Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea - for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
(Mark 1:14-20)
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It seems that Jesus had a special place in his heart for fishermen. After all, Peter and Andrew and James and John – his first four disciples – basically came right off the fishing boats that sailed the Sea of Galilee. I wonder what it was about fishermen? There were other options. Jesus could have gone to the religious leaders in Jerusalem and tried to convince them to join him in his mission. He could have gone to the intellectuals, the authorities or the political leaders of his day with his invitation. But he started with fishermen. And after that he kept finding disciples in the most unexpected places: Matthew the tax collector (who would have been seen as a collaborator with the Romans and traitor to his people) and Simon the Zealot (who today we would probably recognize as a terrorist) and even Judas Iscariot (who, as we know, was not the most reliable person around.) So Jesus seemed in some ways to look for the most unexpected of people to call to his side, but the first four were fishermen. Fishing is at the centre of the gospel.
A few years ago there was a bumper sticker that had become somewhat popular, especially among people who enjoyed going out on a fishing trip every now and then. It was a very simple message: “LIFE’S SHORT – FISH HARD!” The point is pretty simple. There’s not really that much time to do all the things you want to do, so you better get out and do them. For those who were putting this bumper sticker on their cars and trucks they were expressing their own opinion about what was important in life: fishing! Everything else could (or at least should) wait. Do as much fishing as you can possibly do in the time that you have available to you. That bumper sticker is supposed to be humourous, of course. You’re supposed to look at it and have a bit of a chuckle and then get on with your life. But, especially in the light of Jesus’ words, that bumper sticker seems to have an important message for Christians – not a funny one at all, but a very serious one. We have only a limited time to do the things that God calls us to do, so we better get out there and actually do them. We can talk about them until we’re blue in the face, but unless we actually get out there into the world and do what God wants us to do then our talk is meaningless. And as Jesus’ disciples – well – we’re called to fish! We’re to “fish for people” as Mark put it; to proclaim good news; to tell the world about the wonderful and immeasurable love that God has for the world. And, since life is short, we do need to fish hard. For the next few minutes, I want to share three very important “fishing tips” that I think will make our fishing trips for Jesus a lot more successful.
The first, I admit, is pretty obvious. If you want to have a successful fishing trip you have to go to where the fish are. That sounds pretty obvious. If you want to go fishing you’re not going to head off into the middle of a desert – you’re going to look for a body of water! So perhaps the real point is: if it’s so obvious that we need to go where the fish are to be able to catch them, why don’t we do it? I suspect that for many or even most Christians, living a Christian life revolves around a handful of things: going to church, reading the Bible, praying, maybe watching the odd religious program on television. And for many Christians, what’s missing from their list is going where the fish are! Too often we seem to have a “Field of Dreams” concept of sharing the gospel. Most of you probably know the movie: a man is visited by an angel and told that if he builds a baseball field great players from the past would come to play on it. “If you build it, they will come,” was the angel’s message. And a lot of Christians tend to apply that principle to sharing the gospel. The gospel’s already here, the church is already here, so we can sit back and wait for the masses to show up. But the masses aren’t showing up! “If you build it they will come” might have worked in a movie, but it’s not working in the church. We can’t wait for the fish to come to us, we have to go to the fish – even if at times we may not like where the fish are going to be found. – and even Jesus from time to time found himself in a few unsavoury places! Karen talked with the children about Jonah, and I think that we have a lot to learn in this regard from Jonah. Jonah was called to go and preach to the people of Nineveh – but he didn’t want to go. He desperately tried to avoid going to Nineveh. He didn’t like Nineveh – the city or its people. But he had no choice. God gave him no choice. This was where he was called to go. So, fishing tip #1 is actually quite simple: go out and find the fish! You can’t really fish until you do that.
Which brings me to fishing tip #2: once you’ve found the fish, how do you catch them? It becomes a matter of using the right bait. When I was young I went fishing on a handful of occasions. On those trips we always used worms, and for the kinds of fish we were after those worms worked pretty well. But there are different kinds of bait, and the kind of bait you use depends on what kind of fish you want to catch. So as we go about fulfilling the call of Jesus to “fish for people,” what kind of bait are we going to use? What do we have that can attract people? Jonah had to go to Nineveh – which had a reputation as a wicked city, and God’s call to Jonah was in the hope that the Ninevites would hear the word of God and respond. What kind of bait did Jonah have to “fish” for the people of Nineveh. What did he have to offer them to turn them to God? It was actually very simple, and it’s something that we still have in abundance today: Jonah would offer to the people of Nineveh the word of God – no more, no less. And the response was dramatic: Nineveh repented! There’s great power in the word of God. Sometimes I think we forget that – but there is great power in the word of God. And what is it that people will find when we offer them the word of God? We actually have what many people are searching desperately for: acceptance, love, hope, peace. These things Jesus offers. These things are our “bait” - they’re the things that “lure” people. Many don’t reach out with the gospel because they think they don’t know it well enough or they won’t be able to answer questions. But reaching out with the gospel means being willing to live as Christ lived and to show to others the same love and compassion that Christ showed. The example of Jesus is the “bait,” so to speak. To “fish for people” we offer the life and love of Jesus.
And I have one last tip for those who might want to “fish for people.” Fishing takes patience. The fish don’t just jump into the boat. You have to be patient, and you have to wait for the fish to respond. You have to keep dangling the bait until the fish decide to take it. You can’t cast your line into the water and then quit five minutes later because you haven’t had a bite. Sometimes miracles will happen. Sometimes people thrown in their line and catch something right away. Nineveh responded pretty quickly to Jonah. Sometimes it happens, bit in general terms that just isn’t how fishing works. You have to have patience. You have to stick with it once you start. Too often we try something and it doesn’t work the first time and we declare it a failure and we move on. But I was given a wonderful piece of advice a few years ago that I’ve always found to be true: if something is worth trying once, then it’s worth trying again, no matter how the first time went. And then often you try it again and again before you have any success with it. That’s commitment. That’s a measure of our own faith in God – and if we don’t show that kind of faith, then we can’t really expect others to respond to us. “Stick-to-it-ive-ness” is essential if we’re going to go about the business of fishing “for people.”
I hope you’ll take these “fishing tips” to heart: go where the fish are, use the word of God as your bait and be patient. One of the greatest things about this work Jesus has given is is that fishing for people is the opposite of fishing for fish. When we catch fish we’re often taking their lives, but when we fish for people we’re offering life – new life; vibrant life; the life Jesus wants us all to have. And the great thing about fishing for people is that it’s never out of season and you don’t need a license. So get out there and fish – and remember: “LIFE’S SHORT – FISH HARD!”
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