Community Church Sermons
January 22, 2006
Margaret I. Manning
Lake Pymatuning – that’s
where my fishing career, if you could call it a fishing career, began. Whenever we came to visit in the summers, my
grandfather would take my older brother Dave and me to fish in this beautiful
lake on the Ohio/Pennsylvania border.
Back in our day, Lake Pymatuning was known for its Walleye, Muskie, and
also for Northern Pike. I remember
being thrilled by my grandfather’s stories about catching muskie – they were
fighters and boy, did they have teeth!
Unfortunately, I was never successful enough as an angler to know the
thrill of catching any muskie, or many other fish for that matter. What I was successful at in the early days
of my fishing career was hooking someone in the boat – both my brother and I
bear the scars of my fishing hooks in our arms and legs. My grandfather would have been hooked as
well, I was so bad at casting, but he was quick enough to get out of the
way! Perhaps my experience as an angler
gives new meaning to the song I learned long ago in Sunday school: “I will make you fishers of men, if you
follow me.” Ouch! Stay out of the way if you see me casting!
Despite my auspicious
beginning, I was hooked on fishing – literally and figuratively! There was just something about being out on
a boat on a lake, or as I’ve since experienced, on the ocean catching fish. I don’t enjoy hooking fish, mind you, and
I’ve rarely been able to eat anything I’ve caught, but there’s something about
the peace of the water, the wind in my face, and watching Sonny or other
friends reel the ‘big ones’ in! Whether
I’m casting or not, I love going fishing.
And despite my early experiences, I’ve been caught up in all of its joys
and challenges.
In a similar way, our gospel
story for today has something to do with being hooked, and being caught up in
the mission of goin’ fishin’. Jesus
chose the perfect candidates for this mission – they were well-experienced
anglers, and fortunately they used nets for fishing - no fishing hooks
involved! Fishing was their life and
was a large part of the economy of Jesus’ day.
Much of Jesus’ earthly ministry took place in the region of the Galilee,
around the Sea or Lake of Galilee. In
this region of the country, the fishing was so good that even the ancient
historian, Josephus, commented on the teeming waters of the Galilee – the lake
was relatively small, but the fish were abundant for the waters of the Galilee
were deep.[1] Fishing was part of the fabric and rhythm of
life.
Now, I don’t know about you,
but I’ve always been amazed that at the moment Jesus comes calling these four
men. They knew nothing of Jesus, they
didn’t know where Jesus would lead them; they willingly gave up their
livelihood, left their families behind – really left everything behind to
follow him. In fact, they showed no
hesitation to follow after Jesus. The
text tells us that ‘immediately they left their nets and followed him.’ What was it about Jesus’ call to follow and
to become ‘fishers of men’ that would compel such loyalty, and that would
compel such an instantaneous response?
Well, on the surface, I’m
sure that they’re being fisherman helped!
Jesus did want to call people to follow him who already had a real-life
example of the work he was calling them to.
But there was something else going on here.
The notion of ‘fishing for
people’ was not a new idea. The Old
Testament prophets used this term to describe God.[2] God was the great ‘fisher of men.’ God, the great angler, the prophets warned,
was catching people for judgment – judgment that preceded the coming kingdom. This came to be the understanding of these
texts, particularly after the exile. The
Jews, having experienced the horror of the exile, had a new appreciation for
obedience to the law. Furthermore, they
thought, their restoration was dependent on cleansing their world from all sin
and evil, and from all sinful and evil people.
So, prior to the coming kingdom, God would go on the ultimate fishing
mission to gather evil and destroy wickedness.
With this background, you can
understand why these first disciples jumped to it when Jesus uses this phrase
to call them. The judgment was coming
and they were being called as fishermen for God. Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John, being good Jewish men, had
been waiting for the restored kingdom.
They wanted to see the Romans caught with fishhooks and gathered up into
the nets of judgment. By using this
phrase to call them, Jesus appeared to be just their man for this fishing
mission! He had come to lead them to
national prominence and power, and to come and purify the nation from evil. They would be co-anglers with Jesus –
catching up evil and wiping Israel clean of sin so that the kingdom would come
in its fullness. They were hooked!
The fishing mission begins
with Jesus’ announcement, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So far, so good, the disciples though. Repent – get your life in order, or be
caught up in the fierce wrath of God.
But, Jesus catches them off guard.
The signs of the time being fulfilled and the kingdom having come were
not what they expected. Something new
happened. First, Jesus makes this
announcement in the sticks of the Galilean fishing region, far away from the
capital of Jerusalem. You would think
if kingdom-building was his purpose, he’d go right to the capital of the
historic kingdom. Instead, he goes to
‘Galilee of the Gentiles’[3]
as the prophet Isaiah saw long ago, a region of simple, fishermen and simple
people. Second, rather than destroying
people around him, according to the expectation of the traditional fishing
mission, Jesus begins to heal the ones who should have been destroyed. Rather than catching them for judgment,
Jesus catches them up in the kingdom of God.
