Just Another Fish Story?
David C. Myers
January 27, 2008
Isaiah 9:1 - 4
Amos3:1 - 8
Matthew 4:12 - 23
Text: And [Jesus] said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fish for people." . . . Matthew 4:19
I love fishin! I'm not a habitual or a compulsive fisher. I don't live and breathe it. The bug only hits me a few times a year. And when it hits me, it really doesn't effect very many other living creatures - only the worms.
I have some of my fondest childhood memories from the fishing trips with my father and grandfather. As a 8-year-old when I caught a 4-foot eel and held it up to show off and I was slapped in the face by its tail; or, when my grandfather caught me in the cheek with his fish hook as he was casting over the other side of the boat. But even those traumatic events didn't tarnish my fond memories of fishing. Because when I was in the boat together with my dad and grandfather fishing for tougue (lake trout to the uninitiated), salmon, or trying to catch a run of white perch at dusk, I was one of the "men."
As I grew older, my fishing experiences took on new and deeper dimensions. I have inspiring memories on the high seas watching four whales, each about 40 - 50 feet long and within about 100 feet of our boat. Such a sight gives you a new perspective of the magnificence of God's creation! I have had awe-filled moments 90 miles offshore in the midst of heavy seas learning about the power of nature. And there is nothing to compare with watching your 6-year-old son reel in fish as big as he was and as big as any I have ever caught.
Why, I like to fish so much that I have had a tropical fish tank of some fashion since I was in the 4th grade. And despite my best efforts, the fish in my fish tank are in greater danger than any in the ocean or on a lake when I am fishing.
A few years ago for Christmas Debbie gave me a print that says, "The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive, but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope." Not only does this speak well of my fondness for fishing; but it also speaks of another kind of fishing - the kind Jesus introduced to His disciples when He told them He would make them "fishers of people."
Jesus must have liked fishing. For He seemed to have thought along the same lines (pardon the pun) when He choose His first four disciples, for He picked them from a group of fishermen. Peter and Andrew were fishing one day as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee. We can imagine Jesus watching them for a while and perhaps noticing something about their character while fishing that caused Him to invite the two brothers to discipleship. "Follow Me," He said. And immediately they did.
Down the shore a ways, Jesus watched another set of brothers and issued the same invitation - and James and John gave up their fishing. Evidently Jesus observed something basically solid in these four fishermen that He knew could be molded into something good and He "netted" them for the Kingdom of God. Christianity was organized that day on the shores of Galilee among fishers.
In Mark and Luke's account of the same story, Jesus suggests to Peter, Andrew, James and John that they would still be fishers, but that the species of the catch would change. "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of people."
It is the fishing for people that the church has always referred to as evangelism. And evangelism is, in the broadest sense of the term, what the Epiphany Season is all about. Epiphany means making Jesus' person and ministry known to others. It means making steadfast God's revelation of Good News in the midst of humanity. It means, in the words read in this morning's Scripture from both Isaiah and Matthew, that "the people who walked in the darkness have seen a great light," and "for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned." (Isaiah 9:2 and Matthew 4:16)
This morning I want to share some of the points that I have discerned from the three Scripture readings as they pertain to evangelism. I will offer two parts to this sermon - first I will examine what evangelism is, and secondly I will make three comments about doing evangelism.
First, what is evangelism? D.T. Niles, a well known evangelist from what is now Sri Lanka likened evangelism to the town crier crying out the news: new essential for everyone to hear, for it concerns them all. "He beats his drum," Niles said, "as he goes down the street and the people run out to ask him what the news is." This sight, so common still in the East, gives us the truest picture of the preaching of the first Christians. They called their preaching kergyma - the proclamation of a town crier; news everyone must know, news everyone must reckon with, news that concerns every citizen and concerns them vitally."
Niles goes on to say that this is the fishing that Christians are called to do. It isn't manipulating or coercing - it is simply proclaiming the message. It is, in the words of the prophet Isaiah and as quoted by Jesus, bringing the great light to the people who have sat in the darkness.
Secondly, it is vital because it is present. From Matthew's Gospel (and Jesus quoting the Isaiah passage) we learn that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. "The Kingdom is at hand" was the message Jesus gave the disciples when He sent them out. Jesus said elsewhere in Luke's Gospel that "the Kingdom is in the midst of you." And Paul affirms that "when anyone is in Christ they are a new creation."
Evangelism is about the here and now, and how life can be different - now! It's not about hope, it's not about waiting: evangelism is about what life can be - now! And as evangelists this has great impact on us. Our message is only as good as we are able to reflect the spirit of God within us. We become the manifestations of God; or, to put it another way. We become the epiphany.
