“Going fishing”

January 27, 2008, 3rd Sunday after Epiphany 

Readings: Isaiah 9:1-4, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, Matthew 4:12-23


   “Let’s go fishing,” Jesus says. “Come with me and I will teach you to fish for people.”

   I would hazard a guess that most of us in this room think of fishing as recreation. Perhaps you envision an idyllic scene of a boat on a lake, or casting a line in a river while wearing hip-high waders, shadows of tall evergreens rippling on the water’s surface.  Maybe you have tried ocean trawling, or even have fished for big game fish on the ocean, or perhaps you’ve never been fishing yourself, but have seen pictures in advertisements or Norman Rockwell paintings. Maybe “fishing” makes you think of lazy summer days, idling on the shore of brook, hoping to catch a small fish to cook on a campfire.

   For me, the mention of fishing evokes memories of my childhood. When I was a little girl, my grandparents lived on an island in New York. We visited Shelter Island often as a family, and every summer some relative or another would take me fishing. Aunt May took me fishing off a dock, and Uncle Leo took me fishing on a boat he had built himself. I have wonderful memories of fishing with my family, and can still remember the pride I felt the day no one else caught anything, and my Aunt May declared I was the best fisherman in the family. Of course, I was a little girl with no experience, so her compliment was no doubt a loving way to encourage me while remarking on my good luck, but I still remember it, close to fifty years later.

   We used purchased squid for bait. It was slimy and smelly, and it had this black inky stuff on parts of it that would stain your fingertips. I liked to cut it up into the right sized pieces. Maybe that was because the grown-ups trusted me to use a sharp knife. After it was cut, we’d take a piece of squid and fold it carefully around the barb of a hook, securing it well enough so that it wouldn’t drop off in the current. Then we’d drop the line – we didn’t cast – was that because it was salt-water fishing?  I don’t really know. Then we would wait. These were often quiet, lazy times, fishing in the sun on Long Island Sound. When we’d had enough, we would go home, and I would wash up – my Dad did all the work of cleaning the fish, and my grandmother would cook Daddy fish for breakfast the next day. They make good memories.

   Today’s gospel lesson is a different kind of “fish story.” Fishing with Jesus is life changing.

   One day, as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers fishing. Now, if you remember the lesson last week, Jesus met Simon Peter and Andrew right after his baptism.  Was this occasion the same day or a day or two later?  We have no idea. But my guess is that these fishermen had hung around Jesus long enough to tell that he was extraordinary. His vision of God’s kingdom was so appealing they had to be a part of it. Matthew’s gospel tells us as soon as he called them, they left their nets immediately to follow him. A short time later Jesus saw the two sons of  Zebedee in their boat, mending their nets. They, too, heard his call and immediately left behind the life they knew to follow him. 

   And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”

   Does this story ever make you wonder what Zebedee must have been thinking? These men were not out pleasure fishing for relaxation. Fishing wasn't an escape from work for folks like Simon Peter and Andrew and James and John. It wasn’t what they did on their day off or on summer vacation. These were hard working men, laboring in a culture where the working class was a world apart from the elite ruling class. Zebedee and his sons were probably ekeing out a living at the Sea of Galilee.

   Here he was, casting his nets for a living with the back of his boat painted, “Zebedee and Sons.”  When Jesus came along, he had to cross the “AND SONS” part off his business logo. The Bible doesn’t tell us his reaction, but my guess is he had heard his son’s amazed talk about this Jesus to whom they had been introduced, and he may even have wished he could have joined them on their adventure. They were leaving behind a hard, predictable life by following Jesus.

   In any event, we know that Jesus called these fishermen to be disciples in the work God was calling him to. It is to these working people Jesus announced that there was good news – really Good News – of God’s kingdom, which is near at hand. Once he announced this Good News he invited others.  “Come, follow me.”  Immediately people left their work, the predictability of their homes and lives, to follow Jesus.

   Now, don’t forget the beginning of this lesson. Jesus had just learned that John had been arrested, and Jesus took up the job of telling people to repent – to turn around to God. Jesus wasn’t ignorant of the fact that this was dangerous, and I am sure he didn’t promise his followers that their task was going to be safe and easy. This is dangerous business in very dangerous times. They were headed into an uncertain and certainly dangerous future.

   But they heard the best of the Good News.  God, despite all human failings, was not leaving them to their own devices.  God’s kingdom was close at hand!  Jesus was spreading the news, “God’s kingdom is at hand! The oppressors will not win. We can chose life and peace! Turn around!  Follow me!”

   This was powerful. And, guess what!  It’s still powerful today! We still have this great good news to share!  Following Jesus will change your life! This is GOOD NEWS!  It is scary and dangerous and exciting.  Jesus is NOT proclaiming a message about “being religious” for an hour once a week and then going on with life as you have planned it. Jesus’ message of evangelism is meant to shake up our very lives and send us out into the world to tell others what we have learned about God.

   Jesus proclaimed that good news to those fishermen.  We have heard it again, loud and clear, 2000 years later.  It is still good news! We share it with faith, with conviction, but mostly with JOY. These fishermen were not told to use smelly, slimy raw squid on a barbed hook. They were not prepared to go out only for a lazy boat ride on a sunny afternoon. They knew this would be work. These fishermen were taught to carefully prepare a net – a net that is certainly not a trap – and to prepare and wait – all that takes discipline.  Nets require mending. Preparation includes knowing where the fish are – where are those people who need to hear God’s good News? What is the weather – what storms are brewing that may make catching the fish impossible? To follow Jesus is to fish.

   Matthew tells us that Jesus was fulfilling the words of the ancient prophet by being the light of the world that invites and welcomes all of us to turn toward the light. God has given every age hope – from the midst of battles  between Israel and Syria in Isaiah’s time to the poor and oppressed in Jesus’ time, to the downtrodden people today. God's blessing, God's kingdom, is most known precisely where God's light shines, in the land of deep darkness, in the places where armies or police leave razor wire to rust.

    Jesus does not promise this will be easy. Good news is dangerous! But in dark times there is a growing circle of light brightening our path into God’s kingdom. We, like the disciples of old, are also called to leave comfort and predictability as we enter a life of service to God. 

   Thanks be to God! 
 

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