Rev. Dr. William F. (Chip) Summers              Pastor

Worship Service October 20, 2019

Sermon:  "Joyful Generosity" 

Scripture:  II Corinthians 9:1-7

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September 22, 2019 Sermon

Speaker:  Landon Hammett, Masters of Divinity

Scripture Passage:  Luke 5:1-11; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4

       Title:  Where do you Cast your nets?

 

Focus: Casting your nets in the deep water is not easy but it’s where Christ calls us.

Function: Relax into the deep waters with Jesus. Cast your nets in the deep water.
There’s nothing better than a good fishing story. Now, I’m not an avid fisherman. I don’t know all the proper fishing techniques to catch certain types of fish and I’ve never even been deep sea fishing. However, I have spent my fair share of time on a lake jugging and hanging out feeding bait to the fish. Simply said, there’s nothing better than wetting a hook on a lake as the sun starts to set across the water. I have been doing that as long as I can remember and have certainly heard my fair share of fishing stories. If you’re not familiar with fishing stories, they are a crossover between part truth, part fable, part legend, part super natural, and in most cases the result of a very overactive imagination. Each time a fishing tale is told it becomes more dramatic, more super hero like, and the fish always gets bigger and bigger every time it’s told. This morning I’m going to quickly tell you two fishing stories that I remember. The first story was probably 30 years ago involving my dad. Dad had been fishing all morning long off our boat which was docked in the boat slip at lake Greenwood. He was doing nothing but sitting out there getting a suntan. He had no nibbles, no bites, never lost his bait, never got his fishing line tangled or hung up on a tree….nothing. Like I said, he was basically getting a suntan. As lunchtime approached he decides he would go inside to make him a quick sandwich. He leaves his pole on the boat with his line still in the water. What’s the harm? He hasn’t even had a nibble all morning. So, dad goes inside and makes him a sandwich. There’s something you should know about my dad and fishing. Dad always, without fail, every year sacrifice some piece of fishing equipment to the great lake of Greenwood to promote good fishing for the season. He had recently lost a pole in the lake already this season so it was certainly not time to do it again. However, as dad stepped out on the patio to finish his sandwich he could see his pole moving frantically back and forth. There’s no one there other than the leverage of the boat to keep what seemed to be a massive fish on the line. The boat had to catch the fish. So dad runs, full sprint, not necessarily to catch the fish, but I think to not sacrifice another fishing pole to the great fish gods of Lake Greenwood. So what happened….he caught the biggest catfish I ever remember him catching. My second fish story is one more recent. This happened just a few years ago on the same great Lake of Greenwood. My son, Braeden, had just started to learn to fish. I had been trying to teach him how to bait his own hook, how to cast a fishing rod, etc. So we decided to head to the dock and spend some quality time fishing. I proceeded to bait Braeden’s hook and let him cast it into the water. The water here is only about 10 or so feet so I knew if he had any length on his cast his line would drop to the bottom and rest on the floor of the lake. The chances of him getting hung on a tree branch or undergrowth from the bottom of the lake is very high. This can also give a false assurance that you’ve landed “THE BIG ONE”. So, I bait his hook and he casts. I turn my attention to my fishing rod now to bait it as well and get it in the water. Before I even get the bait in my hand I hear Braeden exclaim, “Dad, Dad…I got one….dad it’s big”. Ok son hang on for a second I almost have my hook ready and I’ll come help you out. Seriously though, the line did not have enough time to even sink to the bottom. All I could think of was what has he done now? I just happen to glance up as I was about bait my hook and just in my eyesight I could see his line going crazy. It was tracking all around the dock and everywhere….I believed he really did have a fish!! At that moment he yells, “Dad help….I can’t hold it any longer.” So I immediately hop up and grab his fishing pole. We wrestle with it a little, grab a net and low and behold we pull a hug ugly catfish! Even to this day, it is the biggest fish Braeden has ever caught. When I pulled that prehistoric looking catfish out of the water, Braeden got one look at it and sprinted off the dock!! He was petrified of how the fish looked. So here we have two different stories. Both have similar outcomes where we caught the prized fish. However, in one instance we are running toward the deep water and in the other instance we are running away from the deep water. Which one would you do? Let us pray….

Holy One, prepare our hearts this morning to hear your Word. Help us to silence the noise in our life so we may find your truth that it may guide our path. In your holy name we pray….Amen.

