“Has anyone ever asked you to do something, and you really didn’t want to do it because it was an inconvenience? Perhaps you were tired—and yet you did it anyway? Here’s what Peter would learn again and again: Jesus routinely inconveniences his followers.“

– Rev. Adam Hamilton, “Simon Peter: Flawed yet Faithful Disciple”

I have a less-than-serious confession to make. Over the past few years, I have had a few moments where I have looked at the world around me and felt as if there is a giant conspiracy. The conspirators are in my home with me. Late at night, I can almost hear them whispering. Sometimes it seems like the dishes are conspiring against me. No matter how often I clean them and put them away, it seems they are only too eager to congregate in my sink, the drying rack, or the dishwasher. Cleaning the dishes never ends. They’re all out to get me and living on my own means this endless war comes with no respite and there is no quarter either taken or given.

The dishes are, thankfully, generally peaceful. True, occasionally a sharp knife will take a stab at moving from a helpful tool to an attempted assassin, but in general they are an inconvenience at worst. Sure, sometimes someone will drop by and I will feel as if my very life will be judged based on how clean the sink looks, but that’s rarely happened.

Somehow, I do struggle with the word choice in the section I wanted to identify with today. It is certainly true that people are inconvenienced by Christ all the time in the gospels. I am certain that Simon Peter would like to go in and rest after a long night of fishing. Rowing out, loading the nets, casting the nets one last time, and even looking at the smirk I imagine on the face of Christ had to be inconvenient. Being around the Messiah who lays around the table chatting after the meal and who is regularly accused of hanging out with sinners probably meant that there was more than one time when life was more complicated than working a nine-to-five, grabbing takeout, and crashing at home. There were people to see, lives to heal, and the time had come for change. Working for change is rarely convenient.

Rev. Hamilton is absolutely right that the Living One calls us to moments of inconvenience. If you’ll notice, I am absolutely avoiding the word “but” as I do not wish to diminish the quite accurate point made by Rev. Hamilton. Also, sometimes Jesus asks us to go beyond inconvenience to sacrifice. In the story being considered, Jesus preaching from Simon Peter’s boat, the most requested of Simon Peter is an inconveniencing moment or two that ends up blessing both Simon Peter and the families around Simon Peter who would have otherwise had no obvious ways to provide after an abysmal night.

The challenge is that there are places in most of our lives where we know we are being called beyond inconvenience. There are people who place unreasonable demands on us and times when it feels like there is not enough in the bank account to be generous. There are times when cards are declining and times when we just want to go home but that friend really needs help. There are times when we are called to give beyond what is convenient into the realm of genuinely offputting or uncomfortable levels.

Sometimes, Jesus routinely asks his followers to give at such levels. We want a lovely church, we want people to find Jesus, and we want people in the pews. It can be inconvenient to offer to give someone a ride for a single Sunday. It can be truly offputting to realize that they will need help every Sunday for the foreseeable future. It can be inconvenient to be asked to give a box of stuffing at the holidays to help feed the family down the street and it can be beyond inconvenient when your neighbor next door is hungry and you only made enough food for one person.

Jesus still calls us to be faithful. Also, when we need help, we seemingly can trust that the moment will come when we can lower our nets for a catch. Both inconvenience and provision take place in this story. We can trust God in both.

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Our church is offering a short-term Bible study for the season of Lent. While many studies for the season traditionally focus on spiritual practices or on the stories of holy week, this year we are reading “Simon Peter: Flawed but Faithful Disciple” by Rev. Adam Hamilton. The idea of the study is that we might consider how we follow Christ in our lives while considering the life of this flawed follower. These blog posts are designed with a principle I have learned from recovery work: “We identify with the stories of others and try not to contrast.” We grow more and live with greater serenity when we look for what we share in common with someone with whom we might otherwise disagree.