Matthew 4:12-23
The summer after I graduated college
I interned in this tiny church in a tiny town in Pennsylvania. There was not a whole lot going on in the
town, but it was a beautiful place.
Adjacent to the town was a state park with miles of trails and a small
lake. It was a difficult time for me having
just finished college and being unsure of where to go next. I struggled with insomnia. I slept for a couple of hours and then waited
for the dawn. When I saw the first signs
of light, I drove to the state park and walked for miles. There was one morning in particular when the
sun was rising and there was mist on the lake, I noticed a few fishermen in a
small boat. This was not an unusual occurrence,
but it struck me at that moment. It
seemed so serene. For the first time in
my life, I saw the appeal of fishing…not enough to actually do it, but while
waiting for the sun to rise and bemoaning my sad existence, I thought, that
looks like a good way to spend a morning.
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| Little Buffalo State Park by David Owen |
Since that summer, I have never had
a desire to fish, possibly because I don’t eat fish. However, when I think of fishing, I still
have that image in my head…a couple of men drinking coffee in the early morning
with their lines dangling in a calm lake.
When I imagine the disciples fishing, there they are with their poles
and whatever they drank in the morning.
I see Jesus walking up to them and saying something like, “Hey do you
want to fish for people?” while he made the universal fishing motion of
whipping the line into the water and they would think, “We know how to fish,
why not?” I have always assumed that the
request made sense to these 1st century fishermen, while it would
make absolutely no sense to most of us unless we were familiar with this
story.
Usually I do not have problems
adjusting to Jesus’ metaphors, but I had to think of it a little more
concretely when planning my children’s sermon.
What’s the primary purpose of fishing?
To catch fish. Why do you catch
fish? To eat them. That is where the
metaphor kind of breaks down. Over the years
the fishing metaphor has evolved, and not in a helpful way for our context. Consider the phrase, “hook, line and sinker.”
That means you have tricked someone and manipulated them. That’s not what happened with Jesus
followers. He was honest from the very
beginning. Or just consider the word
hook. Getting hooked on something never
comes out well. Why are we still using
his metaphor?? You may be relieved to
know that the disciples were not using poles.
This was their occupation. They were not just out there trying to catch
a few fish. They were trying to make a
living. They were using massive, heavy
nets. That changes the metaphor.
Net
fishing is different than pole fishing.
The fishermen would drop these weighted nets into the water and then lug
them onto the boat, then sort through the smelly fish. It was a hard job. It required long hours, often working through
the night. The labor was intense and the outcome was unpredictable. You did not
know if you were going to catch anything and if you did, it might not be what
you needed. This was the kind of fishing
that Jesus was talking about. Jesus was
asking these men to follow him and create a community of believers. It would be long hours, grueling labor and
there was no guarantee they would be successful. Why are we still using this metaphor?? I am not sure this is any better than the hook
and the pole.
Just
because it is not a convenient metaphor does not mean it’s not true. Living is
hard work. We all know that. Some of us might be in denial, but deep down
we know that living a life that is productive and worthwhile requires work. Being a disciple of Jesus is challenging at
times and sometimes being a disciple with other people who (perish the thought)
might not always agree with you---is even more challenging. That said, there is something reassuring
about these words of Jesus. They were honest. He was not selling these men
something. He was straight with them
from the very beginning. As the church,
we strive for that same authenticity.
Yet…there
is almost always a yet in my sermons.
Yet…let’s consider the metaphor from another perspective. There had to be more to Jesus’ appeal than
just, come with me so I can tire you out.
I keep coming back to the net.
You see, not being someone familiar with fishing nets, when I think of
nets, I think of things like safety nets.
Safety nets are there when we need them. They allow us to take risks
that we would not normally take. They
give us courage. They make us brave.
What if Jesus was not just the man who was asking them for their hard
work and loyalty? What if he was also
saying, “I am always here to catch you when you fall. I am with you always. I will give you the confidence to do the hard
things.”
It
makes a little more sense… doesn’t it?
No wonder they followed him.
Perhaps he did not say these words, but they could sense a power and
compassion in this man and they witnessed that power and compassion almost as
soon as they dropped those heavy nets.
As soon as he called his disciples, he started teaching people and
healing every sickness and every disease.
If they were not convinced before, they certainly were now.
Here
is the other thing about nets. They bend and stretch when we need them to. They
accommodate all different people, sometimes many people at once. That is the church. Now you might look around and think, well
this building appears pretty solid, not net like at all. That is the church building. I am talking about the church, the community
of believers, the people of St. John’s.
At our best, we are like Jesus in that we support one another through
the difficult times. Not only that, we
give one another strength to do the challenging things that are required as
humans, but also as Christians who are trying to follow Jesus! We also welcome
all kinds of different people. With each
new person, we change a little, we adapt.
We are better for it.
Maybe
being a Christian, following Jesus, isn’t at all like sitting in a boat with a
warm beverage and a line in the water.
We all need those moments in our lives, but we don’t want our entire
lives like that. So instead, we fish
with nets. Jesus is not on this earth with us, not in bodily form. Therefore, Jesus has asked us to wield his
net down here on earth. We are the ones
carrying around these heavy nets, but we are doing it together. Not only that, we have an everlasting promise
from Jesus. We might be carrying heavy loads here on earth, but his net is
always stronger. When we fall, because we will fall, he will catch us and we
will get back up again and fish some more.
