Sermon Title: Called to Fish
Sermon Text: Luke 5:1-11
Sermon Date:
SERMON
Unless
you do not take the newspaper or have television, you have heard that at
If you are a Bears’
fan, the last time you danced in the street was 1985. Actually to say this is big news is an
understatement. The Bishop of the
Indianapolis Catholic diocese has even canceled school for the children
tomorrow; I’ve been told that SIA is on a two hour delay.
I
too want to talk about the Indianapolis Colts today but not about
football. Instead let’s talk about faith. Not in football or even teammates, but faith
in God and our Christian witness.
If you watched the coverage after
the Colts defeated the New England Patriots you know that God’s name was
brought up quite a bit and not with the usual lack of reverence.
When sports commentator Jim Nantz interviewed Colts’ owner Jim
Irsay and coach Tony Dungy, both gave thanks and glory to God for the
victory. They didn’t necessarily say
that God gave them the win, only that they thanked God for giving all of them
the strength to get it done. Peyton
Manning said he wasn’t sure he was supposed to, but he prayed for victory and
it has been written that prayer is part of his routine before a game. I don’t know about the daily life routine –
the article didn’t go there. Numerous
players made comments speaking of God and giving thanks. A Bear’s player was shown with the words
“Jesus” and “Christ” tattooed on his shoulders.
It isn’t the first time God has
entered into football. Sometimes you
will see players from both teams kneeling on the field, holding hands and
praying AFTER THE GAME. They don’t make
a big deal about it; they just go about doing what they do – thanking God for a
good game.
It happens a lot. It isn’t out of the ordinary but these
comments made by Irsay and Dungy really made the news this time.
I have to admit that I was surprised
to hear Irsay’s words. I hadn’t heard
anything about Irsay’s faith journey.
I’ve only heard about the Irsay family and how much the Baltimore fans
still hate, yes, hate them, for that midnight flight out of Baltimore to move
the Colts to Indiana. So I was not only surprised, but quite pleased that he
would mention that God was glorified in this victory.
It wasn’t a surprise when Tony Dungy
mentioned God. He thanks God all the
time for strength. He thanked God for
being with him and his family when last year his son committed suicide. When he has been asked about coaching next
year he says he needs to pray and talk with his wife about the future and how
it will affect their family. He is a
quiet guy who lives out his faith and has been a great role model for the team.
There has been a lot written about
him and his quiet dignity and faith and most of it has been affirming…..but not
all. There have been writers who felt
the God-thing was over the top. And
there have been plenty of message boards out there on the internet with this
particular topic of conversation dominating other topics.
If you don’t wander around the
internet you might not know about message boards. Think of a bulletin board. You want to say something so you write it on
an index card and, using a push pin, you put it on the board. I come along and want to respond so I pick up
an index card, write my comment and pin it under yours. Message boards on the internet work the same
way. You type something and post it, I
come along and respond to it and the next person responds and so on. One difference is that if with the bulletin
board I can take down what I’ve written if I change my mind. On the internet it stays for everyone to see.
Before I share with you some of the
comments I found let’s look at today’s scripture printed in your bulletins:
1-3Once when
he was standing on the
4When he finished teaching, he said to
Simon, "Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch."
5-7Simon said, "Master, we've
been fishing hard all night and haven't caught even a minnow. But if you say
so, I'll let out the nets." It was no sooner said than done—a huge haul of
fish, straining the nets past capacity. They waved to their partners in the
other boat to come help them. They filled both boats, nearly swamping them with
the catch.
8-10Simon Peter, when he saw it, fell
to his knees before Jesus. "Master, leave. I'm a sinner and can't handle
this holiness. Leave me to myself." When they pulled in that catch of
fish, awe overwhelmed Simon and everyone with him. It was the same with James
and John, Zebedee's sons, coworkers with Simon.
10-11Jesus said to Simon, "There
is nothing to fear. From now on you'll be fishing for men and women." They
pulled their boats up on the beach, left them, nets and all, and followed him.
