Come celebrate the First Sunday in Advent with your friends and family at St. John's Lutheran church on December 1 at 11 a.m.    Later in the day is the Genesee Civic Association Winter Festival, when the Christmas Tree in the Park will be lit.  Bring an ornament for the tree!  Hot chocolate and cookies provided!

2019 December Newsletter

2019 November Newsletter

2019 Nov 17 Special Congregation Meeting

Twenty-two members of Genesee Lutheran Parish gathered after worship Sunday to share their ideas about how to improve Sunday worship attendance. The two most mentioned roadblocks mentioned were(1) the time of the worship and (2) not having a pastor every Sunday. The GLP Council will discuss the recommendations November 21 at 6 p.m. in Fellowship Hall. Thank you, Sunday School kids (Jackson, Waylon, Anna, and Kelley) for baking the brownies for the meeting snacks!

General Congregational Meeting

ANNOUNCEMENT:

Nov 17th following Worship Service: General Congregational Meeting.
At this meeting, we will go over the financial report and discuss what future possibilities pertaining to supply pastor or a part-time contract with Grace Lutheran for Pastor Peg or with some other church. There will be no real decisions made at this meeting we just felt it would be good to let the congregation know what the possibilities are.
Our annual meeting on either January 19th or 26th.
Please plan on attending both of these meetings.
The next Church council meeting is at 6 pm on Nov. 13th.

2019 October Newsletter

GLP Kids are heading to Lutherhaven for Confirmation Project!

Four kids are registering for confirmation this year. We still need a ride to get the four up to Lutherhaven on Friday. Is anyone available? We are so thrilled to have the opportunity for these kids. If you know of anyone who wants to attend, please let us know. They will also take adults and senior high kids too!

Need Baker for Sunday!

Who is willing to bake communion bread for Sunday? Please let Verna know. Thanks!

The Church Needs YOU! Four Council Vacancies!

Have you ever wondered how everything gets done at the church? Come be a part of our Council and find out! Council positions opening up--one immediately, another by the end of December, and then two more in January. Ask Linda Chilson, Dana Carter, Darlene Smith, Rosanna Cartwright, Stan Sobczyk or Verna Studer for more information.

Confirmation Coming UP! September 27 - 28!

Folks, we are eagerly awaiting the responses from a couple of Genesee kids about the Confirmation Project: Kids from Bonners Ferry to Genesee, and Spokane to Couer d'alene are gathering once a month to attend Confirmation! The first gathering will be a campover at Lutherhaven, Sept 27 - 28. The next three will be Friday nights for 3 hours around the region. Another campover will be in January! Please contact Verna (vernastuder@gmail.com, 208.285.1719) for more information. We are so excited to sign up our confirmands (6th - 8th grade).

2019 September Newsletter

Next Tuesday! Golden Ager's Day Out at Lutherhaven for only $12!

Spend a beautiful fall day at Camp Lutherhaven

Golden Agers’ Day Out is a one day retreat especially for retirees, senior adults and older adult groups: a great day during a beautiful time of year at camp! Join us for a terrific day at Camp Lutherhaven, breakfast goodies, a fabulous lunch, great friends, and plenty of laughs, as always!

Register Today! Call Coral, our registrar at 208.667.3459 ext. 119 to register yourself or your whole group.   Only $12 each!

Speaker Dave Ellingson Author of “Paddle Pilgrim: Kayaking the Fjords of Norway” Ellingson has taught courses in spirituality, environmental ethics, human development, and youth ministry at Trinity Lutheran College in Everett, Wash. He is a Lutheran pastor, Master Gardener, former distance runner, and father of five grown children. He resides in Edmonds, Wash.

2019 Late August Newsletter

Pastor Cathy Harrison

Pastor Cathy Harrison led today's worship service. We enjoyed meeting her and her husband.

