"Fishing for People" given 1/22/2017

"Leave behind your nets and follow me. And I'll set you to fishing for people." Luke places this story of Jesus' call to the first disciples relatively late in his Gospel. In that narrative, it is only after Peter and the others have already met Jesus, after they they've heard him preach, after they've seen him work a miracle or too, that they decide they want to follow. Gradually, thoughtfully, cautiously they make the commitment. John tells us that one of those disciples of John was Andrew, who invited his brother Simon Peter to “Come and see”

But, that's not the way Mark and Matthew tell the story. According to both of their accounts, one day early on in His ministry, Jesus saw Peter and Andrew and James and John out on the lake fishing. Out of the blue, He walked up to them and called upon

them to follow. And they did! Just like that. Can you imagine the sheer audacity of Jesus? Can you imagine anyone responding? Dropping their everyday life behind and setting off to follow a perfect stranger on a religious quest?

Peter and Andrew and James and John were not what we would call “seekers”— looking for a spiritual master who would illumine their minds and set their souls on fire. They were just ordinary men following a somewhat dangerous trade—working with their hands and arms at back-breaking labor, living by the sweat of their brows. They had families to support, boats and ropes and nets to maintain, homes to keep up, taxes to pay. They were poor peasants who didn’t have the time or leisure to spend their lives studying Torah, sitting at the feet of a learned rabbi.

Conventional rabbis did not “call” disciples in Jesus’ time. It was considered bad form for a rabbi to go out, beat the bushes, and ask people to become his disciples. The greatness of one’s teaching was supposed to naturally attract students. But then, just as now, Jesus does not sit back and wait for people to stumble upon him; he reaches out, goes forth, calls to them to “Come, follow me.”

There is in Jesus this reaching out, this constant seeking. There is a search going on, a long, relentless search. But it is not our search for God. It is God’s search for us! The main requirement to get found by God, according to Jesus, is to be lost. And here is a Messiah, a savior, who just loves to seek and to save the lost.

I expect this may go against the grain of why you think that you are here. Perhaps you think that you are here because you are searching for something. Your life is rich and rewarding in many ways. But in other ways, there is flatness about things, sometimes an emptiness. So you come to church, hoping that something will be said or sung that will help you in your search.

But that’s not the way the Bible tells it. According to Scripture, you and I are here because we have been sought, called, summoned. We are here because God has invited us--reached in, grabbed us, put us here, enticed, wooed us here.. God set somebody—a parent, a Sunday school teacher, a neighbor, maybe even a pastor-- to fish for every single one of us—in one way or another. And we were caught—every single one of us.

We talk a lot about the life of faith being a journey— a search for meaning, for God. Yet the Bible is not so much a record of humanity’s unending search for God. Rather, it is the amazing account of the extraordinary lengths to which God will go to search for us In a sense, the journey of faith is a fishing trip

"Leave your nets and follow me. I'll set you to fishing for people." There must have been something extraordinarily compelling about that appeal. There must have been something about this Jesus—a super sized portion of that quality we in our day and age have misnamed “charisma”. There must have been a sense that you should follow this man. A sense that he could be trusted. A sense that he had much to give you—much that would enrich your spirit, fill the emptiness within you, free you.

It’s difficult to believe that hard-headed working men would suddenly pitch it all in order to follow a traveling preacher and faith-healer. But whether it was gradual or sudden, the witness of Scripture is clear. Jesus said follow, and they did.

They walked out of their old lives centered around the daily grind of survival in order to make new lives, centered around God. They walked out of an old economic order centered around competition and acquisitiveness, in order to be part of a new order

centered around the sharing of resources. They walked out of an old political structure centered around power and prestige for the few, in order to become part of a new one centered around care and respect for all.

They walked out of an old set of relationships and expectations and ways of behaving centered around class and gender and race, in order to become part of a new way of life centered around family relationships between all God's children. They walked out of an old, sin-centered, broken world in order to become part of building a renewed and blessed world, centered around harmony and equity and justice.

"Leave behind the nets of your old trade and take on a new trade, You were fishermen. I'll make you into preachers and counselors, teachers and advocates, helpers and helers, carers and organizers, lovers and servants of humanity. I'll free you. I'll set you to fishing for people." Now they would leave behind the nets that had snared them--and that snare us--just as surely any fish ever caught.

