The Faith to Launch Out

One of the most famous trial lawyers in the history of our nation is Clarence Darrow. Among his friends was a young minister, which may seem strange, since Darrow was a professed agnostic. They were talking one day and Clarence Darrow began to reminisce. He talked about his career and some of the famous trials in which he had been the lawyer for the defense. He said, “This has been an exciting life.” Darrow had made a comfortable fortune and modestly he guessed he might be regarded as somewhat of a success.

Then Darrow said, “Would you like to know my favorite Bible verse?” His friend said, “Indeed I would.” Darrow then said, “You will find it in Luke 5:5” (our gospel for today). “We have toiled all the night and have taken nothing.” He added, “In spite of my success that verse seems to sum up the way I feel about life.”

How about you? Does this verse sum up your life? “We have worked all night long but have caught nothing?” You work hard, you give your best efforts, but in the end there is emptiness in your life, a void you just can’t seem to fill.

Picture the scene in our gospel text. Two fishing boats stand empty by the side of the lake. The fishermen have given up for the day. They are standing near the boats cleaning up their nets. Their faces are weary with discouragement. They are not fishing for sport. This is their livelihood and they are not making much progress.

If any of you have ever been in sales, you know the feeling. You’re in your car driving for miles. You see prospect after prospect and every one of them turns you down.

If any of you have ever started your own business, you know the feeling. You work early mornings and late evenings seven days a week. You sweat and strain, but you never seem to make ends meet. Despite how hard you try, you always seem to be living on the edge.

Athletes know that feeling as well. In the February 2007 edition of Smithsonian, there was a story that hit home for me. It was about a famous photograph of Y.A. Tittle, the legendary quarterback for the New York Giants. Growing up in New York, Y.A. Tittle was larger than life. For three straight years he led the Giants to the NFL championship game, only to lose each time. He had been the league’s most valuable player in 1963, but now it was 1964 and Y.A. Tittle was a football ancient – 38 years old – but looked much older. (Don’t tell that to Tom Brady!)

On September 14, 1964, the Giants played the Pittsburgh Steelers. On the play just before the photo was taken, Tittle had thrown a screen pass that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. He had held his arms high as he threw. John Baker, a 270-pound defensive end for the Steelers, drove his helmet into Tittle’s sternum (something that’s prohibited today) and slammed him to the turf. Tittle could not breathe. The photo captures the agony of the moment, with Tittle down on his knees, his helmet off, his head bowed and bloodied, with a face broken and beaten.

That year, 1964, Y.A. Tittle would lead the Giants to 2 wins, 10 loses, and 2 ties. When the year was over, Tittle retired from football and went into the insurance business. (1) Last year at the age of 90, Y.A. Tittle died – his business career was a success but he always looked back on never winning a NFL championship.

A lot of us are like Y.A. Tittle: we want that championship but we never quite make it. We’re like the Broadway choreographer in

the movie All That Jazz. Although tremendously successful in his career, his personal life is in shambles – relationally and physically. Finally, the endless drinking, smoking, drugs and affairs catches up with him. He has a heart attack and is dying. Near the end of the movie, he speaks to a hospital aid about his life. He says, “It’s just a rough cut. I need more time.”

For him, life is like a movie. If he could just take it into the editing room and cut here and there, life would work out all right. He saw the “rough cut” and wanted more time to revise and edit; but it was too late. For all his outward success he was feeling empty in his life – something he desperately wanted but didn’t have, didn’t know what it was, and didn’t know how to get it.

I don’t know how the disciples were feeling as they return to shore and started to clean their nets. It was another day without a catch; another day of disappointment; another day when life didn’t seem to be very friendly. The toil and strain were showing on their faces. They were ready to call it a day.

But what does Jesus tell them to do? He tells them to launch out into the deep. He tells them to throw their nets on the other side of the boat. What he is really telling them to do was to exercise their faith - faith in him, faith in their own abilities as fishermen, faith in the abundance of the seas.

It is Peter who speaks up: “Lord, we’ve toiled all night and have caught nothing, but at your word we will do it.” Jesus restored their faith, and that was precisely what they needed at that particular moment in their lives.

