After a long night of fishing and catching nothing, Simon and the other fishermen are cleaning their nets by the shore. Jesus shows up and after teaching, he says to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon is doubtful that casting his net just once more will make a difference, but he complies and catches enough fish to nearly sink their boats.

Simon’s first response to this unexpected bounty is worship as he falls on his knees before Jesus.  His next is an acute awareness of his unworthiness – “Go away from me, Lord” he exclaims.  And finally, confession, as he continues, “for I am a sinful man!”

This little passage sums up the pattern we replicate each week in worship. We begin each week with confession because we can’t even begin to appreciate all that God has done if we are still clinging to our own power, our own talents, our own ideas, or our own judgments as the way to life. If we think we can do everything by ourselves, if we just want everything to work out because of our own efforts, our own skills – if we deny we have any need for God’s power to work in and through us, then we will keep coming up empty. But when we confess our sin, we hear God’s powerful words of forgiveness, reminding us that no matter what, we belong to God. We are not valuable because of what we can do, but because of whose we are. And with the power of the Holy Spirit, we can and will experience the abundant life Jesus promises.

Often, we spend all week casting our nets and coming up empty – feeling like our efforts are in vain, our voice doesn’t matter, our work is futile. We can’t possibly do enough to save this world. Then, we gather here for worship to return to our God who promises to be with us always, who gets into our boat with us, who teaches us and loves us and leads us. We gather in worship to experience the abundance of God – the abundance of forgiveness and love and compassion that God heaps upon us.

Friends, when you’re tired and all seems hopeless, remember that it is not by our own power that we do what we do. Instead, we worship the one who the world could not keep down, the one who destroyed the power of death, the one who gives us life.

May God grant us the grace to persist, to keep casting our nets of God’s love and to look with hope for God’s abundance.

Thanks be to God!