The reading:
Mark 1:
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee,
proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and
the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good
news." As Jesus passed along the
Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the
sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus
said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and
followed him. As he went a little
farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their
boat mending the nets. Immediately he
called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men,
and followed him.
The message:
I want to start off this morning by sharing 2 of my favorite
fishing stories. (They are also my only 2 fishing stories so I apologize if you
have heard them before). My first
experience with fishing happened when I was probably 12 or 13 years old. I saw
a sign near the bike path along the water in Brooklyn that said something like
“Free fishing lessons on Saturday, all equipment provided”. I thought it would
be something new to try, so my family and I showed up at the appointed time.
There was a decent crowd of people waiting to get the equipment. After a few
minutes, we were given our free fishing supplies. I was expecting reels, string, poles, bait,
hooks, a hat and all of the other stuff I had seen or associated with
fishing. I was given a soda can with a
string wrapped around it, a plastic spoon to dig for worms as bait, and an old
hook. The lesson part can be summarized
by “put something on the hook and put it in the water”. After a half hour or so, we gave up and left.
Believe it or not, no one in our group (or any other) caught anything that morning.
My other fishing experience was 15 or so years later. In one of my first sermons at my home church,
I said something about how boring fishing was and shared the story about the
can and string from years ago. Norman, one of the people at my church was a
retired captain who spent most of his life on the water working in the navy or
at various fishing or boat related jobs. Afterwards, he invited me to go out
fishing with him, the right way. The
next week, we went out. He had a small
boat in one of the local bays. It was packed with all different fishing poles,
reels, and strings. There was box after
box of bait, hooks, shiny things and even some beeping things. He also had over 60 years of knowledge about
the water and fishing with him. We were
out for 3 hours or so, he taught me the basics and we managed to catch 5 or 6
good fish that morning.
These two stories have helped me understand Jesus call of his first followers with the invitation “come follow me and I will make you fishers of people” in a more realistic way. Jesus first followers were fishermen. They depended on the sea for the survival of themselves, their families and even their communities. In fact many of the people Jesus talks to lived near the water and depended on it for the essentials of life like food and transportation. Stories and lessons about the water and fishing were the clearest and easiest way to communicate with them. People understood the importance of the sea as well as the ups and downs that came with often thankless job of fishing. Times have changed but this metaphor of fishing for people can still mean something to us today, even in our global world of cement, computers, phones, texts, trains, airplanes, cars and frozen, store bought or processed foods (many of which do not resemble anything that came out of the ocean).
The most important thing to look at for us today, to focus
on in this story is that Jesus does not make this invitation “follow me and I
will make you fish for people” and then offer then a soda can and string, Jesus
teaches them how to fish for people and provides them with all of the tools and
equipment necessary to do this work. Jesus teaches by setting an example, by
inviting people to follow him, Jesus invites them to see how he interacts with others,
to hear what he teaches, to witness how he treats the poor, different and
outsider, to experience the power of prayer for themselves, to show that God is
speaking to the world with words of love and compassion though works of love
and compassion. Jesus reminds them that they are not doing this work alone by constantly
pointing to God and referencing the scriptures. Jesus points to the presence of
God in the midst of celebration and suffering through the healing of the blind
and lame, the restoration of life, the exorcising and chasing out of demons and
eventually in Jesus own trial, suffering, death and resurrection for the forgiveness
of our sins.
Jesus does not just teach by example, He also empowers and trusts his followers, along with all of their gifts, skills, abilities, flaws and even doubts. When they are ready, Jesus sends them out to heal, teach, welcome and restore life. Jesus trusts them to share the news of God’s kingdom come, to use their faith and ability to be the church. Jesus celebrates with them in their success, rejoices as God’s work in the world is done and help his followers learn from their failures. This is one of the times when Jesus is at his most human, excited by understanding and aggravated by doubts, rejoicing in achievement and being annoyed at failures.
In all this Jesus, confronts the obstacles to sharing faith, addresses every instance of the crippling thoughts like “ I don’t know enough”, “I’m just a fisherman”, “I am scared or shy”, “no one will believe me”, or “no one will talk to me”. To each of these and all the other excuses Jesus responds with love, reassurance that God will be with them and focus on the work at hand. Jesus knows that it is not going to be easy, pretty or nice work. It is not simple or comfortable to speak to people about truly deep things, to confront long held beliefs with something new, to be open and exposed to others, to risk rejection. This brings me to one of the most poignant memories I have of my good fishing trip and perhaps the most important reason Jesus talks about evangelism as fishing for people. Fish do not just jump out of the water and onto a plate as fish and chips, curried fish or a nice piece of stuffed fillet, Fish leave the water pulling, biting and fighting, they need to be dragged in, killed, cleaned and prepared. Jesus, from the earliest times in his ministry, from the calling of his first followers, knows that to introduce someone to God’s saving work means to take their life and world apart, to tear people out of their lives of sin, anxiety and fear. The language we often use around baptism, to die to sin and rise to new life is not an accident or exaggeration, it is a description of what God is doing in the world.
Finally, I invite all of you to take Jesus promise seriously, to share the faith, hope, joy and comfort that is in you, to go and be “fishers of people”, to do so trusting that God is with you in the work
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