I remember as a teenager, and a new Christian, attending numerous conferences and hearing so many of the speakers at those events talk about their “conversion story.” Undoubtedly, with every story, there was a miraculous incident where Jesus showed up in their lives and changed them for the better. Some had lived these outrageously sinful and dangerous lives…as drug addicts, convicts, prostitutes, and Super Bowl champions. You can ask me about that one later. Even the speakers who didn’t have such extravagant pasts told stories of miracles that happened to them. Even the story that inspired me to commit my own life to serving Christ had an element of the extraordinary.

And we look in the Bible and we read these stories about amazing things happening to call people to God. Moses encounters a bush that is burning but not being consumed. Jesus causes a storm to cease. Last week, we heard about the widow at Zarephath who, during a famine,  used her last flour and oil to make Elijah some bread, and God made it so that her flour and oil didn’t run out until the famine had ceased. This week, we have the story of Isaiah and his vision of the heavens, with seraphs attending the throne of God, speaking to Isaiah, and touching his lips with a burning coal. Miracles abound in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.

For many, many years, I felt like I was somehow “less than” because I didn’t have a miracle story. I wasn’t an ex-con or an alcoholic. In fact, I’d never even tried alcohol. I was a pretty good kid growing up. I never saw Jesus in my toast or heard his voice coming out of a donkey. My water never turned to Mountain Dew, as much as I might have wanted it to. I didn’t have an amazing story to tell about the immediate change Jesus made the moment I decided to follow him. My story always felt rather boring, so if I was ever asked to tell it, I shied away from that because I didn’t think it was worth it.

My call to ministry was similar. In fact, my call to become a pastor was so uneventful that when I told it to the committee who would decide whether I would begin down a path toward ordination or not they weren’t convinced that I truly was called. And they tried to convince me to go down a different path. The problem was that it wasn’t them who were calling me, it was Jesus. And even if my call story is as boring as reading the terms and conditions on a new smartphone, it doesn’t make it any less real. In fact, I think the real miracle about God’s call in our lives is that it doesn’t need flare or excitement because God simply meets us where we are. God meets us in the mundane, ordinary parts of our lives and tells us to come and follow him.

In our reading from the gospel of Luke for this morning, Jesus is standing by the lake where Simon Peter and many others were fishing, as they did everyday. Some of the fishermen had left their boats to repair some nets, while others were preparing to head back out for some more fishing. Simon Peter was preparing his own boat to head back out onto the water when Jesus stepped into the boat with him. He tells Peter to move the boat out into the water just a little ways from the shore. Once Peter does that, Jesus sits in the boat and begins to teach the crowds who had gathered around. At this point, I wonder if Simon Peter was sitting there in the boat, trying his best to keep it steady while Jesus talked, and feeling frustrated that Jesus was keeping him from fishing…especially because we learn later that the fishing had not been going well that day. But Simon Peter doesn’t say anything, he just lets Jesus finish his speech.

I think Jesus must have noticed Simon Peter’s frustration about losing valuable fishing time because he says to Peter, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” If I’d been Simon Peter, I’d have sat there looking at Jesus with a face that said, “You can’t be serious right now.” Jesus wasn’t a fisherman. Jesus was a carpenter. How does Jesus know where fish are? So Simon Peter replies, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” Simon Peter thinks that this carpenter is wasting his time, but he tells Jesus, “If you really want me to let down the nets, I will, but don’t be surprised if we don’t catch anything.” Jesus must have responded with a nod or some sign to acknowledge that he really did want them to cast their nets, because we read that they did exactly that.

Now, this is where something kind of miraculous happens. Then they cast their nets into the water and then pull them back up, the nets are loaded with fish. There were so many fish, in fact, that their net was starting to pull apart. They summoned some of the other boats in the lake to come over. They worked together to get all of the fish into the boats and discovered that there were so many fish that it was weighing down all of their boats and they were beginning to sink as they headed into shore. Simon Peter couldn’t believe it. He falls down and clings to Jesus’s knees and says, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” I see this as Simon Peter saying to Jesus, “I completely misjudged you. You are a far better fisherman than I expected. You should leave before you increase our shame even more.”

