Main Text: Luke 5:1-11 (Isaiah 6:1-13; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11)
How do we move forward, when we can’t see exactly where we are going? It is so much easier to hold onto where we have been, then to move out into the murky unknown. This reading from Isaiah is God’s call to Isaiah. Last week we heard the call to Jeremiah. In both cases, the call begins with a humbling and somewhat terrifying realization that what God is calling them to do is way beyond their experience and ability. In both cases, God assures them that His presence will make all the difference. God assures them that He will give them what they need when they need it. God never tells them they are wrong in questioning their own competence and qualification. Instead, he assures them that their strength is not found in them, but in Him. This reading from 1st Corinthians is a statement of faith in who God is and what God has done. It is this faith that allows us to move forward into the unknown. In the story from the Gospel of Luke, Jesus invited the disciples to cast their nets into the deep water. They had been fishing in the normal places all night and caught nothing. To fish in the deep water, was to cast their nets where they could not see the fish. It was an act of faith to throw out their nets into the unknown. When they did, however, they caught more fish than they could even handle. How are we being called to cast our nets into the deep unknown waters by faith? May we move beyond our fear and uncertainty and do what God has called us to do. Let us put out into the deep waters and let down our nets!