There they are in the boat after a long night’s work. The best fishing on the Lake of Galilee was always done at night. It was rather hard work. The hours were obviously terrible. The taxes were high, and the permits were expensive. It was not the most honorable of professions. But there they are, by the side of the lake. They’ve been fishing all night, as they do every night. But on this night, they haven’t caught anything. Hours spent lowering the nets and pulling them in, but nothing to show for it. And now they have to spend the several hours it will take to clean out the nets from all the things that have been caught in them.

As they’re finishing up their work so they can go home, along comes a crowd, and a man trying to speak to them. They keep crowding in, and the man is pushed closer and closer to the lake, closer and closer to them and their boats. Figuring he had better do something before he gets pushed in the water, the man approaches Simon to see if he might step into his boat and address the crowd from there.

It must have been quite a good speech that he gave as they were there cleaning the nets. We don’t really know what he said. Probably his usual message of the coming of God’s Kingdom on earth, freedom from oppression, release for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind.

When he finishes preaching and teaching, he asks Simon to put out into the deep water and put down the nets. That’s why I say it must have been quite a good speech, because Simon agreed to go out and do it. Simon and his partners are professional fishermen, the sons of professional fishermen. In all likelihood, their families had fished these waters for generations. They knew how to fish. They knew that if they had not caught anything all night, there was no way they would catch anything now. And certainly this carpenter’s son from Nazareth wouldn’t be very likely to know the first thing about fishing.

So maybe they were impressed by his speech. Maybe they thought he was some sort of special person. Maybe they were just humoring him. But for whatever reason, they did put out into the deep water, they did lower the nets… and then, everything changed.

This church has stood here for over fifty years. Before that, there was another church building downtown that many of you still remember. And there were other locations before that. All told, this congregation has been alive and active in this community for one hundred fifty-three years. We were the first Christian church in the area, even before Oregon became a state. I’d say that we are pretty experienced at being the church. We’ve been the church in this place for generations. We know what we’re doing.

And yet, we have not always been very productive. We’ve been working hard at it. We’ve been putting in a tremendous amount of effort, doing the things that we have always done, the things that have worked in the past. But like those fishermen on the edge of the sea, we have often come in from a long night’s labor with little to show for our work. We still have to clean our nets — to repair the roof, paint the walls, keep those committees running — but where are the fish? Where is the fruit of our labor?

I am the professional here, the one who is supposed to know all the right things to do. I spent my five years in seminary, I did my internships, I read my books. And I came here thinking I knew the way to run a church. But, much of the time, I too was just putting in the work and not seeing the return.

But you know, that wasn’t the end of the story. You see, the Spirit of God was moving in this place. And Jesus was calling us out to do something new. Jesus was calling us away from the safe shore into the deep water. Maybe we were impressed with the message. Maybe we thought there was really something new going on. Maybe we were just humoring God, trying something just to see what would happen. But for whatever reason, we did go out into the deep water, we did let down the nets… and then, everything changed.

ARTS Camp for kids 4th to 12th grades — that is not anything I would have dreamed up, but we did it. Starting a youth group when we didn’t really have any youth — not my idea, but we did it. A hunger ministry to 57 kids at Blossom Gulch Elementary, a weekly meal for the hungry hosted right here in this church and supported by five different congregations — I would have never dreamed of it, but it is happening. A Sunday School for Preschoolers — my friends, three years ago there wasn’t a single preschooler here, and yet now there is a thriving class. A new chapter of UMW, increased commitment to the Ecumenical Food Cupboard, phone cards for service members, Walk to Emmaus, hosting the Southern District Youth Event, the Ecumenical Choir Festival — I could go on and on.

And when we have answered Jesus’ call to go out into the deep water, to leave behind our old patterns and try something new, to take a risk for the sake of the Gospel — time and time again we have seen a miraculous return. None of these things were sure when we started. We had to take a risk, we had to step out in faith, not knowing what the outcome would be. And not everything worked out the way we would have hoped. That is the nature of risk. That is the nature of faith.

Jesus calls us to keep on stepping out in faith, to keep on taking risks, to keep on going out into the deep waters. There are new things in store for this congregation. God is ready to start new things in this place. Maybe God is calling you right now to begin something new, to take a risk, to step out faith in a way you had never considered before. Maybe God is putting something new on your heart, beckoning you into the deep water. We have a God who is always making things new, who is always looking for new ways to reach out to the world, who is always seeking new people to help spread the Good News of God’s love. Right here, right now, God is planting the seeds. God is making things ready. God is preparing the way. And God is calling us out, calling us to a new way of life, calling us to take the risk of following this Jesus of Nazareth, calling us to go out into the deep water, to throw down our nets — and then, everything will change.