“I Am Sinful”

February 6, 2022

First Lesson: 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, ² through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

³ For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, ⁴ and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, ⁵ and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. ⁷ Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. ¹¹ Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you have come to believe.

Second Lesson: Luke 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, ² he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. ⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” ⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” ⁶ When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. ⁸ But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; ¹⁰ and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” ¹¹ When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

The story is told of a man who had spent a fruitless day fishing. In desperation he picked out three fat fish at the local market. “Before you wrap them,” he said to the clerk, “toss them to me, one by one. That way I’ll be able to tell my wife I caught them and I’ll be speaking the truth.” Fishermen must be all alike. Someone has said that the only thing that casts doubt on the miracles of Jesus is that they were all witnessed by fishermen (Sermons.com King Duncan).

Today we heard the classic tale of Jesus recruiting fishermen to catch people.  With an abundance of fish right after a long night of tireless work with nothing to show for it, Jesus instructed Simon to cast his nets again.  This time, famine became feast, scarcity was replaced with abundance.  This to express the magnitude of the job and the spiritual backing of God in their calling to catch people.  Their personal efforts fell flat, but with God’s help they had more fish than they could handle.

Yet in the other two accounts in Matthew and Mark (4:19, 1:17) the focus is on following Jesus and not the shift from failure to success.  The same four fishermen are called to be fishers of men and to follow Jesus, but we do not see the dramatic shift from personal effort ending with empty nets, to spirit guided following being met with nets teaming with flapping fins. Here Jesus instructs Simon Peter to cast his nets in “deep water” implying there are areas of potential beyond perceived limits of resources, knowledge, and energy.   Simon casts his nets because Jesus asked him to, following his master, his teacher.  In this longer version in Luke, I noticed something else.  Simon’s response to the two boats swamped with fish.  Falling on his knees before Jesus, Simon said, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (v. 8). Even though this is a common biblical motif for a person to feel unworthy in the presence of the divine, (Exodus 3:6; 33:20; Judges 6:22; 13:22; Isaiah 6:5; Luke 18:13), it strikes me as particularly important here. Simon is a fisherman who has just worked diligently and failed, then he declares his sinfulness upon seeing abundance from God.  He is humbled by God’s provision and care and sees himself as unworthy to be in Jesus’ presence.

In 1979 a Roman Catholic nun, Mother Teresa, was given the Nobel Peace Prize. Most of her adult life was spent ministering to the poor and diseased in Calcutta, India. She accepted the prize with the comment, “I am unworthy.” The humble person receives at Christmas the greatest prize of Christ and responds likewise, “I am unworthy.” Our humble God comes to humble people like the shepherds who know they are outcasts because of their sins. It is a paradox that the best people consider themselves the worst sinners. The greatest leader of Israel, Moses, was told by God at the burning bush to remove his sandals for he was on holy ground. His sandals represented his sinfulness. The great prophet, Isaiah, confessed, “I am a man of unclean lips.” The great Christian, Paul, confessed that he was “chief of sinners” (Sermons.com, John and Barbara Brokhoff). 

Simon declared, “I am a sinful man.”  Does that resonate with you?  Do you see yourself as sinful?  Or have you bought into the belief that you’re pretty good, you try hard, you do good work, you’re OK.  Theologian Emil Brunner notes, “In principle the sinner can, and often does, avoid any particular sin. But what we cannot do is avoid every sin. We cannot not be sinners. We cannot claim that we have never done it wrong. We cannot promise that we will never do another wrong thing, speak another cross word, or think another angry thought in the future” (Sermons.com, Scott Hoezee).  I am sinful.  You are sinful.  We are sinful.

We are to be fishers of people too, but first we need to grasp, deep within our bones that we are sinful.  We can’t know the magnitude of God’s love if we don’t grasp our desperate need for it.  If we are OK, then we don’t need saving.  If we aren’t sinners, we can’t fully embrace grace, fully live the good news.   Without that how can we share the gospel as we catch people?

One commentator tells how Frederick the great visited a prison in the city of Potsdam. One prisoner after another assured their king that he was innocent and the victim of a framer. Finally one man, however, looked down at the floor and said, “your majesty, I am guilty, and richly deserving punishment.” Frederick bellowed for the warden. “Free this rascal and get him out of our prison,” he ordered, “before he corrupts all the noble innocent people here.”

We often view ourselves as the innocent imprisoned souls. We are not sinners, we protest. But we are all sinners here. We stand in need of the all-sufficient, sacrificial, atoning death of Jesus Christ for our sins (Sermons.com Brett Blair).

I don’t often preach on us being sinners.  Yet our sinfulness is foundational to our living the fullest Christian life.  It is part of us becoming disciples, part of following Jesus, part of us being honest with God recognizing our unworthiness of the grace God has lavished upon us.  Paul, “chief sinner” then explains this process when writing to the church in Corinth.  The good news in which he stands and we stand is “Christ died for our sins.”  Christ died to save us from our sins.  For us to be fishers of people we get to go into the deep water and see ourselves as sinful, we get to admit that we are in need of God’s abundant grace.

The problem is we are all sinful.  The answer to that problem is God’s grace.  If God can use Paul, who persecuted the church, as sinful as it gets, then God can use us.  Paul attests to three ways we benefit from grace.  First, by God’s grace Paul declared, “I am what I am.” God’s grace created a newness in Paul so that he could be an ambassador for God’s love.    By grace, we too are created new in Christ.  Our sinfulness is covered over by God’s love and grace and we are new creations.   Secondly, Paul is able to work harder because of God’s grace.  Grace gives us power to work for Christ’s mission.  Grace gives us the power to be disciples, to be fishers of people.   Finally, grace gives us the power to believe, to know God’s love.  Our natural response to God’s abundant love is to say, “I am not worthy,” “I am a sinner.”  But it is only by God’s grace that we can stand and receive such an amazing gift of grace.

Communion abounds with grace.  We get to dive into deep water as we open our hearts to God’s healing and saving power.  Today we will be practicing Spiritual Communion, , communing with God without the bread and wine.  “Spiritual Communion is a practice where we entrust ourselves to God in prayer, pledging ourselves to God once more as disciples and praying that God might give us spiritually the same grace we share when we physically receive Holy Communion” ( Methodist Church in Great Britain) Without partaking of the bread and wine, we reflect on God’s love and grace.  There is a prayer in your bulletin to read as we meditate and listen to music.  Those on Zoom may find a deeper grace with this new Spiritual communion, even as you partake of bread and wine.

I leave you with this prayer from a Methodist elder practicing Spiritual Communion. “My Jesus, I love you above all things. How I long to receive you with my brothers and sisters at the table you have prepared. Since I cannot at this moment receive you in bread and wine according to your promise in the sacrament of Holy Communion, I ask you to feed me with the manna of your Holy Spirit and nourish me with your Holy presence. I unite myself wholly to you. Never permit me to be separated from your love. Amen.