The Calling of the Disciples Fr. James Jorgenson

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.

Today's gospel is taken from the fifth chapter

of the Gospel of St. Luke. You probably noticed

that during the summertime, after Pentecost,

we have the gospel readings from the Gospel of

Matthew, but then after the Feast of the Elevation

of the Holy Cross, we move into readings from

Luke. This is informally called the Lucan Jump

when we move into the Gospel readings from Luke.

This, of course, depends on the variableness

of our Orthodox Byzantine lectionary on when

Easter is. Be that as it may, this gospel, the

miraculous catch of fish, occurs at the very

beginning of Jesus' public ministry. This miraculous

catch of fish, this miracle, begins more or less

Jesus' public ministry in the three what are

called synoptic gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

And then a similar or parallel event occurs at

the end of St. John's Gospel, but we'll get to

that in a moment or two. This is the beginning

of Jesus' ministry. It's the calling of Simon

and Andrew. Simon, of course, his name is changed

to Peter by our Lord. But Simon and Andrew and

then James and John, their partners, sons of

Zebedee, they're all fishermen. Most of Jesus'

disciples were fishermen. What does St. Luke's

narration of this miracle is the most detailed

compared to Mark and Matthew. because it has

a very significant element in there. It is the

reaction of St. Peter. Notice what Peter does,

and this is only, again, in Luke's Gospel. He

says, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.

That has always impressed me, because it shows

the recognition of sinfulness in the presence

of holiness. Depart from me, for I am a sinful

man. We have the same sentiment oftentimes in

our services, especially I'd call your attention

to the prayer before Holy Communion. After we

say, I believe, O Lord, and I confess that thou

art truly the Christ, the Son of the living God,

who didst come into the world to save sinners,

of whom I am the first. The post -resurrectional

miraculous catch of fish after the resurrection

occurs only in St. John's Gospel. And here, Peter

figures prominently also in this miracle. This

is, again, the miracle after Jesus' resurrection.

and it contains a very curious note. St. John

tells us that all of these were miraculous catches

of fish, and they all toiled all night long in

Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and here they toiled.

They didn't catch anything either. So Jesus tells

them, throw the net on the other side of the

boat. which of course is what they do, and they

bring in a miraculous catch of fish. And then,

curiously, I don't know if there's any significance

here, but this net doesn't break. Some of the

fathers see that there's a significance in that.

But the fish are so many in the first narration

of the first miracle that the nets start to break.

Well, since I brought that up, I'll tell you

what other interpretations is. that this shows

that, well, first let me tell you the number

of fish that they caught. 153 fish. That has

puzzled Christians for 1 ,900 years. Why are

there 153 fish? Those of you that are successful

in fishing, you put your fish on the stringer,

you probably don't even count them up, but here

they say 153 fish. Now this, of course, has produced

endless speculation, especially in numerology.

50 times 3 plus 3, all that kind of stuff. But

I don't think that really isn't so much to the

point. But there is one curious element in there.

And St. Jerome remarks that at that time biologists

thought that there were 153 species of fish in

the world. Now we know that depending on how

you count species of fish nowadays, there are

between, my matushka and I looked this up, there

are between, at her prompting. There are between

20 and 30 ,000 species of fish. But I am inclined

to St. Jerome's interpretation of 153 fish, symbolizing

every single fish that exists. And this shows

that the gospel message that the apostles are

to preach should be preached in all the world.

And the gospel and the church are for all men

and women, all races of all times. Peter again.

He recognized the holiness of Jesus in Luke's

gospel. And then you know what Peter did at...

our Lord's passion and what he would put on trial.

He came and he denied Jesus three times in the

presence even of a teenage maid. And he began

to swear, I don't know that man. And so that

he did this three times. And at the gospel at

the end of the miraculous catch of fish, at the

end of St. John's gospel, That provides the opportunity

for Jesus to say to him, Peter, do you love me?

Ask him that three times, corresponding to the

three denials. And then feed my lambs, feed my

fish. The first miraculous catch of fish that

we read, Jesus says, You will become fishers

of men. You will catch men. And then this is

fulfilled again in the universal call with these

153 fish. St. John might tell me in the kingdom

of heaven, they just had 153 fish. There's no

significance to it. But I think it's curious

to see what possibilities there might be. But

for us, What does this all mean to us? Jesus

says you will catch, be fishers of men. This

is discipleship, following Jesus. These three,

the miraculous catch of fish at the beginning

of the three Gospels, they notice the evangelist

said they left everything, they left their nets

and followed him. discipleship, like Peter, Andrew,

James, and John, and all the disciples. This

is our inspiration to renew our discipleship

to Jesus Christ. There's no such thing, or there

should be no such thing, as a part -time Christian.

Whoever here is a part -time Christian, raise

your hand. Don't anybody raise your hand. We're

all expected to be full -time Christians. We

don't live up to it all the time, but that is

the expectation that Jesus has of each and every

one of us, myself and all of you. So this should

be our... thought for the day, so to speak. And

we ask through the intercession of those fishermen

that are called today, Peter, James, and John,

and Andrew, to give us their prayers to make

us, like them, renewed, full -time disciples

of Jesus Christ. Amen.