the image: Fishing for people

Epiphany 3B

Thurs. morning when I was out for a run, I ran past the sign outside St. Thomas Aquinas church.  The sign said, “I will make you fishers of people”.  Now I understood the message on the phrase, I knew what Gospel would be read this morning...but what about all the people in the cars, who read the sign while sitting at that intersection waiting for the lights to change.  When they read, “I will make you fishers of people”, would they understand it?  Think about it for a moment...what does that phrase mean if you do not relate it to the story of Jesus’ calling the disciples who were fishermen? What does it sound like if you do not know the story?  I have spent a lot of time thinking about the image, fishers of people.  And honestly I realized that I have never followed through the whole image.

Idyllic images may come to mind of the those fishing, sitting peacefully in lawn chairs along the river casting in their lines, watching the water flow by, floats bobbing gently, perhaps conversation, perhaps not, and in the end no real necessity to catch anything – if a fish is caught it would come for supper, but no pressure or expectation. A caught fish however, did bring bragging rights and a joy no matter the size.  Perhaps the image that comes to mind is similar, two old gaffers in fishing vests and hats, out in a boat on a calm lake, enjoying each other’s company, being outside. ...but we are talking about catching fish, what about catching people?

When going fishing, one baits a sharp hook, tosses it in and tempts the fish to bite.

Does the church do this?  Tempt people to come inside; tempt people to believe?  Sure... free books are offered to those calling in to TV evangelists if they give their lives to Christ, Street Sunday schools offer trinkets for coming –more badges and awards if you bring friends along the next week, people are baited with coffee house church, “new” music, entertainment; some fish with a sharp hook spiked with the fear of death and hell fire, with a bait of knowing the way to avoid such an end.

Sometimes the fishing is by net, where the net is thrown wide and then reeled in:  boxes being sent to children around the world at Christmas, stuffed with Christian pamphlets before being given out, homeless having to listen to a sermon before being fed, communities where the church demands local ma and pop shops to hire a certain number of their members or they will boycott their establishments, door to door evangelism...people are caught.

But then what?  This is where the image “fishers of people” really falls apart or becomes scary.  What happens to fish after they are caught?  People have they are reeled in?

The area where I grew up was known for sports and leisure fishing. That meant lots of glossy pamphlets with big fish, happy faces, and beautiful water.  What didn’t appear on the pamphlets was the –what next?

In contrast to this sunny picture was the reality of the catch, known by the locals predominately by the smell; there were lots of gutting stations along the waterways.  You know, where fish were killed if not already dead, sliced and cleaned, later to be cooked and eaten.  Yuck.  And how does that translate to fishing for people?

 Fishing is one thing...but this following Jesus thing is messy.

John the Baptist has been out in the Jordan River, casting a wide net, calling the people of the surrounding countryside to repentance, alluding to the One coming after...the One who guts and cleans.  It’s messy business, although those washed in the waters of the Jordan have no idea.  The first inkling of mess, John is imprisoned and for those who are watching carefully –the red and white float on the fishing lines bob –once caught, discipleship is going to be costly.

Jesus is proclaiming the Good News -the hook, the bait...but calls for repentance.   For the disciples this means turning away from their livelihood.  In weeks to come, the gutting process finds the disciples touching lepers, mingling with women and the unclean, coming into conflict with the religious leaders, shedding old ideas, forming new understandings.  The cleaning sees them change just as Jesus is killed, they throw out nets of Good News, and as time passes most of them are imprisoned or martyred.  Messy.

I’m not sure that those waiting in their cars for the light to change at the corner of Oxford and Jubilee –would want to know what “fishers of people” means.  Most people swim, as best they can, away from mess.  The message of Good News, the stories we have to share of Jesus, of the Messiah, of God’s kingdom coming near –although  cased in supposedly idyllic images, is casting a message with shiny luring bait...but when unpact the images allude to mess: gutting, cleaning...and when lived out to the fullest, death.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in The Cost of Discipleship says:  “The first call which every Christian experiences is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. “  The disciples, Andrew, Simon, James and John abandon their jobs, families, and friends – they detach; and attach themselves to the Good News.  In the story of Jonah, when released from the fish; detached from the fish, self-pity, unwillingness – Jonah attaches to God, God’s call, the prophetic message he was to carry to the Ninevehites. 

The Word asks us this morning, from what do we need to detach?  What from our lives are we to abandon?  What are we to repent of? 

What needs to be gutted and cleaned from our lives, from us, so that we can totally attach to the Good News?

This following Jesus thing:  It’s messy and it is not for the weak of heart.

In a lectionary group discussion one person commented that, “Jesus was a catch and release fishermen! He catches people, and frees us from our sins”.  Sure, not an inaccurate statement but, the idea of released to what end?  That is not where Lutheran theology takes us.  We are freed by grace, but grace has hooked us so deeply that we are released with Good News to share that grace with others –God’s suffering love; and that means abandoning that which is dear and being willing to walk a path to death, for the freedom of all.  Have you been gutted and cleaned, -detached from the world, been attached to grace such that you can do no other than follow Jesus’ steps to death?

Another person in the same discussion suggested that preachers sometimes get too hung up on the one picture of fishing for people; then commented, of trying to imagine Jesus walking down the aisle of any church on a Sunday morning whispering into the ears of those present:

to the artist, "Follow me and I will teach you how to paint images of the kingdom of God";

to the nurse, "Follow me and I will teach you how to heal hearts";

to the farmer, "Follow me and I will teach you grow other disciples";

to the musician, "Follow me and I will teach you to sing the kingdom into hearts and minds."

As German theologian, Jurgen Moltmann, theologized that the kingdom of God was not about the kingdom in chronological time but to be understood as nearness, God’s kingdom has drawn near, in the idea of near and dear to one’s heart.
But all these images are not drawn out...painting vast visions means mess, carving up canvasses, offering new images, changing perspectives, shedding old understandings, opening oneself and ideas to critique...

Nurses practicing healing is messy –offering hope in places that seem hopeless, being exposed to viruses, putting one’s own health at risk to serve the other, watching and journeying with people dying...

Farming is messy –relying on uncontrollable forces to help grow crops, fighting bugs and weeds, watching some crops grow, some die...

...hard work, sweat, tears, passion, bringing God’s kingdom through one’s gifts, one’s vocation –whatever it may be...is messy.

Think back to the church sign at St. Thomas Aquinas – would it have accomplished any more for it to have read:  We are about messy work!  Or come join us and live in mess.  Be gutted and cleaned to live detached from the world, attached to God.

It’s a Catch 22, isn’t it? 

To encourage and invite others to follow, to share what is called “Good News” and experienced as such –yet it comes at a high price, with a sacrifice of self, even death.  As Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die”.  We invite the world to come and die.  That is a message of Good News, but one not easily accepted.

This is the thought you are left with today.  Imagine a world where people choose to follow the invitation to come and die: where all of us here today seriously are gutted, cleaned, willing to die ...

envision how that would change the world.

 Fishing in the new waters of the world, renewed, teeming with life, fresh, clean...Good News in every ripple and current...fish would simply jump into the nets –mess - death being seen as but a phase to usher in the kingdom of God!