Luke 5:1-11
Epiphany 5 - Year C
In its day Gennesaret was fertility itself. Josephus called it "the ambition of nature". Sort of like Wisconsin being America's Dairyland, even though it isn't any more. But it is helpful to have this picture.
Over time folks have come to know how to take advantage of the fecundity of the land (even extending it to the sea). Techniques were known. For fisher-folk there is a time to mend and care for the nets - when the wind was up during the day. Later they would go out when it was calmer to catch a sufficiency.
Jesus teaches/preaches and says, let's go out at an inopportune time (chronos). Here and now, with a catch too large, it is found that we are living in kairos time.
This causes quite a commotion within Simon and he and others begin a comotion with Jesus.
Thanks for reading here. May you join in the comotion where you are - you extend grace where you are and we will where we are and touching of people's lives will increase.
Look around. You are in Gennesaret right now. The abundance/newness of life is all around. Even at inopportune moments, newness/abundance is the order of the day. Dive in. Dive deep.
Simon got scared at the intersection of chronos and kairos. Perhaps the word of "Don't be afraid" needs to be translated into a dance number. Let's do the time warp as we play back and forth between chronos and kairos.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/february2004.html
Boats are to be filled. Boats are to take that filling to where it is needed. Boats are to be off-loaded. Boats are to be refilled. Boats are to return. Boats are to be off-loaded with new goods. Boats are to be refilled to journey forth again. And periodically they need to be refitted.
Jesus fills Simon's boat. The boat is set off to be available to the crowd. Jesus off-loads his message. There is a need for filling again and the fish come to give sustenance that the words might be energized. The fish-laden boats come to the people. The boat that is Simon is made ready for a longer cycle of journeying - from fish to folk. And periodically this all needs to be refitted by prayer and other wilderness experiences (including storms).
Where are you these days with being a boat (a nave)? Is that a lonely journey or one filled with companions? Are you just noticing there is a word that catches your curiosity? Have you been entranced by the whole story? Are you still being filled? Are you energized to do what you understand? Are you ready to join a convoy - a congregation with meaning? Are you ready to be refitted?
"Convoy" is related to "convey" and means:
a: to bear from one place to another; especially : to move in a continuous stream or mass
b: to impart or communicate by statement, suggestion, gesture, or appearance
d: to transfer or deliver to another especially by a sealed writing
e: to cause to pass from one place or person to another.
[edited by deletion]
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/february2004.html
Nets are being washed and readied for the next night's fishing. Jesus is talking to people on the lakeshore. Jesus enters a boat and teaches and then asks Simon to go fishing in the daytime.
Fishing at night might symbolize economic sustenance based on what has become known over the generations. Fishing during the day may represent a willingness to suspend common sense that a new revelation might have room to be welcomed.
Sure enough, after getting the nets back in place they broke their pattern and were nearly swamped with a new catch. Simon, in a boat filled to the brim with wriggling, newly-caught fish, falls to his knees in their midst. (If there isn't some element of humor in a new revelation, it probably isn't.)
If this event was possible, what isn't? Simon Peter asks that question with a fearful, dramatic phrasing to distance himself from even more changes. The culmination of a willingness to suspend more than common sense regarding a routine task leads Peter to hear an important response to his question, "Relax, if you can catch fish at such an inopportune time, I'm inviting you to look inland to fields ripe for the harvesting and few to put their hand to that task." Simon quickly surmises there is more going on here than literal connections between fish and fields and people. Here is a challenge that can't be passed up and allow one to remain satisfied by going back to a previous routine.
May we each hear a more expansive invitation than we were ready for. Ready or not, daylight comes, patterns are broken, fear rises, courage for a new challenge abates that fear, new life goes on.
- - -
yet, if you say so
I will come to myself
in this very place and time
until every midnight and noon
every fullness of employment - doing
every empty laid-aside - suffering
sings a body electric
yet, if you say so
I will come to neighbors
in their moment and space
until every race and gender
every variation in culture
every difference in orientation
sings a body eclectic
yet, if you say so
I will come to you
in your whim and wisdom
until every call and response
every habit questioned
every opportunity welcomed
sings a body elected
yet, if you say so
I will come to rest
in expectation and trust
until every premise and assumption
every unexpected youngest child
every unentitled eldest
sings a body selected
- - -
Anonymous (Reader)
What or who is the source of the wonderful poetry? It is a gift. Thank you!
- - -
Wesley (Blogger) said...
The second section of these comments are currently called "prayer fragments" and intended to extend the first section.
Unless otherwise indicated they are offered by Wesley White [wwhite@wisconsinumc.org] of Kairos CoMotion.
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html
Apparently Simon is a Class-A net washer. After a night of nothing caught it wouldn't take much to have washed his net. This explains (always a dangerous thing to do with scripture stories as it turns them into facts) how Simon was able to have a net in the boat already out on the water while others were still washing theirs on the shore. It may also have something to do with Simon's slow response - after a frustrating night of fishing and a fast wash-up he may not have been listening all that well, after all, he wasn't one of the crowd pressing to hear about G*D, he was just someone pressed into service - the chauffeur doesn't have to listen to speech, just drive to a good speaking spot.
Simon was a realistic enough small businessman to know that a glut of fish would decrease their value (good old supply and demand) and that broken nets were a whole different kettle of fish than dirty nets. Might as well leave the current situation behind and move on, follow on.
That is all fun playing with the story. Of equal import is a look at Simon's response of, "Go away, I am without stock in your company." [track hamartÅlos back to hamartanÅ] Simon was not in on Jesus' original IPO. This event was too good to keep his current partnership sustainable. Sort of like small businesses when a Wal-Mart shows up in the community. Simon knows tides come and tides go; fish are caught and not caught; life goes on, follows on.
This "sinner" language, as it is usually translated, is more appropriate in John's similar post-resurectional scene. It is also a bit out of place since Jesus doesn't seem to pick up on the "sinner" language with his commissioning of Simon, et al. It is almost as if Jesus says, "Sinner, Schminner, whatever. Here's the deal . . . . Are you in or not?"
Well, are you?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2010/02/luke-51-11.html