The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden                        First Presbyterian Church

Mt: 4: 18-22                                                            1/23/11

 

            There’s something I should tell you right up front.  I don’t know how to fish.  I’ve never even gone fishing, and while I really enjoy eating the fish someone else has caught, the actual catching of it doesn’t appeal to me at all. 

            Some poor unsuspecting fish, swimming innocently around, sees something that looks like an appetizing morsel for dinner and the next thing he knows, he’s flopping around gasping for breath on the deck of a boat, soon to be filleted for someone’s supper.  See what I mean?  It just doesn’t sound appetizing to me.              So why in the world would Jesus tell Peter and Andrew that He would make them fishers of men? 

            I’ve read entire books that take this analogy way too far.  They talk about finding the right “bait” to lure people back to church.  Maybe we should bring in a famous football player or coach to speak or there should be a rock and roll band up front or a cappuccino machine in the lobby and pyrotechnics at the youth service down the hall.  Now don’t misunderstand me.  There’s nothing necessarily wrong with any of those things if they’re done for the right reason.  But we should never make church look and sound so much like the rest of the world that the gospel is completely hidden and we can hook, land, and fillet our unsuspecting victim before they even know what has happened --- another catch for the kingdom of God. 

            I don’t think that’s what Jesus meant, not by a long shot.  I think He used what Peter and Andrew knew --- and what they knew was fishing.  When He saw a farmer working in the fields He talked about sowing the seeds of the Kingdom and when He saw a woman baking bread He talked to her about how she could grow the Kingdom like she used yeast to double the size of her dough.   He always starts with what we know, probably so we’ll understand that we already have the skills we need to share the Good News --- that this isn’t rocket science.  We don’t have to wait to become an expert.  We already are experts. 

            So what does fishing have to do with bringing people to the heart of God’s love? 

            Well, first of all it does mean understanding where a person is in their life and what they are looking for, what they need, what questions they have.  Most people don’t need church.  They don’t need some gimmick to draw them in.  They don’t need a lure and they don’t need us to use the pretense of love only as some form of bait --- offering a hot meal to the hungry just so we can preach salvation to a captive audience. 

 They need people who really care.  They need a God who cares.  And that’s exactly what we have to offer.  Sometimes we need to tell people quite plainly that we don’t do “church”.  Trust me --- Jesus did not do “church”.  In fact, He spent quite a bit of time preaching against people caught up in the “Thou shalt not’s” of church --- people tallying up who was in and who was out.  No.  We don’t do “church” – we do love and we have found the source of love. 

            So we need to meet people where they are, not because we are using their pain as bait, but because we really care about where they are and how we can help.  They may be grieving and need a comforting presence.  They may be angry at what is happening in their life and need a listening ear.  They may just need a bowl of hot soup when they ache with the flu. 

            And trust me, it is not loving to tell someone who has just lost their mother that it must be part of God’s plan and that everything will work out for the best--- or to tell someone suffering from depression that they should just praise the Lord and have more faith --- or to tell an addict struggling with recovery that they are a sinner outside of God’s grace. 

            We also need patience and perseverance.  Fishermen don’t give up after an hour on the water.  They stay for hours without any response and then go back out the next day. 

Sometimes we give up too soon.  We invite someone to church one time.  They say “no thanks” and we never ask again.  People need to be told more than once about God’s love and how He will meet their need in a way they can’t even imagine.  After all, that’s probably not the message they’ve received in the past or it may not be the impression they’ve received.

And sometimes we give up before we ever begin, saying to ourselves “oh, they won’t be interested” or “that’s the last thing they want to hear.”  We turn around and put the boat up for sale before we ever make it out on the water.  Peter and Andrew knew better.  Fishing takes patience and perseverance.  Helping someone believe in love again takes the same thing.  Helping them risk coming here into a community of love takes the same thing.  They have a lot to lose --- but they have even more to gain. 

We are, in the end, very strange fishermen.  Our “bait” is not meant to fool someone into the kingdom of God.  It is not meant to “trick” them into becoming just one more catch.  Our bait is meant to help people we care about get caught up in the loving arms of God.  We fish, not to take people out of their safe waters but to rescue them from troubled seas.  We aren’t there to fillet an unsuspecting catch but to offer those who are dying in polluted streams new life. 

We are called not to be fishermen so we can brag about getting the biggest catch, but for the eternal kingdom of God’s love.  And when Jesus says let’s go fishing, we need to drop everything, pick up our nets, and follow.