2022.02.06 | What Else?
“What Else?”
Rev. Dr. Arlene K. Nehring
Eden United Church of Christ
Hayward, California
February 6, 2022
Luke 5:1-11 (NRSV)
The Rev. Dr. Richard E. Hill, erstwhile president of Lakeland University, my college alma mater, was the keynote speaker at the Senior Banquet for the Class of 1985, the year I graduated. May 1985 was a long time ago, so I don’t remember much about the event. But I remember two things: President Hill told one of his notoriously bad jokes, and the audience groaned, and he told me and my peers that we should expect to change jobs at least seven times over the course of our working lives, and that we should not be surprised to change careers at least once, maybe twice, before we retired.
President Hill went on to explain that his career forecast for us was based on an escalating trend that had been documented by the US Department of Labor, and that as a result of this trend and his forecast, our professors had intentionally prepared us to be life-long learners rather than repositories of knowledge.
Although I was firm in my sense of call to the ministry, and my own life trajectory has not taken the course that President Hill’s predicted, the trajectories that my peers' careers took provides anecdotal evidence that President Hill was right.
I share this story today, because it provides a helpful way of framing our gospel lesson in that Luke describes the occasion when the twelve disciples changed careers, i.e., it describes when they went from being fishers of fish to being fishers of people.
One thing that was assumed--by Luke and by President Hill--is that people don’t just have careers--they/we have callings. And, our callings involve more than acquiring credentials, applying for employment, and vetting and accepting or denying an employer’s offer.
I think most people sense that our lives, even our work lives, are about more than just a job or even a career, but we may not be sure what else might be involved, until we face a career crises or the type of economic times like we are now in, when our society is experiencing a workforce shortage.
Fortunately, for people of faith, religion has a lot to say about this “what else” topic, and those who participate in a faith tradition, such as ours, have more resources for exploring and understanding what else God might have in store for us.
My message today is about the “what else” God may be calling us to, and how we might distinguish God’s call from the cacophony of other voices and callings that we may hear.
By sharing these insights, my hope is to demystify the calling process and help you to feel more prepared to say “yes,” to God’s call, and “no” to the babbling voices of other entities that may be filling up your airwaves.
II
1) There is a profound difference between a job and a vocation. A job is what you do to make a living. A vocation is what you do to make a life. Those who get the two confused suffer many disappointments including the inability to find meaning in their work lives, regardless of the amount of material compensation they may receive in exchange.
When we are fortunate to experience a coherence between our calling and our paycheck, we are doubly blessed. As a child, I read a biography about Babe Ruth, the famous home-run hitter who played for the New York Yankees. I remember learning that the Babe was shocked to discover that people would pay him to play baseball, and that by accepting a contract with the Yankees, he could have all of the free hotdogs he wanted! The Babe was fortunate that his job and his vocation meshed!
If you’re wondering whether your job and your vocation cohere, ask yourself this question, “Do you identify with the Babe? Do you go to work thrilled at the fact that someone pays you for doing what you do? Are you provided with all-you-can-eat free hotdogs or some equivalent that you enjoy, or not? If your answer is, ‘No,’ then what are you going to do about that?
2) Accepting a new call may require a radical change in your life and your lifestyle. Consider that when the disciples accepted their calls, they had been seafaring people all of their lives, and they were now called to invert the amount of time that they spent on sea and land, and make huge changes in their social relationships. They went from spending almost all of their time as a fishing crew, with nothing around them but the sea, the sky, and the fish to spending almost all of their time traveling on foot, encountering all manner of people, and having to spend most of their time managing crowds.
I wonder, if you or I had been on the shores of Lake Gennesaret that day, how would we have responded? Would we have been awed by the reversal of circumstances? Would we have followed Jesus’ direction and taken our boat back out to sea, headed to deeper waters, dropped our nets--much less believed that we would catch anything at all--let alone pull in the biggest catch of the day, maybe the biggest catch of the week? If our answer is “no” that might be why our nets are empty today.
