February 7, 2010
The Fifth Sunday after The Epiphany (Year C)
(Annual Meeting Sunday)
Isaiah 6:1-13; Psalm 138; I Corinthians 15:1-11;
Luke: 5:1-11
I love this passage about fishing for people, especially Luke’s telling of it when they so doubt that doing it yet again, as Jesus says, will produce anything! I love it that Jesus says I will make you fishers of people (which, as I said one year, I liked better when we fished for “men”! – But then what single woman wouldn’t?) I remember one year this lesson came on an intergenerational Sunday and the kids all helped me throw a net over the whole congregation! It was not a real net, of course, but they were great actors and it was done with much flair and enthusiasm. I also like this lesson because it gives us an excuse to sing the Spanish song which I adore, “Tu has venido a la orilla.” (“You have come down to the lakeshore.”)
Simon and his friends threw out that net when it seemed hopeless, when all was lost, when it was fruitless. They had done that, and they knew they were not going to get anything! But they got far more than they could handle, and enough for all the surrounding boats too!
And God makes such fisher folk out of the likes of us. We are to throw those nets, even when it appears hopeless, in spite of all logic. We, the followers, are to answer our call to serve as much as Simon, James, and John did. It is not optional really. It is what we as followers are called to. “Follow me,” Jesus said. There was no “praise me.” There was no “worship me.” There was “pick up your nets and follow me.” “Do as I do.” “ Be what I am.” “Come with me and I will lead you.” “Follow me.”
I would guess that not many of us have nets to throw back in the pond for a bigger catch. That would not be how any of us would likely “follow” Jesus. But each of us has skills and talents and ways we know that do allow us to bring our unique way of following with us. We are all called. Every one of us is called. Sometimes our calls do not seem to overlap or they get tangled up in the politics of life – or so it would seem. But I would like to suggest this morning that the abundance of fish that Simon, James and John experienced when they tossed their nets into the sea is meant to be ours. It is God’s intention for us, as individuals and as a community. We are all called to follow and fish!
Like the disciples we are all ordinary people, each with a story, of course. And it is our story that gives us the net to make real our contribution to the task of fishing for fellow followers.
Katie Curock has a series each week on her news show where they find a person from someplace on the globe and tell their story. They begin by having one of the astronauts in outer space throw a plastic globe in the air (“air,” I guess, is a misnomer!) An astronaut catches the ball and points to a country. Then they take the city closest to the finger and, using the old finger trick again, point to names in a phone book of that city. Then they visit the person at the address they have pointed to and hear their story. This week the story was about a weight lifter in one of the Slavic countries. He has started his own business and grown from the proverbial ninety-seven pound weakling to a well-muscled, handsome man, not to mention, strong businessman, with eight gyms and many employees because he has followed this dream of his that began when he saw, as a child, an imported and contraband American film about a body builder.
Our lives tell our story of faith. What we do, who we are, the experiences we have had, the skills we have acquired along the way, weave together to become our net, just as the story of the Slavic body builder and his dream is his net, to catch other ninety-seven pound weaklings!
Fortunately for us, our passion for Jesus is better bait than a muscled body, but the principle applies. We have what it takes to build what God intends, simply by following and using what we have already within our own resources. We can build up the body of Christ. We can build up this parish, or we can throw our nets into a tangled mess, each of us trying to keep our net on the right side of the boat or in the right place, jostling against each other, staking territory as the fisher folks did that day prior to Jesus' admonition to throw their nets again. Or we can throw those nets using what each of us brings and letting them weave together as beautifully as the stitches on one of our prayer shawls. By keeping our eye on the One we follow, the nets will not get tangled and each of us will be able to do what we do best in the service of discipleship.
Today at the Annual meeting I will speak of a net untangling solution – what we sent in the parish wide email on Thursday. But it will not work unless we keep our eyes on the One we are all following. Jesus is calling us to be more than we are now. Jesus wants us to follow. He doesn’t care how well we worship or teach our children (though we care passionately about both). What Jesus cares about is how well we love each other; how often and deeply we forgive each other; and how we support each other.
When Jesus went to the cross for us, he did so out of love. He did it so that we would know that reconciliation is worth dying for, not worth killing for, but worth dying for! We are not asked to die literally when we answer Jesus’ call to follow him and his ways, but we do have to, as the saying says, “die to self” so that we might be reconciled, that we might follow.
When we follow, we meet in church to be with a community of people who are different from what we are, and also the same, of course. We are all the same in that we are all sinners, and we are the same in that we are all good. We are all human and mistake ridden and we are all incredible examples of wonderful stories that are filled with love and passion and laughter and most of all, uniqueness. When we meet in church, we celebrate those things, even with those whom we might not see any other time in our week or our lives. And we are richer for it. We share the holy meal given to us by the one we follow, Jesus. We share it with those from whom we feel estranged and with those with whom we share our deepest secrets. And if we do that often enough, the two become one people, and there are no secrets and there will be no one with whom we are estranged.
Jesus became one of us to end the estrangement between God and us humans. He did it by proximity, eating and working and walking and sharing life with us. Not one of the followers became perfect or failed to do things that at the very least embarrassed Jesus or frustrated him like crazy! Think of Peter, he kept right on being Peter and putting his foot in his mouth, but Jesus loved him all the more. And Peter did some pretty marvelous things. Known as Simon when Jesus found him by the boat in the lesson this morning, Peter followed, leaving behind his work and followed. That was enough for Jesus. He was the rock upon which God built the church.
So, following with our individual stories, our community, our willingness to be human, and from that humanity inviting others along, we follow. We will have a great crop of fish here if we keep Jesus as our focus, our nets neatly knitted together and tossed in harmony to capture the hearts of all who come through our doors. We can do it. We are the followers of the One who calls us all.
Amen.
The Reverend Dr. Gale Davis Morris
Church of the Good Shepherd