A number of years ago, a book was written about the Humor of Christ. As I have read the Bible, it is interesting to see if you can find some things that might be taken as humor in the life of Christ as we view it from God's Word.
One day, Jesus was preaching on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and as usual, great crowds were pressing to hear His every word.He noticed two empty boats and stepping into one of the boats asked Peter to push the boat out into the water and He used the boat as His pulpit. I wonder what words came from the lips of Jesus! The Gospel of John ends with the apostle saying if all the words of Jesus were printed, the whole world would have difficulty holding them. Did He talk about how to end suffering? What about making enough money to survive? Perhaps He shared how to be a good parent. That would be a good word for the 21st Century.
When Jesus was finished speaking, He said to Simon: "Now go where it is deeper and let down your nets and you will catch many fish." Here was a non-fisherman telling the professionals what to do. Strange!! Peter shared with Jesus that they had worked all night and had caught nothing. The fish simply were not biting. In the King James translation, Peter said: "Nevertheless, we will do what you say. We have FAILED catching fish, NEVERTHELESS (faith) we will do what you say. Sue wrote a song for One Accord"s final recording project that was called 'Nevertheless.' Janet Watkins sang the thunder out of that song.
When the disciples followed the instructions of Jesus, they caught so many fish it appeared that the boat was sinking (FORTUNE). Following the success of doing what Jesus said, Peter realized he was a sinful person. I wonder, however, if Jesus didn't have an inward chuckle at the fruitless labor of professionals and then their success in following His simple instructions.
The entire experience is one many of us have endured. We have a task to do and FAIL. We take the problem to our Lord and with FAITH, believe His instructions, only to have FORTUNE as the result.
That's not a bad idea for a sermon: "Failure, Faith, and Fortune."
2 comments:
That IS a good sermon title! You should pursue that.
Wow...this was wonderful!
Thank you for sharing this.
Something I need to remember.
When you write your sermon about
this, you need to share it at the next
WAJ.
Love you :)
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