Sermon Preached by Jenny Paddiston (Young Vocations Advisor) with Liv-Astrid Cowne Gemmell (Ministry Experience Scheme Intern)
Jenny –
When was the last time you went outside your comfort zone? When you willed yourself to do something or go somewhere unfamiliar where you felt slightly uneasy, or uncomfortable, maybe even painful?
I am chaplain of the Peterborough School, but I have another role in this archdeaconry – I am a Young Vocations Advisor for the Diocese of Peterborough. This means I meet up with young adults exploring some kind of calling / vocation. This is not necessarily a calling to church ministry – it can be anything, but I am there to walk with them while they think, pray and work towards what God is calling them to.
One of the people I meet with is Liv-Astrid who is part of your church, and we will hear more about her in a moment.
Liv-Astrid and I sat down the other day to prepare this sermon together so what I say is as much her words as they are mine – we worked as partners together.
We looked at the Luke passage. There were several points that caught our attention; they caught our attention because they were unexpected. The miracle of course is unexpected, but it’s the interactions between Jesus and Simon that surprised us.
Liv-Astrid –
Let’s look at the first interaction between Simon and Jesus. Here is a man – Jesus – whose trade was carpentry.
Here is Simon – whose trade is fishing. I imagine Simon had been fishing for several years. And another man – a landlubber – comes up and says, ‘go out into deep water and put your nets down to catch fish.’
Imagine if somebody who has never done your profession came along and told you to do your job in a certain way – how would you feel? Your answer may be ‘trust me, I know what I’m doing – you stick to your area of expertise, and I’ll stick to mine’. Jesus also doesn’t just say ‘try again in these shallow waters’ – he tells him to go into ‘deep water’. Deep water is further from the shore, from safety; it’s likely to be rougher seas; it’s generally more dangerous; further from a zone of comfort. So why would Simon agree to that? And Simon starts out like that ‘look -we’ve been out all night, and we’ve caught nothing’.
Then something changes. Here’s another unexpected twist. Between that sentence and the next something changes within him; he says ‘yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ Jenny and I realised that must show a huge amount of trust. Instead of saying ‘trust me, I know what I’m talking about as the professional fisherman here’ he says, ‘I trust you, so much that even though you have nowhere near the amount of experience and expertise as I do, I will do what you say.’
That’s a lot of trust.
Jenny –
Afterwards, when Simon comes back, another unexpected interaction happens; I would have thought Simon would say to Jesus ‘thanks! – this is great; can you come fishing with me again? Let me buy you a beer / wine or whatever.’ But the first reaction Simon has is one of inadequacy – he feels he’s not good enough. He says ‘get away from me. I am sinful’ He wants to put a distance between himself and God.
When I go and meet young people, and hear about their lives and faith, I listen for their trust in God because that is what faith is about. Trust. I often also hear them say they don’t feel they can do what God wants or they’re not sure they’re good enough; they feel inadequate; they’re not up to it. Contrary to the way of the world this humility is part of the process of being called – an acknowledgement that we can’t do things without God. For us to head out to deep water, we have to trust Him; we can’t do it in our own strength.
Again what we could expect Jesus to say: , ‘yes, fair enough you are inadequate and sinful and not good enough’ but in fact Liv-Astrid and I noted that Jesus says those words which we always need to hear when we’re called out of our comfort zones: ’don’t be afraid’. Don’t worry, it’s going to be ok.
Jenny & Liv-Astrid
- Who are you and what is your role in this church?
As many of you have just heard my name is Liv-Astrid.
I am a ministry experience intern based here and at the cathedral. My role is to gain experience in what happens in the life of the church. My role at the moment is mainly focused on children and young people’s ministry.
- What do you do as an intern?
I get up to a lot as an intern, youth group here, messy church at Helpston, the Wednesday Cafe, Piccolo, the Well-being cafe at the Cathedral, the youth group at Dogsthorpe, the education at the Cathedral and school visits with Jenny and with the rest of the school work that St Johns does.
- When or how have you felt God calling you?
I have felt a calling towards youth and children’s ministry in particular, this became apparent a few years ago when I was in a youth group myself and was wondering how and what difference I could make to young people, and I am very happy to be finally doing just that.
- What is your experience of going into deep water and finding more than you expected?
I think through this year so far; I have already felt at points like I have been encouraged to step out into the deep water just like right now. If you would have told me a year ago today that I would be standing up here speaking I would have thought you were crazy .But actually stepping out in faith and going out into those deep waters are so important and we quite often find that actually being in those deep waters isn’t as bad as we thought. We find a part of ourselves in those unexpected places and moments. Just like Jesus says “don’t be afraid” because he is out in those deep waters right by our side.
Service: Rev Jenny Paddiston with Liv-Astrid Cowne Gemmell – 31st January 2025. (St John The Baptist Church Peterborough UK)
Readings: Luke 5.1-11