Gathering Unity

Video link: https://youtu.be/t86bH-jwHGw

Readings: Galatians 3:26-29, Psalm 138, Luke 5:1-11

Since Christmas, we have been talking about a special kind of unity and inclusion that is only possible because we follow Christ. We have gone through a lot in 5 weeks, so let me just remind you of where we have gone. You may remember, that this Unity begins first with a special kind of unity with Christ. We cloth ourselves with Christ, meaning we take on his image so that we can grow into those new clothes and become more like him, but also so others might see Christ through us. Then we talked about taking on Christ’s mind, so that we might be transformed by his thinking, so that then we might then be inwardly and outwardly united with him - sharing and living out his love in everything we do. Since we understand that we have been united with Christ, we looked at our membership in the body of Christ, where each and every one of us has a particular and important place that makes up for the overall health and strength of this one singular church, which is Christ’s physical presence in the world. We are one with one another, as we are one in Christ. In this particular and special place that each of us has in God’s mission and body, we know that our difference isn’t just okay, it is essential and important to fulfilling the purpose that God had built into our very creation. In fact, God wants to make us even more special and different, so that this body might grow and expand in its work and mutual love. As we understand the great unity and mutual service God is calling us to, last week we dug into the amazing reality of godly love, which calls us to live for God and one another in some mysterious and powerful ways. 

Now, if we relate all of this to our passage from Galatians we can see 3 points that add to this understanding. First, there is an important entranceway or doorway to be welcomed into this unity. It is our faith and our public and spiritual acknowledgment of that faith in baptism; it is there that we put on those clothes and are bound to Christ and one another. Second, faithfulness to God and trusting in God throughout all times in our lives will bring us closer to that unity that we desire because we will all be moving towards the same destination. A common image for this has been the spokes of a bicycle. Imagine the centre is God and the spokes are our lives. The closer we move to God, the closer we move to one another and perfect unity, but of course we need to know who we are moving towards. Lastly, there is a great promise in that destination because even though we may struggle and give up a lot in this life, we are told we become heirs with Christ. This means that the very bounty of creation, of eternity, love, fellowship, and family are meant to be ours together to be shared and cherished together. This bounty in eternity can only be shared, but the beautiful thing in God is that the bounty of God becomes even more for its sharing. Where else would the love, the fellowship and the family come from except from our mutual giving and sharing of all God has given us. 

That brings us to our passage from Luke. The story of Jesus preaching on the sea of Galilee (or Lake Gennesaret as Luke calls it). Already in Luke Jesus has built up quite the name healing, casting out demons, challenging the religious leaders, baptized by John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit. Now Jesus is using all of that credibility to give people the words of God, to lead them closer to God. 

Many would say this is the very reason why Jesus came into this world: to bring people back to God, to restore that relationship, to reconcile us to him. Everything else in this world comes from that singular relationship: all of the love we long for, the peace that we want to live in, the lasting joy and thankfulness we can find in any situation and so much more. So Jesus knows if he really cares for people, the way to love them is to lead them to what they need. He wants to lead a thirsty people to water, he wants to teach a hungry people how to fish. 

So he shows us the best way to love one another is to lead others to the source. That is why he chooses these disciples, these fishermen to be His disciples. First, so that they will follow him building their primary relationship with God, but then so that they will become like him and lead others to God as well. He turns them into fishers for people. He would gather more after this from many different walks of life. There are the 12, the 70, and the great multitude that we see in the gospels doing this work of sharing God. 

There are a few really special things happening in this story. The first is simple: Jesus uses a fishing boat to preach from. This would have given him visibility, a platform. Relating this to our own lives, God can use every little thing we have or that we are to become a platform, an instrument for bringing people closer to God, to make him visible to them. He would in the end transform their skills to be Kingdom-building skills - as fishing became a way to gather others to God. These fishermen probably did not have the greatest status or position, intelligence, skillset but God is about to take what they have, the specialness that is them, and transform it to make a great difference for the world. God wants to do the same thing with our differences, our specialness. We might not think our gifts are much, or we might think they are great, if we courageously use them to follow God, he will transform them to be a great instrument in leading people to Him and his love.

