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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
It seems like salvation, catching people for life is the point here and not the fate of the planet. But what if people keeping and earth keeping go hand in hand? Now, today, we continue our second summer series, Outside In, where we explore themes that take us further away from home. We do so by using specific words as our prompts and our lenses to examine how our experience of the outside world shapes our inner and communal lives. Bobbi kicked off the series by looking at play, and she gave us a theology that prioritizes the inclusion of children in the Christian community.
Speaker 1:And I really appreciated how Bobbi beautifully connected God's endless capacity to love more with our human capacity to do the same. Then Scott's word last week was awe. He looked at the story of Christ's transfiguration in Mark and how we experience awe in our lives, and I loved how he observed that Jesus' transfiguration was one of a kind, but it also wasn't. Because transfigurations still happen all around us when ordinary people do extraordinary things through simple acts of love and kindness and justice. Now today, we have something different.
Speaker 1:Today, our word is sustainability. And before we dive in, let us pray together. Loving God, as we take a moment to connect with our breath and our body, we are mindful that for some of us, this place feels like home. We are comfortable and connected here. But we're also mindful that for some of us, this place is still very new, and we are slowly opening up to our experience of being here.
Speaker 1:And in all those feelings, we trust that you are with us. And so we ask that you would give us eyes to see your grace in all of our experiences, in the child's play and contagious generosity about the world, in the smallest extensions of care that transform strangers into friends, and in all the ways the ancient texts that we pick up every week speak about your vision for an abundant and flourishing life. God, we all hunger for such life. So may we seek it together. Amen.
Speaker 1:So today, we have sustainability, and we will talk about us being anchored in creation, hope, wonder, and living in the way of shalom. And let's jump right into our text for today. It comes from the gospel of Luke chapter five verse one. One day, as Jesus was standing by the Lake Of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. He saw at the water's edge two boats left there by the fishermen who were washing their nets.
Speaker 1:He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. Now, for our summer series, we get to choose the texts we want to work through, and I was drawn to this particular story partly because of its physicality. When you read it with all your senses engaged, you can almost feel the sand and the rocks under your feet, smell the earthy, musky lake smells, see the gentle ripple of the waves, but also feel the push and pull of the crowd. And I tend to like busy and crowded spaces.
Speaker 1:There's a certain energy to that, like our stampede breakfast. I love it, my favorite. But here, it does not feel that great. The crowd physically presses in on Jesus. Everyone's sweaty.
Speaker 1:It's hot. It's uncomfortable. So Jesus makes the physical space work for everyone. He gets into Simon's boat and asks him to push out a little from the shore, allowing the natural landscape and the inlet to amplify his voice. Plus, what a genius way to get some space without losing it on people.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, a little distance is all we need. Right? Now, a couple of notes on the physical location of Jesus in the story, and where the story sits in the timeline of his life. Where is Jesus? Outside, on the lakeshore.
Speaker 1:Nothing of the ordinary, except that prior to this moment, Luke gives us Jesus who moves from town to town in Galilee preaching in the synagogues. And this is the first time we see him teaching outdoors. Other gospel writers call this lake where Jesus is the Sea Of Galilee. Luke calls it the Lake Of Gennesaret because Gennesaret was the Greek name of a small and densely populated region west of west of the lake. The lake and the rich farmlands around it were the lifeblood of that area, supporting nine townships and about 15,000 people.
Speaker 1:And fishing, in particular, was a big part of that region's economic contribution to the Roman Empire, and we will return to that. In terms of where Jesus is in his ministry, he is actually at a turning point. His fame is spreading. The crowds around him are growing, and it is becoming clear that it is time to assemble a team. So this is Luke's account of how Jesus calls his first disciples.
Speaker 1:And there's a beautiful aspect to the story. There's actually no direct command from Jesus, come follow me. What we have instead is an eye opening personal experience in nature that serves as an invitation into a different kind of community. Now, I think that the shift of location from a synagogue to a lakeshore is quite intentional here. Luke spends more words on the physical descriptions in the story than on the content of Jesus' preaching.
