Sermon - Trinity V 2021 - Luke 5:1-11

Miraculous Draught of Fishes, Jacopo Bassano, 1545

“And when Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.””

Since the Covid crisis, the church in North America has shrunk; we’ve gotten smaller. Folks smarter than me estimate we’ve fast-forwarded 10-15 years of church shrinkage virtually overnight. Though this shrinking is nothing new: for the past 50 years the church in North America has been steadily and dramatically shrinking. It’s been well over a decade that many of our congregations have formed dual parishes, including our own.

Experiencing this causes us panic and fear. “We’ve got to do something,” we exclaim! “We’ve got to stop the shrinking! We must grow the church!” So we paid Church Growth “professionals” to tell us what to do. However those professionals were no more than Mad Men, Madison Avenue men; they applied common business practices to the church in order to grow the church the same way they grow the sale of cheeseburgers.

Their solution was to change the church by making it entertaining, creative, and flashy. The ancient liturgy must be updated if not entirely replaced. The doctrinal Lutheran chorales must be replaced with popular music. The old paper hymnals have to go and expensive new screens must come. A casual coffee shop atmosphere must replace our holy reverent formal atmosphere. The education of our youth must be replaced with the entertainment of our youth. We need a constant stream of new and creative programs, names, slogans, and paradigms. We have to rebrand. Out with the old in with the new.

And now after 50 years of laboring and toiling all night, we’ve taken nothing. We made all of those changes, we worked as hard as we could to stop this shrinking, and what have we got to show for it? We ended up forgetting most of our distinct Lutheran heritage from just 100 years ago and we still grew smaller, and now we’ve aged and we’re tired. You’ll know them by their fruits, and the fruits of trying to grow the church by our efforts is what we see today.

So, now what do we do? First, take a few deep breaths, don’t panic, be calm. Seldom do we make good decisions while panicking. Second, let us stop looking at ourselves and other humans for the solution, and focus on what God does. We do not grow the church. God graciously grows His church through His Word. 

Look at what Jesus does during His earthly ministry to grow His church. “On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on Him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret... Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.” Why did people draw near to Jesus and what did He do once they came to Him? They pressed in on Him to hear the Word of God! They drew so near to hear that Word that He had to get into a boat to prevent them from pressing Him right into the lake! Having sat down in the boat, He taught them.

They didn’t draw near to Jesus because He was fun and entertaining. The Bible tells us that Jesus had no form nor majesty that we should desire Him. That doesn’t mean Jesus was ugly, just that His worldly appearance wasn’t why people flocked to Him. It was the Word He preached which grew His church.

This was made evident by way of analogy. Peter says, “at your Word I will let down the nets.” By the Word of Jesus, Peter and his companions lowered the nets into the lake. “And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.” Astonished at what had just happened, they fell down at Jesus’ feet, realizing He was no ordinary man. The next thing Jesus says: “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

How will Peter and the other apostles be catching men? The same way that this miraculous catch of fish was caught: by the Word of Jesus. God grows His church through His Word!

In order to accomplish this, Jesus called His twelve apostles to follow Him. At Jesus’ ascension He commissioned the apostles, and more broadly the church, to “make disciples of all nations, [by] baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [and by] teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” In the midst of this commission, Jesus comforts His church: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus is still the one responsible for growing His church, He is always with us to the end of the age, and He still grows it in the same way: by the preaching and teaching of His Word. This is nothing new, because this same Word is how God has always grown His church.

In our Old Testament lesson God appears to the prophet Elijah, not in the wind, not in the earthquake, and not in the fire, but in the sound of a low whisper. God wasn’t in all of the grand theatrics but He came in humble words. Similarly, the prophets Elijah and Elisha, what they did that mattered wasn’t all of the grand spectacles, but the words that they spoke. Throughout the Old Testament, particularly when the church was shrinking, God ordained prophets, men, to speak His Word!

The same is still true today in the New Testament. God called the Apostles, men, to speak His Word. Through those apostles, God ordained other men, pastors, to continue the great commission by speaking the Word of God and teaching it to others. The church has existed for thousands of years doing what God has commanded us to do: to teach His Word.

So what must the church do today in order to grow? It’s nothing new; the church will faithfully teach God’s word to those who come and hear it. It’s past time to give up the gimmicks and the passing fads, it’s past time to forget about trying to be entertaining and fun, it’s past time to ignore the advice of so-called professionals in advertising. It’s time to be faithful to the Word of God and restore our distinct Lutheran heritage we’ve long-forgotten and ignored. The ancient liturgy, Lutheran chorales, weekly communion, daily prayer and Bible reading, Biblical education, zeal for God, must be restored and retained in our lives. We must flee from worldly ways and draw near to Jesus.

It’s time to be bold in the faith, not shrink away from it. When Peter, Andrew, James, and John were called to follow Jesus, “they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.” They left behind their worldly ways and followed Jesus. Why shouldn’t they? Jesus has the words of eternal life! When Peter fell on the ground, confessing he was a sinful man, Jesus absolved Him, saying “Do not be afraid.” At the voice of Jesus our sins are taken away, fear is removed from our hearts, and exuberant joy has taken its place! “Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good?”

God’s Word is good, that’s something for which to be zealous. For all of our human laboring and toiling, for trusting in ourselves, for ignoring God’s Word, God offers grace and forgiveness. Like Peter, we are sinful and have every reason to fall at the feet of Jesus in fear of punishment. But we take heart because Jesus has come for sinners, and we know this from His Word. We don’t have to fear punishment nor death, because Jesus, the Word incarnate, was crucified for our salvation.

Though the church is shrinking, we don’t have to fear it disappearing! God has given us His Word, He’s promised that He will be with us always and that He will always maintain a remnant. The church may be smaller, poorer, and forced underground, but the church belongs to God and will always remain. Even when we can’t see it, God is faithful and His Word is true, and that gives us hope. Do not be afraid!

It’s because of that hope that we can listen to what the Lord teaches us through Peter: “Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.” 

Just as pastors have been called to preach the Word of God publicly, so have all Christians been called to preach the word privately in their personal lives. God has called you by name, you are His disciples, He has redeemed you from sin and death, and therefore you have been filled with hope. In your homes especially, but wherever you may be, with your family, friends, and acquaintances, you have opportunities to teach the Word of God regularly and faithfully, so that others may share the hope which fills your hearts. When Jesus heals people, they can’t help but tell everyone they know. The same should be true of us who have been healed by Christ; we shouldn’t be able to help it but tell everyone what God has done.

Take heart my family in Christ. We don’t need to panic. We don’t need to fear. Christ Himself comforts us with those words. We know that God will grow His church through His word. Even if we’ve been toiling all night and have caught nothing, at our Lord’s Word we will let down the nets for a catch, and speak God’s Word. God’s Word does not return to Him empty, it’s a promise. God is faithful, so let us faithfully hear and speak His word, so that when we reach the shores of heaven we may see the miraculous catch of men.