Like I said there’s nothing better than a good fish story. Our scripture passage from Luke is by far one of my favorite fish stories. We often look at this passage as the first call story for the disciples where Jesus says to follow me, but that’s actually never said in this Luke passage. In fact, the Luke passage is a bit unique. In the Mark and Matthew versions, there’s never even mention of fish and nets beginning to break or boats being so full they almost sink. As a matter of fact it doesn’t even mention that Jesus was in the boat. They simply dropped their nets and followed Jesus. In the gospel of John, we see the most similar of the two stories but the timing is very unique. The timing of this story in John takes place post resurrection and it is one of the appearances of Jesus to the disciples after the resurrection. So what makes this passage in Luke so unique? What is it in this scripture text that goes beyond just a call story? Picture this, you have men who have been out on the water most of the day. They are hot, they are tired, they are sweaty, they smell like fish, they have the squint in their eyes from being weary of working all day with no results. Their hands are calloused from the burn of the ropes of casting them out over and over. All they want to do is grab a meal, lie down and sleep because they know the next day is another day of the same thing. Little did they know that this man named Jesus was about to change their life. Little did they know that this stranger, who instead of smelling like fish smells of wood and blood has asked them to go out again in the boat. Little did they know that they would go from fishing for catfish and carp, to fishing for people. Jesus ask them cast their nets one more time. Simon Peter almost sarcastically complied. “Oh ok Jesus…oh mighty fisherman…we will do it just for you…I will let down the nets for you”. Jesus doesn’t ask them to put their nets just anywhere. He instructs for them to go into the deep water. I find it interesting that Jesus instructs for them to specifically go into the deep water. I’ve always associated deep water with being in trouble. You know how it was when you were little…you’ve done something wrong and you know it….then you hear from your parents…you are treading in deep water mister. Deep water is dark, it’s scary, it’s cold, it’s dangerous, it’s hard to tread in deep water. However, Jesus has told Simon to let down his nets into the deep water. If the deep water represents all that is uncomfortable to us, how many of us here can say we would voluntarily cast our nets into the deep water? There are many of us here this morning that the challenge of casting your nets at all is so great that many of us would never even get in the boat. Once we’re in the boat, the journey doesn’t necessarily get any easier. There’s a movie that was released in 2000 about a man stranded on an island. This man had to get into a boat and launch himself into deep water in order to be saved, in order to survive, in order to be free. However, there’s one scene where I think we can relate to the struggle we have in deep water. The movie is Cast Away and the man was played by Tom Hanks. There’s one scene in which Tom Hanks survives a massive hurricane like storm on his home made make-shift raft. The next day his friend Wilson, who is nothing more than a volleyball, is unsecured from his straps and falls in the water while Tom Hanks is asleep. He wakes up and sees Wilson a long way from the raft. Panic ensues….he attempts to rescue Wilson. He swims out a little ways away from the raft and realizes he doesn’t have the strength to survive the deep water and save his friend. He returns to the raft and gets this homemade rope to give him some assistance, but yet the rope is not long enough. What does he do? He let’s go of the rope, he let’s go of his only sense of security and he sinks and sinks and sinks until he finds the rope again. His friend however is lost forever to the deep water. It’s the only movie I’ve ever seen where I’ve felt emotion for a volleyball. Tom Hanks portrays the struggle of treading in the deep water. However, besides treading in the deep water, he also portrays how hard it is choose when the deep water is overcoming us. When he lets go of that rope from his make shift boat, his life line, he started to sink deeper and deeper into the depths of the deep water. He had no security of his boat and he had no security of his friend Wilson. That’s why the deep waters are so dangerous. The deep waters usually mean something has to change. You may be wondering what exactly are deep waters? Maybe the deep water is because we feel unqualified, maybe the deep waters is something we’ve done wrong, maybe the deep waters is what we fear, is it fear of failure. Maybe your deep water is you feel worried about the future of your church. Maybe your deep water is a crisis of faith or crisis of belief. Are you sitting here this morning because it’s the good thing to do or are you sitting here this morning because you really believe in God? Maybe our deep waters are simply being comfortable basking in our sin. Why would Jesus ever want us to cast our nets into the deep waters anyway? About a year and a half ago I was going along in the boat, and I was shoved off the boat into deep water. I was like Tom Hanks here and the water this time last year was above my head and I was struggling to keep my head above water. You see one year ago I was just finishing up my third round of chemo. The third round was significant because that’s when the treatments got real. That’s when the fatigue was overwhelming, that’s when food tasted like nothing, that’s when the steroids would turn me into this raging monster emotionally. I remember greeting my wife one day in tears and all I could say to her was, “I can’t do this anymore.” I was restricted in everything that I could normally do. I couldn’t bend, I couldn’t lift, I couldn’t twist all because of this contraption (a back brace) I had to wear for 90 days. I couldn’t even walk without using a walker….I never knew if my knees were just going to buckle underneath me and make me fall because I had very little feeling in my knees and feet. Friends, I was in deep water. But, thanks be to God….there were those all around me casting their nets in the deep water, including this church. They were casting their nets of prayers, they were casting their nets of help, they were casting their nets of food, they were casting their nets of child care, they were casting their nets of grass cutting, they were casting their nets of decorating our house for Christmas, they were casting their nets changing light bulbs, they were casting their nets of support, they were casting their nets of concern, they were casting their nets of love all around my family. We were able to get back in the boat again and now we can once again cast our nets as well. You see Jesus needs us to cast our nets in the deep water so that we can catch the fish that need it. We have to cast our nets in the deep waters to catch the sinners, to catch those that are discouraged, to catch those that need help, to catch those that are alone, those that are depressed, those suffering from anxiety, those that are ridiculed, those that are mocked, those that are bullied, those that are poor, those that are hurt emotionally, those that are downtrodden by racism, those that are beaten up by this world. If we don’t cast our nets into the deep water like Christ asked Peter to do, we will never catch anything. Do you not think that if we throw the nets in the deep water that Jesus will not fill it until they break? Where is your faith? Friends, don’t hold your faith hostage to the point of never casting the net. Don’t hold your faith hostage to the point of where you never get in the boat. Don’t hold your faith hostage to the point of where you yourself are treading in deep waters.


