LET'S GO FISHING January 27, 2008
LET’S GO FISHING
Sermon for 3rd Sunday in Epiphany January 27, 2008
Scripture: Psalm 27:1, 4-9, Mt.4:18-23
The title of my sermon this morning somehow makes me want to tell some stories about children; maybe it’s because fishing was one of my favorite things to do when I was a child. We lived on Sebago Lake in Maine, and I fished mostly off our boat dock, catching horn pout, perch, sunfish and once in awhile, an eel. The other thing I loved to do from around age 10 was to read the Bible. This reminds me of another ten year old who under the tutelage of her grandmother was becoming quite knowledgeable about the Bible. Then one day, she floored her grandmother by asking, “Which Virgin was the mother of Jesus? The virgin Mary or the King James Virgin?” Another child was looking at the old family Bible with fascination. Then something fell out of the Bible. He picked it up and looked at it closely. It was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. “Mama, look what I found,” the little boy called out. “What have you got there dear?” asked the mother. With astonishment in the young boy’s voice, he answered, “It’s Adam’s suit.” And then a final one for you grandmothers: The child asks, “Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?” She mentally polished her halo and asked, “No, how are we alike? “You’re both old,” he replied.
We are still in the season of Epiphany, the season of light. The Hebrew Bible lesson which I used today as our Call to Worship talks about the light overcoming the darkness. Those who have been in anguish will no longer be in gloom. Instead great joy will be theirs. In our popular language we often refer to those who don’t know what’s going on as being in the dark, having no clue. I would imagine that some of our Christian churches would say that those people that have not found Christ and been born again are in the dark. Certainly in Matthew’s gospel the four disciples that he describes being called by Jesus would fit the example of those in darkness that suddenly saw the great light, the light of course being Jesus. Just as Jesus is the “light” that shines, I believe we are to be lights shining in the world, bringing a message of joy and love to those outside our churches.
When Jesus saw Simon and Andrew, he did not say, “Hello, my name is Jesus; how’s it going?” All he said according to Matthew was, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. The same thing with the brothers James and John who were in the boat with Zebedee their father. We are told he called them and again they immediately left the boat and their father and followed him. In the John’s Gospel last week we had similar commands from Jesus, “Come and see”, and “Follow me.” How amazing was Jesus’ presence that these men would follow him with no questions asked. Can you imagine doing such a thing?
If Jesus calls these first disciples to come with him and become fishers of men and women, what does that mean for us? What do disciples do besides fishing? Our scripture points out two things: 1)They follow a leader and 2) in the last verse of our Gospel reading, they make more disciples by teaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and by healing every disease and sickness. Or as Leonard Sweet says, “Disciples live and love in such a way that others want to join them in the journey of reproducing Jesus in the world.[1]
Now I imagine some of you are thinking, “Here she goes again, wanting us to evangelize, which means sharing the Good News.” We just compiled statistics for our Annual Meeting Report. About a year ago we went through the membership list and removed those folks that no longer were active in this church. We got the numbers down to 75; during 2007 two new members joined and four active members died; thus we now have only 72. You can see where this is going if something doesn’t happen.
To quote Leonard Sweet’s sermon again, “Not to be able to reproduce is the worst crisis any species can have----whether that species be a panda bear, a passenger pigeon, aparticular church, or a whole denomination (many of whom have gone in mylifetime from mainline to oldline to sideline to offline to flatline). Which makes the reproduction crisis of the church today of such enormous importance.”
If we want to go fishing for disciples, we have to do some serious thinking about where to go, what kind of bait to use, how to cast our line in the right spot, as well as learning to have patience, noticing the weather, watching the wind and so forth. Fishing has to be done in context. We can’t fish on one lake and expect that we’ll catch fish from another lake. We can’t wish that the weather was different or that we had a different kind of bait. In other words we need to use what we have (our gifts and experiences) to fish with in the time and place where we are at.
It’s fine if we want to use a word other than evangelism; we can call it outreach, sharing our faith, or just witnessing. It certainly doesn’t have to be knocking on some stranger’s door and asking them if they know Jesus or even just asking them to come to church.
