Community Church Sermons

The Fifth Sunday After Epiphany, Year C - February 4, 2001

"The Art of Catching People"

Luke 5:1-11

I so vividly remember the first time I went fishing. It was one of those father/son things. I was about eight or nine years old, and my dad finally got up enough courage to take me with him out to the lake. I can recall going out into the backyard the night before, and spraying it with water from the hose. And then, a while later, going back with a flashlight to pick up the night crawlers that had escaped the rising waters by abandoning ship and wiggling their way to the surface. And I have a memory of waking up the next morning just seconds after it seemed I fell asleep the night before. It was before dawn, and my dad was shaking me. Breakfast was ready, and we quietly crept downstairs to eat. It was my dad's specialty. Bacon, and burnt eggs. I can still taste it today. Maybe because that's what I made for breakfast this morning. Bacon. And burnt eggs.

Funny how you can almost call up the sights, and sounds, and even the smells of long-ago experiences like that. My dad and I - just the two of us - drove over to Indian Lake. Don't think we caught many fish, but that's where I taught my dad how to untangle a fishing line. I gave him lots of practice.

Fishing with your dad. Doesn't get any better than that. I remember as a teenager fishing with Sandy's dad, and his son Jim who was a grown man. We were out on a boat and Sandy's dad hooked into a huge bass. When that giant of the deep swallowed the shiner on the end of his line, that bobber got sucked below the surface with a loud goosh. Sandy's dad hauled back, set the hook, and started working the fish closer to the boat. Every once in awhile, the creature would make a run at the boat, and Sandy's dad would fight him off, knowing that - if he got too close - the bass could use an anchor rope, or a hanging oar, or just about any object to use as leverage to break the line. Unfortunately, Jim didn't realize that, and - on the fish's next pass toward the boat - he reached out and tried to scoop it into a net. That's all the bass needed. With the line stretched out to it's maximum tension, just a touch of the net's frame between the line and the fish caused the line to snap with a loud pop. Sandy's dad just about fell into the bottom of the boat.

And he was ticked off. Oh my, was he mad! He called Jim every name in the book. He expressed fury in ways I had never even imagined. And at just about the point I thought he was going to hit his grown son, Jim reacted by diving out of the boat! Never saw a grown man do that before!

Down under the water he went. And long moments later, he surfaced. He was swimming back toward the boat, still fully clothed, doing a kind of lifesaving stroke, with his left arm pulling back the water and his right arm trailing behind. And then we saw why. In his right hand was the red and white bobber of his father's fishing gear! And still attached to it was the monofilament line. And still attached to it…

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it for myself. There was that danged fish! Jim had snagged the big one that got away! And he was bringing him home to his dad! Unfortunately, though, when he got to the side of the boat, Jim tried to throw the bobber and the line and the bass into the vessel. But that big bass had other ideas. And with one big, might tug, that fish broke the line a second time and became the big one that got away that got away.

Does it surprise you that Jesus enjoyed hanging out with fishermen? Bacon and burnt eggs. Creative fish-catching techniques. Fishermen were the people Jesus turned to when the religious crowd in Nazareth rejected him. And fishermen turned out to be his first followers.

You remember the story, don't you? After almost getting killed in his hometown, Jesus escapes to the Sea of Galilee and calls his first disciples. It is one of the most famous Bible stories of all. Why, from the time we were little fishermen and women, we learned almost by heart this story in which Jesus walks along the shore and says to Peter and James and John, "Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." And we all know how the story goes. The fishermen, upon hearing the words, leave behind their families, and their friends, and their 5-million dollar fishing boats to follow this guy they've never met before!

Now, I don't know about you, but this sounds rather bizarre to me. And I have a hard time believing it happened the way we were taught it happened way back in Sunday School days.

I mean, these are fishermen are not our dads! These are rough and tumble old salts with hands calloused by the rope rigging of their boats, and skin cracked by countless hours of labor under the hot sun. These are people who do back-breaking work all night, pulling in net loads of fish, and then all day mending the holes in the nets, maybe stopping only long enough for a nap, a sandwich and a couple of beers before heading out to sea again. These fishermen out in Galilee are notorious for not having either time or tolerance for church or religion. They are people with mortgages on their boats, with all their earthly assets invested in the business. These are people like that ill-fated crew of the Andrea Gail in the movie "The Perfect Storm" - men whose economic survival depends on their willingness to sail off every day into the dangerous sea from which some - like those on the Andrea Gail - never return.

"Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men?"

And they simply turned and walked away from their families, and their dreams, and their multi-million dollar investments in the fishing boats? I don't think so.

And neither does Luke. While Matthew and Mark briefly report the results of this encounter at the shore, Luke takes the time to explain to us why the fishermen went and followed Jesus.

He had been preaching to some crowds on the shore. He needed a higher pulpit so that all the people could see and hear. He asked Simon Peter if he could use his boat, which was moored nearby, and Simon agreed. They pushed off from shore a little ways, and from this new perch, Jesus finished his sermon.

