"Miraculous Abundance" | The Rev. Peter Sipple | February 6, 2022
Imagine for a moment that you are directing a film, an “indie,” a short low-budget movie with the working title “The Calling of Simon.” You and the crew create the opening scene: on the shore of a lake, two large, well-worn fishing scows are dragged onto the sand. It is dawn. Hazy morning sunlight reflects off still water. Three fishermen, Simon, James and John, stand by their boats. Discouraged, exhausted and aching from hours of work without results, they clean and prepare nets for the next night’s challenge. As director, you’ll want to consider lighting the scene. What music will best complement the action? What colors should dominate the fishermen’s clothing, the boats and background, and the appearance of the men’s faces? Consider the tone and character of what’s taking place; what message will the film convey?
Your camera shifts from the men and boats to a small crowd coming down a path onto the sand nearby. The faces of the fishermen register confusion at this unusual interruption. The people follow someone onto the sand, a man who comes directly to Simon and offers his name: I am Jesus, he says. The camera lingers over the faces of the two men—Jesus smiling, encouraging; Simon bewildered. Jesus makes a curious request: may he borrow Simon’s boat and push out onto the water so he may address the group? The camera records Simon’s confusion at the strange bidding of one whose voice and manner are nonetheless gracious and calming.
The next scene requires more intimate camera work. Jesus sits in the boat and invites the people to relax on the sand. His words convey strength and gentleness. He asks those gathered to consider a new covenant relationship with God, one based in loving behavior with one another modeled on God’s love for each individual. The camera catches the listeners’ facial expressions, then focuses on Simon. Initially bewildered, his face begins to register awareness, then intelligence. After panning the crowd, the camera returns to Simon whose expression moves from confusion to awe; his previously exhausted body takes on new stature, no longer sagging but upright, poised.
The camera moves to Jesus. Reaching out to the transfigured Simon, he makes an even more amazing request: would you unwind your nets, push your boats out into the lake and fish once again? Simon is flummoxed, as are James and John. Teacher, we have fished all night and caught nothing. But then Simon’s face betrays a new recognition: it is Jesus who makes this odd bidding. Haltingly, Simon returns to his boat, with James and John at his side.
The camera scans the water, now a resplendent blue-green reflecting a bright sun overhead. The fishing boats glide on its calm surface as large nets are thrown overboard. The camera assumes the perspective of the people on shore, then zooms in on the nets as they hit the water. Within moments they bulge with an astonishing weight—fish! Hundreds of large fish stretch the nets to overflowing! The three men struggle to bring the huge catch on board, with the boats’ gunnels nearly taking on water.
The camera registers Simon, James and John’s astonishment, mingled with hilarious excitement as they struggle to bring the overfull boats ashore. It’s a miracle! they shout. There were no fish. Now we have fish in abundance! Back on the sand, Simon, his two companions, and the assembled group raise their voices in wonder and praise. Simon falls before Jesus; his face takes on a glorious light of recognition that something beyond his comprehension—some mighty miraculous power—has overwhelmed his very being. But his expression mingles confusion with astonishment. It seems to say: what just happened cannot have taken place—certainly not to me, an ordinary, sinful man, a man who deserves nothing, let alone such a miracle! He falls at Jesus’ feet: Lord, leave me; I am not worthy of this abundant goodness!
A moment passes as the camera pans the water, the boats, and then the crowd, and it returns to Jesus who looks kindly down at Simon. Follow me, Simon, James and John. This catch of fish is just a beginning for you. Follow me and together we will catch human souls. An even greater miracle is underway and you will take part in it. And Jesus reaches down to lift Simon, whose face continues to show a radiant confusion. The three fishermen walk beside Jesus as he leads the people back onto the path and away from the shore. The camera lingers on the water, the beach and the abundant catch of fish.
As the film’s director, your notes identify the images that will convey the event’s essential meaning. First, the role of the natural world. Nature is unpredictable—what is reaped comes and goes, but faith keeps alive the potential for living in harmony with nature. The miraculous catch of fish result from men and nature’s garden working together. That garden will provide abundantly, but we must honor its exigencies as well as our limitations. Second, water, the medium which allows the action to occur, reminiscent of the role of water as catalyst initiating and blessing the Faith—the water of baptism, water used in the wedding in Cana. Water, representing the earth and its fecundity, a “garden” in which humankind finds more than all it needs to sustain itself and live in harmony.
Next, the character of Simon Peter. In the midst of this miraculous event, Peter expresses a moral judgment: he is unworthy of such beneficence, recognizing his own humanity and limitedness in the face of plenty. For Peter, and for us, out of Jesus’ teaching comes a recognition of the world’s miraculous abundance. It’s found in water, as is the miracle of birth. Out of Peter’s tiredness, a recognition of his weakness and failure, comes an understanding of all that the world offers. His awe comes from a sudden break-through, a realization that Jesus is able to provide what is vital and essential when it has gone missing. Fish, a gift of the natural world, endows human nourishment and life. Where there was none, now there is abundance. Faith in that principal of human existence makes us whole again.
Finally, the film as allegory. In his transformation, Peter stands in for everyman, or every person of faith, a symbol of the first Christian. The lake is the natural world, a new Eden, with fish representing all that sustains humankind. Everyman is exhausted when it seems that the world has no more to give, when humankind has vacated the garden, when essential resources appear to have run out, perhaps because we have misused and overused them. Jesus is the force of God showing humankind that there can be abundance if we are willing to try again, even in the face of odds, with faith in the potential of all that’s still available in the natural world. Apply this allegory to the earth. It seems that the earth’s resources are threatened, but with faith in God’s power to replenish, we can work toward abundance. But we must first recognize our limitations. We cannot conquer the earth (as in the old Genesis understanding) but must work with it—must ultimately be at one with it.
These notes provide you, the director, with an understanding of how your film can renew faith in collaboration with the earth that God has created and that we, the viewers, can help sustain. AMEN