Hello everyone, welcome back! My name is Elise Brooklyn, and this is Scattering Flowers, a podcast where we scatter flowers of faith.
Today is Thursday, September 5th, and we will be reading Luke 5, 1-11.
While the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.
And he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Getting onto one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land.
And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing, but at your word I will let down our nets.
And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish, and their nets were breaking.
And they beckoned to the partners in the other boat to come and help them.
And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink.
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken.
And so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid, henceforth you will be catching men.
And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
My dad likes to go fly fishing.
He’s got these special flies he keeps in a fun zip-up pack.
They are super cool to look at, but do not touch, because they are sharp.
I asked my dad why he likes to go fly fishing, and he said because it is peaceful.
And he likes that it’s a different kind of fishing than just wading.
You are constantly moving your line.
In today’s reading, Simon didn’t seem at peace.
He was probably totally over it, because he had been fishing and wading all night but hadn’t caught anything in his net.
When Simon listened to Jesus and put the net into the water again, it became so full of fish that the net began to break.
He had to have help bringing in the net full of fish.
Jesus then told Simon and the other men that they would become fishers of men.
So he left everything and had followed Jesus.
What does it mean to be a fisher of men?
Well, it means that they will be the ones to tell everyone else about Jesus.
Jesus decided to use ordinary men like Simon to tell people about himself.
We are also Jesus' disciples, so we should be telling others about him too.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear Jesus, help us to have courage to share you with other people.
Lead us to show others that you are the only way to have eternal life.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Thank you so much for listening.
I’ll be back tomorrow scattering more flowers.
See ya!