For most of us this witnessing will be in the everyday rhythm of our life. Maybe we are talking with someone at work, or sharing with a golf or tennis partner about something that touched you at a worship service or other church event. Or maybe you read something in your morning devotions that helped you think about the world in a different way and you share this insight in casual conversation. A seed has been planted for further conversation. Most of us have many opportunities to talk about our faith but usually keep quiet. One of my resources suggests that, “Perhaps our greatest problem in becoming Christ’s fishermen is that we are not enough in earnest to grasp the opportunities that come to us; or we are so possessed of the idea that we must say something dramatic andfar-reaching that we fail to say the small, immediate and potentially significant thing. To put it in the language of our lesson for the day, most of us really don’t act as if we even have a call to "fish." We’re out in the waters of human need every day, but we don’t seem to know it.”[2]
So there are many ways of going fishing. We don’t have to be aggressive about sharing our faith, just be more sensitive to the needs around us and also to the gentle prodding of the Holy Spirit. These sensitivities go well together and can open us up to both God and the people around us. I have mentioned before how important it is to pray for how we may go about bringing more people into our church family as well as praying for particular people that we might invite to church. In the latest newsletter I challenged you to think about what new thing you would like to see happen at this special church, wondering if the place to start is our Pew Enhancement Project. Our growth and evangelism goals from our last two Visioning Retreats have been difficult to get off the ground. For a while I was considering having this work done out of the WSO committee, but on second thought that committee already has so much to do. At the annual meeting after church I will be passing out a slip of paper for each of you to indicate a couple of things: 1) Would you be willing to get together for an initial meeting to talk about and maybe plan a strategy for growth? I will also send this opportunity out to the parish list by email. If you attend this meeting you still have a chance to opt out of ongoing work in this area. You may see or hear something in the meeting that gets you excited; or you may decide this committee isn’t for you.
The second thing on the slip of paper is to indicate a desire to attend a book study for four weeks during Lent. On the surface this activity doesn’t seem to have much to do with growth; however, depending on the book we choose, it may strengthen your faith and your desire to go fishing.
My prayer and deep desire is that many of you will want to join me in following Jesus and becoming fishers of people. Amen and Hallelujah.
[1] “The Lonesome George Church”, from E-Sermons, online.
[2] J. Ellsworth Kalas, Reading the Signs, From Empty Nets to Full Lives, CSS Publishing Company.
Sermon for 3rd Sunday in Epiphany January 27, 2008
Scripture: Psalm 27:1, 4-9, Mt.4:18-23
The title of my sermon this morning somehow makes me want to tell some stories about children; maybe it’s because fishing was one of my favorite things to do when I was a child. We lived on Sebago Lake in Maine, and I fished mostly off our boat dock, catching horn pout, perch, sunfish and once in awhile, an eel. The other thing I loved to do from around age 10 was to read the Bible. This reminds me of another ten year old who under the tutelage of her grandmother was becoming quite knowledgeable about the Bible. Then one day, she floored her grandmother by asking, “Which Virgin was the mother of Jesus? The virgin Mary or the King James Virgin?” Another child was looking at the old family Bible with fascination. Then something fell out of the Bible. He picked it up and looked at it closely. It was an old leaf that had been pressed in between the pages. “Mama, look what I found,” the little boy called out. “What have you got there dear?” asked the mother. With astonishment in the young boy’s voice, he answered, “It’s Adam’s suit.” And then a final one for you grandmothers: The child asks, “Grandma, do you know how you and God are alike?” She mentally polished her halo and asked, “No, how are we alike? “You’re both old,” he replied.
We are still in the season of Epiphany, the season of light. The Hebrew Bible lesson which I used today as our Call to Worship talks about the light overcoming the darkness. Those who have been in anguish will no longer be in gloom. Instead great joy will be theirs. In our popular language we often refer to those who don’t know what’s going on as being in the dark, having no clue. I would imagine that some of our Christian churches would say that those people that have not found Christ and been born again are in the dark. Certainly in Matthew’s gospel the four disciples that he describes being called by Jesus would fit the example of those in darkness that suddenly saw the great light, the light of course being Jesus. Just as Jesus is the “light” that shines, I believe we are to be lights shining in the world, bringing a message of joy and love to those outside our churches.
When Jesus saw Simon and Andrew, he did not say, “Hello, my name is Jesus; how’s it going?” All he said according to Matthew was, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. The same thing with the brothers James and John who were in the boat with Zebedee their father. We are told he called them and again they immediately left the boat and their father and followed him. In the John’s Gospel last week we had similar commands from Jesus, “Come and see”, and “Follow me.” How amazing was Jesus’ presence that these men would follow him with no questions asked. Can you imagine doing such a thing?