Then Jesus did a remarkable thing. He evidently wanted to compensate Simon for the use of the boat. I can imagine Simon Peter hemming and hawing and telling Jesus he doesn't owe him anything. You know this kind of hospitality was regularly practiced in that day. People helped each other. For free. So Peter said, "No." But Jesus said, "I insist. Sail out to the deeper water." So they do.

"Put your nets down," says Jesus. Simon balks. "Jesus, in case you don't know, fishing on the Sea of Galilee is done at night, and we fished all night, but they weren't biting. It's pointless to put the nets out now."

Jesus says, "Oh, just for the heck of it, put the nets out and see if we can catch a sunfish or two." So Peter, probably to humor Jesus, reluctantly lowers the nets.

Luke writes: "When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets began to break. So they frantically signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help. And they came, and started filling both boats, and there were so many fish, the two boats began to sink."

And Simon Peter, we are told - up to his knees in both water and fish - falls down before Jesus, and begins to weep. And Jesus reaches down, and lifts up Peter's scruffy chin, and looks him so deeply in the eye that it seems he's peering into Peter's soul. And Jesus says, "Don't be afraid. From now on, you will be catching people!"

And Luke says, Simon Peter - overcome by the experience - left everything and followed him. And James and John followed, too. And they spent the rest of their lives - in fact, they eventually gave their lives - catching people for Jesus' cause.

And you and I are called to be catchers of people, too!

How do you do it? How would you or I go about the task of catching people for Jesus?

I would suggest you take a very close look at how Jesus caught Peter!

You see, Luke doesn't say a peep about Peter being impressed by Jesus' sermon. Oh no. What moves Peter is the catch! In exchange for an hour-long boat ride, Jesus pays Peter with a season's worth of fish! Peter has fish coming out the ying-yang! Enough fish to pay off the loans on the boats! Enough fish to pay his crew their back pay, plus give them a bonus! Enough fish to meet all his obligations, and to have plenty left over to open up a 401k retirement plan!

What catches Peter are not the words, but the generosity of Jesus! It will be almost three years before Peter comes to believe that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. But the generosity of the gift given, led Peter to follow Jesus even before he believed!

Now, I know a lot of people who aren't ready to believe in Jesus. Do you know some folks like that? How might we catch them, and turn them into followers of Jesus even before they get their theology straight?

The story in Luke tells us how: Heap generosity in all its forms upon them!

One day, Jesus came upon a leper. According to Mosaic law, the man was unclean. He was an untouchable. There are, in every society, people who are considered untouchable. The right thing to do is to keep your hands off. Keep your distance. Stay away. But Jesus does the unthinkable. He reaches out to the man…and touches him! What generosity of compassion! Not surprisingly, the leper became well! And joined the cause of Jesus!

Another day, Jesus met a Roman collaborator. His name was Levi, and he did the Romans' dirty work for them by collecting taxes from the poor Israelites. This poor excuse for a human being had no friends, but for the other tax collectors and some whores on the street. Levi threw a party with these scoundrels and invited Jesus to come. Surprisingly, Jesus actually showed up. Most of the Christians I know wouldn't go near such a gathering. But Jesus did. Spent just about the entire night with this disreputable crowd. And when the religious leaders complained about the people he was partying with, Jesus defended them. Said these were the very people God was most interested in calling to the higher purposes of the Kingdom of God. These were his kind of people! What generosity of tolerance and redemptive hope! Not surprisingly, many of the partygoers joined the cause of Jesus. Including Levi, who later, when he finally believed, became the disciple Matthew.

One night, at a dinner party, a woman of the streets came in and fell at the feet of Jesus. Weeping for the disgraceful shame of her life, she breaks open a bottle of expensive perfume given to her as payment by one of her johns. She pours the ointment over Jesus' feet, and wipes it with her long flowing hair. And some in the crowd react by suggesting that Jesus must not know she is a prostitute, or he would never let her touch him. But Jesus knows. He just doesn't say anything, except that her gift is beautiful. What generosity of spirit when you know you could say something, but you don't! And what generosity in saying what he did - calling her gift beautiful. And not surprisingly, this woman - who probably did not know yet what it meant to believe in Jesus - joined his cause!

When you are generous to others with love, with forgiveness, with mercy, with restraint, with time, with resources, with compliments, with support, with attention, with encouragement, with tolerance, with advocacy, with hopefulness, with sympathy and a thousand other human interactions, you reach into peoples' souls and touch them in ways you cannot even fathom. And when people know that your generosity comes out of your faith in Jesus Christ - and that this is how life is lived in the Kingdom of God - they will turn toward Jesus whether they know him or not.

As I think back on my first fishing experience with my dad, I discover that what made the difference for me was not so much the fishing itself, but the gift he gave me. The gift of his attention and love. The gift of bacon and burnt eggs. I can still smell them today. And I know it's time to go fishing!