That is no small cost. We all know the scripture, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God”(Matthew 19:24). But do we remember that when the disciples were told this, they, who had witness so many miracles, and who must surely trusted Jesus by this time said:

“Who then can be saved?

[…]

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:25-26)

It is easy to say, but to believe? That requires faith. But our faith is not blind or untested. These scriptures are not just stories. Our Gospels are biographies told by or from those who witnessed those things themselves. People who walked with Jesus. Who spoke with Him and knew Him. Those who directly witnessed those marvelous things.   

What was their attitude? For that is in those retellings as well. Were they without hesitation? Were they without doubt? No. They were skeptical, but they heeded the request of the Lord, as Simon and the others did in our Gospel today:

“Now [Jesus] when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught.

And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net.” (Luke 5:4-5)

But what happened when he heeds the Lord’s call? The unexpected. That which was too difficult to explain.

“And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.

And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink.

When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken” (Luke 5:6-9)

Our faith is not blind. It is not from gullible rubes that we have learned it. It was from regular, skeptical men and women, who when they saw what God could do, were convicted in their own unworthiness.

But our worth, just like our blessings, do not come from ourselves, but from God. In Him we have all that we have, so when He calls us we can say “No. I don’t want to. I don’t have to.” But that will only lead us to “vanity and vexation of spirit”. To emptiness and sorrow. We can say no, but like rebellious children, just because we can say no, doesn’t mean we should. 

We are promised that:

“[E]very one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” (Matthew 19:29)

We are told this by Christ Himself, by whom, and for whom, all things were made. Who healed the blind and forgave sinners. Who rose from the dead and redeemed the forsaken. What is not in his power to give? So, in this rebellious age, let us be instead like disciples, who, when they were called “Forsook all, and followed him.” (Luke 5:11)

Deacon Nick Acker

​​