“Put Out into the Deep”
Luke 5:4
by Pastor Dale
There came a man from God one day
To tell the folks about the way
The way to faith and hope and love
The way that mimics life above
He sojourned to a northern lake
The curious drifting in his wake
The lake was that called Galilee
So large some said it was a sea
The people crushed around him so
He found he had no place to go
Saw two boats there at the shore
Jumped in one, couldn’t ask for more
Told the fisherman to put out a ways
Give him room to find the phrase
Or phrases that his God would give
As bread to help his people live
And so he sat and taught the crowds
For many hours they oohed and aahed
Till at last like Tracey Ulman he said
Go on home, get home to bed.
And then he turned to the boatman, Si
Said, “Put ye out where the waves are high
Where the water’s as deep as it can be
Where the fish run thick beneath this sea”
“But sir,” said Si, tired and sore
“We fished all night without a score
Yet if that’s what you would say is best
I will put into the deep, let down the nets”
“John and James, pops Zeb can wait
For you two to get home, to come through the gate
Let’s see what this Rabbi knows about fishing
Let’s show him it takes more than wishing”
And so back into the boat did the fishermen leap
With the teacher who wanted to eat on the cheap
Yet there was something about him one could not quite deny
The way that he said what he said, do or die
Back into the sea where they’d toiled all night
Back into the deep where most men feel a fright
Back into the waves that rock boats on their swell
Back onto the lake that these men knew so well
Down into the water did they toss their clean nets
Down into the black where the fish usually rest
With the knowledge there was nothing below them that day
For they had just fished here, there could be no way
As they reclaimed the nets over the side of the boat
The gear caught on a great piece of flotsam below
So they called to some friends also out on the sea
They asked them to help with the nets, set them free
So six men did the job that just three usually do
Even then their exertions raised a great cry and hew
From these fishers who were always more than a match
For a net filled with any and every catch
At last after straining their backs and their legs
They looked down at the nets, stepped back, scratched their heads
For there on the floor of the boat flopping ‘round
Were thousands of fish, the most ever found
Simon who knew that no fish should be caught
Could only wonder at what this Rabbi had wrought
And then as the truth of what happened sank in
He begged the man leave him alone with his sin
But the man did not care what Si thought of himself
Stand here by my side; I need you to help
I need you to help me to fish on the shore
I need you to help me catch men and more
I need you to stop what you do for awhile
I need you to come, be a man without guile
Walk with me into the country and towns
Teach with me that God’s kingdom has come
And what about us, says he, where is your deep?
Can you know what you need except in sleep?
Do the depths of your souls reach up into your days?
Can you hear wisdom’s voice when she’s something to say?
The psychiatrists say that the soul is a well
Where good and bad mix so no one can tell
What is what who is who how to sort out what to do
Yet there is One who comes in lieu
Of the great men of knowledge who claim to know all
Quietly speaks so you must listen for the call:
Put out into the Deep of your heart and your soul
See what is there though you’ve tried to let go
Of the worries and cares and the hurts and the scowls
Go there with me; be wise as owls
About those things that you carry that are holding you back
Those times when you’ve felt that there’s something you lack
Jump in the boat and we’ll put out to sea
We’ll go where you thought that you just could not be
The person you’d hoped you could be when just young
I tell you the journey is only begun
There are no easy solutions to the problems you face
The sea won’t always be as smooth as glass
But I tell you just as I told Simon that day
Put out into the deep, there is no other way.
| 
