THE CALL FROM THE BOUNDLESS DEEP
Additional Scripture Reading: Luke 5:1 – 11
TEXT
“1 Peter 1: 13 Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.”
This text is remarkable counsel from a man whose life in seasons past was moulded and shaped by the unpredictable forces of the sea. The unreliable sea was the only driving force Peter knew! He depended entirely upon that sea for his livelihood. He learned to deal with its disappointments and uncertainties. Every day his effort was to wrestle the sea’s treasure from its miserly grasp. He and his crew toiled all night more than once and took nothing. One morning, while routinely preparing to put back to sea, Peter was delayed in his effort by someone on the shore. Jesus inauspiciously flung the thought into Peter’s soul of ‘catching men’ rather than fish’. In a split second, Peter felt a new reality entering his soul. He heard an unfamiliar Call from deep inside himself for the first time.
The experience was utterly other-worldly for him.
Subsequently, one night in the vicious throes of the stormy sea, Peter, while in the company of Jesus, experienced the inexplicable power and sheer beauty of Faith in God. Jesus’ response to the storm’s mighty battering captured Peter’s attention. Then, slowly, it dawned upon him that Jesus was introducing him to something entirely different from the hidden dread of the boundless deep, which Peter knew all too well. And in complete ecstasy, Peter, at that moment, coveted this same experience for those he cared for most and for those he loved the best.
But too soon, the consideration of a career change from ‘catching fish’ to ‘ catching men’ grounded in complete abandon! The ‘instructor in chief’ had met a cruel death at the hands of enemies at Calvary. For Peter, the Call from the boundless deep within himself was less enticing now. The familiar pounding of the sea offered a more private place to deal with feelings that ran too deep for tears. ” I am going fishing,” Peter announces to his co-workers, whose silent prayers seem answered by Peter’s decision. ( John 21: 3-6)
But how can anyone fathom with such decisiveness the mystery involved in the two calls from the boundless deep? Being a citizen of the world, Peter had responded, paying attention to the advantages so readily available to a fisherman. The other possibility, to be a fisher of men, recently issued by Jesus, came to a previously unheard region of Peter’s existence. It came to the unfathomed depths of Peter’s soul. It was an unspeakable experience of Faith in God that had no comparison whatsoever with being a fisherman. He would now catch men! Perhaps, he and his companions might all become Fishers Of Men.
In his work “Crossing The Bar,” British Victorian Poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson uses the same metaphor to impart the mystery of human behaviour that awakens the soul to its destiny:
CROSSING THE BAR
“Sunset and evening star,
And one clear Call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar,
When I put out to sea,
But such a tide as moving seems asleep,
Too full for sound and foam,
When that which drew from out the boundless deep
Turns again home.
Twilight and evening bell,
And after that, the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell,
When I embark;
For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far; I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar”.
At the centre of the town, which I proudly call home, there is a pond fed at one end by two tributaries, and at the opposite end is the pond’s access to the sea. At high tide, the ocean waters move swiftly to share their volume with the pond. The pond appears to be drawing from the boundless deep of the ocean. At low tide, the flood water returns home to the boundless deep! The rising and falling of the fast-moving waters are too full for sound or foam.
In my youth, I stood for hours on the bridge that spans the tide, imagining the incoming surge to be the grace of God preparing us for the work awaiting us. The outflowing tide takes the needs, the sorrows, and the community’s pain to be lost in the sufficiency of God’s mercy and grace.
Likewise, Faith is Peter’s discovery and final acceptance of the truth. Beneath the surface of every experience, there is always the sufficiency of God’s unconditional love and the reality of a Transforming Friendship. Thank God, the Call from the boundless deep, as uttered by Jesus, won its victory in Peter’s life. Peter’s initial decision to return to the fishing grounds resulted from heartache and disappointment. Subsequently, it vanished when the risen Christ made clear that Fishers of men is the result of Faith born of love. It is the ending of the timidity to express, before all others, unconditional love to the One who demands it. (see John 21:15) “The call from out the boundless deep” defines Faith. Drawing from out the boundless deep’ will prepare us “to see our Pilot face to face when we have crossed the bar”.
A Prayer To Follow This Meditation
Our Father,
speak the word only, and our spirits will bear lasting allegiance to Your way. Indeed, You show us the way, the truth and the life.
Yet, words are impotent until the Spirit propels them deep into our being to invigorate our resolve to live for Thee.
Let us receive, as from Thy hand, the gift of this new day and affirm Thy power to make it worthy of being offered to Thee at eventide. We pray in the Name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Hymn: I Feel The Winds Of God
NOTES
1. Scripture references are found in the NIV translation of Scripture.
2. The photographer is unknown to me. However, gratitude is expressed here for this beautiful picture of the Drum Bridge
( Draum Bridge) locally named.