We started off hearing two different fishing stories. One story ran to the water to catch a fish and one story was a sprint away from the water. I ask the question again, which way will you go? Cast your nets in the deep waters….in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit…..Amen.

Sermon, September 15, 2019

WHEN LIFE KNOCKS YOU DOWN

Ezekiel 2:1-7

      Once in a great while, some event comes along that completely knocks us down. We find ourselves overwhelmed by some tragedy that blots out the future.  The wind is knocked out of us, the strength is gone from our legs, and hope is absent from our hearts. Once in a great while, we find ourselves enervated, immobilized, and unable even to try.
      In our text this morning, we find Ezekiel prostrate on the ground, so
overwhelmed by events that he can’t even stand. Like Job and Jonah and so

 many others, he has reached the point where he can’t go on. It is just at that

moment that the voice of God comes to him and says, “Stand up on your feet, I have something to say to you.” With real surprise, Ezekiel tells us, “And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard him speak to me.”
      Apparently, you can’t hear God on your belly. You must be standing up
before he will speak to you. But how can you stand when your legs won’t hold
you? Herein lies the central mystery of our faith. It is Ezekiel who must stand, but he stands by a power not his own. James Stewart, the great Scots preacher, says there is a sense in which the whole mission of Jesus was just this, to help ordinary men and women like ourselves to stand on our own feet.
      The only way I know to talk about this is to relate some of the times I have
seen it happen. Let me tell you some of my favorite stories.   “Stand up on your feet, and I will speak to you.” This is an important word when there has been a sudden death. I think of a Rock Hill friend named Peggy.  Peggy was in her sixties when her husband died of a massive heart attack. She was bereft. She closed her door and stopped going out, refusing invitations from
her friends. I would remind her that sometimes just putting one foot in front of  the other is a great victory. Each step put her one step closer to the future God had planned. She began to socialize again and regained her balance. A couple of years later, Peggy called and wanted to see me. She came in with this large, smiling gentleman with a weathered face and a full beard. He was a retired tugboat captain. Giggling like a couple of school children, they asked me to marry them which I did. They owned a large RV and traveled the country, but every time they were in town, Peggy and the Captain would stop by to see me. Peggy told me, “I never thought I would smile again, much less be happy and laugh.” “Stand up on your feet, and I will speak to you.”
      “Stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” Several years ago, a
colleague of mine encountered serious heart trouble and couldn’t seem to pull out of it. He had been in intensive care for several weeks, had become depressed and believed he was going to die. When I went to visit him, I decided going in that I would challenge him. I found him propped up in the bed with a full-face oxygen mask on so he couldn’t talk. I spoke to him quietly of his friends and their concern for him. I then said, “It’s time to get well. We are going to pray for healing.” He turned away, shook his head “no,” and tried to pull his hand out of mine. I persisted and said, “Yes we are. God isn’t finished with you yet.” I offered a long prayer asking for strength, courage, and healing. A couple of weeks later, he got out of the hospital. A couple of months later, I got a very nice note from him. At the end of the note, there was a PS. “Thank you for your prayer. It was the
beginning. ” “Stand up on your feet, and I will speak to you.”
      “Stand up on your feet, and I will speak to you.” Some years ago, I went to
an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous with a friend of mine who was going to speak at the meeting. My friend began by talking about what it was like when he was drinking, lost jobs, broken relationships, self-loathing, depression. He then said, “But then something changed. I don’t know what it was but the thing I could never do, stay sober, suddenly I was doing. First a day, then a week, then a month. It was a miracle.” At the end of the meeting, they gave out poker chips as a way of marking people’s progress. I’ll never forget, the young man offering the chips said, “If you’re ready to stop throwing up and start growing up, come get a white chip.” They gave out chips for certain numbers of day and months and years. The young man asked, “Does any one here have ten years of continuous sobriety?” My friend stood, and to loud applause, accepted his chip. “Stand up on your feet, and I will speak to you.”
      My friend and mentor, Ernie Campbell, use to say, “The gospel isn’t very
interested in what put you on the ground, whether it was circumstances or your own failure. The gospel wants to know if you’re going to get back up.” Stewart is right, “The mission of Jesus is just this, to help ordinary men and women like ourselves to stand on our own feet.”
      When some arduous task was completed, Grandmother Allen would say,

“Well, it was just all the Lord and I could do.”

                  

 

                                                                           

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