Christ the King-Epiphany, Wilbraham

 
The Rev. Martha S. Sipe

February 9, 2025 / Epiphany 5C

Luke 5:1-11

[Slide 1] (“From now on, you will be catching people.”)

This is the verse that got my attention this week.

[Slide 2] (picture of a fishing net filled with fish)

And this is the image I invite you to think about – a net filled with fish, perhaps not unlike the one with which Simon, James, and John hauled in a great catch from the Lake of Gennesaret by the power of Jesus.  Perhaps this abundant catch of fish is what those disciples saw just before Jesus invited them to follow him and catch people.

Some Christians use this story as an encouragement to go out into the world and “convert” unbelievers by catching them in their evangelistic nets.  There’s nothing really wrong with this interpretation, but it’s not particularly my style, nor the style of other Lutheran and Episcopal churches that I’ve known.  Mainline Protestants are more likely to use this story as an encouragement to go out and catch new members for the church.  And you know, I do believe that we have a lot to offer to folks as a community of faith; but the idea of “snaring people in our net” still doesn’t sit too well with me.  Catching people, ensnaring them, trapping them, capturing them . . . they’re all pretty aggressive images, maybe even oppressively so.  And while perhaps fish don’t have feelings or free will . . . people are not fish!  Catching people in a net is a troublesome image! 

What if we were to think about the net a little differently?  What if we were to think of Jesus’ directive to catch people as being a safety net rather than a fishing net?

(Slide 4) A safety net provides security against misfortune or difficulty.  

(Slide 5) Social safety nets are policies and programs that help individuals and families manage risk and volatility, protect them from poverty and inequality, and help them to access economic opportunity.  

A fishing net captures fish for the fisher’s benefit, but safety nets catch people for their benefit.  A social safety net “sustains [people] for a while, with love and care and kindness and attention and humor and gentleness and always, always in the name of the wholeness and the worth and the ever-growing freedom of the other.”  Perhaps that’s the kind of fishing Jesus is calling us to today.

And friends, our safety nets are in need of some mending.  Some are being threatened by executive orders.  Others are being defamed as criminal enterprises without any credible evidence.  Since it was specifically Lutheran Social Services that has been slurred this week, I want to talk a little bit about Ascentria Care Alliance, which is the (relatively) new name for Lutheran Social Services in New England.  Here are two examples of Ascentria’s programming.

• Sometimes the safety net looks like a car.  Good News Garage operates in several New England States, in MA providing refurbished, donated vehicles to people with disabilities who otherwise could not afford to purchase their own car.  Over 5,500 donated cars have been refurbished and awarded to New England families.  In a survey, 93% of clients said that having reliable transportation has improved the well-being of their families, 70% report that their Good News Garage car has enabled them to obtain a better job, and 56% of clients surveyed are no longer receiving government assistance (other than food assistance).  Thanks be to God for this net called Good News Garage.
• Ascentria’s safety net also catches and holds young parents, making it possible for them to raise their children in a safe environment.  Florence House in Worcester and Ruth House in Brockton are two examples.  And because we’re in this Zoom format today, I can share with you a short video which speaks more eloquently about this ministry than I ever could. https://youtu.be/hQpEcSQHlT4?si=WTXtn96PueDZ9zvE  Thanks be to God for this safety net called Ruth’s House.

Thanks be to God, also, for Ascentria’s senior care, foster care, and adoption services, not to mention their great work in refugee resettlement.  Thanks be to God for all the other faith-based and governmental services that catch the vulnerable in their net.  And thanks be to God for you – for all the ways that you catch the needy in a net of safety –

• For your support of our congregation, which sends mission support to both our denominations 
• For your outstanding support of the Community Survival Center and all of our mission outreach projects
• For your individual volunteering and contributions for other organizations
• For your willingness to call and email our elected officials to encourage them to continue funding the social safety net
• And for the way each of you individually shows up to help those in need in your circle of friends and family. 
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Thanks be to God for all of you as you help to cast and hold the net, catching and holding those who are vulnerable in the name of Jesus.

It’s not easy to support the vulnerable when we sometimes feel so vulnerable ourselves.  But we can answer Jesus’ call to catch people because we, too, are caught, held, and supported by the love of God.  Jesus’ net is infinitely deep and infinitely wide and cannot break because it is woven of love and compassion.  His net holds us all.  Thanks be to God.

1:   Cristina Rathbone, https://graceberkshires.org/sermon-february-6-2022/