“Go Deep”

Luke 5:1-11

Rev. Rhonda Abbott Blevins

It’s Super Bowl Sunday! The most holy day of the year in American sports culture. It’s Yom Kippur, Ramadan, and Easter Sunday all rolled into one. It’s also the “holy grail” for advertisers with last year’s Super Bowl holding the highest viewer rating of all time with 98.7 million viewers. Tell the truth, how many of you will pay more attention to the commercials than to the game itself?

I’m a football fan and I’m kind of excited about the game, but I can’t decide which team to cheer for. On one hand, you’ve got the New Orleans Saints. Their presence in the Super Bowl is the best thing that’s happened to the city since the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. I’d kind of like the Saints to give the people of New Orleans a real reason to celebrate. But on the other hand, my favorite NFL player is in the game—Peyton Manning. Being a lifelong fan of Tennessee football, he’s my boy! “That guy’s pretty good. If you like six-five, 230-pound quarterbacks with a laser rocket arm.” [1]

There’s nothing like watching a quarterback like Manning take the field late in the 4^th quarter, his team down by a touchdown. Lots of teams would be doomed, but not a team with Manning at the helm. Go deep, Peyton! Go deep! It’s always exciting to watch a good quarterback throw the deep ball. It’s a high risk/high reward play. A good quarterback knows his bread and butter are the short passes—the screen plays and the quick slants. The game calls for that kind of safe, methodical play. But every now and then, the game calls for the risky deep ball. And when that kind of play is called, you can almost sense an extra intensity from the offensive line—you can almost feel the receiver’s heart pound a little faster. And when the quarterback launches the ball high into the air, the fans on both sides hold their collective breath. It’s why we pay our hard-earned money to sit in rain, snow, sleet, and hail just so that we can witness that kind of defining moment. Go deep, Peyton! Go deep, Drew! Go deep!

In our scripture lesson today, we read about a defining moment in the lives of the three men closest to Jesus throughout his ministry. We find Peter, James, and John going about their daily routine, trying to earn an honest living as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee. They’re exhausted, frustrated from working through the night with no fish and consequently, no income.

Defeated.

They’ve given up, and they’re washing their nets as a final, dutiful act before calling it quits. They notice a crowd gathered around their friend, a carpenter and teacher; he asks if he can use one of the boats to sit and teach the eager assembly. Peter says something like, “Go ahead, it’s not doing me any good.” After his friend completes his lesson for the day, he turns to Peter, and asks him to do something ridiculous. “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets.”

All due respect, Teacher, but you’re a carpenter. Leave the fishing to the professionals. “We’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything.” We’re tired; we’ve already washed our nets, for crying out loud! And you want us to go deep? And there it is. Their defining moment.

They’re presented with an invitation, and they have a choice. Now the decision rests in their weary, weathered hands. Peter, James and John can play it safe. They can give into their doubt, surrender to their cynicism—or, they can take a chance. They can do something completely out of character, something nonsensical. They can take a risk.

I had a friend in seminary named Steven. Steven was several years older than me—I was one of those bright-eyed seminarians straight out of college, but Steven was one of the many middle-aged people there making a career shift. In Steven’s previous career, he had been a photographer for the local newspaper in Waco, Texas. But his work had grown stale. He was beginning to wonder if God might be calling him into vocational ministry, but the idea seemed irrational. It would take years of schooling. How would he support his wife and kids? He was looking for a sign . . . something that would send him full-steam ahead in his career as a photojournalist, or something profound enough to send him down an unknown and illogical path into a new vocation.

Steven was standing at that crossroad when the biggest news event in the history of Waco, Texas broke. It was April 19, 1993. The FBI was staging the infamous raid at the Branch Davidian compound where David Koresh and his followers lived. This was Steven’s big chance as a photojournalist, to have his name in newspapers and magazines around the world. Steven wanted to find a way for his pictures to stand out from the rest so that his photographs would stand a better chance to be picked up by news media outside his own newspaper. The way to accomplish that, he thought, was to take aerial photographs. Many others would be on the ground getting those shots, but he would capture the event from the sky.

With great fervor and excitement, he quickly made plans, grabbed his gear, and soon found himself strapped inside a helicopter heading toward the compound. This would most certainly be the defining moment of his career. But as the helicopter made its way to the site some 9 miles outside of town, the pilot received some bad news. The FBI was shutting down the airspace. No helicopters—no planes—no pictures. Steven missed his big chance.

Not only did he fail to capture the aerial photographs, the detour cost him any opportunity he may have had to get good ground shots as well. I imagine Steven must have felt like those fishermen from long ago: exhausted, frustrated from working through the night with no fish and consequently, no income.

Defeated.

And it’s right there, right when the fisherman were ready to hang up their nets, right when Steven was ready to put the lens cap on and leave it there forever—it’s there when Jesus steps in and issues an invitation: “Break from your routine, go against everything instinctual, “put out into deep water” and trust me with the results.”

For Steven, this became a defining moment. Not in the way he ever imagined. The world didn’t see his photographs. He didn’t rise to the top of his field. But this was the sign Stephen needed to “put out into deep water.” He cashed in his cameras, moved his family to a new town, and became a student once again.

A high risk play for sure. For Peter, James, and John, once they stated their doubt and their protest was made clear, they followed their carpenter friend’s advice, and went back to work. To their great amazement, the deep waters were filled with fish! The nets began to break, and two boats nearly sank because of the remarkable catch!

Perhaps even more notable than the catch that day is that Peter, James and John walked away from it. It didn’t seem to mean as much to them now that they had found their true vocation. They left everything, the scriptures tell us, to follow the carpenter.

A high risk play for sure. Isn’t it those moments that make life exciting? When you follow your heart into the deep waters where unimaginable blessings await? When you find yourself beyond what you know, beyond what you think, beyond what you can imagine.

Jesus calls out to you and to me, “Don’t wash your net just yet! Put out into deep water!” It’s risky—don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t—but high risk often yields high reward.

Is there a deeper life waiting for you? Is there a deeper wholeness Christ wants to show you?

Henry David Thoreau wrote, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” Don’t be most men. Don’t be most women.

Go deep, my friend. Go deep!

[1] Peyton Manning in a commercial for Sprint.