A sermon preached at Kowloon Union Church on Fifth Sunday of Epiphany on 6 February 2022, by Rev. Phyllis Wong. The scripture readings that day were 1
Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5:1-11.
Happy Lunar New Year!
May I wish you and your family good health and good spirit in the year of the
Tiger. May you be filled by God’s abundance in the year to come.
Opening prayer:
God of life,
In the new year of the
Tiger, we come before you to worship and listen to your word. Open our heart so
that we may be inspired and transformed by your word through the power of the
Holy Spirit. In Christ’s name we pray, amen!
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During Chinese New
Year, different kinds of traditions have historically been practiced by
families in Hong Kong.
One of these was to
put a red spring banner with the words “always full” outside the rice
container. It was commonly practiced when I was a child. When many families got
richer and no longer take rice as their staple food, this spring banner has
been used less. “Always full” are words of blessings and hope that the families
will have adequate food to eat in the year to come. It is especially
significant for people and families living with little income to meet their
needs.
People love to greet
each other ‘Kung Hei Fat Choy’ during Lunar New Year. These words of greeting
indicate people’s wish and desire for wealth and abundant life.
The gospel story today
is very timely for Chinese New Year. By following Jesus’s instruction to go to
deep water to catch fish, Simon Peter and his companions were able to have full
nets of fish back. What an abundant yield! Co-incidentally, fortune, blessing,
abundance are all spoken and unspoken wishes during the Chinese New Year.
We are on the 5th
Sunday of Epiphany. The season of Epiphany guides believers and the Church to
look for manifestations of Christ as both fully human and fully divine as he
was living on earth. What do we learn about Jesus Christ from the readings of
today? What is being manifested from the gospel account of Luke? How does it
relate to our faith and our life?
1. Right at the
beginning of the story, a big crowd went to the seashore to listen to the word
of God from Jesus. Jesus did it while sitting on the boat on the lake of Gennesaret (also name the lake of
Galilee). Jesus proclaimed the Word of God not in the usual holy temple of the
Jews – synagogue. The Word of God was spoken in an open place, in a work place
of the fishers. The Word of God was preached in a secular place. Unlike in the
synagogue, there is no scroll of Isaiah for Jesus to read. But he kept
preaching the Word.
This showed to us the
Word of God would not be contained to a human made place called synagogue or a
building called church. Wherever there is God, wherever there is the Word of
God, where there is Jesus, there is the holy temple, there is the holy
sanctuary, there is the holy church! We can thus turn our family, our work
place, our schools, the market, and even the quarantine hotel or centre to be a
holy sanctuary when we speak and live out the word of God. Remember too, when
Jesus and the Word of God stay within our heart, we are sanctified and become
holy, shining the light of God.
2. After Jesus
finished his preaching, he told Simon Peter to go to the deep water and put
down the nets to catch fish. I can imagine after a whole night of fruitless
fishing, Simon Peter must be tired and wanted to go home. As the story told us
the fishers were cleaning the nets. They were prepared to leave. But Simon Peter
did what Jesus told him to do. Reading between the lines, Peter probably did
not have much hope. Out of respect, he gave it a try. To his amazement, they
caught so many fishes that their boats could not even take. What a drama!
Instead of feeling happy to have such a good catch, Peter confessed by kneeing
before Jesus and said : "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful
man!"
Apparently the catch
of fish in such an abundance was not a happy surprise to Simon Peter. Instead
it was an astonishing moment to him.
What made Peter
confess he was a sinful man? Did he feel ashamed and guilty because he did not
truly believe in Jesus in the first place?
Was it that he felt
the glory of God revealed by Jesus was too overwhelming so he asked Jesus to go
away?
The text does leave us
space to imagine. Jesus’ response to Simon Peter gives us some hints on his
emotion at the very moment.
Jesus spoke to him,
"Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."
Instead of giving
Simon Peter a lecture on his unbelief and telling him to sin no more, Jesus
called him to engage in his ministry to save human lives, to save human souls.
Jesus asked him to change jobs and start a completely different course of his
life.
The powerful message
here for us is this : Jesus acknowledged human weakness. He fully accepted and
embraced people who humbled themselves to acknowledge their limitations as
sinful people. Jesus cared for the well-being of Simon Peter more than
anything. The first response from Jesus is : “don’t be afraid!” It’s comforting
and full of love.
This is the good news:
God loves us and calls us to follow him even when we are sinners. We know what
happened later in the bible: out of fear, Peter denied Jesus when he was taken
to jail and hung on the cross by the political and religious authority. Jesus
knew that would happen even before Peter was aware of it. But still Jesus
called Peter to follow him and entrusted him to build the church as the Rock.
As Apostle Paul revealed in 1 Cor 15 of today’s reading, he once persecuted the
church and Jesus’s followers. But God still called him to be Christ’s apostle
proclaiming the good news and partaking in the building of God’s Church and
God’s Kingdom.
Sisters and brothers,
whenever we are feeling weak, feeling vulnerable, feeling ashamed and guilty
because of mistakes we have committed, feeling disappointed by our failing to
keep promises…. all kinds of human limitations and frailty you name it, don’t
be afraid and upset. Once we acknowledge our sins and confess them before Jesus
Christ, God who is love will forgive our sins and transform us. It’s like what
Jesus did for apostle Peter and apostle Paul, who were sinners when they were
called.
The good news apostle
Paul has reminded us today is this: Christ died for us because of our sins. He
rose again to give us and the world new life. Apostle Paul was given a new life
when he was forgiven and called. His life was completely changed by the grace
of God to receive him as what he was. It happened to Simon Peter as well. When
he confessed that he was a sinful man, Jesus accepted him as who he was, a
sinner as human but at the same time fully loved by God.
Jesus came not to
condemn or to punish the sinners, but to love and to save. The way he proves
his love is through his acceptance and trust in sinners, in Peter, in Paul, in
each one of us by calling us to follow him. What a deep trust! What a deep
grace! What a deep love. This is love from the Divine above that no human love
can compare.
Jesus asked Simon
Peter to go to the deep water where God revealed his power and abundance.
The Chinese New Year
greetings Kung Hei Fat Choy indicate people’s yearning and desire for a life of
abundance.
The source of
abundance is God. A life of abundance is to affirm God whose steadfast love
endures forever. This love drives us to go to deep water by taking risks,
changing fixed beliefs, even our course of life.
Dear sisters and
brothers, are you willing and are you ready to follow Jesus? Will you receive
this abundant and steadfast love from God and share it with others like Christ?
# posted by Kowloon Union Church : Sunday, February 06, 2022