Speaker 1:And I love how these tangible details anchor Jesus' incarnation within creation. It is another way to show that the kingdom of God is not confined to the places of worship or our intellectual engagement with faith, that it expands beyond our personal transformation and salvation, meeting us in every aspect of created life. And just as Genesis pronounces all of creation as good, the mystery of the incarnation reaffirms the goodness of it all. The goodness of bodies, and lakes, and rocks, and fish, and plants, and air, the goodness of the largest stars, and the tiniest of particles. And if our biography shapes our theology, I would suggest that our physical experience of the world is part of that too.
Speaker 1:My question to you is this. What was it in your story that first helped you see creation as something truly good? Here's my story. I often joke that my mom's longest lasting relationship has been with her garden. And it's quite true.
Speaker 1:I grew up Kazakhstan, in Central Asia, and growing up, I could not recall a time when my parents weren't working the land. They had regular full time jobs, and somehow, they found the time and energy to basically run an urban farm that supported three families, ours, my grandparents, and my uncle's family. And in the survival years that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, our garden provided not only our food, but also an additional source of income. We grew all of our fruit and vegetables, we enjoyed them in season, and then we canned and preserved and stored what we needed for the winter in cellars. And there was a particular kind of delight in that first apple of the season or in pulling that first carrot out.
Speaker 1:Now, around this time of year is when I get regular updates from my mom with pictures of her tomatoes. She would lovingly place a massive tomato in the bowl with a little note with how much it weighs. And last year, I got a photo of a huge heirloom variety that weighed a pound. My mom was beaming. Now, as a child, I didn't care much about all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Tomato, tomato. I wanted to play with my friends and not dig potatoes or pick cherries. But spending long stretches of my child and teenage years with my hands in the dirt, playing and working, picking and eating, has left a huge mark on how I experience the world and food. I am not a great gardener, by the way. That did not rub off that well.
Speaker 1:But I know I know in my bones what the psalmist is talking about when he says, taste and see that the Lord is good. So when I think about sustainability and the work that comes with it, for me, it has to be rooted in this affirmation of goodness of all the created stuff. Sustainability is more than just a responsible use of resources so that there's enough for future generations. It is about celebrating life that tastes good, life that has a chance of thriving, not just surviving. But as we all know, our efforts at sustainability often balance between discouragement and hope.
Speaker 1:So let's turn to Simon. When Jesus had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch. Simon answered, master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets. Now Luke shifts our attention towards Simon.
Speaker 1:And we know that at a later point in the story, Jesus will give Simon a new name, Peter, meaning rock. And Peter will become one of his closest friends. All of that is still to come. But even here, Simon is not a complete stranger to Jesus. In chapter four, Luke tells us that Jesus met Simon in Capernaum where he healed his mother-in-law and stayed in his house.
Speaker 1:So there's a certain level of trust when Jesus tells Simon to move into the deep and let down the nets. The problem is that for an experienced fisherman, to let down the nets in the middle of the day made no sense. Most of the fishing was done at night because the long nets that the Galilean fishermen used were made of linen, and they were visible to fish during the day. And Simon and his crew were tired after a back breaking work of laying down the nets, then pulling them in all night with no success. They had their nets cleaned and dried while that rabbi Jesus preached from Simon's boat.
Speaker 1:And now it was time for them all to go home and get some rest before heading back to the lake again in the evening. Why waste the precious time and energy when the odds are against you? Yet Simon chooses hope. And I resonate with Simon's struggle here. I feel like I also swing between discouragement and hope when it comes to sustainability.
Speaker 1:It is not easy to stay hopeful in the midst of all the human caused destructiveness that we see in the world. Coral bleaching, and plastic pollution, and deforestation, and overfishing, and climate change caused disasters, and food insecurity. Now, in his book, Circles and the Cross, Lauren Wilkinson, an expert on environmental Christian ethics, helpfully observes that this destructiveness cannot be blamed on human wickedness, as we are simply doing what all life does, consuming other life in order to live. We humans are inescapably metabolic beings and share with all living things, cedars, mushrooms, salmon, bears, and birds, the need to eat. Life exists by feeding, by transforming one living creature into another.
