Jesus’ Best in Our Worst

Transcription

Good morning again everybody. It is good to see you this morning. I love seeing your smiles. It is good to be with you in worship and community this morning.

Regardless of the week you've had coming in, it is good and formative to be together. So thank you for making time to be here with your church this morning. If you're new here or visiting, we're glad you're here as well. I'm Father Morgan Reed. I'm the vicar at Corpus Christi Anglican Church. If you're new to Anglicanism, it's like a senior pastor of a mission church. And that's what I am here, and we are delighted to have you with us.

Today in our Gospels, we are looking at the calling of the disciples. And so we've been talking about the glory of God through Epiphany. Now that glory is going to go forth through these who Jesus will choose as his disciples to carry on the kingdom work. And whether or not they knew it, these disciples, their lives, their stories, their vocations, were setting them up in unique ways to bring their unique gifts to bear on the age to come, the kingdom of God. And they were doing so in the midst of an empire that was not eager to know the love of the Messiah.

There was this clash of good news messages, Gospels. One of those being, we have no king but Caesar. One of those being, we have no king but Christ. And in the midst of that tension, the disciples are being called, these fishermen, to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God where Jesus is Lord. And so the followers of Jesus are called to hold out the glory of Jesus in the midst of really challenging circumstances. And this is what the apostles are called to.

And how can they do this? I love this passage today. It is such an encouragement. How are they able to carry the glory of Jesus out in the midst of really challenging circumstances in an empire that's not necessarily friendly to them? That's what we're going to look at this morning. And what they're going to learn is that Jesus brings people into an encounter with himself often when they're at their worst. And then they're going to learn that Jesus can do far more than they expect of him. And then when they're confronted with their own finitude as human beings, then they're going to come to know the power of Jesus working in them to do more in them and through them than they could have imagined.

And I think that you and I this morning are in need of such an encouragement as we follow Jesus in seasons of real instability. As we look at our passage this morning, let me pray for us. “In the name of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Almighty God, from whom all thoughts of truth and peace proceed, kindle, we pray, in the hearts of all people, the true love of peace. And guide with your pure and peaceable wisdom those who take counsel for the nations of the earth, that in tranquility your kingdom may go forward till the earth is filled with the knowledge of your love, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

Jesus meets us in our worst

Well first, I want to look at this first point that I brought up, that Jesus meets people often when they're at their worst.  Jesus meets them when they're at their worst. Chapter 5 of St. Luke's Gospel is what we read today. Jesus comes to the lake of Gennesaret, which is also called the Sea of Galilee. It's in the northern part of Israel. It's about 18 by 14 square mile, yeah, square miles. And it serves as a popular freshwater fishing location.

And when he shows up to the Sea of Galilee, there's a crowd that's gathered. They're gathered there to hear him teach. And the crowd is growing. And because it's growing, they need to be able to hear him. And that area provides a natural amphitheater, so he has to go out a little from the shore to utilize the natural resources around him to create an amphitheater so that everybody can hear. And so he sees these two boats that are by the lake that he needs, and he decides that he needs one of them to go out onto the lake.

Well, the fishermen are not in those boats. They're out of the boats, and they're cleaning all of their nets. They've just, it's morning time now. They've spent all night fishing, which is the best time for them to catch a hole. And so Jesus decides on one of these boats to be taken out to the sea a little ways to be able to preach. And this boat belongs to Simon, who's going to eventually be renamed as Peter. And Simon here is not at his best. You can believe it. He's really, really tired.

He spent all night fishing. Show of hands, how many of you have pulled an all-nighter in college? Right? This is, you, Peter spent an all-nighter, and he has not caught anything to show for it. You can imagine how useless he is at this point, and how frustrated and tired and probably deflated he's feeling. 

He is not at his best, probably just wants to go to sleep. But in his tiredness, when he's not at his best, he still welcomes Jesus in. And I wonder, with Peter and Simon, if a lot of us are not feeling at our best this morning, as you came in here today. This passage is for you. It's an encouragement. The instability of these past few weeks have been really exhausting.

I know because I'm fielding texts, emails, and prayer requests all the time. People are worried about their jobs. They're worried about the immigration statuses of family and friends. They're worried about the takeover of government systems and processes by the wrong people, that we might break democracy in irreversible ways, that people around the world are going to suffer and die because of freezing and cutting aid. People are afraid of economic impact, on what imposing tariffs on allies means, what the diplomatic fallout of this is going to be. And that's just to name a few things that might be causing fear for some people this morning.