If Jesus calls these first disciples to come with him and become fishers of men and women, what does that mean for us? What do disciples do besides fishing? Our scripture points out two things: 1)They follow a leader and 2) in the last verse of our Gospel reading, they make more disciples by teaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and by healing every disease and sickness. Or as Leonard Sweet says, “Disciples live and love in such a way that others want to join them in the journey of reproducing Jesus in the world.[1]
Now I imagine some of you are thinking, “Here she goes again, wanting us to evangelize, which means sharing the Good News.” We just compiled statistics for our Annual Meeting Report. About a year ago we went through the membership list and removed those folks that no longer were active in this church. We got the numbers down to 75; during 2007 two new members joined and four active members died; thus we now have only 72. You can see where this is going if something doesn’t happen.
To quote Leonard Sweet’s sermon again, “Not to be able to reproduce is the worst crisis any species can have----whether that species be a panda bear, a passenger pigeon, aparticular church, or a whole denomination (many of whom have gone in mylifetime from mainline to oldline to sideline to offline to flatline). Which makes the reproduction crisis of the church today of such enormous importance.”
If we want to go fishing for disciples, we have to do some serious thinking about where to go, what kind of bait to use, how to cast our line in the right spot, as well as learning to have patience, noticing the weather, watching the wind and so forth. Fishing has to be done in context. We can’t fish on one lake and expect that we’ll catch fish from another lake. We can’t wish that the weather was different or that we had a different kind of bait. In other words we need to use what we have (our gifts and experiences) to fish with in the time and place where we are at.
It’s fine if we want to use a word other than evangelism; we can call it outreach, sharing our faith, or just witnessing. It certainly doesn’t have to be knocking on some stranger’s door and asking them if they know Jesus or even just asking them to come to church.
For most of us this witnessing will be in the everyday rhythm of our life. Maybe we are talking with someone at work, or sharing with a golf or tennis partner about something that touched you at a worship service or other church event. Or maybe you read something in your morning devotions that helped you think about the world in a different way and you share this insight in casual conversation. A seed has been planted for further conversation. Most of us have many opportunities to talk about our faith but usually keep quiet. One of my resources suggests that, “Perhaps our greatest problem in becoming Christ’s fishermen is that we are not enough in earnest to grasp the opportunities that come to us; or we are so possessed of the idea that we must say something dramatic andfar-reaching that we fail to say the small, immediate and potentially significant thing. To put it in the language of our lesson for the day, most of us really don’t act as if we even have a call to "fish." We’re out in the waters of human need every day, but we don’t seem to know it.”[2]
So there are many ways of going fishing. We don’t have to be aggressive about sharing our faith, just be more sensitive to the needs around us and also to the gentle prodding of the Holy Spirit. These sensitivities go well together and can open us up to both God and the people around us. I have mentioned before how important it is to pray for how we may go about bringing more people into our church family as well as praying for particular people that we might invite to church. In the latest newsletter I challenged you to think about what new thing you would like to see happen at this special church, wondering if the place to start is our Pew Enhancement Project. Our growth and evangelism goals from our last two Visioning Retreats have been difficult to get off the ground. For a while I was considering having this work done out of the WSO committee, but on second thought that committee already has so much to do. At the annual meeting after church I will be passing out a slip of paper for each of you to indicate a couple of things: 1) Would you be willing to get together for an initial meeting to talk about and maybe plan a strategy for growth? I will also send this opportunity out to the parish list by email. If you attend this meeting you still have a chance to opt out of ongoing work in this area. You may see or hear something in the meeting that gets you excited; or you may decide this committee isn’t for you.
The second thing on the slip of paper is to indicate a desire to attend a book study for four weeks during Lent. On the surface this activity doesn’t seem to have much to do with growth; however, depending on the book we choose, it may strengthen your faith and your desire to go fishing.
My prayer and deep desire is that many of you will want to join me in following Jesus and becoming fishers of people. Amen and Hallelujah.
[1] “The Lonesome George Church”, from E-Sermons, online.
[2] J. Ellsworth Kalas, Reading the Signs, From Empty Nets to Full Lives, CSS Publishing Company.
posted by Sermons given at Deering Community Church @ 11:52 AM
<< Home