Some are called to preach, all are called to discipleship

Sermon for Trinity 5

1 Peter 3:8-15  +  Luke 5:1-11

We use the word “vocation” to talk about different “callings” we have as Christians, although we have to understand “calling” correctly. God doesn’t call any man, for example, to be a husband. But if a man becomes a husband, then God does call on him, through the Scriptures, to behave in a certain way. The same is true for wives, fathers, mothers, children, government officials, citizens, employers, and employees. Some of these roles are chosen by us, some of them are chosen for us by God, but can’t really say that God calls or invites people into these roles.

But there are two kinds of callings or “vocations” that God does call Christians to, and those are both set before us today, the one in the Gospel, the other in the Epistle, where we learn that some Christians, some disciples are called by God to preach, and all Christians are called by God to discipleship.

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, (and Peter’s brother Andrew, as we learn from Matthew’s Gospel) had already met Jesus, already spent some time learning from Him, had already become His disciples. But this account recorded in Luke 5 marks the time when these four disciples went from being part-time learners to full-time seminary students.

The Lord chose as the location for His preaching the shores of the Sea of Galilee where Peter and Andrew, 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 look at the citations on your Service Insert from the Book of Concord, 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 crowd of disciples 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 man who has been called by Jesus speaks (according to the Word of God), it’s as if Jesus Himself were doing the preaching, just as He once preached from Simon’s boat. The man serves 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 they had come up with nothing the night before when they were fishing on their own. Still, even though Peter didn’t understand the point of fishing at this moment, even though he didn’t expect to catch anything, he did as Jesus had said. Peter let down the net, and you know how it turned out. They didn’t just catch a few fish. Two boats struggled it make it to shore without sinking for the weight of the fish in their net.

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 of the ministry. 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 Jesus directly told 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 pastor in the Church has been called by Jesus indirectly or “mediately,” through the external call of the Church, that is, through the clergy and the laity working together to appoint 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 that the “fishing” Jesus does through the ministry of His ministers is “net fishing,” not bait fishing. Let down your nets for a catch, Jesus said. 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 boatloads of 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 the Word of God, 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.

Some are called to preach. But all are called to discipleship.

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. We’ll summarize it with the word, “discipleship.” 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. The first “calling” all Christians receive is out of darkness into the light of God’s truth, from unbelief to faith. As we say in the Catechism, God the Holy Spirit has “called me by the Gospel,” through the preaching of those whom Jesus has called to preach.

Then, in today’s Epistle, Peter shows us what that calling entails. 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. This goes together with what Jesus called on His disciples to do in last week’s Gospel: to “be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” As surely as God called Peter, Andrew, 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 pursue your calling faithfully.

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. If you’re living according to your calling, if you’re living as one who has hope, it’s like a light shining in a dark place. People will see that light, and sometimes they’ll ask you, why? Or, how? “How is it that you have such a merciful attitude? Why do you go to church once or twice a week?” Or, for those who don’t live nearby and watch our services online, “Why don’t you just go to a nearby church? Why make such a sacrifice?” “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?” 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 has called you, 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.

Some are called to preach. All are called to discipleship. And through preachers and lay members carrying out their callings, God will see to it that His Church is built, and that His name is hallowed, even as we confess in 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.