Come and Follow Me
1-28-08
Heard any good fishing stories lately? Did you hear about the one armed fisherman? Yeah I guess he caught a fish this big (hold out one arm)! Then there was the story about the two ladies fishing in the river and when the warden came along and asked for the fishing licenses, they said they didn’t have any, but that they only had magnets on the end of their line, so that they could catch some debris off the bottom of the river. So the game warden check their lines and sure enough they had small horseshoe shaped magnets on their lines. So knowing no law against picking up junk off the bottom of the river the warden left. The women turned to each other and laughed. "Doesn’t he know that there are Steelhead in this river." Yeah each fish story gets crazier and crazier.
The mother of all fish stories had to be this morning’s passage from Matthew. The location is perfect for big fish stories. Fishing was a popular trade on the Sea of Galilee. Fishing was the most common occupation for people residing in the small villages of Capernaum and Bethsaida which were located on the lakeshore. Living on the shores of Lake Galilee with its abundant supply of fish, people understood fishing perhaps more than they did farming. Living on the shores of a fishing lake, the whole town was "into fishing. "Fishing was their livelihood, their way of making a living, their primary way of putting food on their tables.
So tell me if this sounds fishy to you. Imagine working your livelihood, when a man you have never met before says, "hey there if you leave everything you know behind and come wander with me I will make you fish for people." Uh huh, and what about that statement would compel any of us to jump up without question, without promise of salary and benefits, without knowledge of where we were going, and follow this stranger for the rest of our lives. Today we would need a written contract, assurances that our family can be involved, or at the very least that we would see them on holidays, and that we would eat at least twice a day. Very few of us I’m betting would be willing to hunker down under a bridge somewhere eating Vienna sausages and such, because we are doing the work of God, but we are not assured a place to stay. The story says, "Immediately they left their nets and followed him." That is a pretty huge thing to do.
Now, "I've seen quite a few license plate frames, bumper stickers, and caps over the years that said something like, "I'd rather be fishing." To us twenty-first-century urbanites and suburbanites, fishing serves almost as a synonym for doing nothing, for vacation, for relaxation. And when we come across language of fishing in the New Testament, we're often tempted to do something that I think we often do without thinking with imagery of shepherds and sheep -- we imagine a kind of idealized, peaceful, pastoral version of these activities. And then we're puzzled and disappointed when our walk with Christ doesn't match up to the tranquility of these scenes we've imagined. But fishing wasn't an escape from work for folks like Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John. It was work." 1 Maybe so much so that fishing for people sounded like an easier trade. They wouldn’t have to pay takes for the fishing grounds, rent their equipment, or do the tedious work of mending their nets. What do they have to lose? Jesus never once says once you are with me, you can never go back, although we know that anyone who develops a relationship with Christ won’t live the exact same life as they once did. Life isn’t the same. Those four brothers heard Jesus words and they say, well lets give this fishing for people thing a shot. These humble fisherman became the radicals of the day.
Fishing remains one of the great models of Jesus for the kingdom of God. Maybe our age and culture are in danger of losing the image because most of us no longer go fishing with nets-just like most of us no longer herd sheep and know what a shepherd is. Most of us no longer plant seeds in the ground and know what growth is. We no longer draw water from wells and know what living water is.
But the image of fishing is worth recovering. There are still images and tools that we associate with fishing that we can use in discipleship. First there is the skill of angling. Angling simply means catching a fish with a line, hook, and rod. Many people have experience angling or have an image of angling. One could say that Discipleship is about angling. Think about it. Being a Christian is about taking a particular angle towards life. "It is the angle of grace."2 Each of us-every one of us-perceives reality and the world in a different way; every one of us, yet Jesus teaches us to see the world from the angle of grace. Wouldn't our Christianity be richer if we accepted angles more easily? Wouldn't our Christianity be more beautiful if we bent toward the angle of grace?
