Gone Fishing: Over the Earth and the Sea

“Gone Fishing: Over the Earth and the Sea"”

Acts 17:22-31

Psalm 8

August 24, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

 

In Psalm 8 of the Hebrew Scriptures the congregation sings,

 

O Lord, our Sovereign,

   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 

While the cantor sings,

 

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

   the moon and the stars that you have established;

 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

   mortals that you care for them?

 

 Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

   and crowned them with glory and honor.

 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;

   you have put all things under their feet….

  the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,

   whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

 

O Lord, our Sovereign,

   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

 

Ever notice how we are so often drawn to bodies of water for our vacations or weekends away?  Whether it is sitting on the deck of a lake cottage, or watching the waves on a beach, casting a fishing line in a babbling brook or swimming in a beautiful pool, humans yearn to connect with water.   Watching a sunset from the deck of a cruise liner or paddling out into a kelp bed in a kayak there is something that can be relaxing and peaceful about our relationships with bodies of water.   Setting sail into a storm or stacking sandbags against a rising flood reminds us of the primal power of water when set against human endeavor.

In the Biblical record creation begins with light and water as God on the second day harnesses water’s chaos that life might begin (Genesis 1:6-8).  Our bodies are 57-60% water on average, our brains 70% water.  We take in and breathe out H2O with every breath in an atmosphere comprised globally with water vapor in varying degrees. 

It’s not surprising to me that we so often define our notion of rest and recreation in and around water.  Whether a tropical island paradise or watching the whales out of Moss Beach, there is something very human….and let me suggest spiritual…..in our relationship with water, not just for consumption but for orientation in this life.

 

Does the fish know about the water?

This may sound like a Zen Buddhist koan; a riddle used by a master to assist a student or pilgrim on their road to enlightenment.  

 In the normal course of events, a fish is born in, lives in and will die in water never experiencing any other reality.   By forcing water through its gills the fish will derive the oxygen it needs to live.   Water brings the fish its nutrients and food.   The power of current will direct its travels.   Water will permeate each moment of the fish’s existence, sustain its life and makes up most of its body.  Yet we can assume the fish knows nothing about water at all.

            Human beings are born in, live in and will die in a living spirit not of their own creation.   Religious traditions from almost all human communities and all epochs will describe the force which animates our being as divinity.   The Old Testament suggests that divine spirit is as pervasive as the air we breathe (Gen. 2:7, Job 27:3, 33:4, Ps. 104:29, 144:4, Isa. 2:22, 57:16).   Just as oxygen fills our every cell, the spirit fills our every moment.  With every breath we are connected to all living creatures that are sustained in the one common atmosphere.  Like the fish in water, the spirit permeates each moment of human existence, sustains our living and connects us with both past and future.  

Yet humans are very different than the fish in the water; humans can know about the spirit or we can reject or pretend it is not even there.  So in asking, “Does the fish know about the water?” we are left to ponder what we know about this spirituality in which “we live, and move and have our being”.

 

Those words are recited by the apostle Paul during his stop-over in Athens, Greece during one of his missionary journeys through Asia Minor.   There in the capital of Greek culture and philosophy he is concerned about the idols found in the city.   He is invited by a group of philosophers to debate.   They take him to the Areopagus, a place you can even see today, not far from the Parthenon, where the learned “men”* of Athens loved to gather and explore the ideas of the day.

Like a good debater he begins with disarming flattery; they are so prudent in their religion they even have an idol to “an unknown god”, so to cover their theological bases not wanting to alienate a mysterious deity should they unintentionally leave it out of their worship.   Paul quotes from some of their own philosophers in order to establish common ground.   The Stoics and Epicureans both adopted Aristotle’s notion of God as “the unmoved Mover”; attributing the created order to the hand of God but a Divinity content to stay in heaven, unattached and uninvolved with human history or individual lives. 

Then the preacher makes his point.   Paul argues that since we are children of the same God, idol worship is not only inappropriate, it is “ignorance” since it ignores the new thing this God has done in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.   God does not dwell at distant in the heavens like Zeus on Mt. Olympus.   Rather God is active and involved in human history and lives, in fact incarnate….”one with”….the human condition, so much so that God shared it completely, even death on a cross, to prove the point.

