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Fishing with
Jesus:
What’s the Catch?
by the Rev. Rich Smith
February 4, 2007
Luke 5:1-11
Mark Twain loved to boast of his hunting and fishing
exploits. The story is told how returning home by train after a
three-week fishing trip deep in the heart of Maine, long after the
state’s fishing season had closed, Twain retired to the lounge car in
search of a suitable stranger to whom he might relate his fishing
adventures. Having struck up a friendly conversation with a prospective
admirer, Twain soon found to his dismay that his boasts of a great
catch elicited a grim reaction. Still Twain pressed on ... ”By the way,
who are you, sir?” he finally inquired. “I’m the state game warden,”
the stranger growled. “Who are you?” Twain nearly swallowed his cigar.
“Well, to be perfectly truthful, warden,” he answered, thinking of his
catch, iced down in the baggage car, “I’m the biggest darn liar in the
whole United States!”
It is likely that the warden believed him, because for some reason, we
fishermen have a reputation. If we can’t produce evidence of the
success of our exploits, then we fall back to talking about the “one
that got away.” I could tell you some amazing stories about that
myself, but you would probably correctly label them for what they are –
fish stories.
I don’t know if Luke was telling a fish story or not, but it was a
pretty amazing catch that day. It began when Jesus decided to take his
ministry beyond a one-man operation and recruit some help. And so he
went down to the lakeshore where some fishermen had been laboring all
night, but, as we would say, they got skunked. That was a far more
serious thing than when it happens to me, because they were not
recreational or sport fishermen – it was their livelihood, and when
they don’t catch, they don’t eat. Now, this is a story full of
surprises – the size of the catch is not the only amazing thing here.
It is surprising that Simon and the others would even respond to Jesus’
suggestion at all – I mean, they were professionals and he was a
land-loving carpenter. What did he know about it? I mean, would you let
someone from a completely different field tell you how to do your job?
And then, even though the sun is up, he has them use their nets that
were made for fishing at night. In the daylight they would be too
visible to the fish who would avoid them. Maybe these guys were just
too tired to argue, and too desperate not to try. But turns out Jesus
knew what he was doing – “When they had done this, they caught so many
fish that their nets were beginning to break...” and they needed help
to haul them in – a symbol of what was to come in the abundance of
God’s realm. Simon (who was to become Peter) trembled with fear, and
confessed how unworthy he was to be in the presence of such a man as
Jesus. But Jesus said to him, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will
be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they
left everything and followed him. Surprise number three – you’d think
with success like this they might want to keep on fishing, now
including Jesus as their fishing guide. But it turns out that the real
catch here was them! When you fish with Jesus, you turn out to be the
one who gets caught. And so these fishermen dropped everything, not
just their nets, or their boat full of fish that needed to get to
market before they spoiled, but everything about their lives that they
had know up to that point, and followed him.
These days, if you want to start a movement, unless you are a union
organizer, you probably don’t employ Jesus’ methods of walking along
the docks and reeling in whomever happens to be there. You might write
a book, or hire a publicist, or get yourself on The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart. You might put up a website, or better yet, let someone create
a group for you on Facebook.com. This has happened with one
presidential candidate, which resulted in a rally at George Mason
University on Friday of several thousand students. According to
yesterday’s Washington Post, a Facebook group created just three weeks
ago already has some 200,000 members! Some of these students will no
doubt drop everything, join the campaign, and change their lives.
I wonder how many of you have come face to face with the equivalent of
Jesus and his large catch of fish, and done the same – found yourselves
caught up in something that was worth dropping everything for, and
following. Maybe it was Bobby Kennedy’s presidential campaign, or the
challenge of the Viet Nam War or the Civil Rights movement or the War
on Poverty or the Peace Corps.
Back in the previous administration, when I lived out West, I would
occasionally see bumper stickers that said, “Charleton Heston is my
president.” Later, I looked in vain for one that said “Martin Sheen is
mine.” For a while The West Wing was one of the best TV shows out
there. And I recall an episode in the second or third year which was
done mostly in flashback, showing how the President’s staff had come to
work in the campaign and serve in the Bartlett administration. One was
coming home from work from her $500,000-a-year job as an advertising
executive when she found an old friend waiting for her by the pool. She
tripped and fell in, and as she was drying off he offered her a job in
the campaign, for $500 a week, I think. But she trusted him and took
it. Another character was in a board meeting in his capacity as legal
counsel to a large corporation. An old friend knocked on the door and
said “I need you. I have just the man.” “Is he the real deal?” “Yes,
he’s the real deal.” And without ever looking back, Sam Seaborn leaves
the lucrative corporate life behind for the risks of life in public
service.
