9th February 2025
"...So many fish..."
Generosity and the Character of God.
The Lectionary reading set for this Sunday, which we will be exploring at our 8am service, is one of my all-time favourite stories - Jesus' encounter with Peter as narrated in Luke 5. At the beginning of the story, Peter, a fisherman, has had a difficult night. "We have worked hard all night long," he tells Jesus in verse 5, "but have caught nothing." Nevertheless, and despite fatigue and frustration, Peter has allowed Jesus to use his boat as a platform from which to teach the crowd gathered on the shore. And he is prepared to listen to Jesus and to obey the instruction to let down his nets on the other side of the boat. The outcome is a miraculous catch - "so many fish that the nets were beginning to break" (verse 6) - a miracle that brings others to help bring in the nets. Something about this catch prompts Peter to recognise something in Jesus which he cannot yet articulate; he falls on his knees and cries "Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man."
When Peter lets down his net on the other side of the boat, he receives not a few fish, a small catch to make him feel better, nor an ordinary catch, but "so many fish that the nets were beginning to break." And there is something about the abundance, the generosity of Jesus' miracle, that enables Peter to see in Jesus something of the nature of the holy God - that leads him to respond in reverence and worship, to recognise his own unworthiness to stand in Jesus' presence.
I wonder where the areas of fatigue and frustration are for us - in our personal lives, in our work lives (paid or unpaid), in the life of our church? I wonder if there are times when we are tempted, like Peter, to say to Jesus, "We have worked hard... but... nothing." I notice that Jesus, in his generosity, comes to Peter and asks Peter to make space for him in the boat. I am encouraged that Jesus is present there in the place of fatigue and frustration. And I see that, in the presence of Jesus, Peter is able to look differently, to do something new, to let down his net on the other side of the boat.
I wonder how Jesus might be present in our places of fatigue and frustration? I wonder how the presence of our generous Lord might help us to look differently? I wonder what it might mean for us to let down our nets on the other side of the boat?