2019 Pentecost Sunday with Pastor Holly

Pastor Holly prayer over the burning flames that consumed the concerns, sins, and bad feelings which we had written down on paper flames and placed in the silver bowl. She asked that we never take back those words and never live with them again. What a lovely Pentecost Sunday!

2019 June Newsletter: Genesee Lutheran Parish

"Geeks and Greeks" podcast by Pastor Dave Deckard and Pastor Justin Timber____

I was listening to "Geeks and Greeks" a podcast by Dave and Justin, two Lutheran pastors, who discuss their ideas about religion:  A couple of irreverent reverends talking about faith, church, scripture, and life in general.  It's a little like Theo on Tap for pastors.  They have some really neat ideas...even doing Bible Study!  You may enjoy the 22 podcasts that they have already done since January.

You can also hear Dave's sermons at:  http://www.myboisechurch.org/

May 12 Message John 10:22-30

Gospel

John 10:22-30

22 At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; 26 but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”

May 12 Message

On Saturday after I had written and thrown out what was probably my fourth version of what to say I decided to use some of the things I learned while researching this gospel.  I came upon a site called working preacher.org. Working Preacher is a ministry brought to you by Luther Seminary. These people seem to be able to say it better than I am. I broke it down from different sermons to Faith and Doubt, Listening and Following. These things are taught in this gospel and they really do go hand in hand with each other since without one you really don’t have the others.

I am not sure where I found the part on Following, so I can not give credit to any one individual.

In the words of Karyn Wilson about Faith and Doubt:

Many in our communities of faith experience doubt. They doubt their abilities to overcome difficult situations, they doubt if they will make it through without succumbing to an old addiction, they doubt their friends or parents are aware of how much pain they are in, and they doubt God’s presence in their lives and their connections to God. Doubt and questioning are normal parts of our lives as people and as persons of faith.

When we acknowledge that reality from the pulpit and in our teaching, we give permission for people of faith to admit their doubt and make it normative. And we empower folks to claim their own journeys. So often in church we talk about faith and that is a powerful thing to talk about, but to not claim the flip side of faith, the perpetual travelling companion of faith -- doubt -- means we are not leaving room for the real life experiences of people. Even the most faithful have moments of doubt.

My grandmother used to say that “God never gives us more than we can handle. I just wish God didn’t have such faith in me.” It’s a common saying and for me it expresses the doubt she felt in handling things all on her own. Then she would immediately start telling us that she really was not alone in the journey.

Jesus is saying much the same thing. He is telling the doubters that he is one with God, that he knows his followers, and that they know him . He is continuing a strand of teaching from earlier in the chapter. He is using the same vivid image of sheep to describe his followers from the Good Shepherd passage. And he is declaring that he knows all who follow him and they know him for who he is. This is also a continuation of the questioning from the previous week’s text. Jesus is once again providing proof that his actions are sanctioned by God.

Again we hear the allusion to a thief coming to steal the sheep of Jesus’ flock, but his followers are protected by One who is more powerful than any thief coming to do them harm. There are two marks to being part of Jesus’ flock: hearing his voice and following him. The folks who are once again pestering him about his identity are not part of this flock.

You are preaching this text to people who have known hard times, who have been afflicted by disease and lost loved ones, who have been addicted and known loss, who have not felt protected from loved ones who abuse or belittle them. This is the context into which we are called to bring the Gospel message of peace and grace. This is the context into which we are called to bring a word of hope. We are called to help folks hear the voice of the shepherd and to follow him in their lives.

So how do we do this? We do it by being aware of what is going on in our communities and being true to that reality in our preaching. We do it by providing a way out of the lostness -- by providing again or for the first time a chance to be invited into a relationship with God. We do this by reminding our people of the gifts of God’s unmerited grace and forgiveness. We do that by once again bringing our people to the font to remember the gift of grace at baptism and to the table to remember the abundant hope we receive from the body and blood of Christ shared in the sacrament.

