It is the preaching of Christ Jesus, the Word-of-God-in-the-Flesh, which establishes and builds the Temple of God on earth, His one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. For it is by the preaching of Christ Jesus that God the Father speaks to us by His Son, and that God the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies disciples from all nations and keeps them in the one true faith.
So it is that, as the Word of Christ Jesus made of Simon Peter’s home a little church in last week’s Holy Gospel, there in Capernaum, so does the preaching of Jesus make Simon Peter’s little fishing boat into a mighty cathedral and a holy ark of Christendom on the Lake of Gennesaret.
And here you are, like the crowds then, gathered around Christ Jesus to hear the preaching of His Word, His Law and His Gospel. But do you perceive what is really happening here, and do you understand how significant it truly is? Or is it a ringing in your ears? Are they stopped up, like they’re filled up with wax or water, or the way they can get going up or down on a plane?
The fact is that His Law drives you crazy. His Law makes your ears heavy and your heart tired, so that it’s hard to listen, and you don’t want to hear it. His Law commands you and forbids you; it restrains you and compels you with seemingly impossible demands and threats of punishment.
The Lord commands you to love, not only your family, friends, and neighbors, but your enemies — to turn the other cheek to their rough behavior, to let them take advantage of you, and to forgive their sins against you. And the Lord requires you to love and trust in Him more than money, and, what is more, to love Him more than your family, more than your parents, spouse, or children. You are to fear, love, and trust in Him above all things, regardless of your circumstances.
You hear His Law, and it drives you crazy. But then again, His Gospel seems even crazier to you. For when the Lord has exposed your sin and declared the punishment you deserve — when His Law has made clear that you are not worthy to stand in His presence — then He stretches out His hand and extends His tender mercy to you by and with and in His Gospel. He forgives you all of your sins, and He raises you up from your guilt and shame to live with Him in His perfect Peace.
But how are you to comprehend such mercy and forgiveness? How can you believe it or trust it?
Well, here is what is going on right here, right now, in this little boat, in this ark of Christendom: In this preaching of Christ Jesus, you are on the cutting edge between this world and the next, and the Father’s Voice once more sounds forth over the deep waters, as at the Creation, as again at the Baptism of Jesus, and as at your own Holy Baptism. His Voice sounds forth over the deep waters to bring about a New Creation; to drown you in contrition and repentance, and to raise you up in newness of Life; to bring you out of the darkness of your sin and death into His marvelous Light; to catch you in the Net of His Gospel, and to haul you safely aboard the Boat of His Church.
So, then, put out a little bit from the land. Venture forth that much at His preaching. And by all means, listen to what the Lord says. Hear and heed His Word. Hear His Law, which declares to you His good and acceptable Will and describes the holiness of Life in His Name. And listen to the Gospel that He preaches; for He has come to save men’s lives, and here He comes to save you.
Listen to His Word. And as you hear, so venture out. And serve and support the preaching of His Word. Provide for the maintenance of His Church and Ministry. Sustain the Office of Preaching, so that you may continue to hear, and that your neighbors may also hear and receive the Gospel.
And then, at the Word of the Lord Jesus, in the confidence of His Gospel — though it seems risky and ridiculous — go out into the deep waters of your vocation, and put down your nets for a catch.
You won’t succeed by any reason, wisdom, savvy, or strength of your own. Truth be told, left to yourself you’ll work hard all night and catch nothing. You’ll go at it with all your ingenuity and cleverness, and you’ll come up empty. You won’t be able to make ends meet or succeed at all.
But at the Word of Jesus, everything happens, and everything becomes clear. Like when your ears finally pop back open after takeoff or landing, you can hear what the Lord is saying, and it clicks and resonates. By the Voice of the Father and the Gift of the Spirit, you recognize that Christ Jesus is the Holy One — that all the fullness of God dwells bodily in Him, in His Flesh and Blood.
Now, that is not something to take lightly or for granted. Consider the holy angels, for example — those great, majestic, and powerful, spiritual beings — and how they conduct themselves in the presence of the same Lord God who dwells with you here in the Body of Christ Jesus. In humility and reverence they cover their faces and their feet. They worship and adore the Almighty, they sing His praises and glorify His Name; and yet, they hide their faces, and they hide their feet.
The holy angels hide their eyes, they cover themselves, and they reverence the Lord their God. And here you are in the presence of the same almighty and eternal God. Though He is veiled from your sight, He is present in His Word and the preaching of it, in the ongoing significance of your Holy Baptism, and in His holy Body and precious Blood, given and poured out in His Name.
You are in the presence of the Holy God, whereas you are sinful and unclean. “Woe is me!” That was Isaiah’s reaction. “Woe is me! I am ruined, I am done, I am a dead man. For my eyes have seen the Lord, Yahweh Sabaoth, though I am a sinful man, and I live among sinful people.”
“Go away from me, Lord. I am a sinful man.” That was Simon Peter’s response, when he realized the holiness and righteousness, the divine power and authority of Jesus. Bold, brave Peter, always eager to be first in line, always thinking he’s got the score and got it figured out — he’s brought to his knees in shame; he’s flat on his face on the floor. And he asks for exactly the wrong thing.
But what Jesus said to him, and what the same Lord said to Isaiah, He says also to you, here and now: “Do not be afraid.” Even though you deserve nothing but punishment, do not be afraid.