It's interesting that Jesus' ministry begins with evangelism and in Matthew's Gospel ends with the Great Commission, "Go, . . ., and make disciples of all nations." I was set straight on this passage some years ago. The passage can be translated in two ways - one is, "Go, therefore, and make disciples", but equally legitimate is "go, therefore, and be ye disciples to all the nations." Not "make disciples", but to "be disciples." And, as we shall see before this sermon is over, it has enormous implications for evangelism.
Third, true evangelism has excitement and urgency about it. We see this from both the Amos passage and also from Jesus' call of the four fishers. In the Amos passage there are eight rhetorical questions ending with, "The Lord God has spoken; who can but prophesy?" In other words, it is kind of like, when God says "Jump!", the only appropriate response is "how high?!?!", according to Amos.
But not only according to Amos' prophecy, but there is a sense of urgency throughout the entire Bible. The opening passages present creation as a series of immediate happenings. God said, "Let there be light," and as if flicking on a light switch there was light. The Red Sea immediately parted, the walls of Jericho immediately fell, and the prophets called for immediate action and reform.
The message for us in this is that there is a "get-with-it-ness" about the Gospel. "The time is fulfilled", and "the Kingdom of God is at hand" - the response called for is an immediate one, like that of the first disciples. Peter and Andrew, James and John, who "immediately . . . left their nets and followed Him." No messing around, no dilly-dallying. Fish or cut bait.
Which, or course, brings us back to fishing - and not co-incidentally to the second part of the sermon - some thoughts about doing evangelism. I have three points to this section as well.
First, having a cottage near the Maine Coast, I am a little familiar with the lot of those who depend on fishing for a living. And I have come to learn that as much as I envy some of the romantic parts of their vocation, I have also come to put that romantic element into perspective with other aspects of a life of fishing. For one thing, it is flat out hard work. Everyday on the ocean is a day at risk: will the catch pay for the cost of fuel and bait?, will launching out on the deep meet a sudden and dangerous storm?, and now, will continued fishing totally deplete the species?
And such it is with being called disciples - fishers of people. We are called to witness our faith, sometimes in the face of real risking. There exists in some church circles a false dichotomy exists between evangelism and social action. Some evangelists are socially active. Last week the country paid tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. We, as United Methodists pay tribute to our founder, John Wesley, who led one of the greatest social upheavals in England's history. The Apostle Paul died by the Roman death penalty for being an evangelist in the First Century Roman Empire. All of these people were very successfully evangelists in the face of great risk.
As evangelists we will probably not face the same kind of risk and persecution; but there is a risk to live a Christian life in a world that values going along with the crowd more than following the Golden Rule.
A second point about doing evangelism is that some people won't. This falls into the category of different people blessed with different gifts. There is an old saying that 5% of those fishing catch 95% of all fish caught. This ratio might be similar in evangelism. Jesus invited just a few to join his fishing party. Let us never lose sight of the fact that we have all been blessed with gifts from God - but with different gifts. So let's prepare and urge those who have skills in evangelism, and urge others into supportive roles.
George Elliot wrote a poem about Antonio Stradivari, the maker of the now priceless Stradivarius violins. Stradivari did not play the violin; he only made violins, a dull and humble enough job. An artist, a painter, in the poem, is belittling the work that Stradivari did - the work, as it were, of a mere artisan. Stradivari responded:
When any master holds
'Twixt hand and chin a violin of mine
He will be glad that Stradivari lived
Made violins, and made them best of all.
While God gives them skill,
I give violins to play upon,
God choosing me to help Him.
. . . . 'Tis God gives skill,
But not without men's hands,
He could not make
Antonio Stradivari violins
Without Antonio
Perhaps, in evangelism not all get to fish; some prepare the tackle.
The third point about evangelism through this fish story has to do with something all good fishers have - patience. This applies to all of us, whether or not we are blessed with gifts of being great evangelists. I said earlier there is a call of urgency; and surely any good fisher; or farmer, for that matter, knows all about the urgency of doing things when the forces of nature dictate them. Fishers go fishing when conditions are optimal for the best catch. Farmers plant, fertilize, till, apply pesticides, and harvest when the conditions dictate. But there is also plenty of time for patience. No fisher expects to catch every fish in the lake or the ocean.
Furthermore, an experienced fisher - and if what I am about to say is any indication of my experience, then I am an experienced fisher - will tell you that even under the best conditions there are days when no fish are caught. Which brings me back to the Great Commission; we can't make disciples, any more than we force fish to take our best bait and tackle. As my grandfather once told me; "fishing is really very easy - all you have to do is remember three things: have the right bait . . . in front of the right fish . . . at the right time."
Our task as fishers of persons is not primarily to make disciples. But rather it is to go about being the best disciples we can be, trying to create an atmosphere around us that is first and foremost true to being a disciple of Jesus, and secondly being so contagious that others will want to join our fishing party.