In the words of Elizabeth Johnson on Listening

We hear so many different voices each and every day, so many opinions, and it’s very hard to focus, and to listen to the voices that are truly relevant and important. It’s tough to filter out God’s voice, it’s very hard to hear God’s voice (especially since many claim to speak in the name of God), we easily get confused and unsure, and consequently we have trouble listening and following that voice.  Listening to God’s voice usually involves some effort, some discernment, because life isn’t one dimensional and black and white. Even God’s clear voice and word need some interpretation. Yes, we are called to love – but then there are so many different ways we understand and show love, and we have to figure out HOW. For some, it means calling on people and visiting them, for some, it means to be charitable, whereas for someone else, it means to be politically active, and, and, and…

But then there is yet another obstacle to listening.  We may hear well, we may have filtered out God’s voice, we hear it loud and clear, but – we decide to not pay any attention to it, be it because we are stubborn or scared or convinced our idea is better, or because it would inconvenience us to follow God’s voice.

Think back to your childhood for a moment, or even better, your teenage years. Were there times when you didn’t listen to your mom, your dad, your grandparents, your teachers, those who tried to give you guidance in life and help you through it?  You heard their voices loud and clear, you knew exactly what they wanted, and still you refused to follow their council, their advice, their demands? Even though you knew, deep inside, that they are right or at least have a point? I think it’s easier for us who have gotten older and wiser to confess that we didn’t always listen to our elders as much as we should have.  20/20 hindsight and our own experience as parents or teachers probably have helped, too.

But let’s put this in perspective to what God is telling us, do we listen, truly listen or do as we did when we were younger and hear what is easier or even question what voice we are hearing?

Yes, we need to listen, and listen very carefully and purposely, for God’s voice in our life.  And then boldly take the steps to follow God, even if we can’t be 100% sure if it’s really God’s voice we’re hearing.  There is always the option to turn around or modify our direction once we figure it out, maybe it wasn’t God’s “voice and will” after all…that’s where Martin Luther’s appeal to ‘sin boldly comes from’ by the way.  Not to purposely do the wrong thing, but to act determinedly once we’ve prayed and discerned and made up our minds.

Following

The Good Shepherd tells us that everything depends on belonging to him. Never does our status before God depend on how we feel, on having the right experience, on being free of doubt, or on what we accomplish. It depends on one thing only: that we are known by the shepherd: “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish”

The voice of the Good Shepherd is a voice that liberates rather than oppresses. It does not say, “Do this, and then maybe you will be good enough to be one of my sheep.” It says, “You belong to me already. No one can snatch you out of my hand.” Secure in this belonging, we are free to live the abundant life of which Jesus spoke earlier in the chapter: “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly”  Bishop spoke of this last week when she talked to us about what we have here is “abundance” and to recognize that abundance.

The abundant life of which Jesus speaks is not necessarily about abundance in years, or in wealth, or status, or accomplishments. It is life that is abundant in the love of God made known in Jesus Christ, love that overflows to others . It is eternal life because its source is in God who is eternal, and in Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life.

Amidst all the other voices that evoke fear, make demands, or give advice, the voice of the good shepherd is a voice of promise -- a voice that calls us by name and claims us as God’s own.

So we come to what I brought out of these lessons and how I feel it pertains to us as a church, as a family and as individuals?  We put away our fear, our uncertainty, we listen and we follow, and we believe in God, we believe in ourselves and we believe in us as a church family. We turn our worries over to God and we have faith that he will lead us, that we will hear his voice so that we may follow him where he is leading us. And in the words of Gloria Gaynor “I Will Survive”  only change it to “We Will Survive”.

Tanzanian Guests in May

Pastor Moses Nwaka, Assistant to the Bishop of the Ulango Kilombero Diocese (UKD) of Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT) and Pastor Eliud Payowela is the Chaplain at the UKD Diocese Cathedral.

Pastor Moses and Pastor Eliud will be visiting us May 25 to 27! 

