The Foolishness of God

TEXT: Luke 5:1-11
5 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, 2and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. 4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” 5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” 6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. 7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. 8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, 10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. (ESV) And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear; from now on you will be catching men alive.” 11 And having brought the boats to land, having left all things, they followed him. (A. Just translation)

In the Name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Peter, James and John had fished all night… but they took nothing. That was a hard blow. For the disciples, fishing was not a recreational activity, it was their livelihood. Fishing problems meant worry about economic distress and fretting about money problems.

They had done all they could do. They had used the best of their knowledge, experience and skill. Their boats, nets, and other equipment was sufficient for the job, maybe even better. Sometimes even the best fishermen get skunked. Isn’t that true with most everything? Even the most skilled farmer with the highest GPA from Iowa State could not reach into heaven and turn off the rains the first part of this month.

Who did this son of a carpenter think he was? What do you mean, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch?” Didn’t you hear me, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing? And your suggestion makes no sense. That’ not how you fish. Fish aren’t in the deep in that part of the day… even so, the water is too deep to effectively catch fish. This is a waste a time. You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Peter had his doubts. But, Peter also had faith: “At your word, LORD, I will let down the nets.”
How foolish the Word of God often sounds. Lord, do you really expect me to believe that it will do any good to forgive those who have sinned against me? Do you expect me to teach my children mercy rather than eye for and eye, tooth for a tooth? That may be the way it works in heaven but it doesn’t work that way here? When the preacher preaches a hard Word of Law according to your commandments, how do you expect the church to grow? That’s not the way to win friends and influence people. Do you really think people will be attracted to the church by preaching about the crucified Jesus? Who wants to hear about suffering and death? We want peppy, happy, make-me-feel really good, entertaining talks that inspire me…

No, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. Don’t do what’s reasonable. Ignore common sense. Shun the advice of the Farmer’s Almanac. “At your Word, Lord, I will let down the nets.”

How interesting that Peter let’s down his net while thinking, “… the Lord’s got it good and wrong this time – we’ve already cleaned the nets, I’m tired and have been working at it all night long, no, I really don’t want to do this but I’ll humor you Lord…” While Peter thinks this way, it’s then the catch of fish is perhaps the largest, greatest, most magnificent catch of his life. The scales fell from Peter’s eyes. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom. And the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (1 Cor 1:25)

How often is this not true for us? That we think like Peter. That we put our wisdom above the foolishness of God? That we exert our strength over the weakness of God?

This past week I met a man who was quick to tell me that he was an “agnostic.” “No, I’m not an atheist,” he said, “an atheist doesn’t believe in any god. I’m an agnostic, which means I do believe in a higher supernatural being.” He was proud to be so clever… to seemingly have all of his bases covered by not committing to this god or that god. He chose to believe in the plurality of gods rather than the God who declares, “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God. The Lord is one…. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This man thought it foolish to have only one god, so he believes that there must be more. This man needs to come to Zion and have declared to him his Unknown God – that is, the crucified Christ.

In the church we also put our wisdom above God’s foolishness. In Baptism a newborn little child comes to the font; some water is splashed; and the Word of God is spoken, “I baptize thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The child looks and acts no different than it did before baptism. The child grows up and sins like many others. So we reason, “Maybe the baptism didn’t take?” Rather, hear the Word of God which says, “Whoever believes and is baptized shall be saved.” “In baptism you were therefore buried with him into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead so also you shall walk in newness of life.”

The Lord’s supper is no different. In our intellectual snobbery we reason that bread and wine can’t be the body and blood of Christ when the Holy Supper is rightly administered. Or we reason, I only need the Lord’s Supper once a few times a year, or at most, once a month. No that’s human wisdom talking. The foolishness of God says that we need the Lord’s body and blood every week, every day, even every moment of our lives. That’s why the Church has traditionally offered the Lord’s Supper at least every Sunday. But human wisdom says, “If we offer the Lord’s Supper every week, people will stop coming to church because they won’t want to set through a long service. But that kind of thinking is putting our wisdom above God’s foolishness. For Jesus declares to us that we are to eat and drink often.

Peter said, “At your Word, lord I will let down the nets.”

May we ever speak such words of faith to all the foolishness of God.

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.