The call of the clergy, the call of the laity

Sermon for Trinity 5

1 Peter 3:8-15  +  Luke 5:1-11

The ministry of Christian clergy is essential. And so is the witness of lay Christians, non-pastors, in the world. In each case, there is a identifiable call from God. Today’s Gospel focuses on the one, the Epistle on the other.

We turn first to the Gospel from Luke 5. Jesus had a very important lesson to teach His early disciples. Simon Peter, James and John had already met Jesus, already spent some time learning from Him, already accompanied Him to the wedding at Cana, where they witnessed His first miracle. They had learned from Him as students, as disciples, as any Christian might learn from Jesus, if He were here in person. But this account recorded in Luke 5 marks the time when these three disciples went from being part-time learners to full-time seminary students.

The Lord chose the location for His preaching on purpose, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee where Simon Peter, James, and John were docked with their boats, washing their nets after fishing all night long. Yes, He wanted to preach to the crowds. But He also wanted both to recruit His new seminary students and to teach them about the ministry to which they were being called, which, in turn, helps us to understand the office of the ministry. And if you think that doesn’t apply to you because you’re not ministers, just turn to the back of your service folder, to the top, where we confess just how vital the ministry is to the Christian Church. It is the means by which God the Holy Spirit works justifying faith. Without the ministry, there would be no faith. Without faith, there would be no Christians.

Now, what does Jesus do in our Gospel? First, He gets into Peter’s boat and asks him to put out a little way from the shore, so that Jesus can preach to the crowds on the shore without being smothered by them.

There’s already a lesson in that about the ministry. Just as Peter’s boat became the pulpit, while Jesus was the actual Preacher, so in the ministry of the Church, ministers’ mouths and brains and hands and hearts become the tools and instruments for Jesus to address both the world and His own precious sheep. But those tools, those pulpits, those men, are faulty and frail, even as Peter confesses himself to be at the end of our Gospel, a sinful man. That’s why we use vestments for the clergy, to hide the man and to mark the man as someone who has been called, ordained, and authorized to speak for Jesus, in spite of his personal sins and flaws, to remind us all that, when this ordained man speaks according to the Word of God, it’s really Jesus doing the preaching by His Spirit, just as He once preached from Simon’s boat. The man is covered up in somewhat elegant robes and especially the symbol of the stole, to emphasize his office as a minister of Christ, serving under His yoke, or, if you will, serving as the pulpit of Jesus, who wishes to rebuke sin, to call people to repentance and faith, to forgive sins, to comfort and strengthen believers, and to urge the forgiven to a new and holy life of love and obedience, who wishes to teach people about God through the minister as His pulpit.

Next, after He finished preaching to the crowds, Jesus asked Peter to put out into deeper water and to let down the nets for a catch. Peter was reluctant at first, since the best fishing was done at night or in the very early morning (as the boys and I can attest from our recent trip to Wisconsin), and even then they had come up with nothing the night before when they were fishing on their own. Still, even though Peter didn’t understand the use of fishing at this moment, even though he didn’t expect to catch anything, he thought highly enough of Jesus to listen to His word and do what He said anyway. Peter let down the net, and you know how it turned out. They didn’t just catch a bunch of fish. The boat started creaking and tipping over as it was being pulled down into the lake by the weight of the fish in the net, so that it took two boats—Peter’s and the boat that belonged to James and John—to haul the net to shore, and still they barely made it, because both boats were starting to sink from the weight.

What lessons were those first disciples to learn from those events? What lessons are there for us? First, that ministers are sent at Jesus’ own command, as Peter was. It isn’t good enough for a man to feel called by Jesus to preach. Who could ever rely on such a feeling and know for certain that it came from God? Since when do feelings qualify a person for public office, especially since that’s never how Scripture describes God’s call? No, a man has to be legitimately called to the office and installed or ordained into it. How many false teachers are out there calling themselves Christians who simply took it upon themselves to preach and teach and claim to speak for Jesus? But Peter knew he was called to let down the nets, because he heard Jesus tell him to do it, just as Peter knew by the end of this encounter that Jesus was calling him into the ministry when Jesus told him in no uncertain terms, “From now on you will catch men.” There were several other repetitions of that call, like when the twelve were designated “apostles,” that is, those who are sent. Or in the upper room on Easter Sunday, when Jesus told the eleven, As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you. And again on that mountain in Galilee, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching.” And finally at the Ascension, “You will be My witnesses.”