May 2019 GLP Newsletter

Special Congregational Meeting April 28, 2019

Your church council has called a special congregational meeting for 9 am Sunday, April 28, 2019, at St. John's. The council will present it's recommendation to rent the parsonage to the Helsing family. The council will also summarize the progress that has been made regarding pastoral services and ask for changing our Sunday worship time to 11 am.

A vote may be taken regarding the lease terms. Please plan to attend the meeting.

Meal from the time of Jesus, Maundy Thursday night at the Valley

The evening light through the blue stained glass windows gives a blue cast in this photo. The food was awesome, the company was delightful, and the Maundy Thursday service, including the stripping of the altar, was touching.

Palm Sunday Procession! Baptism ReVisited.

Waving streamers to represent the clothing that people laid at Jesus feet when Jesus came to Jerusalem, the GLP kids processed into the sanctuary! Congregation waved palm branches in joy! The kids learned about what baptism is and about their personal baptisms.

Special Congregational Meeting 4/28/19

Your church council has called a special congregational meeting for 9 am Sunday, April 28, 2019, at St. John's. The council will present it's recommendation to rent the parsonage to the Helsing family. The council will also summarize the progress that has been made regarding pastoral services and ask for changing our Sunday worship time to 11 am.

April 2019 Genesee Lutheran Parish Newsletter

Holy Week Schedule: Please Join Us!

SUNDAY	Apr 14	10 a.m.	Palm/Passion Sunday
THURSDAY	Apr 18	6 p.m.	Seder Meal
		7 p.m.	Maundy-Thursday Service
FRIDAY	Apr 19	7 P.M.	Good Friday Service
SATURDAY	Apr 20	7 p.m.	Easter Vigil and Baptism
SUNDAY	Apr 21	6 a.m.	Community Easter Sunrise Service
		10 a.m.	Holy Easter Service

Bishop Kuemple will Lead Worship May 5 at Genesee Valley!

Folks, Bishop Kuemple offered to lead worship for us May 5 at Genesee Valley!  What a great way to mark the transfer from St John to Genesee Valley!  Having you there will be such a great way to welcome and thank her!

Plans for Holy Week

I just finished typing up notes from the Worship Committee meeting which we held after church today.  Louise, Linda, Rosanna, Laureen, Pastor Dana, and I discussed the upcoming Holy Week plans for worship.  WOW!  A lot is going on!

Folks, I encourage you to attend the services during Holy Week!

Palm Sunday (April 14):  at St John, our children and youth will lead the procession, waving the traditional palm leaves at the beginning of service.  

Maundy Thursday (April 18):  we will meet at Genesee Valley Lutheran at 6 p.m. to partake in a modified Seder Meal to learn some of the traditions of the people of Jesus' time.  At 7 p.m. we'll have a Maundy Thursday service, where the altar will be stripped at the end of the service.

Good Friday (April 19):  This touching service begins with our entering the sanctuary in silence, have our service and the Bidding Prayers.  At the end of the service, we leave the sanctuary in silence again.  What a mournful time.

Easter Vigil (April 20):  At 7 in the evening, we'll gather at the front entrance stairs of St John.  A fire will be lit.  We'll process into the sanctuary.  The Easter Paschal candle will be lit and then the small candles which we each hold will be lit.  During the service, Chelsea's sons will be baptized!  The Vigil Readings will be read, reminding us of the history of our church.  We will remember the waiting for Jesus (and we know the secret--Jesus REALLY WILL ARISE!)

Easter Sunday (April 21):  What a special time this will be!  We will have the traditional service where the children will be part of the pomp and circumstance, bringing flowers to dress the cross and to share the words ALLELUIA with us again!  We'll sing traditional Easter hymns that fill us with joy.  This is the day that we love to celebrate because this is the day that gives us purpose!  

