FISHING FOR PEOPLE
The Rev. Dr. Russell Rowland
Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Mark 1:14-20
January 22, 2006
PETER AND ANDREW
Rent a boat and go fishing. They catch a lot of fish.
Back on shore, Peter says to Andrew,
“I hope you marked the spot where we caught them.”
ANDREW SAYS, “YEAH,
I drew an X on the side of the boat to mark the spot.”
Peter says, “You idiot.
How do you know we’ll get the same boat next time?”
AROUND YEAR 30 OF THE COMMON ERA,
Four Galilean fisherman walked off the job—
Two of them left their father sitting in the boat—
And to the best of our knowledge never came back.
PETER, ANDREW, JAMES, AND JOHN
Were as normal as any four guys who ever stopped
At Dunkin Donuts on their way to work—
STEADY, RESPONSIBLE YOUNG MEN.
In line to inherit the family business.
There was no reason for anyone to suspect
They would throw it away for a rabbi from Nazareth
With healing powers and a charismatic preaching style.
JESUS BEN JOSEPH
Hooked the fishermen, and reeled them in,
Using, if you can believe it, this killer line:
“Follow me, and you’ll be fishing for people.”
It was the talk of their little village for weeks.
CAN WE BEGIN TO IMAGINE
What power and authority Jesus must have had,
What wild, wonderful hope he inspired—
For them simply to walk away from their lives,
Their villages, responsibilities, and supports?
FISH FOR PEOPLE!
To God, people are more important
Than commandments, sacrifices. liturgies.
Any people. All people. Heaven is people.
THEY SUDDENLY REALIZED
They had been waiting all their lives
For somebody to tell them that.
They weren’t about to let a trivial detail
Like their past lives stand in the way!
SO, WHAT DO WE CONCLUDE FROM THIS?
That relationships are really more important
To the kingdom of God than buildings are?
After all, Christianity has built itself
Some stately temples over the centuries.
WE MEREDITH CONGREGATIONALISTS
Take modest pride in our New England sanctuary.
Yet today’s fishing story implies
That the relationships that are nourished here,
The “tie that binds our hearts in Christian love,”
Are more important than the walls that house them.
IN ONE CHURCH I PASTORED,
We were a bit ashamed of the cushions in our pews—
Aged, smelly, leaking straw, “holy’ in the wrong sense.
And yet, one visiting couple were enough impressed
With our decrepit cushions to become members.
AS THE WIFE EXPLAINED,
They found us to be a church where relationships
Were more important than fancy furniture.
They had just left a congregation
Where those values were reversed. Go figure!
SO WE’VE DECIDED TO FOLLOW JESUS.
What so captivated Peter, Andrew, James, and John
About this Jewish carpenter has also captivated us.
Note the immediate consequence of our decision.
IT ISN’T,
“Follow me and you’ll go to heaven.”
It was George Bernard Shaw who pointed out
The number who follow Jesus to escape damnation—
“In which case,” he said,
“They are clearly damned up to the neck already.”
Jesus seemed to have the novel idea, rather,
That to follow him is heaven.
NOR IS IT
“Follow me and you’ll be outrageously happy.”
After all, it’s hard to be happy on a cross.
And it isn’t, “Follow me, and you’ll succeed
Financially beyond all expectation.”
Some people seem to think that’s the gospel—
Read “The Prayer of Jabez.”
NO, THE CONSEQUENCE IS THIS:
“Follow me, and you’ll be fishing for people.”
Discipleship is work, and this is the work disciples do.
The job description is to seek the lost,
To introduce people to Christ.
AS THE SAYING GOES, “IT’S NOT ABOUT US.”
As disciples, we do not fish for ourselves.
We fish for him, and for him alone.
This may sound obvious, but…
IT’S INTERESTING HOW MANY CHURCHES
Only get interested in evangelism
When they start to see fewer bodies in the pews,
More vacancies on boards and committees,
The same tired people doing all the work.
WE NEED NEW MEMBERS!
We should advertise, go door-to-door!
Of course, potential new members are deeply touched
To discover that the church’s real interest in them
Is to dump some of the work load.
IF WE ARE GOING TO FISH,
It must be for his sake, not our own;
Not because we feel overworked and burnt-out,
But because he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
WE ARE NOT JUDGED
By how many we catch, but by how faithfully we fish.
Faithfulness, not success, is delightful to God.
Christ himself lost most of the battles.
“GO” IS CRUCIAL TO “GOING FISHING.”
The point was made this week at Bible study
That the “go” is increasingly absent among us.
Our preferred style of evangelism
Is to wait for people to come to church,
And then do the warm and welcoming thing.
OBVIOUSLY,
We aren’t really fishermen and –women
If we wait for the fish to jump in the boat.
Christianity has a noble tradition of bringing the gospel
Into the most faraway places,
Often at great personal cost to those who bring it—
Rather than saying, “Come and get it!”
WE AREN’T SUPPOSED TO DECIDE WHICH PEOPLE,
Just fish for people. It’s a hard pill to swallow,
Since nobody knows better than we do
Who deserves God’s mercy and who doesn’t.
WHY DID JONAH HOP A BOAT SAILING WEST,
When Nineveh, that great city, lay to the east?
Well, to get away from a God
Who had compassion on the hated Ninevites,
And wanted Jonah to preach repentance to them.
Why waste a good hatred?
NINEVEH: BOO, HISS!
Capitol city of an empire that ran roughshod
Over Jonah’s tiny nation of Israel.
Why should he care for their spiritual health?
Only because God cared,
And God’s agenda overrode Jonah’s.
“SHOULD I NOT PITY NINEVEH, THAT GREAT CITY,
In which there are more
Than a hundred twenty thousand persons
Who don’t know their right hand from their left—
And also some cows?”
THAT’S WHY JONAH RAN THE OTHER WAY:
“I knew that you are a gracious and merciful God,
Slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love…
And I’m so mad I could spit.”
IN “THE LORD OF THE RINGS,”
Frodo expresses anger that the villainous Gollum
Had not been slain: “He deserves death.”
GANDALF THE WIZARD REPLIES, “DESERVES IT!
I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death.
And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them?
Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment.”
GOD’S LOVE WILL NOT BE LIMITED
By our angers, our hatreds, our prejudices, our desire
That everyone get what they’ve got coming:
“SHOULD I NOT PITY BAGHDAD,
That great city, in which there are more
Than a hundred twenty thousand persons
Who do not know their right hand from their left,
And also some children?
“DO YOU DO WELL TO BE ANGRY?”
God asks us gently, and like Jonah we answer,
“Yes, we do well to be angry, angry enough to die.”
An answer with something to it, for anger kills.
We rush for the boats, hoping to sail far away
From any need to see enemies as human beings.
BUT WE CAN’T GET AWAY FAST ENOUGH
From the one who calls to us from the shore:
“Follow me. Let’s go fishing together.
Not for military victory or world domination,
Not for creature comfort and economic privilege.
Let’s fish for people.
“LET’S NOT JUDGE THEM,
Let’s not wash our hands of them.
Let’s not thank God we’re not like them—
Let’s just fish.
And maybe, when all souls are safely inside the kingdom,
There won’t be enemies any more.”
THE STORY GOES
That one visitor to a local nursing home
Spotted an elderly gentleman out in the yard,
Serenely fishing with rod and line, in a birdbath.
TRYING TO BE FRIENDLY,
He walked over to the old man, and asked,
“Catching anything?”
The fisherman didn’t even look up, but replied,
“You’re the fourth one today.”
Talk about “fishing for people!”
AMEN.