Speaker 1:Life consumes life, and this is how creation works. So our natural need to consume what we need for life is not sinful. It is not fallen. The problem is that our hungers are out of control. Our biological, economic, industrial needs, and in many cases, wants, are exceeding what the world that we inhabit is able to give us.
Speaker 1:And careless consumption is not exactly a new problem for humanity. Some scholars argue that one reason Simon and his crew did not catch any fish during the night was because the Lake Of Gennesaret was becoming overfished. As all empires, the Roman Empire was extracting as many resources as possible without much care for the land and its inhabitants. So the depletion of fish stock in the lake was a case of such systemic injustice. Fish was in great demand in Rome as a luxury item.
Speaker 1:And that turned the Galilean fishing industry into an imperial monopoly. Family fishing businesses were forced to purchase licenses and leases, produce large fishing quotas, and pay steep taxes. And in order to survive and provide for their families, the fishermen had extract more from the lake than was sustainable. And the system was impoverishing both the fish stock and the people. As Simon swings between the discouragement of the night and the hope that Jesus offers, weighing the reality of scarcity and the possibility of abundance, he chooses to trust Jesus.
Speaker 1:And I wonder if you also choose to trust Jesus because Jesus stays right there in the boat with him. Jesus did not give him a work assignment from the shore to observe the results from a distance. He was there with Simon in the boat, knowing full well the oppressive economic situation of the region and the physical exhaustion of that crew. And this divine solidarity, not just with the perfect creation, but with creation as we know it, beautiful and exploited, sustaining us all, and suffering is also what gives me hope. This divine solidarity gives me hope that all our efforts at living sustainably and responsibly, all the smallest acts of earth keeping are not pointless.
Speaker 1:Because God, in the incarnate and risen Christ, is there with us, completely completely committed to the healing of all things. And I trust that what's waiting for us on the other side of that hope is wonder. So let's keep reading. When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them.
Speaker 1:And they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man. For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon's partners. The catch is so huge, it needs two boats.
Speaker 1:And again, Luke wants us to experience the scene with our senses. Mets at the point of breaking, boats at the point of sinking, fishermen balancing between the excitement at the catch that could relieve their burdens and the fear that all of that might be lost in a second. And then Simon finds his voice. In the Hebrew Bible, God is so other and so holy that one cannot see God without dying. So Simon Peter's confession, Go away from me, Lord.
Speaker 1:I am a sinful man, places him right in line with other prophets in the Hebrew scriptures who experienced divine glory and lived. In Isaiah six, when the prophet Isaiah has a vision of God in the heavenly throne room, he cries out, woe to me. I am ruined for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips. And my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty. Divine revelations are terrifying, and they're often followed by do not be afraid.
Speaker 1:One distinct feature of Luke's gospel is that Luke wants to show divine power, Jesus' power, as more fascinating than frightening, something that is deeply attractive in its mystery and its beauty. Even in this story, Luke tells us that what drives Simon Peter's confession is not mainly fear of some sinful thing that he did, but astonishment. The Greek word translated as astonishment here means wonder. Luke literally says that Simon Peter and his companions were enveloped, enshrouded in wonder. That happens when you recognize that you are in the presence of divine mystery.
Speaker 1:In the same book, Circles on the Cross, Lauren Wilkinson describes wonder as the source and the soil of all human art, science, and worship. Because wonder is our basic human response to mystery. One of the mysteries to which we respond with wonder is the mystery of the cosmos. Why is there something at all and not nothing? And why do we experience our corner of the cosmos, our little planet Earth, as life friendly and beautiful?