I encourage all of you to take some time to participate in these moving services as we remember the special days that led to Easter--the most special time of our Christian faith!  Reliving the last days of Jesus life and of the glorious rising from the dead is emotional and rewarding and fulfilling.

Please join us!

Pastor Dana's Sermon Sunday March 10, 2019

Here we are in the first Sunday in Lent, the 40 say season. (Sundays not included; Sundays in Lent not Sundays of Lent) Last week I mentioned to the SS that Lent is a 40 day season and I talked about Elijah’s 40 day fast, the 40 days and night of rain with Noah, and 40 years of the Israelites wandering in the desert and such and Waylon remembered this story and the 40 days of His temptation.  I don’t know if he was reading ahead in the lectionary or not but I thought that that was pretty cool

Often we include some sort of a hardship as a Lenten devotion. You know no meat, no chocolate, no alcohol or something like that. The earliest fasts of Lent, which came fairly early in the history of the church, tended to be very strict, allowing one meal a day, and even then meats, eggs, and many other items were forbidden. The Eastern Orthodox Church follows this today. Now, in the Western Church, usually only Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are enjoined as strict fast days, but Fridays are set aside for abstinence from meat.

The practice of not eating meat on Fridays during Lent is why restaurants serve clam chowder as the soup of the day on Fridays year round. When I was much younger and single I used to work in a restaurant that was known for good  clam chowder. The soup couldn’t be reused so I would take a gallon jar of it home after work on Fridays and eat that during the week, eventually becoming sick of it. After that I did not eat any clam chowder for a couple of decades, but now I like it again.

As you may have guessed I was hungry when I wrote this.

I think that many of us are good about being very mindful of what we might do for a Lenten discipline and do a good job of being diligent with those. But the point isn’t the specific temptations, but rather the underlying nature of temptation itself.
In other words temptation is not so often temptation toward something negative but rather is usually the temptation away from something that is truly positive and life giving and that is our relationship with God and the identity we receive through that relationship.

I think that we often focus on all the things we know that we shouldn’t do, instead of pointing us to the gift and grace of our identity as children of God. But the devil knows better. Notice how each of the temptations seeks to erode and undercut Jesus’ confidence in this relationship with God and therefore undermine Jesus’ identity.
When I lament about difficulties that I face in life or in Lent I think of this scene.  Jesus fasted, was weak and as vulnerable as He was ever likely to be. The devil comes and tries with everything he had available. My daughter’s 5lb box of fancy chocolate treats left over from Valentines day that is on our top shelf in the kitchen is not a match for the A-game temptations that were brought to Jesus.

Throughout the gospels you may have noticed that, while the people, including His own disciples, did not always recognize Jesus as the Son of God; the demons that He encountered and cast out always recognized Him immediately as the Son of God. the devil was aware that this was his shot at Jesus and we can be assured that he came with everything that he had and came up short because Jesus endured everything that was thrown at Him.

Also note the first line of our reading. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness where for forty days He was tempted by the devil.”

How often do we pray for the Holy Spirit to come and remove our hardships and pain? Yet here it is the Holy Spirit that leads a newly baptised Jesus to His temptation. Sometimes hardships are a part of growth, and the Spirit remains present and active even when we cannot see beyond our own personal suffering to recognize the presence of God with us.

When I was in about the 9th grade I had a growth spurt where I grew almost a foot just under one year. As my bones grew and changed, coupled with my low pain tolerance I was hurting and miserable much of the time, sometimes waking up in the night because I hurt so bad. It hurt and I did not enjoy it. But through the pain I grew physically, and it has been much easier for me to find stuff to hit my head on ever since then and I am the person that God created me to be.

This church is experiencing a time of growth and hardship as the model of church at GLP is changing how we do ministry.  It is difficult, it is painful, but the Holy Spirit is here to fill us up and to carry us and lead us.

