In with the old [Trinity 5; St. Luke 5:1-11]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

In the Gospel heard today, you hear Jesus speaking to you saying,

“And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’”

Today, St. Peter is giving up on his ways. He has professionally utilized the tested and true net and boat method and found them severely lacking in being able to provide for house and home. As a businessman, St. Peter understands investment and return, so what didn’t work today still has the proven track record to prove its usefulness.

So what does this seasoned, master-fisher-person do? He passes the buck. It can’t be his fault. He makes excuses. He says to Jesus, “Lord, we’ve used everything we have in our tackle-box of fishing talent and got nothing. We’re tired of trying. We’re tired of losing. We’re tired and sick and tired. Everything is wrong because the tools we’ve been given are wrong or not working as they should. We took nothing all night.

Lord, those hymns and catechisms you’ve given to us don’t work. The Bible just isn’t bringing people into the pews any more. No matter how long we believe, the building just gets emptier and emptier. We’re tired of trying. We’re tired of losing. We’re tired and sick and tired. Everything is wrong because the tools you’ve given us are wrong or not working as they should. We have toiled all our lives and have taken nothing.

Repent. Do we think we are evangelizing children and ADHD patients that we need shiny exuberance and emotion driven fluff to get people to come to church? If we treat people as if they are disabled, they will believe that is what we think of them and stay away. If we treat people like children, or children like children for that matter, they will always remain children and stay away.

Jesus says, “Drop the nets”. What does St. Peter do with His nets? He does not throw them out and begin looking for the dynamite, they get them out of the boats and being to carefully and purposefully mend and wash them. They painstakingly make sure that the net is how it is supposed to be so that it works like it is supposed to.

They wash the nets also, making double sure to ensure no thing is in the way of a properly performing net.

Jesus says, “Put out the boats”. Likewise, they also care for the boats. They do not scrap these that have failed them in their capitol endeavours and build brand new ones. They keep the old, polish it up, pour care and concern into them in order that they perform at their best so that the next time they go out to fish, their game will be sharp.

Repent. You pray for your church and wish for new people, but you are all too ready to throw out exactly what Jesus tells you to use. You pray that God would enliven the church, but then start to think what that would look like: more noise, more responsibility, and more headache. It turns out, having the church grow is a lot more work than just letting be.

You have you evangelism tools and your evangelism script handed to you since birth. Not only is it the baptism you were baptized with, but the catechism, hymns, and Divine Service you have learned and memorized. Moreover, you do not even have to deal with the “lost” or the “unchurched”, you have family that used to be here. You have friends that used to be here. Wherever you are employed is among the ripest fields in the world. Everyday you pass hundreds of people that you could say, “Would you like to come to church?” without going out of your way.

Why church? Why not a new kids program or the food pantry or a mission trip? Well, 1) because its God’s Word that saves, not programs and 2) God’s Word is in the old, tried, and proven: catechism, hymns, and the Divine Service.

Here is our boat. Here are our nets. We need to carefully and purposefully show them off as the primary thing we do here. We need to invest in the old and keep the Word and Sacraments. These are our tools to shout to the community, “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!” If we would simply sharpen our minds on them, wash them, polish them up, and be excited about them, we would see that God’s Church has already equipped us to perfection.

Jesus shows us this with His own body and we get a hint of it in Peter’s reaction to the great catch of fish. Jesus had just shown St. Peter something new. Where there were no fish, He made fish. Where the old seemed not to work, He made it work. And St. Peter tells, no, orders Jesus to go away. Why? Because the miracle was too great? No, because the prayer St. Peter had been praying his whole life, for God to visit His people, had suddenly appeared before him and it was more than he bargained for.

Jesus did not magically create a new net. He did not prestidigitate an aluminum bass-master with a trolly motor and a depth finder for St. Peter. He told Peter to use what he had been given. Those were good enough. Likewise, when Jesus determined to save all mankind from sin, death and the power of the devil, He did not come as a cyborg or Superman or something new and exciting. He came in the old tired, worn out way: as a human.

Jesus’ birth sanctifies the old. Its not really old, but its what we expect and has become humdrum for us. We have lost our wonder for ordinary things, thus in our sin we balk at hymns and ceremonies, of which our church is mainly comprised, and wonder why people are put-off by our church.

Jesus comes in the flesh. Not just any flesh. Your flesh. He says that this boring old body and form of a human is so special, that God Himself is going to have one. He is the Word of God made flesh, dwelling among us in other boring ways such as water, ink, and bread and wine. There is no innovation. There is nothing new, except that now through these things, God does away with sin, death, and the devil forever.

Just because you weren’t born with the best of bodies, does not make you any less of a person. Just because you weren’t born with the perfect skill set or limitless talent tree, does not make you any less loved. Just because you find yourself baptized into the Lord’s Church which doesn’t tickle your fancy or excite you, does not mean that your church, what it uses and what it has, is at fault. It means that in sin, we hate what is good and would rather not have to deal with the saving power of God in the Gospel.

Jesus sets out His boat; His Ark that is the Church, into the depths of sin and death. He finds an abyss full of dead sinners and raging demons. He lets down His nets of the Gospel anyways, because whatever His net touches becomes holy and alive. Therefore, when He reels it in, His net is full to bursting of us who have heard and believed.

So put out the boats and let down the nets. Teach the Bible but also teach the hymns and catechism that teach what the Bible is all about. Believe with your heart, but also believe with your mouth. Change your perspective if you find yourself getting bored with the old and tied. Don’t blame the tools. Polish them up. Wash them off. Look at them for what they are: good and useful and given by the Lord.

Jesus has caught us to eternal salvation with these same old things, which makes them good enough for God. The Lord has already won the battle for us and secured St. Luke’s place in the victory. We live life knowing that the Lord will fill up heaven and fill up His Church to bursting, with or without us. But we also know that we too have been given a life to live among others in that Grace and it is a life lived by faith, in the Church, at the hand of Christ.