"Fishers in Daily Life" - Sermon for Epiphany 3, 2018

Sermon:

Text:

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who calls us to an identity.

            Sven and Ole go fishing. It’s such a great day, they rent a boat so they can fish from the middle of the lake. They row out, drop their lines, and before you know it, they're catching fish, one after another after another. They can’t believe what a great fishing spot they found.
Sven says, “This is the best fishing spot in the county. It’s just too bad we didn’t bring some paint.”
Ole asks, “Paint? Why should you want paint, to go fishing?”
“Well Ole, don’t you see, so we can paint an “X” in the bottom of the boat, so we can find this spot next time.”
Ole laughs at him. “Sven, don’t be such a dummy! Next time, what if they give us a different boat?” 

            There’s another fishing joke, if you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he’ll be gone all day.

            Our text today is Mark’s wonderfully short version of the calling of the first Disciples. He comes up to some fishermen, and says, Follow me, and I’ll make you fishers of people, ok! They immediately drop their nets and follow, and Jesus doesn’t even really do introductions with them, it’s immediately off to the next two, he sees James and John and immediately calls them as well. They get up, leave their father and follow him.

            “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people,” and they do!

            There’s a bunch there we could talk about, being fishers, what does it mean to be a fisher, how you have to have patience, know where to cast, now days often your hook and rod, but in their time, where to throw your net. And we could come up with many different analogies for how through that, evangelism, telling the good news, works in the world. But, this text isn’t really about fishers, it’s about Jesus calling some fishermen to become his disciples, calling them to follow him. The important part is not the fishing, it’s the calling and the following.

            Jesus is calling fishers to use their God given gifts, fishing, but in a way that brings forth the work of God. If he had been calling field workers, I would imagine that he would call them to be field workers of people. If he had been calling laborers, they would be laborers for people. It’s not about fishing, it’s about Jesus seeing who they are, and calling them to follow him using the gifts they have. This text is all about Jesus calling the disciples into an identity as those who follow him. And through that a text about Jesus calling us to follow him, and having that as our identity.

            The core of who we are as Christians is people who follow Christ. Our identity is followers of Christ, saved through the cross, nourished by his body and blood, and washed clean in the waters of baptism.

            Now, we also have the near ending of the story of Jonah today. Jonah the prophet, who when God calls him, runs the other way. But, in the end, ends up going to the place where God calls him. Our reading even begins, “The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time.” Jonah eventually drops everything and goes where God calls him. It echoes the disciples story of leaving everything behind to follow God’s call.

            And that’s scary. It’s scary to imagine dropping everything you have in life. And according to the disciples and Jonah, it’s not always wonderful things. The disciples pretty much all end up martyred, and one of the biggest messages of the book of Jonah is that God is merciful, even if we may not want God to be.

            And for some of us, that may in fact be the call. I didn’t really give up anything, but I wouldn’t be here in Elk Point without God’s call. But, we have people like the Kooiman family, missionaries in Guatemala, or Gayle Stroeshine, who moved or travelled long distances because of their call to serve. I don’t really include myself in the list of that kind of call.

            So, for the rest of us, the ones who haven’t dropped everything, does that mean that since we haven’t given up everything we therefore are ignoring the call like Jonah first does? No.

            A good quote I read this week, “Salvation does not deny who we are and negate us, but renews and perfects us. We remain ourselves, but through rebirth … become who we were always meant to be.”

            God’s act of love through Christ, our salvation based on his death and resurrection, and our calling to follow because of that, are all based on who God knows us to be. Some of us are travelling missionaries, others are travelling nurses. But, some have to be fishers, some have to sailors on the boats that take prophets the other direction. Some have to be lawyers, and accountants, and teachers, and nurses, and salespeople, and business people. Some have to mothers and fathers, wives and husbands. Some have to be secretaries and treasurers, mechanics and crafts people, day laborers and field workers. Some have to be fire fighters and police, ambulance drivers and military. And the list goes on.

            And each of those things is included in your identity that God gives you. You can be a fisher of people at the same time as you are a fisher of fish. In your life, you also find vocation, the God called thing you do, not just to earn money, but to help be God’s hands in God’s world. You are a lawyer of people, a teacher of people, a wife or husband of people. In who you are as God’s beloved, you are called to share with the world the good news in that very role.

            Following Jesus does not necessarily mean giving up everything like Jonah or the disciples. What it means is living into our identity as beloved children of God, in everything we do, not just in our showing up on Sunday mornings.

            Following Jesus means seeing that you are a beloved child of God as you do your daily work, whatever that may be. Following Jesus means living a life based on the fact that you have been saved through Christ, and living and treating others with that in mind. To help those in need like Christ through what you do. This is not extra stuff to take on. It’s using who you are, the gifts God has given you, the work and vocation to which God has called you, to help those in need. It’s making sure to treat others with respect, to not cheat or abuse people, to see the good in others, the God loved nature of all created people of God. It’s spending our daily life living the way that Christ did, reaching out to the poor, the downcast, the sick, and the grieving, and using our gifts to help them.

May God walk with you as you follow Christ our Lord. Amen.