This is done by affirmation that We are children of God and God will carry us when we need help remembering our true identity. Child of God.
Jesus knows the importance of identity and when the devil offers him bread, He responds with an affirmation of trust in God. The next temptation is more transparent, offering Jesus the power of the world’s leaders in return for Jesus’ allegiance and worship. But again Jesus knows that His allegiance can only be given to the one from whom He has received His identity. Finally, the devil proposes that God is not trustworthy, and goads Jesus into testing that relationship. But Jesus refuses.
Notice that the root of each of these seeks to undermine Jesus’ confidence in both God and Himself and His identity. And in the face of these temptations, Jesus quotes scripture in order to assert that He is a part of that story and His identity as a child of God. through the Scriptures Jesus is reminded not only that he has enough and is enough but that he is of infinite worth in the eyes of God.
Bread, power, and safety. But it just as well might have been youth, beauty, and wealth or any number of things that appeal to us as individuals. On one level, we experience specific temptations very concretely, but on another they are all the same, as they seek to shift our allegiance, trust, and confidence away from God and toward some substitute that promises a more secure identity.
Which is why I think this passage not simply the devil’s failed attempt to steal Jesus’ identity but all the attempts to rob us of ours.
We are literally under assault every single day by tempting messages that seek to draw our allegiance from God. And in response we are called to remember that God loves you more than anything, loves you enough to send Jesus into the world to take on our lot and life, to suffer the same temptations and wants, to be rejected as we often feel rejected and to die as we will die, all so that we may know God is with us and for us forever. Moreover,
And this love and life are given to each one of us in Baptism. Which might make this the perfect Sunday on which to remember our Baptism as we turn to each other and make the sign of the cross on each other’s foreheads, saying, “Remember your baptism, for you a beloved child of God.”
We are tempted daily to lose our faith in God and confidence in ourselves, we come to church to be reminded of, and given again, our identity as beloved children of God. In the face of so many assaults on our identity, in other words, we come to church to have that identity renewed and restored that we might live in the confidence of God’s abundant life and share with those around us God’s unending love.
Lent is often focused on self-denial, sacrifice, and resisting temptation. Which is a good practice. But in addition, Lent could be an ideal time during which we remind each other of the love and grace of God poured out for us in the cross. As we feel the sign of the cross on our forehead embrace Lent and keep your eyes on the cross because in that difficult image we perceive most clearly God’s empowering love for us and all the world made manifest.
God loves this church and God loves you and will keep loving us no matter what, and for this reason we are enough. I know that I need to hear this again and again, remember as you do so that you, also, are a beloved child of God and are holy and precious in God’s sight.

Moving to the Valley Church May 5th

We will begin summer services at Genesee Valley Lutheran Church May 5th at 10 am. Every summer during the first week of May we rotate services from our winter church, St. John's in Genesee, to the valley.

This is the first Lutheran church organized in the Idaho Territory. We are the oldest continually active Lutheran congregation in Idaho. This church was founded in 1878.

The church is located at the intersection of Old Highway 99 and Sather Road, North of Genesee.

March 17th Special Congregational Meeting Postponed

The March 17th Special Congregational Meeting has been postponed until further notice. The church council needs more time to formulate it's recommendation regarding pastoral services.

March 2019 Newsletter: Lenten Services at St. John

Ash Wednesday Service

GLP Church Band Has the Spirit

Members of the Genesee Lutheran Parish church band are preparing some exciting music to share with the congregation during upcoming Sunday services. For last Sunday's Call to Worship, Patrick sang an uplifting rendition of Rise Up. For the sending hymn, Louise and Patrick teamed up to play Now the Green Blade Rises. As you can see the band has a good time rehearsing. We've learned that our energy and the Holy Spirit passes through the music we play each week.

Special Congregational Meeting March 3, 2019

Following the Sunday service on March 3, 2019 there will be a special congregational meeting in the fellowship hall at St. Johns, 648 West Ash St., Genesee, Idaho.

