Being a disciple of Christ is more than just being a follower of God. Being a disciple is being a student of Christ and His Church. As disciples we learn to trust God more than we trust our own knowledge. We learn to be humble in the presence of God’s many blessings. If we want to attract others to Christ, to be ‘fishers of men’ we must learn to trust God with humility.

Transcript

You know, there’s an ancient Greek saying, which means in English, “I grow old, always being taught.” Now, in English, we normally hear this expression, “I grow old, always learning.” But you know there’s a difference between learning and being taught. You can pick up a book and learn, but the only way to be taught is to be taught by someone else, someone who has more knowledge than us, someone who has more experience than us, a mentor, or in our case, a spiritual Father.

And this morning’s Gospel, my brothers and sisters, in this new season of the Church, this beginning of the Gospel of Luke, and we’re hearing the calling of the disciples. And it occurred to me the other day, we rarely speak about this term disciples. What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? We like to say it means being a follower, but disciple does not mean follower. Disciple means student, thus the ancient Greek expression. A disciple of Christ is someone who is taught by Christ. And so, the disciples were those who Christ gathered, and there was more than just 12 of them, by the way, that’s for another conversation.

But Christ gathered his disciples together, and in this morning’s Gospel, it shows that he’s teaching them from the water. And when he’s done teaching, he turns to Simon, he says, “Now, get your boat out into the deep water, throw down your nets, and pull up the fish.”

If I were Simon Peter that day, I’d be a little nervous, because he says, “Master, we worked all night long and caught nothing, not one fish.” It reminds me of the many times I’ve gone fishing. I like to say, I like to go fishing, I don’t go catching. Doesn’t matter where I am. There’s never any fish in the water. But Simon says, “Master, we have toiled all night long, caught nothing. Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net.” You see, my brothers and sisters, Simon allowed himself to be taught by Jesus. And what is he learning in this moment, but to trust God? Not to trust in his own expertise as a fisherman, and he was a professional fisherman, but he learned how to trust God.

“Nevertheless, at your word, I will let down the net.” And they caught so many fish. They needed two boats, and the boats were almost sinking, they were so filled with fish. You see, my brothers and sisters, when we trust God more than we trust our own knowledge, great things happen, greater than we would ever imagine, greater than our own abilities by themselves could ever accomplish. Only when we trust God. So a disciple of Christ is someone who learns how to trust God.

And then, Simon is now teaching us. And after this great miracle, Simon Peter says to Christ, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, oh Lord.” In that moment of Christ’s overwhelming miracle, Simon realized in his own true humility that he was not worthy of God’s blessings. So this is the second lesson for us to learn as disciples of Christ, to be taught by St. Peter, a sense of humility, a sense and understanding that when God blesses us, we are not worthy of his blessings.

Now this, my brothers and sisters, as modern Americans is a very difficult thing for us to embrace. We are led to believe that so long as we follow all the rules, that the blessings are a guarantee for us, that we somehow deserve the blessings of God. Simon, he could have said, “Well, of course there were this many fish. I listened to Christ. I got the fish. I deserve the fish.” But instead Simon says, “Lord, please go away. I’m not worthy. I’m sinful.”

This is a great lesson for us, to accept deep in our hearts, we are not worthy of God’s blessings even when he blesses us. Trusting God, having that deep sense of humility of our sinfulness in front of God. My brothers and sisters, this is what it means to be a disciple of Christ.

We like to think, as Greek Orthodox Christians, the true Church, the only Church, the fullness of the truth, all of these things that we know are true about the Church, we like to get prideful about the Church. We like to go out and meet with our friends or even our family members, maybe who have strayed a little away from the Church, and we look at them with judgment as if we need to teach them, as if somehow it is our responsibility to correct every misbehavior on the face of the Earth. That’s not our job as disciples of Christ. Our job is to be taught by Christ in humility. A disciple is not a teacher. A disciple is a student.

Now, the Church has teachers. There are some within the Church that are appointed, and educated, and trained, and sent out on their way to be teachers. One of the jobs of the seminary is to prepare us priests to become teachers and preachers, but not every Christian is called to be a teacher, but every Christian is called to be a disciple in humility. And without that humility, pride takes over. Without that trusting in God, our life simply goes amuck.

So my brothers and sisters, this new season of the Church, I invite you, reestablish your discipleship with Christ. Reestablish at a sense of education and learning from God and his Church, in humility. We cannot learn if we think we know everything, but we can trust that God knows what we need to know.

And so, this is our opportunity to deeply become disciples of Christ. And then, when we trust him with humility, watch the great blessings that will come upon our Church, not because of what we’ve done, but because God puts into our abilities the things that he wants us to do for him. And one of the things, as he says to Simon Peter, “You will be catching men.”

The Church, we know this to be true even in our own community, is attracting more and more people to Christ. I’m here to tell you that it will not simply be the true Church doctrines that attracts people to Christ. It is when we become true disciples, and trust him with humility to lead us. Glory to God, for all things.