Homily 658 – 16 APE
Holy Transfiguration, Ames, Iowa
September 28, 2025
Epistle:  (181) 2 Corinthians 6:1-10 and (176) 2 Corinthians 4:6-15
Gospel:  (17) Luke 5:1-11 and (24) Luke 6:17-23

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.

Some days we feel like Simon Peter, don’t we.  Maybe more Simon than Peter, if we’re honest.  We work – hard – and to no avail.  No cash.  No profit.

It’s discouraging.  And yet, when a stranger stops by and wants to use your boat, you let Him.  Because not everybody should be having such a bad day as you, and you certainly don’t want to be the cause of someone else’s bad day.

I can imagine that Simon, if anything like the rest of us, probably listened to what this stranger said.  He spoke, and you were compelled to keep listening.  The scriptures don’t tell us what Jesus spoke about.  But it must have had an amazing impact on Simon the fisherman, son of Jonah.

Simon bar Jonah – the son of Jonah.  Jonah means “dove” in Hebrew.  The son of the dove – a symbol of peace even back then.  A symbol of redemption – the dove that brought back the sign of life to Noah on the ark.

Likely, Simon was a pretty tough guy.  He wasn’t just a fisherman, but also a sailor.  He had to learn how to wrangle the elements – the winds and the seas.  He was in a constant battle to force nature to conform to his will and his needs.

Plus, he had to know how to read the seas.  Where would he need to be to know where to catch fish?  And how could he get there, if the wind and the sea didn’t cooperate?

I’m confident this day wasn’t really unusual.  Other Gospels describe Simon’s near exasperation.  Luke reports that when Christ asked Simon to put out to the deep, Simon’s response was pretty grim.  “We toiled all night and took nothing.”

I’m not a fisherman.  Haven’t been fishing since I was maybe 6 years old.  But I can sympathize at having worked with nothing to show for it.  It feels like such a waste.

So here is this man Jesus, some sort of preacher, obviously not a fisherman, asking Simon to put out again – let’s go fishing!  Simon was less than enthusiastic about the idea, for sure.

But, he complied.  Maybe willingly, maybe grudgingly.  He did it.

And lo, the fish they caught.  Against all odds, against all logic, against all conventional wisdom and Simon’s decades of experience.  In the middle of the day, in calm weather, when most of the fish would have retreated to the bottom of the sea to avoid the heat and the lack of food.

The sea was about 200 feet deep.  His nets would not be able to go a quarter of the way to where he figured the fish might be.  My favorite word in the scripture, nevertheless, is not used here – but it could have been.

Because what Simon was telling the preacher was that he was an experienced fisherman.  He’d spent all night trying to catch fish, and had just cleaned all the weed and gunk out of his nets.  He caught nothing.

In spite of those facts, Simon said, “sure, why not.  Let’s go fishing.”  In spite of my better judgement and my inability to see any path to success, let’s go fishing.

They caught something, though.  Enough to sink the boat.  Enough to sink maybe two boats.  Such a haul they had never had before.  Three or four hundred pounds of fish.  Maybe an entire season in one catch.

I can imagine the adrenaline kicking in, as Simon struggled to pull in the nets.  Calling to his partners to come and help.  I can imagine the thoughts running through his mind – the amazement, the questioning, the doubt.

But here was fish.  Here was the proof.  This wasn’t a dream, this wasn’t a mirage or hallucination.  These were fish.  I imagine when the panic subsided, Simon then had the opportunity to look over at a smiling Jesus.  Why did you doubt, Simon?  Did you not know with whom you were fishing?

Simon had already called Jesus “Master.”  Epi-sta-tees.  Teacher.  Rabbi.  The same root as the one we call Bishop.  It is interesting to me that one of the translations for this word can relate to a visitation.  We may not think too much of that.  But think of the blessing that one receives, being visited by a King – or in this case, being visited by God!  A personal visitation.  A tailor-made visitation.

The enormity of what has happened sinks in for Simon.  “Depart from me, for I am sinful.”  My interlinear Greek and English text uses an interesting word here, too.  It says, “For a stupefaction compassed him, and all the ones with him, over the catch of the fishes which they seized.”

The version we use says that they were amazed.  Somehow I think stupefied is maybe more appropriate.

In any event, Christ says, “Nah.  Why don’t you follow me?”

Brothers and sisters, that is the question Christ asks each of us.  Why don’t you follow me?  He has visited us.  He has blessed us.  We have everything we need – food, some clothing, some shelter.  We have our families, we have each other.  The only thing lacking in our existence is the presence of our Creator.  And now we have Him, too.

Maybe we’re too self-absorbed to see it, or to notice even.  We’re still in the midst of some portion of the emotional roller coaster that Simon goes through.  Ultimately we need to react.  We have to answer the call.  Either fish, as the saying goes, or cut bait.

What Simon, and James, and John, his partners in the fishing business, did is that they left everything, and followed Christ.  They didn’t pause to sell their boat.  They didn’t return to check with their families – although James and John had their father right there.

They left everything behind.  Their boats, their families, their preconceived ideas, their belief system, their experience.  They were leaving behind everything that they were, to follow Jesus.

They didn’t abandon the family.  We know, for instance, that Simon returned to his wife and Jesus healed his mother in law.  But they gave up what they knew.  They became like Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and Joshua.  Giving up what they knew, to partake in a new abundance.  To follow into the land of promise.  And we are asked to do the same.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, One God.  Glory to Jesus Christ!