The church council has called this special meeting of the congregation so it can present its recommendation regarding pastoral services. After the council's presentation there will be a discussion and possibly a vote. It is important that as many members as possible attend this meeting because a quorum of the congregation must be present so a vote can take place.

Please direct any questions regarding this meeting to council.president@geneseelutheranparish.org.

Working Together

This morning just before I was ready to head up to the church I got an email from Patrick asking if we should cancel church today. I had just come in from starting and cleaning off my car, it was a mess out there, and I am sure out of town was much worse, so I didn't hesitate to agree.
Verna and Rosanna were on messenger, so I quickly got their opinions, then we all let Patrick know we were in an agreement. Now the real work began, communication was needed. Verna got on the directory and split it up for us to phone as many people as we could, I posted on Facebook and emailed those in church directory, Rosanna got hold of Sunday school teachers and parents. Then we called everyone we figured might try to make it into church. The Pastor, Devanie and Patrick were also helping in spreading the word.
Following that Rosanna and Verna posted the sermon, Bishop's message, the bulletin and announcements on the blog and Facebook. By a little after 10, everyone had been notified and items posted.
I write about this because I know several of us always worry how well our communication is anymore. Well now we know we can communicate if needed. I don't know about anyone else but I am pretty proud of how we all pulled together.
Personally for me in this time of a unsurity that we are experiencing within church, days like this give me back the faith that we are still a family and are able to work together. Whatever lies ahead I am certain we will all come out of it as a strong faith community. We can rely on each other and we can survive as long as we remember to work together.

February 10 Bulletin

Pastor Dana's Message for February 10

Luke 5:1-11
1 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.

  *  *  *  *  *  *   *  *   * *  *  *  *  *  *   *  *  *  *  *  *  *   *  *  *  *  *  *  *   *  *  *  *  *  *  *   *  *      

Today we have one of my favorite stories from scripture: the miraculous catch of boatloads of fish. In fact, when I was confirmed, this was the passage that I chose as mine. Pr. Maakestad asked us to think about a bible verse that was meaningful to us. My only question was, "What’s the one where they catch all the fish?" I don’t doubt that there were a significant number of eyes being rolled in the church that day when I read my verse.

I may be a little bit predictable: many in the congregation probably could have seen that one coming. And I will admit that I picked my verse for all of the wrong reasons, because it is the one where they catch all of the fish, but God has used this verse to lead me throughout my life.

One thing that I never saw coming was how we can see God working in people and places where you would never see it coming, from a group of smelly fishermen to a tall skinny kid in the ‘80s with a mullet and a love for fishing. God is active and uses those whom we might least expect.

I love the idea of Jesus needing little space to speak to the crowds, just commandeering Peter’s boat. It’s not a polite inquiry or subtle request. He sees two boats that are empty because their owners aren’t in them… and because they hadn’t caught any fish!… and he just gets into one of them because sometimes God doesn’t ask our permission to get involved in our life, to encounter us with grace. God just goes ahead and does it.

Of all of the bible stories, this may be the one that I can most easily picture. Of course, fishing by net in the Sea of Galilee is different than trolling for bluebacks on Dworshack or drifting shrimp for salmon and steelhead. These were commercial fishermen who would have used big gillnets that drifted to catch fish. I have read that commercial boats would have typically been about 26 feet in length and wide and deep enough to be stable. Fishermen tending to their nets by the shore would be as much a part of the daily landscape as Moscow mountain is here--just another part of the landscape, but a part that God sees and cares for.

Fish typically move into shallow waters at night to feed, so they would probably have been fishing with nets which were not the kind that would go very deep. The latest and greatest innovation in fishing line today is a fluorocarbon line that has the same light refraction qualities as water and is pretty much invisible underwater. I don’t know what they used for nets, but suspect that they were a little bit more visible that modern nets, and I suspect that fishing at night was the way to go. The fish can see the net in daylight and easily escape its trap. This is why Simon and his partners fished at night.