This
message board is part of the Indianapolis Star and here it goes:
Isray, Dungy,
and "The Lord"
Perhaps
it's just me, as a non-Indy native, but Isray's comments on the podium
embarassed me. Give yourself and your team some more credit
"JIM-Bob." "The Lord" (if there is one) had NOTHING to do
with you winning that game. If there is an all powerful being I guarantee he
doesn't follow sports. Because if he did, there's no way NE would have won 3 in
6 years! 
Dungy kept his religion a little more in check than Bob, but more importantly,
I really respected him downplaying himself and the fact that he and Lovie broke
the Super Bowl color barrier, and trying to credit his team first and foremost.
Sure, that's a great accomplishment and we will soon have our first black SB
winner, but the only way to end racism is to stop talking about it.
Man...I knew there was a strong sense of religion down here, but I just found
it all a bit silly, because once again...if there's a God, he stays out of
sports.
There's nothing wrong with having faith...I just don't think it has a place
anywhere but in your own home or congregation.
Another response:
When he said that
he thanked the Lord first and foremost, I turned to my brother-in-law and told
him that I loved to hear that he had his priorities straight and he agreed with
me.
That is one of the things that I love about Irsay and Dungey. They have it
right.
Another
response:
You give yourself away by the statement
"if there is one." God gives men like Tony Dungy strength to go on in
adversity, like the death of His son, and builds character in him, which he
uses to help build the characters of the young men he coaches.
I, for one, was proud to discover Irsay is a believer. He wrote me a personal
letter last year and I cherish it even more now.
By the way, Peyton was praying real hard on the bench when Brady had the ball
at the end. He's Southern Baptist, you know.
Response:
Nobody credited God
for allowing the Colts to win.
Instead, God grants the strength to play or coach your best, if you pray for
this with a sincere heart.
The glory should go to God, regardless of who wins.
First Responder:
Just please tell me
that people aren't so into "The Lord" up there as they are down here.
I don't want to have to move back to 
Like I said, I don't have a problem with it in the privacy of JIM's home or
congregation, I just think that was overkill to say that on national TV. Where
was Tony's God when his son lost his life? I know I'm not making friends with
this post, but I believe that organized religion will be the downfall of man...and
if you keep track of what's going on in the
Then this:
He said nothing
about God winning or losing the game. He only gave God the glory for all of his
success'. Nothing more, nothing less.
You are a moron who can't understand simple verbage.
Nice try, go God!
First Responder:
Wow, it sure
doesn't take long for a "good christian" to turn nasty, now does it!
Guess everyone doesn't practice what they preach, do they? 
These messages continue on for 14
pages of conversation about publicly professing your faith. Heated conversations got going about all
sorts of things and none of them had to do with football, not really.
They had a lot to do with our public
witness though. Several people on this
particular message board blew a wonderful opportunity to be the loving presence
of God in the world by calling the original poster “a moron” and telling him to
“refrain” from opening his mouth.
This isn’t what Jesus had in mind
when he told the disciples to go out and “fish for men and women.” He had something entirely different in
mind.
Judaism is not a religion that would
ever go door to door handing out tracks.
As a rule, you are born into the Jewish faith although one can convert
to Judaism. They don’t go looking for
converts so it is interesting that Jesus the Jew would send other Jews out to
do that very thing. I wonder if the
disciples wondered what was going on here.
What was different about this religion versus the religion they
practiced in their daily lives and on each Sabbath? They were being sent
out to bring people to this new faith.
You see, Jesus
didn’t send the Apostles out into the lake because he was hungry and wanted
fish and chips for lunch. He doesn’t give them a task for his sake; he
sends them out for their sake. Jesus doesn’t send us into mission for
his sake; it is for our sake that we must go. Faith unpracticed is not faith at
all."
(http://onefamilyoutreach.com/bible/Luke/lk_05_01-11.html)
While
I have hopes that the Colts will win tonight, my greater hope is that we can
emulate the witness of the coaches Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith. That we can learn from their quiet strength
and their passion to serve God. And I’d
be proud if someone spoke of the way I live out my faith as even the most
hardened sportswriters have done in the past two weeks. You see, it isn’t always about what we say
but what we don’t say.
Let’s
use our witness to the glory of God and not take prisoners with our words
demeaning another’s beliefs. We will
catch a lot more people with kindness and compassion. Calling them a moron just doesn’t show the
love of God.