“A Long & Tiring Night”
Psalm 138 & Luke 5:1-11 ~ Northwood UC February 6, 2022 ~ Rev. G. Scott Turnbrook
It was a long and tiring night. You have experienced many long and tiring nights, haven’t you? What were they like? As a young parent, you know them all too well. As a grandparent with grandchildren sleeping at nana or papa’s home, you know them too. Your profession might have caused you to take night shifts, and you recall the long nights. As a student when the paper’s deadline would arrive as sure as the sunrise, you know about the long and tiring nights. Even the Beatles sang of the “Hard Day’s Night” as they recounted the struggles and challenges that John Lennon and Paul McCartney struggled through in the Genesis of their song writing career. It was a long and tiring night.
It was a long and tiring night for the disciples. For fishers to spend all night in the dark…in the cold…missing their warm bed…was beyond frustrating! They would come home to their families empty handed, without bread to put on the table, without the means to survive. They were ashamed…they were embarrassed…it had been a long and tiring night. As we come upon the second anniversary of the pandemic, I recall some of the initial sentiments. People prepared to isolate inside and let things blow over. It would be a challenging month or so, we thought. We started a Telephone Tree to keep people in touch over the coming few weeks; we started online worship; and all of a sudden ‘virtual’ became the most used adjective over the next few years. Virtual worship…virtual book club…virtual coffee…virtual paint nights. And before we knew it, “It has become a long and tiring (pandemic) night” that has continued on through two years. How have you kept going through this marathon? How have you ‘kept the faith?’ How have you endured the ‘long and tiring night?’
This morning’s text is more than just a fisher’s tale of persevering for the big catch. It is a deep teaching about faith, about endurance, and about God’s provision.
Let’s begin with faith. Faith without trust is not faith, is it? Faith is an ‘in the bones’ knowing that all will be well in the unfolding of God’s vision. When everything seems to be going wrong, faith is an enduring knowing that it will (somehow) be OK. Faith is a profound trust in the power and presence of God. Faith is what sends us back fishing ~ one more time ~ after a long night of exhaustion to see what God will provide. After you have tried all the tricks available to your human disposal. After you have been through your tackle box and tried every fishing lure. After you have fished every reliable fishing spot, after you have come to the end of your rope…faith is giving it over to God and knowing that with God ‘all will be well’. Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, prophetically writes in “Tokens of Trust: an Introduction to Christian Belief” that our faith in Jesus is the equivalent of saying that we have confidence in Jesus above all things. Jesus is where we belong, the one to whom we belong. Faith is the foundational point where we live and move and have our being. This has been “a long and tiring night” through the pandemic. And when we come to the end of our resources; when we come to the end of our patience; when we come to the end of our rope…faith is that essential ingredient of giving it over to God and know that all will be well with our soul. Can you begin to comprehend the power that a true faith, like the disciples show, might play in your life? What might it look like to have this kind of faith? Or even just a portion of it? A faith in things unseen…a faith that all will be well, even after the long and tiring night.
Coming from this inquiry into the nature of faith is a consideration of endurance. When we measure things in human terms: expecting a certain outcome by a certain time, we will inevitably be disappointed. An enduring faith allows us to begin glimpsing things in the larger scheme of God’s time frame. This pandemic should have been over a long time ago, we cry out! The fishers should have a boat full of fish, long before sunrise! Life, inevitably, will never unfold as we desire. However, if we turn things over to God and place a depth of faith in things unfolding as they should, we gain a deeper insight into the nature of faith. An enduring faith is that model of living exercised by the first disciples to go back as Jesus calls them to. To put the nets back in the water, one more time. When we are tired; when have given up on our human ability….it is time, then, to rely upon God’s strength; to rely upon God’s ability. What might it look like to have such endurance in your faith? When you are out of steam; when you reach the end of your rope, to know that God will carry you. To know that God will strengthen you. To know that God will be there after the long and tiring night.
And this shifts us over to the third component of this story…God’s provision. An enduring faith is that which allows us to behold the provision that God has for all Creation. To be sure, this is quite a bizarre story! An unsuccessful night spent fishing; a deep faith in the fisher of our souls; an unprecedented catch. The text reports the boat as overflowing with fish. So much fish that they needed to signal the other fishers to help them! And their response…they walk away from all of this and begin to exercise their call as Jesus’ first disciples. Simon, James and John become the model for a lived out faith. That model is that God will provide all that we need as we live out our callings as Jesus’ disciples. In leaving the fish behind, what the disciples have done is place their reliance upon something stronger than anything we could ever muster. They place their faith in the power of God.
And whenever we encounter a ‘call story’, we inevitably are drawn to consider how we are called in our lives. Calls are not static, but rather are dynamic and changing throughout one’s life. You have ‘small calls’ each and every day as you live your life in the community where God has planted you. God calls you by name. God says “you are mine”. And you go forth as a shining light of God. Not alone, but rather as one of God’s beacons of light into the world. You do this as a member of your family, your community, your church, your vocation…you live the call that God ushers you towards. How have you been called in your life? Think of the many ways in which you have been called as a mother/father, as a neighbour, as a professional to shine the light of Jesus’ justice, peace and hope.
This is a powerful month to ponder a provision, enduring faith. As we conclude “Interfaith Harmony Week”, we might consider how we bring God’s light of inclusion in this movement. Jesus will later teach in his movement that “all might be one”. These words on our United Church crest, coming from John 17 are ones which highlight a call towards unity and love. We ponder how we might create space with our Interfaith brothers and sisters as we learn together, as we serve together, as we realize our humanity and the inner-divinity that bonds us together.
Another consideration this month is our entry into Black History Month. As a person of white-privilege, it is my call to actively ensure that all are included at the table. Am I listening to the story of those who have been, and continue to be excluded and harmed, simply by the colour of their skin? If it is Jesus’ command that ‘all may be one’, our call becomes learning the stories of our black brothers and sisters and ensuring a place at the table for all.
The other February consideration, of course, happened earlier this week with February 2nd being “Groundhog Day”. The lovable rodent has forecast an extended winter. More long, dark, rainy and snowy nights. Yet we go forth with a faith that allows us to endure. With a faith that God will provide. Indeed, we go forth as one of God’s chosen disciples, a beam of God’s light called to shine forth in the darkness.
May it be so.
Amen.