In our text, he heals a demoniac; in Matthew’s gospel, he heals ‘every
disease and every infirmity among the people’ and in Luke’s gospel, he heals a
leper.[4] The old mission kept all these people as
unclean outsiders – in order for the kingdom to come, these were the ones who
needed to be gathered up in the nets of purification, or in the nets of
judgment and destroyed.
But, Jesus rightly
understands what the in-breaking of God’s kingdom entails. To be sure, precisely because Jesus has
come, fishing is now in order. Fishing
is the evidence of the fulfillment which Jesus proclaimed, ‘the time is now
fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.’
Jesus goes fishing as the sign of that in-breaking kingdom
in his very person, life-style and ministry.
Rather than ridding the world of sinners and of evil in the old way of
understanding, Jesus gathers the ones on the outside up into the net of his
fellowship, and they are healed and transformed. The new mission has arrived, Jesus tells them; and God wants
inaugurate God’s kingdom by catching people up into kingdom living. Dallas Willard says it this way: “Jesus then
came into Galilee announcing the good news from God. ‘All the preliminaries
have been taken care of and the rule of God is now accessible to
everyone. Review your plans for living and
base your life on this remarkable new opportunity.”[5] It is into this remarkable opportunity,
then, that Jesus invites his first ‘followers’ to come after him, and to
experience firsthand, kingdom living. I
am catching you up for a new mission, Jesus tells them, and we’re goin’
fishin’! And while they didn’t always
get it, these four were hooked!
It is into this same fishing mission
that Jesus calls us. He wants us to
come along on the greatest of all fishing expeditions for the greatest catch of
fish! It’s a mission to catch people up
into the life and kingdom of God that has arrived in Jesus Christ. It’s not just telling people what they need
to turn away from, but it’s showing them who they can turn toward. To be sure, turning to God requires an
entire reorientation of our lives – we do need to repent, to turn around and go
in a kingdom direction – and to heed Jesus’ call is to reconsider how we have
been approaching our lives. In the presence of Jesus, we now have the option of
living within the light of God’s kingdom purposes, of finding our lives caught
up into God’s life. We really can love
our enemies, we really can pray for those who persecute us, and we really can
turn the other cheek, and forgive. We
really can go to the Lord in prayer, and want God’s will to be done on earth,
as it is in heaven. All this is
possible now, not just for our heavenly future, but for our lives here and
now! Our lives are meant to be
fulfilled by God’s life and in it alone.
Jesus came to ordinary fishermen and he entered their ordinary world and
showed them that in him their ordinary lives could always be infused by the
extraordinary, caught up in the net of the kingdom here and now.
Just like the disciples, we
need to be caught by the kingdom in order to go fishing for others. This mission to which God calls us in Jesus
Christ is one in which we must immerse ourselves. It must encompass who we are just as fishing encompassed the life
of those who lived around the Sea of Galilee.
God’s mission transformed what they did into who they were!
We too are called to review
our plans for living and base our life on this remarkable new opportunity. Then, Jesus asks us to follow –leave behind
the things that hold you back, that keep you from the kingdom life and from
being a ‘fisher for people’-and you will find your life. Jesus’ mission compels us beyond ourselves
and towards others – reaching out to those on the margins; healing those who
are sick, blessing those who are cursed, and combating evil with love and
justice. Jesus calls us to the total
reorientation of our lives – in that reorientation, some things will have to be
left behind.
I told you that even after my
disastrous fishing outing, as a young girl, I still got caught up in
fishing. I spent time learning and
watching and asking questions and spending time fishing, because I loved
fishing. And so, as we contemplate Jesus’
call to us to become anglers of people, I ask, first, have we been ‘caught’ by
this mission? Have you been hooked by
this remarkable new opportunity to enter kingdom living now and to invite
others to participate in this new kind of life? We are invited to join Jesus in his ministry of reconciliation,
of gathering people up into the net of the kingdom, and into kingdom
living. Will you follow him?
Often, we at the church talk
a great deal about fishing but never get around to fishing. We often invite people to see the programs
and possibilities of our congregation rather than inviting people to see and
know the presence, power and person of Jesus Christ. We know, but do we believe?
We understand, but do we follow?
We may have all the fishing equipment, but have we used it? In order to join in on the new mission
established in Jesus Christ, we must first be caught up in the net of the
kingdom – we can only share what we have first come to experience. May we be hooked and reeled in today.
[1] William Lane, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: Mark, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992, p. 68.
[2] See Ezekiel 29:4ff; 38:4 where God tells the nations of Egypt and Gog that he will put ‘hooks in their mouths.’
[3] Isaiah 9:1. Matthew picks this up in his gospel as well – see Matthew 4:15ff.
[4] See Matthew 4:17b-4:23; Mark 1:14-28; Luke 5:1-16
[5] Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, San Francisco, Harper Books: 1998, p. 15.