god was forever generous with his gifts

hope, love, truth, and the belief in the indestructability of the good in all people

The holy Gospel according to St. Luke the 5th chapter!

Peter, James, and John are washing their nets. But they might as well be licking their wounds after the night they just had. That’s why, when Jesus commandeers one of their boats for a makeshift stage, they don’t protest. 

Once the sermon’s complete and the crowds have dispersed, Jesus tells Peter to sail out INTO the deeper waters, for a little catch. Peter tries to tell Jesus what kind of a night it’s been, but it’s not worth the trouble. Peter obeys Jesus, but he could just as well be humoring him for all Peter expects to come of their little endeavor. If they didn’t catch anything that night, they’re not about to catch anything during daylight hours, either. And certainly not in the deep waters, for that matter.

…You know what happens next, though. Don’t you? Apparently, when it comes to following Jesus, life works the other way ‘round.

…At the end of last spring, as it was becoming clear life in the time of COVID was going to be more of a marathon than a sprint, I decided to read some novels for the fun of it. The first one I tackled, and maybe the best, was Deacon King Kong.

Deacon King Kong takes place in Brooklyn in the 1960s. The cast is large and colorful, but the character at the heart of it all is Cuffy Lambkin, a 70-year-old deacon in his local church. In a joke that carries throughout the novel, no one is quite sure what a deacon does. For his part, Cuffy mostly helps with odds and ends when he’s called upon. 

When he is called upon, though, it’s not by name. Instead, Cuffy goes by the nicknames he’s racked up. Most of the time, that’s Sportcoat. A nickname he got from his mother, as part of an elaborate home remedy to get his teeth to come in when he was nine years old! 

Although some of the kids in the neighborhood maliciously refer to him as Deacon King Kong.

*I’ll leave it to you to figure out why.

Sportcoat is a character, for sure. But if there’s one thing you should know about him, it’s that he’s marked for death. From his birth, Sportcoat has managed to come down with just about every ailment imaginable. Thus the nickname, Sportcoat. However, none of those ailments have ever managed to do Sportcoat in. 

Until. Until one day after too much homemade liquor, known as King Kong. On that fateful day, Sportcoat takes an old .38 pistol and shoots the neighborhood drug dealer, Deems. In broad daylight! In full view of anyone who might look on. 

That’s why, when Sportcoat manages to hit but not kill Deems, everyone agrees, Sportcoat’s number is finally up. 

…Only it isn’t! Despite the urging of friends to hide or flee, Sportcoat doesn’t! He just continues living his life as usual. And impossibly, it works! All the hits out on him come to nothing. 

The delicious irony beating at the heart of the novel is the counter-intuitive fact that merely trying to avoid your own death is no way to live. And it’s true, too. Isn’t it? We all know living every moment doing nothing more than trying to forestall the inevitable is to consign our lives to it. To let our lives be consumed by the inevitable, even as we live!

The thing, though, is that on our own, that’s the best we can manage… 

The real thing, though, is you are not on your own! 

Throughout Deacon King Kong, Cuffy wears his death sentence like a talisman. As the novel progresses, though, it becomes clear that’s not all Cuffy’s wearing. As the plot careens toward the conclusion it’s been building to all along, it begins to dawn ON you that Cuffy is clothed in more than his death!

At last, Cuffy trades in every one of his nicknames in for another he’s carried. And all along, too: Child of God! And at that point, he's utterly free to give his life, AND even his death, to the benefit of those around him.

And so are you, dear Child of God! 

This is how it is for every child of God! Isn’t that what happened to Peter, James, and John in today’s Scripture? Rather than leaving them licking their own wounds, Jesus comes along and calls them deeper into the waters of their failure. And there, of all places, Jesus brings the abundance of his life to bear!

…Life, such as it is, offers us no shortage of opportunities to reckon with all our shortcomings. Doesn’t it? 

Now, on its own, this would be consummately bad news. We, however, are not on our own! Like the first disciples in today’s Scripture, like Cuffy Lambkin in Deacon King Kong, Jesus comes to us and bids us deeper into our nothings, our failures and death sentences alike. AND hidden therein is everything Jesus stole BACK from the power of Sin and Death by his resurrection!

Nothing is everything Jesus needs for his best work!

…If you feel like your life is going backward these days, perhaps it’s nothing more than Jesus calling you deep into the waters of his power! 

Yes, those waters may look like failure, defeat, and death. When the Holy Spirit’s work is finally and fully revealed, though, they will turn out to be nothing less than the waters of your baptism at work in your life shaping you into a Child of God!

Child of God, in your baptism, you have been marked with Christ! Covered with him. On the day of Christ’s coming, you shall be clothed with his glory. Yes, in the meantime, it doesn’t look like that. But that is only because, for the time being, your life is hidden. Hidden in Christ! Hidden in his resurrection! His death and life, in that order! 

Death no longer has dominion over you! It is a thing of the past for you now. You are no longer doomed to live life consigned to its power! In fact, Jesus comes to you and bids you deeper into it. For there, you will find Jesus and all he has: your call, your future, your past, and your present, too. Your life hidden in his, and all the abundance thereof!

So now, may you, like Cuffy, like Peter, James, and John, and like countless other saints, find your death, and your life, swept up into that great adventure of faith, life lived the other way ‘round by the power of Jesus! 

Go! Go backward. Go deeper. And may you find that pearl of priceless worth in the process, Jesus himself. Have fun. Fall in love. Give yourself over to your callings, your vocation, your family, your friends, and your faith. For you are free. And utterly so, too. Amen