Mark 1:14-20
“Fishing Isn’t the Same as Catching”
By Kenneth Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
www.parkview-umc.org
When I was a young boy, my dad and I would often take off on a Saturday to a nearby lake.
We’d rent a small fishing boat, buy some crickets as bait and go out fishing for several hours.
We never caught a thing!
One time, just one time, my sister Lisa came along with us…
…and you know what?
You guessed it…she caught a fish.
But even though I wasn’t the one who caught the fish, it was still a really exciting experience.
For one thing, we learned, “gee…this lake really does have fish in it.”
I was also able to see what it was like to catch one…to bring it into the boat…to put it in a bucket…take it home…and scale it.
I wasn’t the one who caught it, but I was glad Lisa did.
As we look at our Gospel Lesson for this morning, two really important facts jump right off the page.
The first is how quickly—actually immediately—the disciples responded to Jesus’ call.
The second is that He called them not to be catchers of men, but to be fishers; and there is a difference.
Verse 18 tells us about the quick decision on the disciple’s part: “At once they left their nets and followed him.”
Something is really happening here.
People don’t usually drop what they are doing immediately…especially fishermen.
Fishermen think things over.
They’re usually slow to act because they are used to having to use so much patience to get what they want.
But for these four disciples, well, their response was immediate.
They left their nets and followed Jesus.
How many people are willing to follow or respond so immediately?
How often are people asked to do something for the church and their immediate answer is: “Sure I will. I’ll be glad to.”?
How often do we immediately respond?
Is it only when our boss calls; or our wife or mom?
Or do we even put off our response in those cases?
“Just a minute honey!”…
…or “Not right now, dear!”…
…or “How about during the next time out?”
And what the disciples were called to do…well…it pales in comparison to the little things I’m talking about.
All the disciples of Jesus left something behind.
These first four left their fishing boats, their livelihood and their homes.
And it wasn’t the kind of situation where they could say: “Well, okay, we’ll try this out for a while, and see how it works out.”
They followed.
There was a finality about it.
Have we left anything to follow Jesus?
And I ask this because in order to follow Jesus we do have to leave something behind…for good!
It may not mean that we have to leave our present jobs, or our homes or families…but it might.
What it definitely does mean is that we will have to leave behind some of the prejudices that we cherish so much…and that are so familiar to who we are.
And maybe there are lifestyle issues we must leave behind in order to follow Christ.
One day when I was in seminary, on the campus of Emory University, I was witnessing to a college student.
I asked him if he believed that Jesus Christ is Who He says He is.
His answer was yes.
Then I asked him if he would be willing to pray, repent of his sins, and ask Jesus to become the Lord of his life.
His answer was, “No. Not yet. I believe, but I’m not ready to give my life to Christ. There are too many things I’m not ready to give up.”
How many of us ‘believe’, but are not willing to follow?
James, the brother of Jesus, tells us: “Even the demons believe…”
But we are also told that they will be thrown into the Lake of Fire!
“Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.”
The power of the Gospel changes people’s lives.
Once we meet Jesus on the road of our own individual life, and decide to follow Him, we will be changed!
We will be different people.
But many of us tend to resist change.
So many folks just want to see the Gospel through rose colored glasses—wanting to see only the joy, comfort, and light—and not wanting to see the difficult or disruptive.
“Behold, I make all things new,” says Jesus.
Two very important words in this morning’s Gospel Lesson are repent and believe.
Too many people think repent means to feel sorry for what you’ve done—and then, go do it again.
That’s not it at all.
Repent means to change direction.
It means a change in priorities.
It means living with a whole new approach to life.
It calls us to embrace the newness and change which Jesus brings.
And to believe…well…it doesn’t just mean listing our denomination as United Methodist on some application blank.
It means trust and reliance and placing one’s whole life in God’s hands, regardless of what happens in life.
It’s called “the leap of faith.”
That’s the kind of change that the Gospel produces.
That’s what makes us different.
And there’s no turning back, because it’s a difference that won’t go away.
This is what happened to the disciples as soon as they began to follow Jesus…nothing was ever the same.
It was the beginning of a new and exciting journey…the best journey imaginable…where God is not just a Sunday friend but a daily companion.
And this is what happens to all of us when we heed the call of Jesus in our lives to: “Come follow me.”
And when we embrace this newness of life that Jesus offers…
…well, we see how good things can be…
…we experience God’s love up close and personal…and we want to ‘Pass it On.”
“Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, ‘and I will make you fishers of men.”
There is a difference between being fishers and catchers of men.
Jesus calls us to be fishers.
Think about your life journey.
How many people dropped a hook in front of you…before you finally grabbed a hold of the new life you found in Christ?
An awful lot, I’d imagine.
Maybe you were brought up in church.
Maybe you were surrounded by the preaching of the Word, the invitation to accept Christ, and people who were wonderful/grace-filled examples of how magnificently different it is to be a follower of Christ.
But you still didn’t bite.
At the same time, there were hundreds upon hundreds of seeds being planted.
And then one day, well, Praise the Lord!…
…it all clicked…
…the decision was straight ahead of you and you became a Christian!
And you believed…really believed…and things really started to change!
Who was the One Who caught you?
There had been a lot of fishers after you…
…but Who caught you?
Was it not the love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself?
As Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Even the ability to believe and make the decision to accept God’s plan of salvation is a gift of God.
Fishing is not the same as catching.
Jesus calls us to be fishers, not catchers, and that is good.
It means that we’re not alone in the project of proclaiming the Gospel to the world.
God is with us, since it is God the Holy Spirit alone Who enables our ‘fish’ to be caught, Who enables people to respond to our message.
And since it is the Holy Spirit Who does the catching, we don’t need to take the rejection of the Gospel personally.
Maybe it wasn’t the right time for that person; maybe the Holy Spirit has some other things to work out with them first; it may be a lot of things…maybe they will never accept Jesus Christ as Lord of their lives…
…We do have free-will.
The main thing we should be concerned with is the fact that we did witness to them.
And whether a catch is made or not, we are called to cast the net again, to proclaim the Good News to another person by words and deeds, and let the Holy Spirit fill the net according to God’s will.
This past week, Robert and I put up some Parkview door hangers.
That’s fishing.
It’s up to the Holy spirit to convict and bring in the fish.
As a matter of fact, some 15,000 Parkview door hangers have been put up over the past two and a half years…and some 20,000 invitation cards have been handed out.
Many have been invited to accept Christ.
Many have been invited to church.
There’s been a lot of fishing going on!!!
And this church is growing.
People are being transformed right before our eyes!
And we are praising God for it!
Just like it was—not me—but my sister Lisa who caught that one and only fish…but I was so happy to see one caught…
…It is not us who do the catching…
…but we do the fishing and rejoice when the Holy Spirit convicts and a positive decision is made!!!
So let’s put ourselves in those boats so long ago, with the knowledge we have of a Savior Who wants to give everyone the gift of salvation.
And let’s remember that this gift can neither be bought nor earned by any human being; that it is, however, God’s free gift to those who call upon Jesus’ name, who trust Jesus for salvation and not themselves.
Let’s hear Jesus call us to be fishers of people…
…and let us respond by fishing and fishing and fishing…
…letting God take care of the rest.
Let us pray: Jesus, You called the four fishermen to leave their nets and follow You. Help us today to be open to Your leading as we too seek ways to follow You and share the Good News of Your love with all the people you enable us to meet. In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray. Amen.
