“THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FAILURE AND A FULL NET”

LUKE 5:1-11

 

1 On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret,

2 and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.

3 Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4 And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

5 And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.”

6 And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking.

7 They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.

8 But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

9 For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken,

10 and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

11 And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

 

“Failure is not an option.” Do you remember who said that? Gene Kranz said those words 40 years ago. At the time Gene Kranz was the flight director for Apollo 13.  He made that determined statement  shortly after astronaut Jim Lovell uttered those ominous words: “Houston.  We have a problem.”  Because of that problem Apollo 13 was called a successful failure.  It was a success because NASA got the astronauts safely back to earth.  It was a failure because the astronauts didn’t get to walk on the moon.

 

Failure is not an option. Nobody likes to fail even though it is one of life’s realities.  It happens all the time. Businesses fail.  Relationships fail.  Sometimes you fail a test.  Sometimes you fail to make a dream come true. Failure is also going to be a harsh reality later this evening down in Miami.  One of the teams playing in the Super Bowl is going to loose and that failure will be painful for both the players and their fans.  

 

Failure is painful because we live in a society where it’s all about winning. We admire people who are successful, people who succeed because they’re ambitious, people who succeed because they’re able to seize an opportunity when they see it.  Take the organist, for example, who wasn’t having much luck looking for a job.  His luck began to change when the pastor of a nearby church called him late one Saturday night. The church’s regular organist was sick and the pastor was scrambling to find someone to fill in for him. “No problem,” the organist said. “I’d be glad to help you out.”  The next morning when the organist arrived at the church the pastor went over the service with him. The pastor explained that there was going to be a special appeal during the service. “Unfortunately,” he said, “We just discovered that the roof is leaking, and we need $50,000 to fix it. So, after I make the appeal just play something while people think it over.”  That’s where the organist saw his opportunity.  When the time came for the appeal the pastor stood up and cleared his throat. “Sisters and brothers,” he said, “we are in great difficulty.  It’s going to cost us $50,000 to repair the roof.  That’s double what we thought it was going to cost.  So, I’m going to ask each of you to look into your heart and prayerfully think it over and if you can pledge $1,000 or more I’m going to ask you to stand up.”  As soon as the words were out of his mouth the organist launched into a rousing rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner.”  Everyone stood up and that’s how the substitute organist became the church’s regular organist!

 

Nobody likes to fail but it is one of like’s realities. So, the question isn’t whether you’re going to fail.  The question is what are you going to do when you fail?  And that brings us to Peter.  It brings us to Peter because Peter knew all about failure.  For one thing, the evidence suggests that Peter was a lousy fisherman.  Just look at what happened when Jesus met Peter for the first time.  Peter was sitting in his boat with an empty net.  Peter had been fishing all night and he was sitting in his boat with an empty net. 

 

Now you could say that Peter simply had a bad night but let’s fast forward to another story that can be found in John’s Gospel.  It’s three years later.  This time it’s the risen Jesus who is standing beside the Sea of Galilee. The one thing that hasn’t changed though is the empty net.  Once again Peter has been fishing all night and he’s sitting there in his boat with an empty net. 

 

There is one other similarity between these two stories.  In the first story Jesus tells Peter to put out to the deep water and let down his net.  Peter objects to doing that at first. “Master,” he says, “we toiled all night and took nothing!”  Eventually though he does what he’s told to do and he ends up with so many fish that his boat begins to sink.  In the second story Jesus tells Peter to let down his net on the other side of the boat and do you remember what happened?  Peter ends up with so many fish that his net begins to break.

 

Do you see the pattern?  When Peter does it his way he fails.  When Peter listens to Jesus and does it his way he finds success beyond his wildest dreams.  Sometimes the different between failure and success comes down to a single simple question.  Are you going to do it your way or are you going to listen to Jesus and do it his way?

 

It’s a simple formula for success but it’s a formula for success that isn’t always easy to follow.  That’s because when you do it his way it often means you have to change.  You have to change the way you think.  You have to change the way you live your life and the evidence suggests that people don’t like it when they have to change. That’s why it’s easy to relate to the Navy commander who got into an argument one day with a Canadian sailor.

 

Now this story is an urban legend but it’s an urban legend that makes a very good point. According to the story the commander became angry when he received a warning off the coast of Newfoundland.  The warning came from a Canadian sailor.

“Please change your course 15° to the south to avoid a collision,” the Canadian said.

“Negative,” the commander replied. “Recommend you change your course 15° to the north to avoid a collision.

“Negative,” the Canadian replied. “You will have to divert your course 15° to the south to avoid a collision.”