Alex Swain

“When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

Beloved in Christ,

Today’s Office readings moved me to consider what it means to respond to Jesus when He asks of us to “go out into the deep water and let down” our nets for a catch. In the text, Jesus asks Simon to do this, and I suppose Jesus asks that of us all to this very day – though perhaps we are not directly going out to the deeps of a dark lake in order to catch fish.

Perhaps, Jesus is asking us to go out into deep water and unlearn, and undo, the deeply embedded social sins that many of us have been wound into. Perhaps Jesus is asking us to participate in the work of anti-racism, of attempting to work out our roles in a deeply unjust system that oppressed and oppresses tens of millions of black and brown individuals every day. Perhaps we are being called to listen to the voices of our neighbors who are oppressed. This is just one avenue of the systemic horrors in our society that we are, perhaps, being asked to go out into deep waters and let down our nets, for Christ’s sake.

Perhaps our response is like that of Simon. We’ve been working so hard; we’re tired from the day’s labor and the seemingly multiplying demands that strain our free time to listen and learn and work for Christ. “We have worked all night long but have caught nothing.” And perhaps our response continues, like that of Simon’s, where we humble ourselves and say, “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.”

What happens when we let down the nets? When we attempt to remove the hardness around our hearts and listen to the voices of the oppressed, when we give ear to our neighbor, and live more fully into the life of Christ through humble listening and compassionate action? The catch is so large that the ships of the apostles begin to sink. I believe that, through Jesus’ work on the human heart--through prayer and action, through listening and serving--we begin to see the great power that Christ brings to effect change upon our souls–and from our souls, outwards, to others.

Perhaps like Simon we get frightened by what Christ brings about, and the great shifts in our lives that may occur. We try to flee, and cry out, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" And here Jesus, tenderly and assuredly, tells Simon (despite his great sinfulness, not unlike ourselves), "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."

So, let us catch people, then. Let us catch those who fall under the weight of injustice in our country and let us labor that no more need fall and be caught. Let us be filled not with fish, but with the humility to hear the voice and demands of the oppressed, and to assist, in thought, word, and deed, through Christ, the hard work of reconciliation and liberation. Does letting the deep net go look like reading a new book to challenge your view on the way things are and to imagine what may be? Does letting the deep net go mean serving at an organization to help the other? Does letting the net go in the deep look like giving of self for the sake of those hurting and hungry and thirsty? I think it might be, or that these might be, a few ways that letting the net go in the deep water may be made manifest.

And, in the concluding words of today’s passage of the prophet Hosea, we may rest assured in God saying, “You are my people” and we shall say, “You are my God.”

Lord, have mercy upon us. Amen

Alex Swain

Today's readings below:
https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/the_daily_readings.php?d=28&m=9&y=2020

Hosea 2:14-23
Therefore, I will now allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she shall respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. On that day, says the LORD, you will call me, "My husband," and no longer will you call me, "My Baal." For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD. On that day I will answer, says the LORD, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth; and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel; and I will sow him for myself in the land. And I will have pity on Lo-ruhamah, and I will say to Lo-ammi, "You are my people" and he shall say, "You are my God."

Acts 20:17-38
From Miletus he sent a message to Ephesus, asking the elders of the church to meet him. When they came to him, he said to them: "You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, enduring the trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews. I did not shrink from doing anything helpful, proclaiming the message to you and teaching you publicly and from house to house, as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus. And now, as a captive to the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and persecutions are waiting for me. But I do not count my life of any value to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the good news of God's grace. "And now I know that none of you, among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom, will ever see my face again. Therefore I declare to you this day that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. Keep watch over yourselves and over all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God that he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after I have gone, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Some even from your own group will come distorting the truth in order to entice the disciples to follow them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to warn everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the message of his grace, a message that is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all who are sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or clothing. You know for yourselves that I worked with my own hands to support myself and my companions. In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" When he had finished speaking, he knelt down with them all and prayed. There was much weeping among them all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, grieving especially because of what he had said, that they would not see him again. Then they brought him to the ship.

Luke 5:1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.