Today, Jesus calls no one directly or “immediately.” The last man called directly by Jesus was a man named Saul who is better known as the Apostle Paul. Every other legitimate bishop, pastor, elder, or deacon in the Church has been called by Jesus indirectly or “mediately,” through the Church, through the clergy and the laity working together to call and ordain a man who has been instructed, examined, and approved for ministry in the Church. Ministers are called mediately, but that doesn’t make their ministry any less valid. They still preach at Christ’s command and with His authority.

Second, we learn from this part of the account that the “fishing” Jesus does through the ministry of His ministers is “net fishing,” not bait fishing. We don’t lure people in with false promises, or with fun programs, or exciting youth groups, or popular music. We preach the Gospel of Christ crucified. Period. That is, as Paul calls it, the “power of God for salvation to all who believe.” We teach God’s Word. We call to repentance and faith in Christ. We administer the Sacraments. Beyond that, we leave it to Jesus to bring people into the boat, into the Church. He has to bring them. The Father has to draw them. The Spirit has to convince them. Our own ideas, our own methods and devices may attract people to something, but it won’t be to Jesus, as we learn in the Gospel that Peter and the others caught nothing when they went fishing on their own. That was no coincidence. It was part of the lesson Jesus wanted to teach.

Third, we learn that the ministry of the Word will be successful in the world, as we see by the enormous weight of the fish in Peter’s net. What does that mean, “successful,” though? It doesn’t mean that every preaching of the Gospel will bring in more and more people. Here and there the Gospel is preached, sometimes bringing in thousands of people at once, as on the day of Pentecost. Sometimes bringing in no one at all, as when Jesus preached to the rich young man, or to Pontius Pilate, or when Paul preached to governors Felix and Festus and King Herod. There is no divine promise that churches will always grow and thrive with large numbers where the Gospel is preached. There is simply the divine command to preach, and the divine assurance that God will fill the Gospel nets where and when it pleases Him, and that the collective nets being let down around the world will bring in the full number of the elect.

So much for the call to the Holy Ministry and the role of the clergy. What about the laity, those who are not called to preach and to act in the stead of Christ? Well, the same Peter who was called by Jesus in today’s Gospel reminds us in today’s Epistle that all Christians have been called by God to a holy calling, even though it isn’t the call into the holy ministry. In chapter 2 of his first Epistle, he said this to the Christian laity: You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ…You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. And how were you called? “He has called me by the Gospel,” through the preaching of those whom Jesus has called to preach.

Then, in today’s Epistle, Peter expands on that calling into His marvelous light. You were called to this, he says. Called to what? To be of one mind. Be sympathetic. Show brotherly love. Be compassionate. Be friendly. Do not repay evil with evil or insults with insults, but on the contrary, pronounce a blessing. As surely as God called Peter, James, and John to preach the Gospel, so you have all been called to this, and to do it even if you have to suffer for it. Do you think that’s not meaningful? To be like Jesus in the world? To show people a little glimpse of what God is like through your example as Christians? Friends, this is the tool the Lord often uses to make people willing to listen to the preacher, just as the bad examples of Christians often keep people away from church. You can’t do anything about the bad examples of others. But you can determine not to be one of them.

What else are you called to? Peter says to the Christian laity, Always be ready to give a defense, with meekness and fear, to everyone who asks you for an explanation of the hope that is in you. “Why do you go to church so faithfully? Why do you work so hard at your job or in school? Why are you so kind and considerate? Why do you treat people with such patience and respect? Why do you still praise God when you’re suffering? Why do you seem to be at peace when the world is crumbling around you?” If you’re living according to your calling, if you’re living as one who has hope, it’s like a light shining in the dark place. People will see that light, and sometimes they’ll ask you, why? Or, how? At that point, the Lord Jesus has made you into His pulpit, and you have a wonderful opportunity to give a defense, even a very simple one, to explain your hope in the God who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light, the God who gave His Son up to be crucified for the sins of all, that all might believe in Him and have the sure hope of eternal life.

Yes, the ministry of the clergy is essential. And so is the witness of lay Christians in the world. Together, Christian clergy and Christian laity become God’s answer to the First Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: Hallowed be Thy name. How is God’s name made holy? When God’s Word is taught purely and correctly, and when we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! Amen.