Fishing also teaches us about discipline. "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of people," said Jesus. Granted there is some pure dumb luck to fishing, most fishermen and women will tell you that fishing takes some practice, preparation, discipline. One must learn how to cast the line on a rod. I remember standing in my front yard with my very first fishing pole aiming for a bucket. My casting accuracy was and continues to be stinky, stinky awful. Some folks can cast a long way, but their accuracy is awful. There may be fish on the right, but they know only how to cast the line to the left. There may be fish on the left, but they keep casting to the right. Casting, like discipleship, is an acquired habit. It rewards practice. If you fish for people you must practice being aware, listening, and identifying the needs of the people. Only if another person feels like they are respected, important, intelligent, wanted, will they even start to be open to hearing or experiencing the good news of Jesus Christ. Even then God must be at work,
Some of the best fishing, of course, is done with a lot of people. One kind of net still in use today is called the seine. It is a long net of maybe 50 or 60 or even 100 feet. It takes three or four people to stand on the shore at one end and hold the net, hold it firmly on land, stand firm. Another three or four people or maybe more venture out into the surf, straight out into the ocean with the other end. This group struggles, pushing against the surf, until they are almost over their heads and then they turn. The group must turn against the current, so that the current forces fish into the net. This is a very difficult, yet rewarding task, dragging a long net against the current. One of the great features of the net is that it brings in everything. It is not selective. Yes, it is much like God's great net. It drags in everything. Have any of you ever been seining? What a beautiful image of the kingdom of God. However, even the smallest of holes in the net will allow the fish to escape. Nets must be maintained and repaired. Fishing requires taking care of the equipment…keeping oneself well and mended.
And God knows, as do some of you that fishing takes patience. In fact if you have trouble with patience it is good practice to wait for something to happen or as some people’s luck would have it, nothing to happen. It is waiting, maybe trolling along some Oregon lake or maybe standing out in the ocean waves with a single line strewn out into the sea.
Fishing is noticing the weather, watching the wind and the clouds. Fishing, like the gospel, is always practiced in context. It does no good to sit at one lake and wish you were on some other lake, or stand at the ocean and wish the weather were different. On that day, in that place, we fish in context according to what the conditions are. So it is with the proclamation and the living out of the Christian gospel. It does little good wishing that we were somewhere else, in a different time or in a different country; perhaps with different skills and abilities. Our context is this time and this place. We need to be aware and know where the wind blows. We need to watch the clouds.
The kingdom of God is a huge net cast over different numbers of people and species. We, now, in this church and this context are the fishermen and fisherwomen the keepers of the net, of discipline, practice, patience. But the net itself is the great grace of God. And, of course, our fishing-that net-is not designed to trap people against their will. It's designed to attract people into this marvelous embrace of God.
If this fishing metaphor doesn’t work for you take your life, your jobs, your hobbies, and create a metaphor for discipleship. If you are a teacher, than teach. If you are a carpenter, then build. If you are a writer, then write. If you are a dancer, then dance. If you are a musician, then express music. If you are an athlete, then train. If you are an accountant, then calculate. If you are a parent, then nurture. Do you understand what I’m saying? Jesus is saying to us, "follow me and I will use what you already know to help you develop relationships and share by word and example the good news of Jesus Christ." How cool is that? We are all equipped, as we are, to follow Jesus out into the world as anglers of grace.
Follow me, and I will bring you into the net? No, Jesus said. Follow me and I will let you drag the net. I will let you cast the net, mend the net, care for the net. Follow me and I will let you go out into the deep even up to your heads. Follow me and I may make you struggle against the current. Follow me and I will send you into places of great peace and relaxation and also great joy and excitement.
Follow me, said Jesus, and I will teach you how to proclaim by word and example the good news of grace, the good news of the kingdom. To that I say, Thanks be to God. Amen.
1 Thank you for the words of Sarah Dylan’s lectionary blog, at SarahLaughed.net.
2 Thanks to the words of The Very Rev. Samuel G. Candler. Rev. Candler is Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip in the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, GA. He provided much insight and wisdom in his sermon entitled, "Follow me and I will Make you Go Fishing." Preached in 2005.