Fifth Sunday After Trinity 2026
Our collect pleads that God would grant that the course of this world would be so peaceably ordered - that the Lord’s truest governance might be seen by all. Our prayer directs us to the purpose of peaceful circumstances - that Christ’s Church - we, beloved - may joyfully serve him in all godly quietness. For many of us, the draw, the appeal of the high desert of Brewster County is peace, quiet, rectitude - space and time to think, to be intentional. Similarly, in our collect we pray for God’s reign to bring order to the chaos of mankind’s actions - so that we might have the opportunity to serve the Lord without distraction.
Whatever your political persuasion, whatever one’s religious commitment, if we are fair minded Americans, we must bless God for the 250 years of faithfulness to us in the riches of our Republic: our right to freedom of religion enshrined in a written Constitution;
our right to meet together for corporate worship included in the same document. We praise God for His governance, it is His gift to us. For what purpose does the Republic exist? We must answer as Christians first - that we might use our civil freedoms to sanctity God in our hearts and with active obedience. In doing so, we become better citizens, objectively, of this Republic, regardless of the rhetoric of the enemies of Christ and what they may say about Christians. We serve the true source of liberty and peace - God Himself, who is the origin of justice and sound government. Let us praise Him for this republic which He, in His Providence, allowed to be formed for the blessing of so many tribes and tongues.
It would be a dereliction of pastoral duty to conclude on that point. We do pray for civil peace - sound governance - peaceful stable circumstances, but we all need something greater than exterior harmony.
We need the peace of God which calms the heart and mind - whether in the midst of our civil discourse or surrounded by the lions of the Coliseum. The peace of Christ must be our focus, our ultimate goal.
Our Gospel speaks to what brings the peace which passes all understanding - a life of submission and service to Jesus Christ. His call of Peter is indeed a call for every Christian. In the previous chapter, we have the story of Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law, so we know that this wasn’t his first encounter with Jesus. Peter, along with so many others in Galilee, knew about Jesus. We read in Luke Chapter 4 about Our Lord’s teaching in the Synagogue in Nazareth and the crowd’s declaration that no one taught like Jesus - as one having authority. So many, like Peter, would have known of Jesus casting out demons, performing miracles of healing. The narrative centers on the calling of St. Peter.
We read that Jesus comes to Peter and his business partners after a long night of fishing. Workers were washing their nets and preparing for the next night’s work. Jesus appears on the scene and converts the boat into a platform for preaching - preaching the “word of God.” Emmanuel - God with us - Jesus is the presence of God among his people. He proclaims God’s will and what one should do now that the Messiah has come. Preaching the word of God is a key feature in Luke where it appears 20 times in His Gospel and Acts. In Luke’s Gospel, it is the voice of Jesus expounding how the law and the prophets point to him; in Acts the “word of God” is the apostolic witness, like that of Peter, declaring redemption, new life, brought about by Christ’s death and resurrection. It is interesting to contemplate the power of Peter’s preaching in the Book of Acts and how he conveyed the same message he had heard and the call he had obeyed.
Returning to our Gospel for today, we read that Jesus turns his attention to Peter. We must remember that not a single syllable of Christ’s words return to him void and His instructions, no matter how counter-intuitive or contrary to reason; his instructions will always accomplish His purposes. Here, in our Gospel, Jesus, the carpenter, tells Peter the expert fisherman to do all that is contrary to reason for the fishing business at the Sea of Galilee. For instance, Jesus tells Peter to launch out into the deep; it was prevailing wisdom of fishermen there to fish in the shallows for that where all the fish are; Jesus tells them to fish during the worst time of the day - full daylight rather than the nighttime, which typically brought the most success in that region. Moreover, it appears that this event occurred during a bad season, adverse lunar cycle perhaps, for Peter confesses to Jesus that they had labored all the night before, in all the right ways, that being in the shallow waters, at night, under the established best procedure for fishing, and they caught nothing.
St. Peter, here, states the established facts but wisely defers to Jesus - the one who speaks, who preaches with such authority. Peter, moreover, places the success and failure of this illogical expedition squarely on Our Lord’s shoulders. He says, “Nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.” St Luke tells us of Peter’s reticence and then the outcome of Jesus’ instruction, his irrational word. We read in the Gospel of an almost destructive abundance. The catch after a single pass of the net that threatened to sink both ships. Indeed, the ships, the nets struggled to accommodate all the fish - the nets began to break and the ships began to sink.
In this moment, we see Peter’s character. He has no poker face, no pretense to having things in order. As he sees the abundance contra reason, the undeniable evidence of the reliability of His Master’s Word - Peter recognizes that this Jesus is God Incarnate - perhaps not with the same clarity of his declaration later in Christ’s ministry, but enough to convince Peter of his need to fall on his knees before Jesus. He is aware of his sinfulness, and the miracle points to his being in God’s presence. It is noteworthy that the worship of Peter comes from someone completely faithful to the law - moral, civil and ceremonial. Recall his vision in the book of Acts where God tells him to eat that which is unclean; Peter responds to God in this vision in Acts 10 - “Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” My point is that the worship of Peter comes from a heart of Jewish obedience - one who would never worship anyone or anything other than God himself. This must mean that Peter is correct in worshiping Christ, otherwise he would be an idolater. I must also add that seeing the power of Christ’s miracle makes the earnest Peter very aware of his sins. Isaiah lamented his sinfulness when he was confronted with a Holy God in Isaiah Chapter 6 and Peter, here, is struck by his own sinfulness, his unworthiness. He tells Jesus “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
Our Lord does not depart - he redirects. He tells Peter - Fear Not - words of comfort and peace. God speaks to the tumultuous heart of a man who just came face to face with God Incarnate. Not only does Jesus NOT depart, not only does he declare peace and freedom from fear of God, Jesus calls Peter to follow Him. Become a disciple, a follower of Jesus. Now, he will become a fisher of men. It is a vocation to catch men alive - before the finality of death so that they can be rescued from danger.
Our Gospel concludes with Peter’s instantaneous and complete acceptance of the call to follow. His former life, no matter how profitable, however noble and good, in a professional sense, is cast off because Peter has been called to follow Jesus and cast the net of the Gospel so that all mankind may know of the peace that transcends circumstances, rises above temporal concerns, and makes outward peace to serve godly, joyful obedience to God in the present.
The beauty of the Gospel of peace is that it calls us to put aside all our calculations, all our reliance on our own wisdom and turn to God. Peace in this life and in the next relies upon resting in the words of Jesus. His instructions, however counterintuitive, however irrational from this world’s perspective, are our truest hope. Jesus calls Peter to leave all and follow him and believe that Jesus could teach him to be a fisher of men.
The same Jesus calls us to surrender ourselves to His Lordship. He says clearly, decisively, “Whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” St. Paul communicates this same line of reasoning when he tells the Galatians : “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me". This death to self and our own agendas is the vocation of every Christian - for all who would follow Jesus - must deny ourselves, take up our crosses and follow Him. So as we hear the Gospel of peace, we are called to embrace the life of discipleship and Christian obedience now. We must fully reinvest ourselves, in mind,body and will, in the kingdom of God, now. In doing so, our identity in Christ, our faithfulness to Him, will lead us in the way of eternal peace, which is the peace and hope our hearts long for. Amen.
