Put Out into Deeper Water
Scripture lesson: Luke 5:1-11
“Put out into the deep water…” Luke 5.4 (New Revised Standard Version)
When my daughter was very young and taking swimming lessons at a YMCA, I used to watch her from a balcony above the pool. Without fear, she would dive into the water at the deep end, and become a blur of color well beneath the surface of the pool. I watched her with joy and envy because I had never learned how to swim, and yearned to feel that freedom of jumping into the deep end.
One day I summoned enough courage to take swimming lessons in that same pool. Accompanied by other anxious adults I learned to tread water. Eventually I launched myself into the deep end. It was a leap of faith that brought me unimaginable freedom and joy.
On one occasion, Jesus saw a group of weary fishermen as they cleaned their nets after an unsuccessful day of fishing. He challenged them, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Grudgingly they consented. That journey furnished a catch of fish so large that it threatened to scuttle their boats!
Faithful living feels like putting out into deep water. It is risky and exhilarating. To go into the depths of faith is to find the place where enemies are loved, injustice is overcome and the wounded find healing. Jesus invites us to explore the uncharted depths of love, because that is how the world is healed, and that is how we become fully alive.
Prayer: God of all our journeys, we thank you for calling us to explore the deep end of faith. Help us to remember that with your buoyant grace, we are upheld on our journeys into the unknown, and that you accompany us as we make our pilgrimage into the possibilities of love. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
“Faithful living feels like putting out into deep water. It is risky and exhilarating.” How true. That is why I understand the opposite of love is not hate, but fear. Fear comes out of being so self-reliant, that the self becomes the sole source of energy, initiative, and creation, i.e., power. Thus, fear opposes trust (obviously) and reliance on God as a source of power and, as such, fear opposes the greatest power: love.
Fear becomes not only self-defeating but anti-Christ. I have told, and continue to tell, my parishoners and congregants, that one solid source of discerning God’s will is to look at what causes one deep fear.
I still have many fears. I will probably die fearing much. That is why I stand in constant need of confession, forgiveness, and mercy.