Speaker 1:And if you're like me, just trying to do your best in loving and caring for our little corner of the cosmos, you probably often find it hard to stay motivated. Every day, the news tells us about gas emissions and global warming and the climate targets and how we're not meeting them. We hear about the scarcity and fragility of our little world. And while this information is very helpful, it often makes us feel anxious and guilty. And the truth is that guilt and fear are not only weak motivators for change, they are not capable of sustaining it over the long haul.
Speaker 1:But wonder is the wonder that we experience when we get up close and personal with the world that actually keeps us alive. When we bite into the summer tomato sandwich that tastes like heaven, or when we touch a tree that is a 100 years old, or marvel at the lettuce that grew despite the hail. And that everyday, everyday keen eye wonder is what inspires us to live in the way of Shalom. So let's finish the story. Then Jesus said to Simon, don't be afraid.
Speaker 1:From now on, you will fish for people. So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything, and followed him. What's interesting here is that Jesus doesn't say, you all in the boats will fish for people. He addresses Simon Peter with a singular you. But James and John, the sons of Zebedee, already mentioned in the story, they join in as well.
Speaker 1:Because of the economic pressures, the fishermen often worked together. So it is likely that James and John were Peter's business partners. And what is fascinating here is that after this encounter with Jesus, there's not only a change in Peter, there is a relational change in the group. The two different terms Luke uses in the story, and the NIV translation actually captures for us pretty well, are partners and companions. Partners are those who have something in common, like a business, and companions are those who belong together.
Speaker 1:The term for companions here, koinonoi, shares its root with koinonia, which means community. And in the New Testament, this word, koinonia, is used to describe the deep communal bond between the followers of Christ and their collective commitment to the new life that Jesus brings. To Peter and his companions, they do not only join Jesus as individual disciples. Disciples. They commit to be a community that will seek the healing of all things with Christ.
Speaker 1:Well, looking at this text, you might say, Yelena, what does it have to do with sustainability and our Christian calling of earth keeping? Because clearly, it talks about mission. It seems like salvation, catching people for life is the point here and not the fate of the planet. But what if people keeping and earth keeping go hand in hand? What if the divine vision of salvation is so much bigger and more generous than we can imagine?
Speaker 1:What if when we become fully human, we help the creation around us to be fully alive as well? In the Hebrew concept of shalom, caring for people and caring for the earth, are deeply, deeply intertwined. Shalom means peace in its fullest sense, the way God designed all of life and relationships to be. Shalom begins when we move beyond our search for individual well-being to collective flourishing. And shalom grows when we realize that creation is more than a natural resource for us to use, but a neighbor to love and a sibling to keep.
Speaker 1:And I believe the practice of community, in whatever way we engage in it, is actually central to living out that divine vision of shalom. Because every time we do so, we create and embody a shalom based world, a world that is both sustaining and sustainable. We practice community over meals with friends, and we practice it by restocking the community cupboard for the neighbors we do not yet know. We practice community when we share the wonder of catching a fish with each other, and we practice it when we support the hard, slow work of conservation of our lakes and rivers and oceans. We practice community every time when in our discouragement, we offer each other a little bit of hope that a new beginning is possible.
Speaker 1:Because after all, our resurrection faith tells us so. Let's pray together. Loving God, the pace and complexity of our lives often make us forget that creation is sacred, that we come from the earth and together with all living things completely depend on its generosity. So in those moments of forgetfulness, would you awaken us to the wonder of the world so that we may respond to it with love? And in the moments of discouragement, fill us with hope that our efforts at a sustainable life, however small, still contribute to the greater good and share in your profound commitment to creation.
Speaker 1:May we be and grow into a community inspired by your vision of the world where all things are healed and made whole. And may your peace, which surpasses all understanding, guard our hearts from despair. Amen.
Speaker 2:Hey, Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If you're intrigued by the work that we're doing here at Commons, you can head to our website, commons.church, for more information. You can find us on all of the socials commonschurch. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our Discord server.
Speaker 2:Head to commons.churchdiscord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about how we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus. We would love to hear from you. Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.