Leave behind that net of concern with security, Andrew. You invited your brother to “come and see”. No longer will your life be built upon slaving away at tedious, dangerous work in order to put food on your family’s table. Leave behind the nets of worry about making a living. You have been freed to make a new life built around Him. The Lord has promised to provide. Support your family, accept your responsibilities, but remember—that is not the reason you were put upon this earth. Remember, the only true security in this world is in His love. THEN you will be truly free to fish for Jesus.

Leave behind the net of prejudice, Peter. You have been caught in it, thinking yourself superior to Gentiles, to Greek-speaking Jews, to Samaritans, to women. No longer can you look down upon others because they are different —not even in your mind. One day will you will receive a vision showing you that God has no partiality. And you will bring the first Gentiles into the people of Christ. And then you will be free to be the Rock of His church. And you will carry the Savior's love to lands and nations beyond your own.

Leave behind the net of discord, James. No longer will you find yourself squabbling

with your brothers and sisters over petty grudges, old arguments, minor differences. Your Lord calls you to unity within His Body the church. He can free you to forgive and forget slights and grudges. He invites you to dedicate your self to building relationships based on shared faith and mutual respect, even in the face of differences and honest disagreements. His love can bring peace to your troubled heart and purpose to your life. Then you will be freed to become the whole person, the beautiful, accepting human being that God created you to be.

Leave behind the net of self, John. No longer need you struggle with your fears,

your lusts, your impulses, your jealousies. He offers you peace of mind. Your Master calls you to build a new kind of community--a family community--a faith community--a new kinjd of community—multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-generational, multi-gender community—a community united by its’ commitment to Him. Then you will be freed to love others and to become the one they called the “beloved disciple”.

Leave behind the nets that bind you, Twenty-first Century Church. Leave behind the net of timidity that keeps you from the joy of sharing your faith with your neighbor. Leave behind the net of false pride that cuts you off from fellowship with believers of differing backgrounds, colors, traditions, ways of believing, cultures, accents and tongues. Leave behind the net of nostalgia that keeps you tied up in the past and frightened of the future. You can find new hope and purpose in serving Him. Then you find yourself freed to live and minister fully in the present moment.

Church people, leave behind the net of jealousy and pride and envy that makes you regard others as objects, rather than as your sisters and brothers. . Leave behind the nets that dehumanize and marginalize and enslave. Leave behind the nets of apathy, or indulgence and gluttony and addiction that incapacitate you and ruin your life, and the lives of those who love you. His grace can transform you. Then you will find yourself freed and made whole and eager to serve.

Local churches, leave behind all those entangling nets--petty arguments and squabbling and un-scriptural boasting that drives far more people away from Christ than you ever attract. Swallow your pride and open your minds and heart to one another, and to His word. Then Christ’s prayer will be answered—and his people will at last be one.

You cast those nets into the world--now they've caught you. Those nets ensnare you--Christ calls you to leave them and follow. Those nets you have cast have bound you, and are strangling the life out of you. You can't untangle nets like those. Don't even try.

You need only choose to leave your nets and follow the Savior who stands on the shore, calling you to be his church. His Spirit can give you the confidence, the integrity, the strength, the dedication that you need to simply walk away, free. His love will empower you. He beckons to you. He cries..

"Leave your nets and follow." said Jesus. "And I'll set you to fishing for people." There are so many in this world, this land, this community who need to be caught in the gentle net of love that Jesus spreads. So many times it seems as if they're literally trying to jump into the boat. The lost and needy, the hungry and homeless, the lonely newcomers, the young families, the recent widows, the former members, the wounded around you, the visitors, the long-time un-churched, the new neighbors, the yearning seekers seem to be all around us--if we would but dare to look.

Friends, our Lord calls us-- you and me-- to fish for people. Let us cast new nets of care and ministry into the troubled waters of this world. Let us cast new nets of welcome and acceptance into the troubled waters of our community. Let us cast new nets of repentance and forgiveness into the troubled waters of our own lives. Let us simply trust Him and follow. The catch, Jesus promises us, will be miraculous.

Let us pray.

O Christ you call us to follow. You invite us to become fishers of other people. You equip us with talents and gifts for our venture. Help us to respond. Free us from the nets of sin. Grant us courage to rise up and go forth into the world, placing our lives in your service. As we serve, receive and consecrate the results of our efforts in your name. Turn them to good where we have erred. Shed light upon our path, as we seek to walk in your ways. Amen.