One time while I was living in Alaska I was offered a seemingly good sized chunk of money to clean a gillnet for a friend who was a commercial fisherman and had to go to Anchorage before he got to cleaning his nets. The net was full of sticks, seaweed that was impossible to remove, snotty jellyfish that stung and all kinds of nasty things that ensured that I would be retiring from the fishing net cleaning business as soon as I finished that net. It stunk, it made my fingers and back hurt, and it was a far cry from the easy money that I thought I was going to earn. When I finished that net, I not only retired from cleaning commercial nets, but I was tired and remember going home, showering, and going straight to bed early.

I would suspect that the fishermen who fished lake Gennesaret were probably a bit of a tight knit group. I have worked a bit of shift work before and you tend to associate with others who are on similar schedules. I suspect that these fishermen were known in their local community, but not too many of those in the crowd followed this son of a Carpenter who taught with such authority.

I think that one overlooked miracle in today’s story is that after a night on the water of getting skunked and then cleaning up, this man got into their boat so that He could teach the crowds from the boat. When He told them to put out their nets, the miracle is that they would do it for somebody who is not a part of their group, especially in deep water and after getting skunked.

Modern purse seiners are able to fish in daylight in deep water, but this technology was 1,500 years from being developed. After a night of having a skunk on the boat, I just want to go home and put the boat away and have a bite to eat then go to bed. But that is not what God had in mind for these fishermen.

Then Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people."  When they had brought their boats to shore, they l left everything and followed Him.

The discipleship that Jesus is calling them to is different than becoming proficient in learning local fishing currents, hotspots, or even having secret fishing holes that always produce, even when nobody is getting anything. Often when following Christ, we don’t see the results of our efforts, at least not as obviously as a netful of fish that is tearing apart or a boat so loaded with fish that it risks sinking. God still uses us every day, and it is the message of God’s unconditional love and unmerited grace that is shared with others through us.

These disciples that Jesus called would go on to follow Christ and share in the good days and the bad days. Simon (who later becomes Peter) makes perhaps some of the most noteworthy mistakes as he seeks to be a servant of the Lord. James and John also famously try jockeying for position to gain seats of honor during the resurrection. Through all of this Christ is constantly with them and uses them, these fishermen, to bring God’s Kingdom to the world.

When Simon Peter points out his own unworthiness for God’s blessing Jesus assures him with “Do not be afraid.”  These same words appear frequently throughout not only Luke, but throughout the entire Bible (about 120 times throughout scriptures) but certainly with great frequency in Luke.  Certainly in Luke, and maybe the hallmark of the whole gospel is that Jesus comes so that we don’t have to be afraid anymore.
And Jesus doesn’t stop at comfort and encouragement, but moves on to give Peter something to do, something bigger and larger than anything he’d ever imagined: catching people up in the unimaginable and life-changing grace of God. The Holy Spirit is present and guides Peter as well as each of us to live into God’s Kingdom that Christ ushered in.

Peter has no reason to expect this call. Yet Jesus calls him anyway. because that, too, is how God works, always choosing the unlikeliest of characters to work through, putting aside all their doubts and fears and excuses and shortcomings to do marvelous things through them.

Of course, the story doesn’t end there. Because after these words, the fishermen give everything up in order to follow Jesus. And, I think of them, just up and going to follow Jesus, with little to no idea where He will lead them. No, I’m not sure I love this part because I don’t think Jesus is talking only to Peter and his friends. I think he’s talking to all of us, too.

He's asking us to put aside all our doubt and fears and excuses and professed shortcomings so that He can do marvelous things through us. I’m reminded that in this respect, too, this story isn’t done. Jesus is still coming to us to say, “Do not fear.”

Jesus is still coming to us to call us to do things we can’t imagine. Jesus isn’t finished calling people who know their sins and doubts and fears and inadequacy first hand. And Jesus is still coming and speaking to us, and by his speaking, accomplishes in us what He has asked. Because that is what the Word of God does.