The second special scene is when Jesus tells them to go out into the deeper water and cast their nets. These are professionals who have spent their whole lives fishing. Here they are, having just come from a whole night of fishing and they have caught nothing. Everything in their life and professional experience probably told Peter that casting his net now would be pointless and you can hear his resistance in his reply to Jesus. Yet, Peter follows Jesus anyways because Peter at this moment recognizes Jesus as his master. This is important because, we often think we are smarter or more skilled then God, we can even tie his hands so to speak, but our work truly becomes different with God at the helm, beyond our expectations and understanding. That is what Peter discovers.

So Peter listens and casts his net and the result is a great bounty of fish, so much so that Peter can’t do it on his own, he needs to call other ships and fisherman over. This probably would have meant that Peter would have to share his catch, but without the help it would have all been lost. I think this is another important realization: God’s bounty comes and is received through our sharing in the work and bounty. We need each other in both the work and the bounty: the result of sharing both is that it is not just Peter who follows Christ. The greater bounty is also shared with the brothers Zebedee. 

But Peter’s reaction is the most interesting point. And I think this is why Jesus chooses him at this moment. Peter drops down to Jesus’ knees and says, “Get away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man”. At first, it seems like a strange reaction, but somehow the bounty laid before Peter had transformed his thinking.  I believe he saw how unworthy he was of this great bounty. He didn’t do the work, in fact, he couldn’t do the work as he had tried fishing all night. It was but a moment and God did it all. This also made him realize how unworthy he was of a relationship with God. So much so that he pushes God away. He experienced God’s grace in this moment, as God gave to him undeservedly. He knew at that moment like we all should know, that we are sinful people. This recognition and confession is important, because once Peter sees his limits and faults, it means that Peter can now turn to God for his needs. It means that Peter will now trust in God more than himself. It means that he can actually follow Jesus. That is the same reason recognizing our sin, repenting, and turning back to God is essential for us. It makes room for us, to make room for God, which as we will see makes room for others as Peter begins to fish for people.

I believe God would rather use bounty to bring us to this realization, but as you will remember in the story of the prodigal son, bounty in its many forms is often ignored, unappreciated or misused. So God will also allow just consequences, lack, failure and many other things to help us realize our immense need for God, who is the source. We might want to fight with this idea and say it is unjust, but we are the ones running away from him. Normally, God is desperately chasing after us, reaching out to bring his love and bounty to us and to bring us back into his fold. In these moments when we experience lack, it is just God pulling away his hand for a moment as he chases. That bit of distance from him, the source of love, life and unity, can make a wildly great difference.

God desires to gather us all in. He desires to bring us all to himself, so we might experience and live in his unity and love. As we journey closer to God, we are called to bring people with us. To help God transform our gifts to be the gifts that gather people to him, we must confess and turn to him. God’s kingdom, his love, his work is about people. It is about bringing people into this family, this unity. That includes us and everyone we know. The whole call of our work is to gather others and grow towards this great unity with Christ. AMEN

Questions:

Galatians 3:26-29

26 - How are we made children of God through faith? What does faith do in us and in our relationship with God?

27 - What does it mean to clothe ourselves with Christ?

28 - Why is this oneness important? What does it mean for the gentile and jew, servant or free, woman or man? Does this mean that all of our difference disappears?

What does this mean for us practically?

29 - How do these two realities lead us to become heirs? What does it mean to be an heir with Christ? 

How would it change our actions if we believed in this hope?

Luke 5:1-11

1 - What does it mean that Jesus shared the word of God? Can we?

3 - Why do you think Jesus went on the fishing boat to teach? What does this tell us about how Jesus can use what we have?

4-5 - What do you think was going through Peter’s mind when Jesus asked him to throw his nets? Have you ever thought something similar?

6-7 - Why does Peter have call for others' help? What does this tell us about receiving God’s bounty?

8 - Why do you think Peter reacted to this bounty the way he did? 

Do you think this was important to what comes next?

Have you ever felt unworthy of what God has given you?

10-11 - What does Jesus mean by you will fish for people? What does this mean to these fisherman? What does it mean for us?

If we were to link these two passages: our unity in Christ with the idea that we are fishers for Christ, does that tell us anything about the community of faith?