Do you know what the biggest barrier to success is for most people? It is the fear of launching out. It is the fear of change. It is our reluctance to take action. We are not happy with our lives. We are dissatisfied with our work. We are discouraged and

disillusioned. We feel that life is passing us by and what action do we take? Nothing!

Social psychologists tell us that the majority of people have a built-in resistance to change. We are afraid to rock the boat. Afraid to start that new business we’ve been dreaming about for years. We are afraid to follow that dream of returning to school. Afraid to apply to the college we really want to attend. Afraid to stand up for a cause we really believe in. Afraid to say, “I love you.”

And Jesus steps into our lives and says, “Don’t be afraid. I am with you. Launch into the deep. Put down your nets.” That’s what the disciples did and you know what happened? They brought in so many fish they nearly sank their boat. It would not have happened if they had not exercised their faith.

Ben Stein is one of the most versatile people in America. He writes an occasional financial column for The New York Times; appears on cable news channels, has acted in several movies, and even produced his own. He is a comedian who can be very funny but he is also a savvy investor who has accumulated a great deal of money over the years.

He didn’t start out that way. In fact, as he tells it, he started out as a struggling lawyer working for the federal government in one of the more seedy areas of Washington. He had no money. He could barely pay his monthly credit card bills. He could go at most two weeks without being paid.

One steamy August morning Ben Stein went to work as usual, only to be told that he had been assigned to a new office. He walked down the green linoleum hallway to his new cubby hole for an office which was so shallow that he didn’t have room for a chair in front of the desk. The space allowed for a desk or a chair

but not both. No one in the office seemed to care about that very much, or for that matter about anything else, so why should he care? Live with it, they told him. But he refused. At that moment he resolved that life didn’t have to be that way. It could be better. And so, he quit his job, and eventually got a position in the Nixon White House which was the beginning of a stellar career.

Ben Stein could have stayed a civil servant for his entire working life, gotten by without taking any risks, and lived a thoroughly mediocre life. Instead, he decided to launch out into the deep, to risk and try some new things, to move beyond the safe and secure – because only with that inner freedom was there the possibility of finding happiness and achieving a meaningful life. (2)

Now imagine if Peter had simply refused to go into the deep, put down his nets into the sea and obey Jesus. Imagine that in hearing Jesus give the invitation, he just shrugged his shoulders, turned away and went back home to end another day in disappointment. It all comes down to faith, doesn’t it, to commit yourself to a new way of living and a new way of thinking and a new way of being the person God wants you to be. Will we go for it or will we just go home and pout at how bad life is treating us?

For many years before, and even during my practice of law in New York City, I felt this strange call to be a priest. And yet, as I became more proficient in my work, I also became increasingly reluctant to abandon law to go to divinity school. After all, why give up the status, privilege and money in law to start all over again as a student? Many of my lawyer friends said I was crazy even to consider such an option. And yet, like Francis Thompson’s description in the “The Hound of Heaven,” the call simply would not go away.

Finally, I had a candid discussion with my spiritual director, a wise

Holy Cross monk. He said to me, “Why don’t you just accept God’s call, go to divinity school and become a priest?” I said to him, “But I am afraid to let go of what I have, and anyway I don’t feel fully committed.” He then looked at me intently and said, “Face your fear but go to divinity school, and then you’ll feel committed.”

Well, I ended up getting a leave of absence from my law firm, going to divinity school in Canada, and as they say, the rest is history. Yes, I’ve had my celebrations and frustrations in parish ministry, but I have never doubted God’s call to be a priest. And so, I have no regrets about my life, because I believe I am living in the will of God.

So, let me ask you some questions: Do big challenges convince you not to go for it? Are you more inclined to play it safe than step out in faith? Is the promise of God’s power and presence enough to make you launch out into the deep and cast down your nets?

Don’t let discouragement have the last word. Exercise your faith. This is still a wonderful, abundant world that God has created for us. Trust Jesus and launch into the deep – whatever that may mean in your own life.

Dr. Gary Nicolosi February 10, 2019 Text – Luke 5:1-11 Epiphany 5, C

1. Michael Shapiro, “Fallen Giant” in Smithsonian (February 2007, 14-16. 2. Ben Stein, How Successful People Win (Hay House, 2005) ix-xix.