Let’s go fishin
Matthew 4:17-4:22
I have never been any good at fishing. Perhaps, when I was a kid it seemed slow and boring. I think that was bases on the fact that I rarely caught anything. I have decided that is because of the family curse.
I get it from my dad; he is exactly the same way. Now he used to try. He took me along many times. We would head out to the lake really early in the morning and we would spend the morning sitting in the boat. Dad telling me to keep still the fish could hear me moving around.
Now I don’t know, if that was true or if it was part of the cover story dad would use to deny the curse. Blame his inability to catch fish on me.
I know that it really is a curse because, for a couple of years we went on a fishing trip with a bunch of guys out around some little islands in the Gulf. We rode out on this large boat and each day they would load two men to a little open boat and send you out fishing. This was a cooperative effort and not a contest. If someone was catching something they would drop a float in the water and it they got several fish they would wave and yell and the gang would gather in the same area.
They would share what bait they were using and each team would fish across the same area.
We would throw in the line and get nothing and the boats around us would do the exact same thing and pull out one or two fish every few minutes.
In a day we might get 2 and the others get 15 to 20 descent fish. There were two guys that would catch up to 100 per day. They were very serious.
Dad and I ended up being called the supply boat. We loaded up in the morning with extra coolers of drinks and snacks and would keep the other boats supplied so they could keep on catching fish.
So I live under a curse in one way and perhaps a blessing in another.
When you don’t catch anything, you don’t have to clean any….right?
Today’s scripture is not really about fishing as much as it is about call. The men called by Jesus were being called into a seminary education of sorts..
They were going to study Theology with Theo (God) himself.
They were probably not much different than professional fisherman today. They work was hard and the hours long. Sometimes they had trouble selling all they could catch and other times they could not catch enough to feed the family much less to sell for cash.
They were just fishermen. If they were like the amateur fishermen that I know I I imagine they knew how to spin a tale. You know, tell a fish story.
The ones that got away, the storms that almost took their lives, the biggest catch ever.
But, what I am wondering is why would they leave what they know for something completely unknown.
As it was they had a daily routine, regular meals, and families. Yet Jesus walks up and says follow me and they Go…
How in the world would these fishermen feel qualified to become the students of a Rabbi. How well could they know scripture. They are working men not scholars.
Not that we know for sure, but they have probably been exposed to the preaching that Jesus recently started. They first me Jesus right after his baptism and recently Jesus moved to this area.
His message is, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
If the kingdom of heaven is near then God is near. That kind of message can get you noticed. Perhaps these brothers receive the message or maybe think that this 33 year old man is a little nuts.
And suddenly, Jesus invites them to become his followers.
Decision time! Keep doing what you have always done or accept the invitation and do something new.
So they jump ship so to speak to change jobs…
They leave fishing and are expecting to be trained to fish for people. Do you think they wondered, what in the world that meant?
They give up the certainty and the stable things in their life, the way they always did things to go with the teacher.
They trust this man Jesus knows something and give an instant response.
Is it fait that causes them to respond?
Fishing to support a family can be a lot of work and often require a lot of faith and even a bit expectation. Even amateurs need equipment which sometimes can get very expensive. There are a lot of people that really work hard at fishing, and It does not matter if the fisherman is a professional or an amateur it is all about what you take home.
There is one real difference for the amateur, they go fishing to relax and most want to catch fish but their lives don depend on it. They are not worried about what they catch; they just want to get away.
- There is a story that Mark Twain loved to go fishing, but he hated to catch fish.
The problem was he went fishing to relax, and catching fish ruined his relaxation, since he had to take the fish off the hook and do something with it.
When he wanted to relax by doing nothing, people thought he was lazy, but if he went fishing he could relax all he wanted. People would see him sitting by the river bank and they would say, “Look, he’s fishing, don’t bother him.”
So Mark Twain had the perfect solution: he would take a fishing pole, line, and a bobber, but he wouldn’t put a hook on the end. He would cast the bobber in the water and lay back on the bank. That way he could relax all he wanted and he would be bothered neither by man nor fish.
