Scouting the Deep Water

Scouting the Deep Water

Feb 6, 2022

Luke 5: 1-11

The sun had just risen when the Scouts began their trek up Baldy Mountain. At 12,441 feet, Baldy is the highest peak in the Philmont Scout Ranch, a high-adventure backpacking camp run by the Boy Scouts.

From the summit, hikers can enjoy spectacular views of the mountains, forests and lakes of northern New Mexico. But the summit was still a dream when the crew of eight Scouts and two adults started out, hiking through a dense pine forest in the early-morning light.

Reaching a gorgeous, gurgling mountain stream, they took a turn and headed down a wide and comfortable trail for about a mile. Turned out to be the wrong trail. Realizing their mistake, they turned around and hiked back. This detour added an extra two miles to their trip, and you might think they would be discouraged by it. But the extra distance had a surprising benefit.

One Scout who had been struggling at the start of the hike gained confidence throughout the detour, and when the group got back on track, he felt strong enough to hike to the summit.His success required venturing out, beyond his comfort zone. And so does ours.

The Boy Scouts of America have been challenging boys and now girls to push their limits for more than a century.

Tuesday, February 8 is the 112th anniversary of the incorporation of the organization. The impact of this youth organization is outstanding – along with its problems. It has involved more than 110 million Americans.

So just exactly who has been a Boy Scout?

Two-thirds of all astronauts, and 11 of the 12 men to walk on the moon.

Nine of the 100 members of the United States Senate are Eagle Scouts. Eagle Scouts were disproportionately represented among Hurricane Katrina’s volunteer relief workers.

Both adventurer Steve Fossett and moviemaker Steven Spielberg were Boy Scouts — although Spielberg has resigned from Scouting’s advisory board because of its zero tolerance of homosexuals.

This controversy is put aside while we work on child sexual abuse, but it doesn’t change the fact that Spielberg made a nine-minute film at age 12 to earn his Boy Scout photography badge.

Eight billion dollars later, it seems that movie-making has worked out pretty well for him. The great appeal of Scouting is that it challenges boysand now girlsto explore a wide range of outdoor activities and educational programs, and to make surprising discoveries about themselves and the world around them. They find that the comfort of staying home is really no match for the amazing things that happen when they venture out.

Jesus would agree.

In the fifth chapter of Luke, Jesus is standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd is pressing in on him to hear the word of God. At the shore of the lake, he sees two boats —empty because the fishermen had left them to wash their nets. Jesus gets into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asks him to push the boat away from the shore.

There Jesus keeps a safe distance from the smothering press of the crowd and is able to teach them (vv. 1-3). When Jesus finishes his speech, he decides to extend his lesson with a dramatic illustration. He challenges Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (v. 4)Put out into the deepwater, says Jesus. Jesus doesn’t say, “Hey, it’s shallow over here, try this.”

He’s saying that the real possibilities exist where life gets deep and risky. He invites us to venture out, take a chance, be active and adventurous. Jesus wants Simon to act like a Scout.“Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing,” laments Simon. He sounds like he wants to stay close to shore, safe and comfortable because his time on the water hasn’t yielded any fish.

But Simon isn’t going to be stubborn about this.“Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets,” he offers. And he does (v. 5).The result? Simon and his fellow fishermen catch so many fish that their nets are beginning to break. They call for their partners in the other boat to come and help, and they end up filling both boats to the point that they’re beginning to sink (vv. 6-7).

It’s an unexpected, amazing and overwhelmingly abundant catch. All because they’re willing to follow Jesus’ words and scout the deep water.

That’s the challenge for us today: to venture beyond our comfort zones and put out into the deep water in lives of Christian discipleship.

Too often we stay close to shore, safe and comfortable, when Jesus is calling us to be active, adventurous and willing to explore new territory. That’s where the fish are. That’s where the growth happens. That’s where we can make surprising discoveries about ourselves and the world around us.

We scout the deep water when we venture out to love our neighbor who is struggling or hurting. We go into the deep water when we decide that Christianity is a lifestyle more than a belief system. We go into the deep when we really begin putting “U” before “I” as I put it last week. We go into the deep when we follow the way of Jesus. But, when we go out into the deep we discover that life is so much more than hustle and bustle. It is so much more than keeping up with the Joneses.

Life is the opportunity to engage ourselves beyond our personal wishes and wants, to explore living for others and not for ourselves, to trust God to provide what is necessary, and to find peace and joy and satisfaction in your life in Jesus’ way.You will be able to share your love and life with your neighbor; in time you will be able to express your faith in words along with your living.

As Jesus put it to the boat owners who were used to catching fish as the point of their lives, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people” (v. 10). That metaphor worked for fishermen, but in our environment “catching people”suggests capturing –forcing or manipulating --people into Christianity. That is not what we are about. Rather we want to love and serve and support people so that they, too, can experience the joy and peace and thrill of living for others –of living Jesus’ way.But how? In her book Unbinding the Gospel, Martha Grace Reese says that “our most important discovery is that a vivid relationship with God lies at the heart of evangelism.”

You have to ask yourself, “Has being a Christian made any difference in my life?” If so, then you’re going to want to share this reality with other people. Quite simply, evangelism is grounded in the realization that your life so much richer and better because of your relationship with God, and this relationship can benefit others as well.Reese says evangelism is all about relationships. Not high-pressure conversion programs —relationships. We need to reflect on our relationship with God, and then find natural and sincere ways to share that relationship with others.We scout the deep water when we welcome of different races, nationalities, ethnicities, lifestyles and values into our congregation.

God says through the prophet Isaiah, “[M]y house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples” (56:7). We scout the deep water when we commit ourselves to tutoring children who are struggling in school or when we create alternative worship services to reach the unchurched of our community.All of these require an active and adventurous spirit, plus a willingness to explore the deep --new territory to us.When we venture outside and beyond our comfort zones, we find that God is already there welcoming us and helping us to learn to love our new neighbors.We don’t achieve the abundant life that God desires for us by playing it safe. No, if we’re going to experience growth in Christian faith and understanding, we have to venture out and take some chances. As Jesus says to his followers a little later in Luke, “[T]hose who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it” (9:24). Life comes from allowing our comfort and control to decrease, as we learn Jesus’ way and follow Jesus in faith.

Each of us is challenged to take chances as we follow Jesus along the path of life each and each day. We’ll have our setbacks and disappointments, and we’ll certainly lose our way at certain points in the journey.But we’ll make amazing discoveries about ourselves and of God’s love and provision, if we scout the deep water.Sources:Gott, Natalie. “Welcoming immigrants.” Faith and Leadership, February 17, 2009. http://faithandleadership.duke.edu.Gumbel, Andrew. “Steven Spielberg quits Boy Scouts in protest at anti-gay discrimination.” The Independent, April 18, 2001. independent.co.uk.Reese, Martha Grace. Unbinding the Gospel: Real Life Evangelism, 2nd ed. St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2008.

Children's Sermon

The fisherman Simon needed some coaching from Jesus when he was fishing one day. Jesus said, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch,” and Simon responded that he had been fishing all night without catching anything, “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets” (vv. 4-5).

Ask the children if they can guess what happened when Simon followed the coaching of Jesus.

Spread your arms and say that he caught so many fish that his nets were beginning to break (v. 6).

Close by emphasizing that we all need good coaching —in basketball or running and in Christian living —and there’s no better coach than Jesus. Jesus teaches us to love the Lord and to love each other.Jesus teaches us to welcome new or left-out children, to serve the poor and to do the will of God.