Gone Fishin’
Mark 1:14-21
I went to a store the other day that sells everything you
need to go fishing. It had aisle after
aisle of fishing rods and reels and lures with names like “Wally Diver” and
“Little Ripper” and “Tail Dancer” and “Storm Kicking Minnows”. If you’re a fish – that’s good eating.
They also had Bass boats equipped with high tech water
temperature gauges, Global Positioning Satellite receivers and fish finders
that not only tell you where the fish are, but also what they had for lunch. I tallied it up and figured you can spend a
lot of money to go fishing.
All
this is designed to do what I used to do as a boy with a cane pole and a couple
of worms, but that’s the way things are now.
In today’s high tech world we rely on the gadgets and gizmos to do what
we used to do with a lot less. This is
as true in church life as it is the recreational fishing industry.
Now we use
sound systems and video projectors and internet websites to share the good news
of Jesus Christ. As helpful as all that
stuff is, it is still no substitute for the intimacy of personal contact. It cannot replace the one-to-one conversation
on matters of the spirit. It cannot
supplant the warmth of a hug or a quiet prayer when someone goes through a dark
valley.
No one understood this better than
Jesus. He began his ministry not with a
big noise, but with a quiet whisper. He
doesn’t blanket the neighborhood with leaflets for a big-tent revival, but
calls only a few by name and bids them “come and follow”.
There is a
reason he did that then. There is a
reason he does that now. Before we get
into the whys and wherefores, let us go into prayer:
Lord, you
are the Good Shepherd who calls us by name and bids us to follow.[1]
Help us to listen this morning, so that we may follow, and in following find
the difference you make in our own lives and in those around us and on distant
shores. This we pray in Jesus’ name.
Jesus began
his ministry on the northern shores of Galilee Sea shortly after John the
Baptist had been arrested by Herod. He
continued the theme that John had set, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand.”[2]
It’s hard
to hear the call to repentance without some sense of judgment. If people say, “you
need to turn around”, it is clear they think you’re going in the wrong
direction. If they say, “you need to
straighten up”, they obviously think you’re crooked or bent. If they say, “you ought to get your life in
order”, they clearly think it’s a mess.
So, what’s
your first reaction when someone speaks to you like that? If someone asks, “Do you want to know what’s
wrong with you”, do you usually respond, “Oh yes, please tell me!”
Chances are
your reaction will be like mine. The last thing we want is criticism so our
response, whether we say it or not, is usually, “Back off. I may not be perfect, but I’m not that
bad. Besides there’s some things I’ve
noticed about you, and it’s a pretty long list so we better get started.”
Most of us
are really just spiritual adolescents.
We don’t want to be told what to do, not because we think we know all
the answers, but because we don’t think anyone else does either. But, without criticism how will any of us
learn anything new about ourselves or God?
Sometimes others do see our flaws better than we. If that someone is Jesus Christ that is pretty
much guaranteed.
The call to
repentance is the first expression of God’s grace, because it tells us that God
does not want to leave us where we are.
Through this call to repentance God is saying he believes we can be and
do more than we ever thought. In fact the last thing we ever want to hear from
the mouth of God is what we read in Romans chapter one:
“The wrath of
God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of
those who suppress the truth…for although they knew God, they neither glorified
him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their own hearts were darkened. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful
desires of their hearts.”[3]
You’re in a
lot of trouble if God says, “Fine, have it your own way. I wash my hands of
you. It’s on you head.”[4]
That’s why we usually include a call to confession and prayer of confession in
most of our worship services. It is the
first step to receive God’s grace.
God’s criticism is like a parent
teaching a child to tie shoe laces or a hook on a fishing line. Before we can do it right, we often do it
wrong. Sometimes we have to stumble over
those loose laces before we’ll listen.
Sometimes, we have to lose the fish because the hook was tied wrong
before we’ll pay attention. That’s
usually when repentance begins.
Now,
Webster’s dictionary says repentance means, “To change one’s mind, one’s heart,
one’s life, as a result of regret or dissatisfaction.” It is not just bout feeling bad or sorry or
guilty for something that you have done.
It may begin there, but it does not end there. Repentance is more than a
feeling. It is a change in thinking and
so in direction. It is learning from our
mistakes.
Garrison
Keilor highlights the difference in a passage from Lake Wobegon Days:
“Larry the
Sad Boy was saved twelve times in the Lutheran church, an all time record. Between 1953 and 1961 he threw himself
weeping and contrite on God’s throne of grace on twelve separate occasions –
and this in a Lutheran Church that has no altar call and no organist playing,
“Just as I Am”. This is the Lutheran
Church and these are Scandinavians, and they repent in the same way they sin:
discreetly, tastefully, at the proper time, and they bring a bowl of Jell-O
salad for afterward. Twelve times Larry
the Sad Boy came forward. Even we
fundamentalists got tired of him. God
didn’t mean us to feel guilt all of our lives.
