Beloved members of St. Martin’s,
It is a time of great anxiety and uncertainty. There is no question of that.
Everywhere I go, it seems people have the same question, or some variation of it: How do we remain hopeful when so much is uncertain?
I turn, once again, to the things that bring me joy: music, art, poetry, good friends, people of stout hearts and good will.
I am also comforted by an image in this weekend’s Gospel passage from Luke 5:11. This portion of the gospel tells the story of Jesus calling his disciples through a miraculous catch of fish.
Their situation is familiar. They have worked all night. They are exhausted, sweaty—and have nothing to show for it. They have not caught a single fish.
Jesus has been so crowded by all those thirsty to hear his good news he eventually has to get Simon (Peter) to put him one of Simon’s boats and row away to show just to be able to project enough to teach the crowds gathered there. When he had finished and while the crowds were watching, he urged Simon to lower his nets one last time over in the deep water, where the bottom disappeared off in the gloom.
Despite Simon Peter’s protest that their luck had been rotten all night, Simon does as he is told and—voila!—he starts hauling in so many fish where Jesus had said they would be that the boat begins to sink. He eventually has to call in another boat to help distribute the weight. Jesus then assures the fishermen there that, if they liked that haul of fish, wit until he sets them to fishing for people.
Friends, many of us are hauling around empty nets right now, spiritually speaking. All we can see is that we’ve tried again and again, and all we’ve got to show for it is aching muscles. There are a lot of people out there that have been caught for too long in a web of hopelessness. Yet we are armed with the best net—the Good News of Jesus.
I don’t think we are looking for a miraculous catch in a single moment. But what if we dedicated ourselves to try to bring hope and resilience to just one person we encounter? Wouldn’t that in itself be a miracle worth celebrating?
In a speech given at our own Washington National Cathedral in March of 1968, thirteen years after the Montgomery Bus boycott, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King famously urged resilience to the people he led in their fight for justice with this very apt observation: “We shall overcome, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
I am no naif, or a sunny optimist. But I do know one thing: giving up is not an option.
For a fish, being caught in a fisherman’s net is a tragedy. But for those who are soul weary, being caught in the net of the gospel of Christ lifts us from the darkest depths of the sea toward the light of mercy and renewal.
Take a breath, refresh yourself, and remember that we are not alone—in a time of division, we proclaim the blessings of community and mutual care of each other.
But you will never catch anything if you give up.
In Christ,
Mother Leslie+