February 7, 2010
Luke. 5-1-11
I think one of the things all of us have dealt with in one form or the other is failure. We’ve all known somewhat what it’s like to fail at something and how difficult it can be.
In my life as a priest, there have been moments of absolute failure. Moments when I feel I have failed my congregation in some way, when I have failed an individual who has come to me for help and I simply cannot help or, in a moment of fatigue or frustration, simply refused to help.
Or just those simple moments when one has worked very hard at something only to realize that it has failed miserably and there is simply no way to redeem it.
On our Gospel reading for today, we find the apostles also suffering forma feeling of failure. They have been fishing all night and have caught nothing. Night fishing of course was important. They fished at night so they could take their fresh catch to market in the morning to sell it. You can almost imagine then the frustration they would have felt at that loss.
But in the midst of their failure, Jesus tells them to let their nets down and they end up catching so many fish their nets burst. And Peter, in the midst of this overwhelming success starts deprecating himself.
But Jesus tells him and the others, “Do not fear…”
As you know, because I preach about it without end, those are, by far, my favorite words in scripture.
Do not fear.
In the midst of our own perceived failure, those are the words we need to hear from Jesus. And when we hear them, we know without a doubt that is sometimes only Jesus can turn our failures around for us. He is the one who can tell us after a dark night of failure in our lives to no longer fear and then, in the midst of that failure, we find abundance.
Certainly this is what the message of the Cross of Jesus is all about. Talk about failure! It seemed like the ultimate failure. Jesus had been so fully and completely defeated on the cross. It seemed that fear had really won out. It seemed in that awful moment that darkness had won out over light.
And then look what happened. Easter happened. In the midst of the failure of excruciating, horrible death, Jesus turned it all around with the ultimate of all commands to feel no fear. Light triumphed. Fear was trampled under foot. Life once and for all destroyed death.
In those moment sin our life when failure seems to have won out (and they will come), when it seems that everything we have done for the good has been defeated and trampled underfoot, we need to hear those words of Jesus that he tells us again and again,
“Do not fear.”
We need to believe that Jesus truly can turn our defeats into success in his own time and in his own way. And Jesus will turn it around. And when he does, we will find ourselves truly turned around. And in that place toward which he turns us, we will find ourselves truly following him.
Luke. 5-1-11
I think one of the things all of us have dealt with in one form or the other is failure. We’ve all known somewhat what it’s like to fail at something and how difficult it can be.
In my life as a priest, there have been moments of absolute failure. Moments when I feel I have failed my congregation in some way, when I have failed an individual who has come to me for help and I simply cannot help or, in a moment of fatigue or frustration, simply refused to help.
Or just those simple moments when one has worked very hard at something only to realize that it has failed miserably and there is simply no way to redeem it.
On our Gospel reading for today, we find the apostles also suffering forma feeling of failure. They have been fishing all night and have caught nothing. Night fishing of course was important. They fished at night so they could take their fresh catch to market in the morning to sell it. You can almost imagine then the frustration they would have felt at that loss.
But in the midst of their failure, Jesus tells them to let their nets down and they end up catching so many fish their nets burst. And Peter, in the midst of this overwhelming success starts deprecating himself.
But Jesus tells him and the others, “Do not fear…”
As you know, because I preach about it without end, those are, by far, my favorite words in scripture.
Do not fear.
In the midst of our own perceived failure, those are the words we need to hear from Jesus. And when we hear them, we know without a doubt that is sometimes only Jesus can turn our failures around for us. He is the one who can tell us after a dark night of failure in our lives to no longer fear and then, in the midst of that failure, we find abundance.
Certainly this is what the message of the Cross of Jesus is all about. Talk about failure! It seemed like the ultimate failure. Jesus had been so fully and completely defeated on the cross. It seemed that fear had really won out. It seemed in that awful moment that darkness had won out over light.
And then look what happened. Easter happened. In the midst of the failure of excruciating, horrible death, Jesus turned it all around with the ultimate of all commands to feel no fear. Light triumphed. Fear was trampled under foot. Life once and for all destroyed death.
In those moment sin our life when failure seems to have won out (and they will come), when it seems that everything we have done for the good has been defeated and trampled underfoot, we need to hear those words of Jesus that he tells us again and again,
“Do not fear.”
We need to believe that Jesus truly can turn our defeats into success in his own time and in his own way. And Jesus will turn it around. And when he does, we will find ourselves truly turned around. And in that place toward which he turns us, we will find ourselves truly following him.
1 comment:
[Ummmm. You're supposed to be on vacation.]
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