There comes a point when you should dry your tears and join the building
committee and start grappling with the problems of the church furnace and make
church coffee and be of use, but Larry just kept on repenting and repenting and
repenting.”[5]
He got
Jesus command half right. He repented,
but he did not really believe the gospel Jesus is preaching. As surely as the sun rises in the east and
sets in the west, God will forgive and forget the sins for which there is true
repentance. God says so clearly:
For as the
heavens are high above the earth,
So
great is his steadfast love
toward those who
fear him;
as far as the east is from the
west,
so far does he
remove our transgressions from us.[6]
Not only
does God delete the corrupt files in our computers up here (head) or here
(heart); he reformats the hard drive
completely and begins to write a new program.
Through the
gospel of Jesus Christ our sins are covered, and we can begin again. That is why Jesus said it is important to
believe in the gospel, because we become what we believe we can become. The
Bible say, “As one thinks so one is.”[7] If we believe we are lost and have no hope,
we will be lost and have no hope. If we
believe that through Jesus Christ we can find our way and find a new hope we
will.
Jesus began his ministry by
“seeking and saving the lost”, and he began in the most unlikely places.[8] He
went down to the docks. He walked right by the synagogue and city hall and
passed the Pharisees and Sadducees. He
walks right by those who had been studying the Torah for years, who had read
the messianic prophecies and goes to the place where sweaty men wrestle with
nets and curse their bad luck.
Why did he
do that? Why did he begin there? Why did he begin with them? You’d think he’d start with those who already
spoke the language of religion, and understood the vocabulary, could quote the
messianic prophecies. But, he
didn’t. He walked right by, because it
is hard to teach those who already think they know it all. They will not have
“eyes to see and ears to hear.”[9]
“And as he walked by the Sea of
Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter and Andrew his brother,
casting a net into the sea; for they were fisherman. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will
make you fishers of men.”[10]
Evidently,
there was no company policy forbidding the discussion of spiritual matters on
the job because that is what Jesus did.
To be fair, theological discussion has always been a popular pursuit in
the Middle East. They like to talk and
argue about God. It was that way then.
It is that way now.
Mark gives
no indication that there had been any conversation prior to Jesus’ call to
“leave their nets and follow”. We don’t
know that there was any preparation of the soil before these seeds were
planted. This story would indicate that there wasn’t any. Jesus just came up and said, “leave your nets
and follow.” That was a pretty dramatic request. Leave your jobs and families. Leave that which makes you feel secure and
follow. But, Peter and Andrew, James and John saw something in Jesus and so
they did “leave their nets and follow”.
They didn’t
really know who Jesus was exactly, had yet to
hear him preach, or see him perform even one miracle; but they saw
something in his eyes, in his manner that told them he knew something about God
that they didn’t and that this was something that they needed so desperately
they were willing to sacrifice family and security.
So, they
did the most incredible thing. They
dropped their nets and they followed Jesus. Note - they were not leaving
everything that was safe and familiar to follow a new set of rules and
regulations. There were not leaving
their source of livelihood to follow a new philosophical formula. They left their families and their nets to follow
a person – Jesus Christ.
This is a
different kettle of fish. It is something
I’d like each one of you to catch.
Christians don’t follow Christianity – Christians follow Christ. If you’ve come to hear a moral lesson or to
receive a new “how-to” list in order to lead a more successful life, you’ve
come to the wrong place.
What we are
trying to do here is to listen for the call of Christ and then follow him. What I am hoping is that you can put down,
even for a moment the things that occupy most of your time and attention in
order to listen to Jesus when he speaks to you through scripture and spirit.
When you hear – follow and accept the challenge of faith.
Jesus’ view
of discipleship goes beyond the classroom and the sanctuary. It reaches deep into our whole world. That’s why he said, “I will make you fishers
of men.”
To
understand this metaphor you need to understand something about fishing. The first thing you need to know is that
those who do this for fun or profit never say, “Honey, I’m going catching.” They always say, “I’m going fishing”, because
the catch is never guaranteed. It
doesn’t matter how skilled or knowledgeable you are, you can cast your line or
throw your net all day and still come home with nothing but pizza.
Fish will
not always be where you think they should be.
They will not always bite on the lure that you think should work. So fishing requires an incurable
optimism. Those who fish will always
say, “Maybe next time.”
Jesus’
command to Peter and Andrew, James and John and us is not to catch fish. It is to fish, to cast a line and throw a net
and let God worry about the results. God
just calls us to be faithful. He just
calls us to follow.
Your
decision to follow or not will be determined by your level of trust. Do you believe that Jesus will lead you to
where you want to be? Do you believe
that he knows “the way, the truth, and the life?”[11]
When Peter
and Andrew, James and John heard Jesus’ call to follow, they didn’t fully
understand every answer. They didn’t
even know all of the questions. There
was a lot about Jesus and God that was and is still a mystery.
They were
willing to drop their nets to follow because something stirred their
hearts. They saw something in Jesus that
led them to believe they might find a deeper meaning and greater purpose to
their lives. They might find God. For that “pearl of great price” they were
willing to make a great sacrifice.[12]
Will
you? Will you decide to follow Jesus?
Let us pray:
Lord, each call to repentance is an
expression of your love and grace and conviction that we can be and do more
than we ever thought we could. You do not want to leave us where we are. You call us to new heights. Help us to do that and believe the good news
of your gospel so that we can drop those things that so occupy our attention,
we leave no time for you. Grant that we
will follow where you lead and cast our lines and drop our nets so that others
may hear and receive this good news. We
pray this through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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