Sermon - For What Are We Fishing?
Fishing is a common pastime here in Wisconsin, with as many species as there are waterways to fish in. Panfish in small ponds, spearing carp and sturgeon, baiting catfish on the Wisconsin and Mississippi, walleye and northern on the bigger lakes, fly fishing for trout on the cold, oxygenated streams, or even just a trip to Culver’s or your local tavern for a Friday Night fish fry, fishing is a part of Wisconsin culture. I daresay it would be difficult to find anyone here today who has never fished.
For me, fishing isn’t as relaxing as it is for most people. My experiences began as a kid when dad would help us pack up our 10-foot cane poles with a line and bobber and take us to Otter Creek, a few miles upstream of St. Malachi’s Church in Clyde every Father’s Day. We rarely had much luck, and for m,e the sport wasn’t quite as “offensive minded” as I hoped it would be. Now, if I could have jumped in after the fish and beat them with a stick or scooped them up with my bare hands, that would have appealed to me. Last summer, some friends of ours traveled with us to Colorado for vacation. Knowing Steve was an avid fly fisherman, I asked him to take me when he went, and that was a more enjoyable experience for me. He taught me how to cast the fly, and it was more fun certainly than bank fishing or casting for northern in the Lake of the Woods Chain in Canada. So now I have a fly rod, reel, several flies, the goop to keep your flies dry, a pair of waders, and a vest…the whole 9 yards…and I plan to go again this spring once the weather gets a little warmer. Maybe around Father’s Day.
What I learned through the years is that fishing, like many things, isn’t really about catching the fish. Not for me, anyway. That’s like saying Hemingway’s “The Old Man And The Sea” is about fishing - it isn’t - or that “Rocky” is a movie about boxing. That is not the case, either. No, fishing is about the people you are spending time with while you are dipping your line into the water. Those connections that we strengthen by spending time with one another. The conversations that transpire. One such conversation between my teaching friend, Dave, and I, while spending time at his cabin near Tomahawk, became just such an opportunity. This would have been around 1991 or so. Out of the blue, Dave said to me, “Why are we here?” Assuming he was frank in his question about metaphysical existence, I responded, “We are here to experience the brief moments of joy that show us what heaven can be.” I’m pretty sure he was surprised by my response. He continued to fish in stunned silence and, after a whil,e responded with, “Wow.” Yeah, now and again, the comedian band director who doesn’t teach a real class comes up with something insightful. By the way, I caught a pretty good-sized rock bass that day. Dave said it was the biggest he had ever seen, so I thought that was kinda cool. I had no idea there was such a thing as a rock bass.
Fishing is an important occupation in the Bible. It shows up in all four gospels. Specifically, Jesus begins his ministry by becoming not a carpenter, but a fisher of men. Each of the four Gospels tells the story of Jesus calling his disciples, Simon Peter and Andrew, to drop their nets and come with him.
Mark and Matthew, in their Gospels, tell the same story. According to these two Gospels, Jesus is baptized by John, led into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, and then, following John’s arrest, goes to Galilee to begin his ministry. Mark says it most simply, saying, “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.”
Matthew adds a little detail about Jesus leaving his hometown of Nazareth to make his home in Capernaum, to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah that is recorded in our first lesson. Matthew makes a point in his Gospel to show that many of Jesus’ actions were a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. But still, there is nothing mentioned about Jesus preaching any sermons or attracting any large following. He is simply at the very beginning of his ministry.
Rather, according to Mark and Matthew, the first thing that Jesus does is to call his first disciples. And what an amazing story they tell. Jesus is walking along the shore when he sees two fishermen, Simon Peter and his brother Andrew, casting their net into the sea. Jesus calls to them and says, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately, we are told, they left their net, their boat, their occupation, and followed Jesus down the shore.
Not too far on, Jesus sees James and John, with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. Jesus calls out to the two boys, most likely with the same invitation that he issued to Peter and Andrew, and immediately, they also drop everything, including leaving their father, to follow Jesus. The way Mark and Matthew describe the calling of the first disciples leaves me with the conclusion that the fishing must have been poor for a long time, or that they were just aching for a new experience.
Then we come to Luke’s Gospel, where he fills in the details. Luke tells us that following Jesus’ baptism, temptation, and the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus also returns to Galilee to begin his ministry. First, Jesus returns to Nazareth, where he preaches in the synagogue, and is rejected by his hometown, forcing him to flee to Capernaum, where he again preaches in a synagogue.
This time, he also heals a man with an unclean spirit, who had proclaimed him to be the Holy One of God. There, the people marveled, not only that he preached with authority, but that he could heal by the authority of his word. And the people began to spread the word about Jesus throughout the region. This was followed by several other healings, including that of Simon’s mother-in-law.
Finally, Luke tells us, Jesus was walking along the shore when a large crowd gathered to hear him preach. He saw two boats anchored there, as the fishermen were washing their nets. He got into the one belonging to Simon and asked him to put out a little from the shore, from which Jesus preached.
When he had dismissed the crowds, he told Simon and his friends to go out a ways and let down their nets. Even though they had fished all night without catching a thing, they did as Jesus directed, and caught so many fish that the boats began to sink. It was following this event, according to Luke, that Jesus invited Simon Peter, James, and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners, to become his first disciples, and they left everything to follow Jesus. These men were in awe of Jesus, for they had seen and experienced unique authority, even though they may not have yet understood that he was Christ, the Son of God.
And then we come to John’s Gospel, which itself is unique, since it doesn’t follow the pattern of the other Gospels. John was not so much concerned about providing us with a chronological account of the life of Jesus as he was helping us understand that in Jesus, we behold the Word of God incarnate.
In fact, John specifically states the purpose for his writing his Gospel near the end in these words: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”
John was a theologian who wrote his Gospel to help us understand that all that took place in the life of Jesus Christ was according to God’s plan for our redemption. As a result, he pictured John the Baptist, not only as one who was sent by God to call us to prepare for the kingdom of God coming among us through his call to repent, but also to point to and identify Jesus as the Christ.
This, according to John’s Gospel, was the true mission of John the Baptist. And when Jesus was revealed to John to be the Christ, he immediately began to point to Jesus and proclaim, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” On two consecutive days, according to John’s Gospel, two of the Baptist’s disciples heard John proclaim that Jesus was the Christ, the Lamb of God, and they began to follow Jesus. One was Andrew, and the other is presumed to be the beloved disciple John.
After these two had spent a day with Jesus, Andrew then went to seek his brother, Simon Peter, and told him that he had found the Messiah, asking him to join them as our Lord’s disciple. But again, John’s Gospel was not interested in providing us with simply a chronological or historical record of the life of Christ. The purpose of his Gospel was to help us understand that God was at work, even through the Baptist, to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
What about us? How did we become followers? Some of us might have come to faith in Christ as a result of some form of spiritual experience that we encountered. Some of us might come to faith in Christ because we were drawn in by the fact of the authority of Jesus’ teachings and miracles, as recorded in Scripture.
But I believe that most of us come to be disciples of Christ because we were brought to the font to receive the sacrament of Baptism, to be united to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After all, God was at work through our parents to call a future generation of disciples for our Lord. That is the message of John’s Gospel! The Baptist points his own in the direction of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, and his own disciples, his own children, follow the one to whom he points.
It is according to God’s plan that we become disciples of Jesus. And if we set our hearts and minds to follow the lead of God’s Spirit, we will not only know the joy of God’s salvation, but the joy of following Jesus, as did the first disciples, to serve our crucified and risen Lord. It is God who has called us as his disciples, and it is God who will empower us through his grace. May God continue, through his grace, to empower us for the task.