And a lot of these things do impact people in our church because you work for government agencies, or you work for NGOs that serve other people around the world. And so I'm hearing an understandable fear about what is happening right now. Things that make us feel like we're just not in our best.

Right? And that's okay. And if all that wasn't enough, life still continues to march on. And you have your daily responsibilities, the things that you need to do, making repair in relationships that are broken, keeping it together with your spouse, if you have one, maintaining your own mental and physical health.

And in this scenario, in this, you know, current situation, for some of you have kids, caring for your kids, maintaining a sense of security for them, and dealing with the challenges that they present day in and day out. Being present to all the different people that you need to be present to, and your different spheres of life. How do we maintain all of those things? And the reality is, if we were to look back on human history, there is never been a time where heaven has been on earth that we can point to one nation state and go, that was the kingdom of God.

You know, we just want to be like that. We've never seen it yet. There has never been a nation state that has exemplified the ideals of the kingdom of God. And so, you know, I want to name what feels so hard for a lot of people today as they're walking in. What are the things that make us feel like, man, I am just not at my best right now. And the reminder to us this morning, that this is the setup to encounter Jesus.

That when you're not feeling at your best, let your heart and your body be reminded that this is the place where Jesus sees you, where he knows you, where he deeply loves you, even when you're feeling like you're at your worst. And so when we can learn to name the things that are broken before Jesus, then what we're also doing is naming the very thing where we are, we're place where we're longing for God's love and grace to be poured in and change, change our hearts. So when we're in our worst, that's when we're often most ready to encounter Jesus.

Jesus can do more than we expect

And then second, Jesus can do way more than we often expect him to be able to do. Jesus says to Simon, put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. Can you imagine Peter cleaning his nets tired? And Jesus says, can you get back in the boat, push it out in the water? And also, can you put your nets down too for another catch? You know, it's like it's a very truncated dialogue in the gospel.

So I wrote my own. Jesus says, let down your nets.

And Peter says, “really? We've been at this all night. I am exhausted. I'm tired. I'm hungry. All I want to do is sleep.

Jesus: “I know I get it. And I'm so sorry that you are tired and hungry. Let down your nets.”

Peter: “ We know how to fish. We've been at this all night. We know the right time to go out. You're a carpenter. This is my thing. Do you think that you know how to do my job better than I do? “

Jesus: “Totally get it. You're an expert fisherman. I understand that. And yes, I actually do know more about your job than you do. I know more about you than you do. Put those nets down.”

 Peter: “OK, whatever. I'm going to do it. I will let down the nets.”

All right. Now, I know that that is apocryphal from the gospel of Morgan. This is not the actual dialogue that happened. But man, isn't that our internal dialogue? I mean, that is my internal dialogue. Whenever Jesus tells me to act in faith, we find ourselves really frustrated. We find ourselves in the place of being overwhelmed.

And then when Jesus reveals something to us that's broken, that's in need of his grace, we're quick to say, Jesus, don't touch that. You don't know what you're doing. I know how to fix this. Or at least I know people who do. And we strategize and we try to figure out who can help us fix this thing or a plan to get better or things to avoid it. People or activities that we can find or pleasures to keep us from addressing the very thing that Jesus says, I want to touch that and heal that thing in you.

And so Jesus invites us in all of our doubts, in those places of frustration and uncertainty, when we're definitely feeling like, you know, I'm just not at my best today, to set down the nets in faith so that we can see what he can actually do. And when they obeyed, those nets became so full that they were starting to break. And so Simon, when he sees that, he looks at Jesus and says, go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man.

And that confession of Peter at this point, sorry, I keep saying Simon and Peter, you know who I mean. So Simon, as he confesses this, it highlights now how attuned he is to the fact that Jesus is the son of God, that he's bringing the kingdom and that he himself is unworthy. He's realized who he is and who Jesus is.

And it was at this moment where he's rightly esteeming his own unworthiness before Jesus, that he is now ready to receive exactly what Jesus wants to do in him, the grace of Jesus to be poured in him to continue the work of Jesus. He has to get to this point if he is going to be a vessel worthy of the gospel of the kingdom. And so when Peter is at his lowest, Jesus is ready to reveal himself to him.