3) Accepting a new call may be terrifying. And, maybe what terrifies us is not that we might fail--but that we might succeed. Look at Simon, for example, despite the fact that Jesus had filled the disciple’s empty nets, he (and the others) was terrified by the invitation that Jesus extended to him. According to Luke 5:8b, “Simon Peter saw [the catch], he fell down at Jesus' knees, [and said], "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"
But Jesus was having none of Simon’s fears of success and all that might bring for him and for them. Rather than taking offense at what Simon said, Jesus calmed the disciples' fears and said, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."
Friends, if you are struggling with a fear of failure or success today, ask yourself this, “What if I gave up all of that fear to Jesus, and simply did as he asked? What if I let go, and let God take care of the rest?”
4) Luke’s gospel, all four of the gospels, and in fact, the entire Judeo-Christian scriptures are filled with reminders that God isn’t the only one who calls. The devil, other gods, the enemies of love and justice, even our own inner demons are constantly calling for our allegiance. How, prey tell, do we discern who's calling, so that we are sure to embrace only God and God’s callings? The answer, I submit, is revealed in today’s gospel lesson.
III
Here, Jesus famously calls the first twelve disciples to leave their nets and become fishers of people. In this story we learn that the God we worship does not call us to empty-net ministries. Our God does not call us to this ministry alone. And, our God does not call the equipped, but instead equips the called. Let’s dive into each of these points in more detail.
1) God does not call us to empty-net ministries. This means that God does not call us to fruitless, meaningless work. We don’t have to be experienced seafarers to understand that the disciples weren’t hitting the benchmark for their deliverables that day when Jesus encountered them on the shores of Lake Gennesaret.
According to Luke, these men had been fishing all day, and had come up with nothing but empty nets. Surely the men were tired, and demoralized. They were likely afraid to even go home that night for fear of having to face embarrassment in front of their families, when their wives and children asked them about the catch and they would have to say that they caught nothing.
Jesus had to work hard to persuade the disciples to push back out to sea one more time. But he did so, because he knew that God intended for them to experience the fruits of their labor, and God delivered.
2) God does not call us to serve alone. Today’s story isn’t about how Jesus called one person to discipleship, but rather how he called the twelve. Here and elsewhere in the gospels we are repeatedly reminded that Jesus always sent his disciples out in groups. At minimum, he sent them in pairs. Often he sent the twelve together, and sometimes he sent them in a whole entourage--70 or more.
So if you are feeling alone in your discernment process or in your effort to fulfill your supposed calling, remind yourself that Jesus is with you in this ministry. And if you do not feel his presence, then ask yourself, “Why am I here all by myself?”
Maybe God’s trying to tell you something, such as, “This ministry is not ready to be launched. I need some partners. Or, maybe this is just some hairbrained idea of my own or someone else’s idea of who or what I should be--but not God’s?”
Take your time. Say your prayers. Open your eyes. Look around--not just for “your people,” but for God’s people. And get to work fulfilling God’s call, and not someone else’s.
3) God does not call the equipped. God equips the called. The disciples were experienced fishermen, but they were not experienced disciples. If you pay close attention to how the disciples are described in the gospels, you will quickly learn that this cast of characters were not what you’d call “exemplary” in their aptitude for discipleship or their faithfulness to the gospel. Rather than being role models for others, they were more often proof that God could and would work with any and all applicants.
One of the great ironies to me about the call of the twelve is how non-selective God was and is when it comes to calling disciples. God would flunk every Human Resource class in every business school in the world, because God doesn’t ask for resumes. God doesn’t screen for aptitude, education, or experience. God doesn’t even run background checks. God just simply calls us in spite of our weaknesses.
“How is this possible?” you ask.
Well, God calls us in spite of who we are, because our callings--as it turns out--are not about us. They are about God’s purposes and God’s plans for us. They are about how God can and God will work through us. The Apostle Paul said it best in I Corinthians 1:26-31 when he wrote these words:
26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
So here we are, friends, like the disciples on the shore of Lake Gennesaret. What’s it going to be? “Yes” or “no”? “Discipleship” or “bust”? Let us respond with a rousing “yes,” and to God be the glory! Amen.