Sunday, February 10, 2019 | 8:00 a.m.

If You Say So

Victoria G. Curtiss
Associate Pastor, Fourth Presbyterian Church

Psalm 138
Luke 5:1–11

Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

“And we’ll believe six impossible things before breakfast.” This was a comment made at the end of a recent meeting of ICAR, the Interfaith Coalition Against Racism. ICAR is a coalition of ten congregations in Chicago who seek to dismantle systemic racism. Dismantle systemic racism—that’s all! Something that seems impossible. We had just spent the last couple hours brainstorming what we want to do in 2019, and our resulting plans felt so limited compared to the magnitude of the problem of systemic racism. At the end of our meeting, one person mentioned that later that day he was going to a meeting on reducing mass incarceration, which prompted another to say he was going to a lunch gathering about how to encourage Jewish people to talk about Palestinian rights. Then someone voiced, “And we’ll believe six impossible things before breakfast.”

This was in reference to Lewis Carroll’s book that is a sequel to Alice in Wonderland called Through the Looking Glass. Alice had just heard the Queen say, “I’m just one hundred and one, five months, and a day.” “I can’t believe that!” said Alice. “Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.” Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”

Following Jesus Christ requires that we believe a variety of seemingly impossible things. Among those things is the work God calls us to do. God calls people of faith to end gun violence, eradicate world hunger, provide affordable housing for everyone, multiply mental health clinics in our nation, protect clean water sources, reverse climate change. Those are just six of the seemingly impossible things on which God calls the church to work.

The Church of the Saviour in Washington, D.C., teaches its members how to discern God’s call on their lives. One of the things they teach is that “a call always seems impossible.” We react, “Who am I to do this? This is beyond me!” And indeed it is. God doesn’t call us to do something that we can already do on our own. And God doesn’t call us to sustain the status quo. God calls us to be instruments of transformation in our world. Transformation toward a just, peaceful, and compassionate world can only happen with the power of the Holy Spirit. The impossibility of our call necessitates that we rely on God’s guidance, strength, and movement and remember that it is not we who are making something happen but God.

In today’s Gospel story, Simon Peter heard a call from Jesus that probably felt impossible. Jesus told Simon to row out into the deep waters and let down his nets for a catch. Now Simon had never met Jesus before. He had only just heard him teaching for the first time. Jesus was not a fisherman by trade, as Simon had been all his adult life. Simon knew how to fish. He knew the waters and where and when he was most likely to catch fish. Often he was successful. But he had spent the whole previous night fishing with no catch. His nets had come up completely empty. So when Jesus told him the next morning to go out and start fishing again, Simon let Jesus know that the previous night’s efforts had been fruitless. Catching any fish now seemed highly improbable.

But then Simon went on to say, “Yet, if you say so,” and did indeed do as Jesus called. Soon he was amazed that his nets became so filled with fish they began to break. He called to his friends for help, and their boats began to sink with the weight of the catch. Once they got to shore, Simon and two of his fishing partners left everything and followed Jesus.

It all started with Jesus calling Simon to let down his nets, and Simon responding, “If you say so.” Those words, “If you-u-u say so . . .” can sound sarcastic and dismissive, like saying “What-ever,” “Whatever you say, dear,” raising one’s hands to convey “I am done with this conversation.”

Or those words, “If you say so” can convey deferential respect, as in “Since it is you who are saying this . . .” Simon went ahead and did what Jesus told him to do, in spite of Simon’s own doubts. He obeyed what Jesus said because of who Jesus was.

We can respond to God’s calling in either of these ways. We can shrug our shoulders at God with “whatever” and walk away. Or we can respectfully honor God: “Since it is you who are calling me, God, I will do this. I will do this, even though I have my doubts it will lead to anything. I will do what you say, because it is you who are calling. It is you that will make this happen.”

Let’s return to Alice and the Queen. Though this is a child’s tale, it holds adult wisdom. When Alice first felt she couldn’t believe something, the Queen told her to draw a long deep breath and shut her eyes. That sounds a lot like meditation! Shortly thereafter the Queen said it takes practice to believe what seems to be impossible. The Queen suggested daily practice, for a half hour early in the morning before breakfast. That sounds a lot like the spiritual discipline of daily prayer! It parallels another expectation that Church of the Saviour has of its members—that they spend at least thirty minutes every day in prayer. The discipline of prayer increases the likelihood that we will trust that God is at work through us, and beyond us, in ways we cannot see. If you daily practice listening to God, hoping for what God hopes, remembering God’s promises, using your imagination to envision God at work, then believing what seems impossible becomes more do able. Prayer also makes us freer to leave the results to God.

The Trappist monk Thomas Merton spent hours each day in prayer. He wrote this about results:

Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, essentially an apostolic work, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. . . .

The big results are not in your hands or mine, but they suddenly happen, and we can share in them; but there is no point in building our lives on this personal satisfaction, which may be denied us and which after all is not that important. . . .

All the good that you will do will not come from you but from the fact that you have allowed yourself, in the obedience of faith, to be used by God’s love. . . . The real hope, then, is not in something we think we can do, but in God who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see. If we can do [God’s] will, we will be helping in this process.

I recently had practice believing the seemingly impossible. The program staff of Fourth Church were on a one-day retreat. In the morning everyone was invited to share what we would love to do in our area of ministry if we had all the resources needed and money was no obstacle. In the afternoon we shared what we would do with a new gift of $25,000. Throughout the retreat the staff enjoyed exercising our imaginations. Articulating seemingly impossible things stirred up a lot of energy and creativity and for me opened new hope. It made me realize how much during my ministry with Fourth Church I have squashed my own dreams, and no doubt even God’s calling, by working within a scarcity mindset, assuming my nets would come up empty if I ventured into something big. Whether it was not enough money, or not enough people, or not enough commitment, or not enough time, or not enough know-how, I had surrendered to barriers and limitations. A scarcity mindset leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. Practicing our imaginations with a mindset of abundance was very refreshing and renewing, and I daresay more faithful. Our group believed at least six impossible things before lunch, some exciting new ideas for ministry. We may even try some of them with you!

God does work in mysterious ways. We don’t know why at one time our nets come up empty and at another time our nets are so full they break under the weight of an abundant catch. We can’t predict when or why or how a person from whom we’ve been alienated for a long time suddenly offers forgiveness or seeks reconciliation. We don’t know when or how society wakes up to its own bigotry against people of color or LGBTQ people and starts to change oppressive policies. We are usually surprised when warring factions put down their weapons and seek peace. God works in mysterious ways, ways we often don’t see and certainly do not control.

But the fact is, God does work. And God calls us to join in that work. If we don’t let down our nets, we will never catch fish. Whether the call seems impossible or not, God invites you to go out into the deeper waters and let down your nets. “All the good that you will do will not come from you but from the fact that you have allowed yourself, in the obedience of faith, to be used by God’s love,” says Thomas Merton. Yes, God, since you say so. Amen.