Forty-six years ago this month, Grace Lutheran began on a wing and a prayer. It was a cold winter day when Pastor Haversat, our founding pastor, started knocking on doors, "Hey, there's a new church in town. We've taken over the Buster Brown Shoe Store in Jefferson Valley." That's where we started. Buster Brown went out of business and the Lutherans stepped in - focusing on a different type of soul. From the beginning it was a venture based on a wing and a prayer. But that's how many great adventures begin. With uncertainty. Few resources. A wing and a prayer.

That expression came from World War II when damaged warplanes barely meandered back to the base. On that beat up plane, the remaining wing is of course, important. You lose that second wing and you probably don't have a prayer. For people of faith ... prayer is equally important. If you don't have a prayer, or a God you can pray to, you have to wing it through life on your own resources. I don't know about you, but those times I choose to leave God out of the equation and wing it on my own resources - those are the times when my life seems most unsettled.

It started with a prayer. A simple prayer led by Brad Smith, Youth Pastor at a large church in Columbia, South Carolina. Brad believed that young people have the ability to serve and should be given opportunities to help others. But even with a ton of confidence in the young people, Brad Smith could have never guessed the power of his simple prayer. It was a week or two prior to the 1990 Super Bowl and Brad began a youth meeting with this prayer, "Lord, even as we enjoy the Super Bowl football game, help us be mindful of those who are without a bowl of soup to eat." The members of that senior high youth group become an answer to that prayer.

On Super Bowl Sunday, they volunteered to stand at the doors of the church following worship with a special offering plate. Well not a plate. After all, the game was called the Super Bowl. But they thought bigger than a bowl. They thought kettle. The kids had kettles and invited the congregation to share a dollar ... or more. A kettle of cash for the hungry. They invited other local congregations to do the same. They raised a lot of money - $5,600. How easy: have angelic faced youth holding large kettles with hopeful faces. With all due respect to Simon Peter, it was like shooting fish in a barrel! Real fishing should be so easy!

The idea caught on. And twenty years later, what began with a simple prayer has resulted in more than sixty million dollars donated to shelters and food pantries across America. As the people at Campbell's Soup might say, "Sixty million dollars? Mmm, mmm, good!" A prayer and a small group of youth with big ideas. Now that's a winning combination. Experience it in action as you leave worship this morning.

Speaking of prayer, a small group, and great results - on to our Gospel text. Simon Peter works the night shift. After all, fish are more likely to bite at night. I don't pretend to know the dynamic of that - something about too much activity on the water's surface during the day, I guess. Simon works the night shift. He was an ordinary sort of a guy. Content to be a fisherman. Never dreaming to do great things. If he could provide for his family and put food on the table - that would be good enough. Certainly he was not anticipating anything out of the ordinary as he cleaned the nets that morning, that ordinary morning, that glorious morning. Cleaning the nets even though - in the hours before dawn - the nets had come up empty. Simon's mood was likely as foul as his fisherman's luck. The night before, not only did the big one get away - they all got away.

Life can be like that. And perhaps when a person feels empty - it is precisely the time when that person is more likely to be open and receptive to the touch of God. For Simon, this might have been exactly one of those receptive times. As Simon failed to put food on the table... and perhaps faced economic crisis as a result, just maybe this is the time when he is most receptive to God's touch. How about us? Perhaps when our own nets are empty (whatever that means for you and for me), perhaps then we are more eager to feel the touch of our God.

And so when Jesus said, "Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch." Simon obeyed. Whatever he thought privately about a preacher telling a fisherman how to fish, Simon obeyed. "Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets."

"Yet if you say so." Among the most important words of this text, and among the most important words to a life of faith, "Yet, if you say so." And Simon and his friends caught so many fish that the nets almost broke and the boats almost sank. Almost. For the nets held. And the boats stayed afloat.

See the boat at the far right of our cross? Well, those nets and those boats have symbolized the Church through the years, as the Christian faith has circumnavigated the earth. The nets have held; the boat still floats. And it all started on a net and a prayer.

The brief history of this congregation shares a similar story line with those fishermen on Galilee. When Grace moved into a shoe store - the business remained a soul business, although not the kind at the bottom of a shoe. In the same way, when the disciples gave up fishing they were still in the soul business ... but not the kind that swim in the sea.

All things being equal - one might think that the ministry of this congregation pales in comparison to the venture begun twenty years ago in Columbia ... a ministry that has already netted sixty million dollars for those who are homeless and hungry. You might think tiny Grace pales in comparison to a venture begun with a handful of skeptical fishermen - those first soulmates of Jesus, who took the Church to the world.

But God does not make comparisons. God does not ask of this congregation, "Why is Grace Lutheran not bigger and better?" God does ask, "Are you the best Grace Lutheran you are capable of being? Are you willing to go again and again into deep waters - fishing with Jesus? Are you able to tell your friends and neighbors about the Gospel - as you do a little soul searching?"

This morning as we highlight the fishing adventure of Simon Peter, we highlight also the ministry of Grace. At times our nets seemed full, at times close to empty. But in good times and bad, we were never alone in our venture. You see, no net is completely empty in the presence of the One who accompanied Simon into the deep. The One who has no day job, really, except to love us ... and to be with us always!