Combination locks make me nervous. It all started back in middle school when I had to wrestle with them, both on my hall locker and then on my gym locker. It always felt like a race against the clock. With less than five minutes until the next class, my nervousness made fiddling with a combination lock a dreadful experience.
I’m sure you know the kind I’m talking about. 3 – 2 – 1 is apparently the trick to unlocking them. Turn the dial three times to the right to clear it and then stop on the first number of the combination. Then turn counterclockwise twice to pause on the second number. Finally, turn once more to the right, resting on the third number of the combination.
It sounds simple, but when you’re up against the clock, it’s nerve-wracking. Did I really make one full turn? Did I remember to clear the lock with three full turns at the beginning? Did I line the pointer up with the number? But just remember: 3 – 2 – 1. And above all, know that order is important.
Scripture frequently presents us with episodes where something is amiss, and then Jesus arrives on the scene to fix everything. It’s as if, until his arrival, people are anxiously fiddling with a lock, getting the sequence of numbers and turns all wrong. And then Jesus steps up, turns the dials with just the right amount of precision, and everything unlocks.
Do you remember when Jesus is with his disciples and a man brings his son for healing from epilepsy? The disciples were unable to cure him, said the man. And so, Jesus takes matters into his own hands, and the boy is cured. Then there is the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. He has been ill for thirty-eight years and has been waiting for someone—anyone—to help him into the pool so he can experience the healing waters. But when Jesus encounters him, he skips the pool business altogether and orders the man to stand, take up his mat, and walk. And when Jesus and his disciples are faced with a large and hungry crowd of people, the disciples are anxious and doubt that there is any way to feed so many stomachs. But Jesus starts to give orders, and before long, a miraculous supply of bread and fish feeds 5,000 people, with leftovers remaining.
Jesus often appears at the right time when there is a problem, and somehow, the lock springs free. We marvel at how it happens, and we wonder just why no one else can figure things out.
It’s no different when Jesus’s future disciples are washing their nets by the side of the lake of Gennesaret. It has been a very long night, and it has been a very unproductive one. Fishing is naturally a slow-paced endeavor, but it’s absolute torture when hours of casting the nets renders no results. I imagine the disciples were forlorn, in addition to being exhausted. It must have been a sad sight, seeing their haggard appearances washing those empty nets that were bereft of any catch.
As he is wont to do, Jesus finds these disciples. They don’t know they need him, but he does. Even though a large crowd is pressing in on Jesus to hear him deliver God’s word, he is more interested in those lonely, tired fishermen cleaning their nets and probably wondering what they did wrong all night.
3 – 2 – 1. Three times to the right to clear the lock. Then twice to the left. Then once to the right. Were they casting their nets on the wrong side of the boat? Did they go far enough out into the deep? What did they miss, and how did an entire night go by without catching so much as a single fish?
But Jesus finds these disciples as if following a homing beacon. Inexplicably, he gets into Simon Peter’s boat. He orders him to push off a bit from the shore. He teaches the crowds from the boat. And then, he asks Simon Peter to go farther into the deep and let the nets down for a catch.
But, Jesus, Simon says, I already did this. I thought I did it right. Three times clockwise, then two counterclockwise, then one more time clockwise. Or perhaps I had the wrong combination? Oh, well, if you say so, Master, I’ll try again. And the lock springs.
It begs the question, what did Simon and his fellow fishermen miss? Were they in the right place to fish? Was it just an off night? Did they fall asleep and miss their catch? Or is Jesus the only one with the ability to have any success in this fishing venture?
Yes, it is, of course, a miracle. The vast quantity of fish that ends up breaking the nets is none other than the work of God. How could such a catch have materialized the night before? It’s only God’s power working through Jesus that brings in this surprising catch of fish.
And as so often happens in Scripture, it might seem as if this is a trick question. The poor disciples are made to look like failures because they have not gotten something right or their faith isn’t strong enough. And Jesus always provides the key or the right answer.
But St. Luke masterfully presents the details of this miracle story so that we are given the key to this stubborn lock. It’s about Jesus, of course, but it’s also about something these disciples need from him. It’s not really that they’ve failed; it’s that after meeting the Christ, they are enlightened. When Peter falls to his knees and asks Jesus to depart from him because he’s a sinner, we might be tempted to think this is the obstacle. Peter just doesn’t have enough faith. He simply isn’t holy enough for God to act in his desperation.
Except this doesn’t seem to be the real answer. When Peter falls on his knees before the Christ, it’s as if he is saying, Master, I see now. It’s not that I forgot the combination to the lock. It’s not that I wasn’t trying hard enough. It’s not that the lock was defective. The problem is that I didn’t get the order right.
All night, I was fishing, hoping against hope for a catch, at least one fish. I know the fish were there. I wasn’t in the wrong place. At the time, I just didn’t understand. I was trying to go it alone and do it all by myself. I wasn’t responding to your call because you hadn’t called me yet. But when I encountered you and heeded your summons, everything changed.
Isn’t this a kind of parable for ministry? We so often profess that we are working hard and being creative as we faithfully undertake our various projects and ministry endeavors. We cast our nets, ready to haul in large catches. In many cases, we’re not even afraid of the deep water. But then we find ourselves, like those first disciples, the morning after we have tried and come up empty, wondering what went wrong.
If this story of the calling of the first disciples is indeed a parable for discipleship and ministry, we may have missed something. Could we, too, have gotten the order wrong? Perhaps we forgot the most important thing. We forgot that every series of events we undertake in the name of the gospel springs from God’s call to us. And unless we begin by responding to God’s call and asking God to help us, our nets will just be empty, time after time. The disciples came up dry until Jesus found them on that lake shore, called them, and then they obeyed.
If the order is right, if God calls and we respond by venturing out into the risky deep to cast our nets, the lock springs. We might find ourselves hauling in nets full to the breaking point. God has moved us into gospel work himself, but we need others to help us. And we invite them to share in this work with us. Community forms, and there is evangelism in the making. In addition to an overabundance of fish, God has also given us community.
This is how evangelism works. It’s not so much “build it and they will come” but let God help you fish, and others will need and want to come help. Maybe the Church’s growth lies in inviting other people into a place where they are fed by engaging in ministry that responds to God’s call. And it all starts with God’s call and a simple response of yes.
Remember: 3 – 2 – 1. Three times to the right, two to the left, and once more to the right. You have to remember the combination. But above all, order is everything, and it all starts with God.
Sermon by Father Kyle Babin
The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany
February 6, 2022