Mark Twain is like a lot of Christians. They also have their pole in the water, but there is no hook on the end. They are not fishing; they are relaxing.
Do you think this is what Jesus had in mind when he said, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
Somehow, I don’t think so.
You need to realize that God did not call any of us to just sit back and relax all the time and never do any work for the kingdom, to never do any fishing at all.
When Jesus called his disciples he knew that there would be a learning curve. He knew that they would need to figure out what they believed and then he would turn them lose to do something in the kingdom.
He would put them out there to take risk and to share the Good News. He did not directly send them to start physical churches as much as to explain their new knowledge of God.
Here is the real question for today.
When was the last time we, individuals and the church really went fishing?
Think for a minute, is a fisherman a fisherman if he or she expects the fish to jump into the boat or onto the shore on their own?
What happens if a professional fisherman never fishes?
It will not take long until he goes broke and is out of business. Right?
What about a church?
The church is in the fishing business except it is defined as being for people.
We don’t fish for personal Gain, we fish for the benefit of the Fish.
We fish to bring others into a relationship with God and an eternal future.
Jesus was not the only fisherman in this Galilean venture. Everybody that was brought on board was trained as a fisherman and put on the nets or on a cane pole on the shore and expected to work at fishing. No other jobs.
Let me share something with you that took me a while to understand. Tom can’t make you dig for worms much less make you fish.
Not even God will make you fish….but that is the only real opportunity that he calls us to.
Only you can accept the call that Jesus has for you.
Each of you needs to look at your ministry and decide what bait God has asked you to use. You need to look at what God wants you to do to fish for people.
I feel like it is my role to awaken in you the spirit that I see in long time fishermen.
The ones that know that you don’t just fish you have to understand the fish and the bait. That you have to work at it it if you want to do anything more that sit on the bank and pretend to fish.
The main thing that happens with a fisherman is they long to fish, they live to fish, they want to be out there casting and hoping and even expecting to land something.
Folks, you can’t just sit back and think about fish and wish they were here.
You can’t sit and wait for them to suddenly wake up on Sunday morning, get dressed and come here….That is like waiting on the trout to get the skillet and start the fire.
As fishermen you have to actually do something. You have to wet a line or throw a net.
You have to put a little bait in the water and have some expectation that something might happen.
From looking at some of the catalogs that accidentally come into my mail box, I know that there are lots of different kinds of bait, live, artificial and thousands of other types.
How about for churches when they want to fish for people?
Let me share that I don’t think that we even realize when we are fishing most of the time.
I would call it live bait….when people see a Christian just living…sometimes in good times and probably most often in the bad times….Live bait gets a lot of attention when you fish directly by living a Christian life.
Living differently with Christian values and morals will get you noticed and it is not always comfortable being the bait.
How about another kind of bait?
Is it still fishing when a church does something for a community or a family and does not expect anything in return?
How about if you give baby items to a pregnancy center so people have more choice? Maybe saving a baby or two.
Working at or giving money to Murphy Harpist?
How about tutoring children in their school work?
How about reaching out into the community when someone has a loss and providing a meal or other needs?
What is our community hungry for?
What does it need?
When dad and I went fishing in the gulf it would be easy to feel like failures. 10 fish for the week instead of 50, 100 or more.
But we were with a group and we all shared when it came time to head for home.
We benefited greatly and carried home a cooler with a lot of fresh fish. The really cool thing was that we did not even have to clean them.
The captain provided a man that was an expert to do the work.
Amazingly, God and His son Jesus Christ do exactly the same thing. When we answer his call, we are only expected to fish for people.
God provides the hunger and the spirit encourages a response and Jesus cleans them.
And a lot of times we get to enjoy the company of new people on our journey toward home.
Have you been fishing lately? Jesus call to follow him never expires.
Consider how God is calling you to fish and let’s commit to answering the call to follow Jesus in the family fishing business. Think of the stories you will have and the amazing things you will see God do.
All Glory be to God!
