Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

"Be careful what you pray for; you might get it!"

We’re fishing.

All night, we’re fishing.

We’ve been fishing in all our usual spots,

at the right time of night for the kind of fish we want.

And we haven’t caught a durned thing.

We have nothing to sell or trade in the marketplace.

We have nothing to feed our own families with.

Now, here’s Jesus in the boat with us.

What is he going to do about it?

Well, notice first what he doesn’t do.

He doesn’t somehow charm the fish

into jumping out of the water, into the boat, at our feet.

He doesn’t somehow miraculously turn

the sand on the shore into fish.

He says, "Put out into the deep water,

and let down your nets for a catch."

So, he wants us to use our own skills and equipment and training …

but as it turns out, this time he’s going to offer us a little help.

So we go back out a ways …

remember, we had come in closer to shore to pick up Jesus,

and ‘cause he was teaching the people on the shore from the boat.

But now, we go back out to where the fish hang out,

and we put down our nets once again,

even though it’s daytime by now,

and everyone knows that the fish won’t be biting again till dusk.

And, would you believe it?

All of a sudden, our nets are so full of fish

that they’re just about to break.

Not to mention, we may capsize the boat,

leaning over, to try to pull them in.

Luckily, our friends are nearby, and they come over to help us.

We fill up both boats,

and even two boats is barely enough to hold all those fish.

We learn really quickly

that Jesus means business.

If we are going to ask him for something,

we’d better be ready for it to arrive!

And not always exactly as we expected it!

Simon Peter’s reaction is interesting, isn’t it?

You might think that his first response

might have something to do with all the fish …

Maybe gratitude, like,

"Wow, Jesus, thanks;

this will feed all of us for a couple of weeks."

Or even some fear:

"What were you thinking with that stunt?

You could have drowned us all!"

Instead, he recognizes instantly

that he is in the presence of something

more powerful than he had ever imagined.

Sure, they had all been listening to Jesus teach people, from the boat,

but there were lots of traveling rabbis

who went around teaching people,

and many of them were indeed quite wise.

But none of them could make hundreds of fish

come swarming into your net.

Jesus is something different … something more.

And Simon Peter is no idiot;

he makes the connection right away.

So his response to the miraculous haul of fish

is really a response to Jesus, who made it happen:

"Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"

That may seem like a weird response.

Like Simon Peter talking before he thinks,

as we will see him do so often in the gospel stories.

What can that mean, "Go away from me, Lord"?

Wouldn’t you think he would instead ask,

"Stay right here, Lord; our business needs you!"

Instead, just the reverse happens.

First, he begs Jesus to go away.

But then, after everyone has come to shore

and the fish are unloaded …

Peter and the others leave it all behind

and follow Jesus.

So in a sense, Jesus does go away …

but he takes the key players along with him.

One can only imagine how their families must have responded to that,

but that’s another conversation for another day.

Throughout the church’s history,

and through our own life histories and stories,

we spend a lot of time wondering about

what it means when God doesn’t answer our prayers.

Or at least, when God doesn’t answer them

the way we thought God ought to answer them.

But I suspect that for most of us,

what is really troubling is those times when God does answer us.

Those times when the net comes in so full that it’s almost breaking,

and it scares us half to death.

Times when we get what we prayed for,

only we weren’t prepared for the consequences.

And along with Peter, we want to say,

"Get out of here, Jesus!

You’re scaring us!"

Peter, at least, had the insight to recognize

that he wanted Jesus to go away

because he himself was sinful.

He didn’t know what to do with what Jesus was offering,

didn’t know whether he could live up to Jesus’ expectations,

didn’t know whether he was willing to give up

what he would have to give up in order to believe what he had just seen.

But Peter recognizes that as being his own problem.

He says, Go away, Jesus,

because I’m not ready to deal with you.

We are more likely to say,

Go away, Jesus, because your expectations are too high.

Or, go away, because if that’s what you expect of me

then you’re not really Jesus.

Or, go away, because if what you say is true,

then I’m going to have to learn to trust you and only you,

and not my own skills or cleverness or resources.

Now, lest you think I’m only talking about those of you in the pew,

let me share with you a story from Methodist pastor Will Willimon.

He begins by saying,

"I was not present at the finance committee meeting

the night they voted on next year’s budget.

