Sermon on Luke 5:1-11

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

I’ve never really connected with the call stories of Jesus’ disciples. It seems like they met Jesus and immediately dropped everything to follow him.

Who can just drop everything and change their life in an instant?

But I noticed this time that in the Gospel of Luke, Simon had already met Jesus. He had stayed at Simon’s house earlier and had even healed his mother-in-law. He had been around Jesus and had probably heard him speak in the synagogue. Jesus probably asked Simon for the use of his boat because he already knew him.

This wasn’t necessarily a lightning-bolt moment of deciding to throw his lot in with a complete stranger. It was still a big leap of faith, but not quite as out of the blue as the Gospels sometimes make it seem.

But there was a lightning-bolt moment when Simon went from calling Jesus “Master” in verse 5, which was a term for a tutors and teachers, to calling Jesus “Lord” in verse 8, when he realized that this wasn’t just any rabbi.

The overabundant catch of fish changed Simon’s understanding of who Jesus is. Suddenly, he felt that he was unworthy of even being in Jesus’ presence: “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!”

But Jesus not only didn’t go away from Simon—he called him. He invited Simon into his mission and his inner circle. He turned Simon’s shame into belonging.

The Gospel of Luke was written by the same person who wrote the book of Acts. They’re so closely related that they’re sometimes referred to as a unit, hyphenated as “Luke-Acts.”Simon Peter has a prominent role in the book of Acts and is one of the foremost of Jesus’ first disciples. This is the beginning of the story of a faithful apostle.

The story of the early Church would be very different without Simon Peter.

And Simon’s ministry began when he decided to follow Jesus even though he felt unworthy.

My own call story took a lot longer than even the Gospel of Luke’s more extended version of Simon’s call story, and I too was afraid I was unworthy.

As most of you know, I grew up at St. Paul Lutheran up Harbor Blvd. a few miles. We had several interns at our congregation over the years, and when one was ordained while I was in junior high, Pastor Tom leaned over to me and said, “That could be you someday.”

I decided, though, that ordained ministry wasn’t for me.Surely I couldn’t be a pastor.I was content with that decision and didn’t think much of it for many years.

Then, I went on a New Year’s retreat at the end of 2012 when I was in my twenties. One of the retreat leaders asked me at one point if I had ever considered the ministry. I figured since it was coming up again, I should probably think about it some more, though I still didn’t think ordained ministry could possibly be for me.

I didn’t really talk about it to anyone, because I didn’t think it would amount to anything. But over the next several months, people kept bringing up the idea of professional ministry: people I had known for a long time and people I had barely met. We even had a series that year where the local pastors shared their call stories for our midweek Lenten services.

So, I started praying about it, and one day I felt God saying to me, “I might ask you to do this someday.” I burst into tears, because that sounded terrifying.I felt totally unworthy and inadequate.

I slowly came around to the idea, though, but I thought maybe it would be a long time in the future and God was just telling me so I could start taking classes or something.

Then, I got elected as a voting member for Synod Assembly in 2014, and who did I meet in the opening session in the bathroom, but a representative of Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (where I eventually went) who immediately asked me if I had ever considered the ministry.

That was also the year that PLTS and Cal Lutheran University merged, so they did a big presentation on the candidacy process for Synod Assembly. I think everyone from St. Paul who was with me on the trip asked if I was considering becoming a pastor.

I had to admit to myself that God might have been calling me to do this sooner than I had expected.

I didn’t want to end up in the belly of a whale, so I started looking at seminaries when I got home. I still didn’t start seminary for another two and a half years, so I can’t say I followed in Simon, James, and John’s footsteps and “left everything and followed [Jesus].”

My call story took decades, not moments or even weeks like the call stories in the Gospels.And I, like Simon, felt totally unworthy and wanted God to go away from me with that ridiculous idea.

But God was patient and kept calling me in different ways through different people over the years. My call story unfolded, layer by layer.

God closed some doors and opened others, and now I have the enormous privilege of serving this congregation and my hometown.

When I was attending FullertonHigh School, sitting about there, frantically doing English homework and waiting for my turn to perform in the parish hall for our arts program fundraiser, I never dreamed I would be a pastor someday, let alone the pastor of this congregation.

God had better dreams for me than I did. Thank God!And God is still calling me and using me in all my messy humanness.

God is calling you, too, whether to ordained ministry, church council, a political office, a relationship, a profession, a volunteer position, or something completely different.

Your call story (or stories—we’re not limited to one) may look very different from mine or Simon’s or Isaiah’s or Paul’s or anyone else’s. There is no one way to be called nor is there a limited timeframe in which to accept. God has an unlimited imagination. I do hope you’ll eventually say yes to whatever God has in mind for you.

Sometimes when we feel unworthy, it’s because God is calling us to something we need to grow into, and God will be with us every step of the way.

God already loves you unconditionally. There is nothing you can do that can make God love you any more or any less. Calling is not about earning salvation or getting right with God. But I can tell you that God’s dreams for me were better than what I dreamed for myself, and that might be the case for you too.

And I do know that God has called this congregation to be the church that feeds people body and soul.

We’ve been feeding our neighbors for more than 20 years, and God willing, we will do it for many, many more.

God uses us individually and collectively to show God’s love to our community and our world. Let your light shine, beloved!