Barbara Brown Taylor wrote a book called Learning to Walk in the Dark, which was our book of the month in January. So some of you have read it. We followed her explorations of the dark in all kinds of ways, including a simulation of blindness. In which she was encouraged to pay attention to what she was perceiving with all her other senses.
And what she noticed was sight is a very shallow sense.
When we rely on our other senses, we find that we need to slow down, pay attention more fully. Using our other senses allows us to go deeper in our experience and knowledge of things. When you touch, smell, listen, taste, you know something more deeply.
Like it or not.
In this gospel text, Jesus told Simon Peter to go out deep. He said, “Go out into the deep water and let down your nets,” which Simon Peter was not enthusiastic about. He had been fishing all night and they had caught nothing, which meant he was having a pretty bad day already. Fishing was his livelihood. Catching nothing was essentially putting in a hard day’s work for no pay. Surely this is not something that happened often, or Simon Peter would be in a different line of work.
But it did happen that night, and Simon Peter was tired – in body and soul. He just wanted to finish taking care of his equipment and go home.
But Jesus had him working. First, he had to take him out a little way from the shore, to get some distance from the pressing crowds, and let him be heard better by all the people gathered there. Simon Peter obliged him, likely because he felt he owed him something. This is not the first time Simon has met Jesus.
Right after he left that synagogue in Capernaum where he was nearly thrown off a cliff, Jesus had been a guest in Simon’s house, where Simon’s mother-in-law was lying ill with a high fever. Jesus healed her.
So this was a small favor to give in return, let Jesus sit in the boat while he talked to the people. But then, when he finished and Simon Peter thought he could finally go home, Jesus turns to him and says, “Go deeper.”
This was one of those situations when going deeper was not what Simon wanted to do. He was exhausted and discouraged. He had just finished cleaning his nets and Jesus tells him to go out in the deep water, drop his nets in, and try again. Simon knew there were no fish out there. He had just been there. But he owed Jesus one, so he put out into the deep water and let down his nets.
And they caught so many fish the nets were breaking.
This surely makes up for the night before – and then some. This is the catch to beat all catches, a windfall. Simon could put some money in the bank, maybe buy a new boat or take a vacation. But strangely, he falls on his knees and cries, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”
Which was a strange response. But it happened because he went so deep.
In that extraordinary experience with Jesus in the boat – going out in the lake, dropping the nets, fighting to haul in a load so huge it almost sunk them – Simon Peter had an encounter with the divine that was as potent as the encounter Isaiah had with the mighty Seraphim.
This was bigger than anything he had experienced yet. Simon had seen Jesus’ gifts for healing when he visited his home. Simon had heard Jesus’ compelling teaching that morning while he sat in the boat with him. But when he let down his nets, Simon had the most personal encounter yet with the power of God’s goodness. And he had the clearest understanding of his life of how great God is and how small he was. It was excruciatingly glorious.
This is just what we look for when we come to worship: close personal encounter. An encounter with God who is worthy of all our praise and adoration. An encounter that makes us know just how small and frail we are; realize that anything we do on our own is as nothing compared to what God can and will do with us and through us. We are here for an encounter that tells us, “I am the vine and you are the branches; if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. But apart from me you can do nothing.”
To have an encounter with the holy that shows us our weakness, our imperfections, our sinfulness. This is the kind of encounter Simon Peter had that day in the boat, and it is the kind of encounter we may have whenever we come to worship.
You might be thinking: I don’t know if that’s really what I’m looking for. Maybe not a deep dive you care to take. I know. But listen: you know there are treasures down there. That it is only by going deep that we may encounter the unimaginable glory of God and know the richness of God’s love.
Do not be afraid, as the angels say. Accept the invitation, as Simon Peter did. Follow Jesus into the deep, one step at a time.
____________________________________
Photo: ChurchArt.com