Jesus isn’t bothered though. And rather than taking Simon Peter’s advice and leaving, Jesus turns to Simon Peter as says, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will be catching people.” Don’t worry about the fish. I have a different path for you to take. But this new path will not be a huge change for you because you’ll still be catching stuff. It’s just that instead of catching all these fish, you will be catching people. You will be capturing them, not in a net or by some sort of physical force. Instead, you will be capturing their hearts and their souls with the grace, mercy, and love of God. Simon Peter, John, and John’s brother James all hear this message from Jesus and they simply throw down their nets and leave to follow this new rabbi.

I think what I love most about this story is that Simon Peter and John and James were simply out doing what they do, floating boats, casting nets, and catching fish. And Jesus simply comes to them where they are. He doesn’t wait for them to come to him. He doesn’t really do anything remarkable. Jesus simply tells them to do the same things they’ve been doing all along, but for some reason, this time it works better than it has ever worked before. Their catch is larger than they’ve probably ever had. But that blessing didn’t come from anything spectacular. It came from where they were already at. And then Jesus simply steered them in a different direction. But he tells them that this new direction will have a lot of similarities to the old one.

Have you ever seen God in the everyday, normal habits of your life? I see Jesus at work in my life every time my kids do something that proves I wasn’t a complete failure as a father. I see Jesus at work in my life in the unconditional love of my dogs and cats (minus our cat Nutmeg, who I don’t think likes me really at all). I see Jesus in the neighbor who runs the snowblower over my sidewalk whenever it snows. I see Jesus in the people of this church every single time I see any of you. I see Jesus in my co-workers at the library who are so caring and supportive to the patrons and to every staff member. I see Jesus in the soundtrack of my life, the songs that touch my heart and renew my spirit. I even see Jesus in the grouchy cashier who’s having a really bad day and in the angry motorist who thinks I’m driving too slow. It’s much harder to find Jesus in those situations. It becomes a bit more like a Where’s Waldo type of thing, but Jesus is always there, lurking in the background, waiting for a chance to climb into the boat with us and steer us in a new direction.

Where do you see Jesus in your daily life, in your normal routines and comfortable relationships? Where do you see Jesus in the ordinary? We know that God must be in the extraordinary because only God could do something so miraculous. But I think it’s when God comes to us in the ordinary that our lives are truly and forever changed.

At one of our previous churches, I gave the congregation the challenge to spend a week looking to see Jesus in the face of a stranger. And one person approached me nearly a week later and told me that they’d tried what I’d suggested, but it was too hard. So, they decided to look for Jesus in the faces of people they already knew and loved. Looking for Jesus in the ordinary stuff of our lives might seem like a challenge, but Jesus is always there with us. We simply need to look for the characteristics of Jesus in the words and actions and beauty of all that is around us. So, that is the challenge for us this week…to pay attention to the ordinary stuff of our lives and listen for the call of Jesus.

God has a plan for each of us. And that plan might look boring or ordinary or basic. It might even make us doubt whether we are really hearing from Jesus at all. But I believe it is within the ordinary that God calls us to do something extraordinary. And that call is to be like Jesus, to love unconditionally, to offer forgiveness even when that forgiveness is undeserved, to strive for peace in all things. The call is for us to be like Christ and for us to live in community with one another, supporting one another and learning how to work together for the good of all.

Jesus came to Simon Peter and John and James with a fishing scheme, not to manipulate them through miraculous signs or fear mongering, but to meet them in the ordinary and move them toward something more extraordinary. Where is Jesus in the ordinary of your life? May your eyes see and your hearts recognize the presence of Christ’s call in your life and may you follow with joy and excitement in your hearts. Amen!