Though you are sinful from the inside-out, and all your best deeds are filthy and disgusting, do not be afraid; because the Lord Jesus has gone into the deep waters ahead of you. He has gone in, not only up to His neck, but in over His head, even to the drowning depths of a Baptism unto death.
He has gone into the deep waters ahead of you, and He has emerged and arisen with a great catch of fish — disciples of all nations, caught in the Net of His mercy, forgiveness, kindness, and love.
He is the Holy Seed. The Seed of the Woman. The Seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Seed of David. The Seed of St. Mary. And that Holy Seed is the Stump that remains when the rest of Israel has been cut down and removed — and when the Law has chopped off your head, as well.
He is the Portion that remains — for sacrifice and burning. He is consumed by the Cross, and He is spent under the righteous wrath and anger of God against the sins of the world (not His own!). But He rises from the dead, and He rises like Incense in the presence of His God and Father. The Smoke of His Incense fills the whole Church in heaven and on earth; His Holiness fills the Temple of God; and His Righteousness surrounds you, covers you, upholds you, and sustains you. And from the Altar of His Cross He takes the burning Coal of His own Body, His Flesh and Blood, and He touches your lips with His Sacrifice this morning. Your sins are thus forgiven, your iniquity is pardoned, your conscience is cleansed of guilt and shame, and your body is raised up for Life.
His almighty power and divine Glory are manifest chiefly in this way, that He shows mercy and pity to you and to all, who do not deserve it; that He forgives sinners and rescues them from death.
“From now on,” He said to Peter, James, and John, “you will be catching men alive.” And by the Apostolic Ministry that began with those men — and continues to the close of the age — you have been caught alive. You are a fish in the Net of the Gospel, hauled aboard the Boat of the Church. You have not been caught to be cooked and eaten, but to be saved from death and to live forever.
When Peter, James, and John understood that, they left everything and followed Jesus. He actually called those men to a new vocation; not only to be His disciples, but to become Apostles, ministers of His Word, preachers and evangelists — to go even to the ends of the earth, proclaiming Christ and Him crucified — to suffer all and to give their lives for the sake of His Holy Gospel.
Now, most of you are not called to that vocation. Some of you young men may be called to give up everything, in order to become preachers of the Gospel, ministers of the Word. If your parents and teachers and pastors and other authorities suggest such a possibility, consider it and take it to heart. But most of you are not called away from your office and station; you are called to glorify Jesus and follow Him within your own place. Not to abandon your families, but to love and serve them. Not to abandon your neighbors, but to look to their needs and care for them; to speak words of comfort and forgiveness, the words of the Gospel, and to provide also for the needs of the body.
But your first and foremost vocation is to be and to live as a child of your Father in heaven, as a disciple of Jesus. And that vocation has been given to you in the deep waters of your Baptism.
Most of you are diligent and faithful and patient in your other vocations; not always, but mostly. You know that you are to love your spouse and to care for your children and honor your parents. And where you fall short in these ways, you try again, and then you keep persisting in those things to which God has called you. You do your job, and you fulfill your responsibilities in the world.
But your first vocation is to be and to live as a child of your God and Father in heaven, as a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. That begins with listening to His Word, and then confessing the Word that He has spoken to you. And it means loving your neighbor, as Christ Jesus loves you. That is how you give up everything and follow Him; not by liquidating your property, but by using it to glorify Christ and serve your neighbor.
How will you “translate” the Gospel and “interpret” it in your body and life? How shall it become, not a strange and foreign tongue, but one that your neighbor can understand and so recognize the glory of God in you? The vocabulary “key” is the Gospel. You know the Glory of God as Christ Jesus is merciful and kind, as He loves you and forgives your sins. And that is how your neighbor knows the Glory of God in your words and actions, as you are merciful and kind, as you forgive your neighbor his sins against you, as you love him in spite of his sins, and as you pray for him.
It may be that some of you already know another language, or you could learn another language if you took the time and put your mind to it. And if so, you may well have opportunity to use that knowledge and skill to confess and speak the Gospel to neighbors who don’t speak English.
But even if you never learn any other language than English, yourself, consider how you are given to pray and to sing, to bless and give thanks, in such a way that your neighbors are edified and strengthened in the faith. It is by praying as the Lord has taught you; by singing words that confess His Name; by acknowledging Him and His marvelous works; by giving thanks to Him at all times and in all places; and by praying and interceding for your family, friends, foes, and strangers.
It is a risky business, and it often seem ridiculous by every human metric. But it is worth the risk. Your dear Lord Jesus Christ does not lie to you, and His Word does not fail. What He says to you is true and sure and certain. As your sins are all forgiven by His Gospel, you have Life in Him, which no one can take away from you. He will not allow the old evil foe to snatch you out of His hand. And even if your body is pummeled and burned, you will yet rise from the dead and live.
It is a risk to live your life here on earth according to the Word of Christ, because it is by faith and not yet by sight. But it is a risk worth taking, and you shall not be disappointed or put to shame.
Your lips have been cleansed, and so they may speak. Though men may hate you for it, you are a servant of the Lord Most High. Your sins are forgiven, your iniquity is pardoned, your lips are cleansed, and your eyes shall see the Lord, the very One who gives you His Body and His Blood. You shall not go hungry, and you shall not die forever, but you shall live in the Glory of God, in the presence of Christ Jesus, the One who takes away your sins and the sins of the whole world.
In the Name + of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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