The changes in my life have not been so radical as these, but, like
these, they involved people rather than seemingly miraculous signs. One
of those persons was the pastor of my church when I was growing up – I
saw him just last week; he’s as sharp as ever and as he usually does
gave me a scholarly book. When I was in high school, I was on the
engineering track, chemical engineering, even though that meant I might
have to work in places where there were chemicals, like California or
Maryland. But one day he took me aside, and said, “I think God wants
you for the ministry.” Needless to say, God and I had a talk about
that, and while it wasn’t as dramatic as it was for the disciples, my
life was changed. And throughout my ministry of some thirty years now,
I have tried to be open to a sense of call, what it means for me at
each particular time in my life. I have never sought any of the
positions I have held. There have been calls seemingly out of the blue,
from persons I did not know in places I never dreamed of going to. Six
years ago this month, in fact, a delegation of Westmorelanders showed
up at my church in Tucson. I was completing some remodeling on my
house, and had put it on a fifteen year mortgage, so it would be paid
off the year of my projected retirement. Apparently God had other
ideas, mediated, as always, through other people – the equivalent of
Jesus and a boatload of fish!
Over the years, I have discovered several things, all borne out by this
scriptural story. For one thing, the call is always a matter of grace.
We are not called by God because we are so worthy, or because we have
trained ourselves and honed our abilities. Often we are called in spite
of them. Like Simon Peter, (or Isaiah, or Moses, or Paul) we tremble
and declare our unworthiness. But God knows better than we do and sees
things we do not...
For another, the call usually comes in the midst of life, while plowing
or fishing or going about our daily business. Remember what John Lennon
said: “Life is what happens while we are making other plans.”
Occasionally there is an Isaiah who is called in the Temple, but as I
have said before, we encounter God in this place in order that we may
be attuned to the presence of God in every place. We may hear the call
in the quiet of our dreams. Or in a situation, such as global warming.
Maybe someone here will have seen Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient
Truth, or read the just released report of the “Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change” and decide that you have to do more than change your
light bulbs or buy a Prius – maybe this will become the great cause for
which you give your life!
Maybe in your travels you will see something first hand that will
motivate you to become an agent for change. I remember the woman who
went to Ethiopia in the midst of famine, looked around and screamed at
God, “God, why don’t you do something?” And God answered, “I was about
to ask you the same thing!”
Maybe the war that has become this generation’s Viet Nam and took over
1,000 lives this past week will provoke a similar passion (anyone among
the marchers last weekend?) and you’ll decide to do more than march.
I am proud that this church has had a hand in the transformation of
people’s lives for the transformation of the world. One of the things I
am privileged to do each winter is to read the applications of those
who are interested in becoming a part of our Volunteer Corp. One of the
questions they are asked is how they would see their experience in the
Corps as a response to the call of Christ to serve others. There are
always some very profound and well-thought out answers but what often
happens is – once they are here and actually serving others, they
encounter persons and situations that literally change their lives. And
when they leave here, they do not always do what they thought they were
going to do when they came. Their call has taken them in a new
direction. They leave their nets, in a sense, and follow.
One could tell many stories, I suppose. Albert Schweitzer giving up his
promising career as an organist and becoming a medical doctor in
Africa. Dietrich Bonhoeffer who risked everything to oppose Hitler. I
remember reading of a relatively unknown woman who was living a very
wealthy high society life in San Diego when she became a nun, whose
call was to minister in the jails of Tijuana. Or Pat Tillam, who might
have been playing in the Super Bowl today, had he not walked away from
a multi-million dollar NFL contract to join the Army Rangers, go to
Afghanistan and fight the Taliban – where he was killed by “friendly
fire.”
Recently I came across the story of Sheila Cassidy , a British doctor
who went to Chile during the rule of Augusto Pinochet to use her
medical skills to minister in the name of Christ. Because she treated
anyone who requested her help, including those who were opponents of
the dictator, she was arrested and spent several weeks in detention,
where she was tortured. Eventually she was expelled from the country.
Today she ministers to the terminally ill in England. In her
autobiography, Audacity to Believe, she tells of the time when she
accepted the call of God. She writes: “How can one convey the agony and
the ecstasy of being called by God? At one moment one is overawed by
the immensity of the honor ... and in the same breath one screams, ‘No!
No! Please, not me, I can’t take it!’ That which seconds ago was a
privilege becomes an outrageously unfair demand ....” But then she
adds, “I thought about it, and I knew that I did not want to say no and
that, however much it hurt, I could only humbly accept.” Cassidy’s
experience may not be our own. The call may come in a very gradual way
— like the sun rising in the east. There’s a point when the light dawns
and we understand what God is calling us to do. Or the call may come
because we’re discomforted in a certain situation and cannot find rest
otherwise. Or the call may come to us in a dramatic way — the boatload
of fish, the unexpected encounter, the almost miraculous occurrence.
But acceptance of Jesus’ call is where all of this leads. Jesus doesn’t
call us because we are the best by human measures — the most promising
captain in the fleet or even the one with the most fish. He doesn’t
necessarily call us because of some talent we have honed to perfection.
But he knows of something inside of us, something in our hearts, and
speaks to that, and tells us to go fish. What’s needed is not to carp
that we don’t like the call or to flounder about and put off answering.
Rather like the fishermen in today’s reading, the response of faith is
to leave off what we were doing, and go fish in the deep waters where
Jesus is calling us, knowing full well, that when we fish with Jesus,
we may be the ones who get caught!
Last updated Wednesday, Februrary 29, 2008
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