And then that is a comfort to you and to us, to all of us this morning. If you feel like you've made a real mess of things this morning, if you feel like there's not any hope, like you are just feeling really undone, overwhelmed, if things outside your control are feeling completely overwhelming, then the posture that this text invites us into is to say, Jesus, I don't get it. And honestly, sometimes I wonder if you actually get it. But I really want to be surprised by you today. And so I will let down my net. Jesus, I don't get it. I don't know if you get it. But at your word, I'm going to take that next step and let down the net. This is the posture when we feel overwhelmed.

And this is the step of faith that leads to new beginnings for us. It opens up to us the God who brings abundance out of these places of emotional and physical scarcity. This is Jesus whose kingdom is transforming a people, individuals and corporately that if we ask, where is the kingdom of God? You're seeing it in a community that's being transformed by him, whether or not the empire is Christian, pagan, in peace or in crisis.

The kingdom of God goes forth in a community of people. And so these small moments of faith are where we learn how frail we are and how powerful God is. And we learn all the meager training that we've had up to this point. And our experience and our life circumstances are all the training to understand that our life has far more significance for the kingdom of God than we would have imagined before. And so when we're at our worst, Jesus comes to meet us. Second, we looked at how Jesus can do more than we would have imagined.

Jesus calls us to more than we expect of ourselves

And finally, Jesus calls us into more than we often expect of ourselves. Jesus calls Peter and James and John to come and to catch people. And they're going to go gather people into God's boat of salvation, where people are going to be delivered into the kingdom of God, where Jesus is Lord. And so they leave everything behind at this point to follow Jesus, which is a huge step of faith. And we read today two passages that were really important for this. Judges, where we heard about one of the judges confronting the Midianites, Gideon, and 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul calls himself the least of the apostles.

And those passages remind us that the kingdom of God doesn't go forward through our constructed worthiness or the image that we would like people, that we would curate on social media for people to experience our holiness or our worthiness. This is not how it goes forward. But through the honest, frail brokenness of our stories, people who are longing to see Jesus at work, who are willing to prioritize God's kingdom, first and foremost, above all things, in our brokenness. N.T. Wright says it this way. He says, “When Jesus calls, he really does demand everything of us. There are no bystanders in God's kingdom. And this is because he has plans in store for us and the world that we live in that surpass what we would have dreamt of.”

And so what God has brought you through up to this point, your circumstances, the things that have been really hard, what God has brought you through up to this point are the beginning of your story. Your places of brokenness are the unique places of redemption that are going to form the compelling stories that draw people into the love of God in the kingdom of God.

Your story, your life has a role to play in the kingdom of God. Your vocation, your skills, your proclivities, the relationships you have, the stories that form you. When these things are submitted to this disposition of, Lord, if you say so, I'll let down my nets.

Then we're ready to see how Jesus can take our frailty and our brokenness and do more in us and through us than we would have ever imagined or dreamt of.

Conclusion

And so as a recap, thinking about this passage, it teaches us three really important principles about life in the kingdom of God, a life of following Jesus. First, that we are ready to see Jesus when we are at our worst. I hope that's an encouragement for you this morning. Second, it teaches us that Jesus can do more than we can imagine. And third, that Jesus can do more in us and through us than we could have expected of ourselves.

And I know that these are fraught days. For a lot of people, these are really destabilizing days, whether or not it's the circumstances outside or not, or just the internal ones. There are a lot of things that destabilize us. Continue in these days to do your daily prayers, right? It's like that World War II poster, keep calm and carry on. Keep calm and pray the daily office. You know, keep praying your daily prayers.

Regulate yourselves when you feel emotionally out of control. Take care of your bodies, they're really important. Your bodies are the means by which you come into the kingdom, and so take care of those bodies. 

Take each day to admit to Jesus those things that feel broken. Where do I not feel at my best today? And then ask him for what the next step of faith is. What is the next right thing to do, Jesus, when I am not feeling myself today? Your days are going to be filled with moments and glimpses of the kingdom of God and Jesus's power, but we need to search for them prayerfully with intention, in the midst of things feeling pretty chaotic.

And so my prayer for us is that may God give us the grace to prioritize his kingdom first and above all when we're not feeling totally ourselves. Let me pray for us this morning. “O God, you made us in your own image, and you have redeemed us through your son, Jesus Christ. Look with compassion on the whole human family. Take away the arrogance and the hatred that infect our hearts. Break down the walls that separate us, unite us in bonds of love, and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth. That in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.”

 Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Edited by the author.