Bait & Switch

God is unquestionably the world’s greatest fisherman. And he’s not at all offended by the description, either, because that is what he called us to be. And the first thing a fisherman has to know is what bait the fish will bite on.

God got me good. Back in ‘83 I was Miss Corporate America, junior executive, company credit card, frequent flyer miles, size 10 power suits, the whole classic 9-yard success story. But you know what I wanted? I wanted a man. I wanted to fall in love and get married and have a family. It might have been the old biological clock ticking away, after all I was 36, but at any rate I was beginning to get a little frantic. Well, anyway, to make a long story - well, if not short, at least not the whole sermon - I met a man. And pretty soon he started talking about marriage, and I was very interested, and started dreaming and planning and all that romantic stuff. But there was a catch. Bob was a Christian. A real one, I mean, not just a member of the Sunday social club. And I knew that if we were going to have any kind of a life together, I would have to get squared away with God. Not “get straight with God,” as in confess my sins, I was a pretty good person, after all, but basically figure out just how badly I wanted God to be a part of my life. Because Bob had told me (over pizza one night) that Jesus had said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” [Jn 14:6] And that was a pretty big step to take; it ran counter to everything I had been raised as a Unitarian to believe.

But when I went home and started thinking about it, I realized that I really wanted to know God, and if the only way to God was through Jesus, I wanted Jesus as well.

Within two weeks Bob had decided he wasn’t ready for a permanent relationship, put his business on the market, and moved to California. I was ANGRY. But not with Bob. With God.

I spent the next few months sitting up in bed at night shouting at God: “It isn’t FAIR!” I protested. “I took the bait, I bit the hook, you got me, the least you could do is let me keep the bait!” I really was absolutely furious. Well, eventually I cooled down enough to realize that instead of yelling at God all the time I could start listening instead. So I started going to church (the one Bob had been a member of) and within three weeks I had received Christ and had started on my way to where you see me now, up here in the pulpit presuming to instruct you in the ways and purposes of God.

But if I had known at the beginning... If that were the reward God had dangled in front of my nose... somehow I don’t think that it would have worked. Somehow I think that if God had laid it out in front of me and said, “Forget husband and children and successful career, I’m going to give you a 50% pay cut and the gift of celibacy,” I would have said “Not today, thank you.”

I needed to have my consciousness raised first, so to speak.

God starts where you’re at. But don’t expect him to leave you there.

Remember the crowd who followed Jesus across the lake after he fed the multitudes? They wanted to make him king because he had impressed them with his power. But when he didn’t fall in line with their agenda, they shrugged and went away. They nibbled, but they didn’t bite. They knew what a king was supposed to be like; since Jesus didn’t fit, they didn’t want him.

The disciples, on the other hand, had taken the bait. They were on the hook. They didn’t have much more clue than the crowds did of what the Messiah actually was going to have to do, but they knew one thing. They knew Jesus was IT, they knew Jesus was THE ONE, they knew Jesus was THEIRS, even if they didn’t really understand where he was going.

There are three separate stories in today’s text. Each by itself has a half dozen sermons in it. But today I’m taking them as a set, a sequence of teachings that lay out for us what the life of discipleship looks like.

The first step is attachment. The second step is understanding. And the third step is imitation.

Attachment. Understanding. Imitation.

Feeling, thinking, and doing.

All of these are necessary for discipleship. They don’t come in the same order for each one of us, as a matter of fact most of us tend to keep going round and round, first concentrating on one angle, then switching to another. But attachment is - even if not always the first - always the most important, because attachment keeps us holding on to Jesus even when we don’t understand, even when we’re tired, or scared. And attachment is another word for love. It is an attitude of recognition, response, and commitment.