Next morning I got a call from the chairperson.

‘Preacher,’ she said, ‘great meeting last night.

I opened with prayer and it was as if

the Holy Spirit just descended on us.

With little discussion we unanimously approved next year’s budget –

a ten percent increase over this year’s.

It was wonderful!

There’s a new spirit in this congregation

and we’re going to ride with it..

"I said, in love, "Let me get this straight.

The church that is five percent behind on this year’s budget

is going to have a ten percent increase next year?

That’s crazy!

I’m the spiritual leader of this congregation.

I will tell you when the Holy Spirit gets here.

There is no way that you will pledge that budget!’

"‘Well, you weren’t there and we’ve already voted,

so that’s that,’ she replied.

"In each Sunday service that October

we had a ‘Stewardship Moment’ where the chairperson

reported on the progress, or lack of it, in our pledge campaign.

The second Sunday in October she rose at the beginning of the service and said,

‘I never thought I’d live to see this day in this church.

I am pleased to announce that we have

pledged next year’s budget in full!’

"The church erupted in spontaneous applause.

"‘Which is all the more amazing

considering that this is a huge increase over this year’s budget.’

"Applause again.

"‘Now, as I remember, there was somebody who said,

"You will never pledge that budget."

Help me remember. Who said,

"That’s crazy, you will never pledge that budget."

Who said that?’"

Willimon ruefully concludes,

"Sometimes I despise the anticlericalism of the laypeople

as much as I fear the unwanted intrusions of the Holy Spirit.

It isn’t easy when you are fishing with Jesus.

Get out of here, Jesus."

What happens when Jesus gives us something wonderful,

and in the process of receiving it,

we realize that we are completely and totally not worthy

of whatever it is we just received?

Do we confess our sin, and express our gratitude nonetheless?

Or do we say, "Get away from me, Jesus"?

Do we receive the gift, recognizing that it means we are going to have to change?

Or do we say, "Never mind, Jesus,

now please get out of here and stop disturbing us."

For many of us in the mainline churches,

who try very hard to live lives that have space for both faith and rationality,

the problem is not those times when God doesn’t do what we want.

That’s really kind of what we expect, after all.

The challenge for us happens when

God does do something that we asked for,

and it is so huge and so generous and so amazing

that it threatens to break our nets,

to upset our carefully charted lives,

to challenge our calm reasonableness.

Just as a wild "for instance" …

what happens when we pray to God for new members,

and people start coming in the door,

only they don’t speak English?

Can we see that as a response from Jesus

that in turn demands a response and change from us?

Or do we assume it’s not a response from Jesus,

since that’s not what we meant?

Or do we say, "Go away from here, Jesus;

because we can’t handle the answer you gave us?"

If we pray for God to help us find a way to keep this church open,

and Jesus tells us clearly that most of us could give more …

will we say,

"Ouch, Jesus, that hurts,

but I’ll do my best to do what you say"?

or do we say, "Go away, Jesus,

for we are sinful people but we kind of like ourselves that way."

There are days when I say that!

I’m not proud of that,

but it’s the truth!

What is not getting done in Jesus’ name

because there are times when I tell him to leave me alone?

What is not getting done in Jesus’ name

in those times when you tell him to go away?

When Jesus comes to us … and he does come, when he is invited …

we are nearly always going to get something slightly different

than what we expected we would get.

Those of us who expect that he will be stern and judgmental

may find him to be much more loving toward us

than we have been toward ourselves.

Those of us who sort of expect that he will bless everything we’ve been and done

may be surprised to find that he sits in judgment

- loving judgment, to be sure, but judgment nonetheless -

about some of the choices we have made.

When Jesus comes to us,

we are going to get more than we bargained for!

Will we turn away from him? Will we send him away? …

or will we leave behind whatever holds us back,

and follow him on his way?

He leaves it up to us.

My prayer is …

and I mean that, despite the fact that it might get answered …

my prayer is that all of us will be brave enough and adventurous enough

to sail out into the deep water and put down our nets,

knowing that Jesus is with us,

and to receive whatever it is that our nets bring in,

whatever it is that is the answer to our prayer and our need.

That we will not send him away,

but will trust him to get us safely ashore,

even with more than we bargained for.

Amen.

© 2007 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)