Paul invites these Athenian philosophers to repent of their idol worship.   This didn’t go over too well, as you can imagine.   Most in the crowd took off at this point but a few of them stayed, listened and believed, including Dionysius, a member of the council and Damaris* a woman who had been listening into the conversation (:34).  *(In patriarchal culture intellectual pursuit was considered “men’s work”, but as we see throughout the New Testament, women not only overheard the debates, they directly participated and became leaders in the church.)

 

No wonder we use water in the sacrament of baptism!

The ritual of baptism was a little used rite among the Jewish people that had its origin 200 years before Jesus was born.  It was a symbolic act of repentance, a spiritual cleansing, washing away the sin and stains of the past for a new beginning.

            Each of the four gospels agree that Jesus was baptized by the John the Baptist, who was drawing such crowds out near the Jordon river that the historians of the day recorded his fame and influence.   John the Baptist was offering baptism along with his apocalyptic message.   The faithful were to cleanse themselves in preparation for the coming new messiah who would judge the sins of the nation, usher in the kingdom of God on earth and bring about the end of the world as they knew it.

The promised future of God, long awaited by the faithful had begun.  

It is very fitting that a cleansing ritual of water is used to convey this symbolism.  Seventy-five percent of the Earth’s surface is covered in water. Water makes the crops grow and nourishes the animals we count on.  Life is impossible without water.

Isn’t that also true for the divine spirit?  Is the full potential of life possible without the spirit of God washing over us?   We are so much more than fish but do we know about the water? 

 

Psalm 8 suggests we are given “dominion” over the waters and the seas as evidence of the “glory and honor” by which God has crowned us as human beings. 

            Stewardship of our domestic water supply or the health of our oceans, lakes and streams are eventually spiritual matters.   That being the case how are we doing?

 

            The National Resources Defense Council reports that “In recent years…two major independent commissions reported that our oceans are in serious trouble -- in a state…of "silent collapse" due to over fishing, farm and industrial pollution, coastal development, climate change and inconsistent management of ocean resources (http://www.nrdc.org/water/oceans/policy.asp).  Facing a historical drought here in California citizens have yet to adopt requested water conservation targets and Central Valley agribusiness is drawing down groundwater supplies beyond all records (http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_25915949/public-apathy-drought).

 

            If God is creator and intends all of creation….earth, air and water…to be a blessing of life, isn’t how we treat the creation also how we treat God? 

 

            Harvesting hay by hand is some of the most labor intensive work on a ranch.  Today modern machines do most of the work but forty years ago when Bonnie and I worked on the Mackey ranch near the Oregon border the cowboys did it a lot by hand.   After the hay was cut, dried and bailed…each bail weighing 80-100 lbs….my partner and I would take turns driving a truck down the rows of bails, lining up a conveyor shoot which picked the bail off the field and lifted them up to the stacker.  The stacker would then lift the bail by hand into position on the back of the truck until it was completely loaded.   We would then drive the load to a huge barn and by hand stack the bails inside until it was full.   We figure that summer we harvested 400 tons of hay on the Mackey ranch and that my partner and I lifted each bail twice in the process.

            The summer was hot, into the 90’s most days.   The straw itches and the dust suffocates.    In the beginning of the morning each cowboy fills up their own gallon jug of water, covered with burlap which when wet will cool the liquid by evaporation.  The jug stays in the truck throughout the day and is refilled many times.  At the end of each load the cowboy can look forward to a cool and long drink of the most precious water, often pouring over it your head and hat to cool off as well.

            It was that summer on the ranch bucking bales of hay that I realized why God uses water for baptism.  Hot, thirsty and exhausted that water never tasted so good.   It gives new life, it revives the soul, and it cleanses and washes away the dirt that clings.   

 

            Water literally can be the difference between life and death. Without water there is no future.  That’s true for the planet.  Isn’t that also true for the spirit of God’s love and grace in our lives?

                                                                                   

            Amen.

 

Gone Fishing: The Belly of a Whale

Gone Fishing: The Belly of a Whale

Jonah 1:1-6, 11-17 

August 17, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

            Its summertime and we hang out the “Gone Fishing” sign to take a vacation or even a weekend away.  It’s a time to renewal our body, mind and spirit.  We are take a journey through a number of the biblical stories involving fish and fishing.   Today we are looking at a favorite and often misunderstood sage of Jonah and the whale.

Do you know the story of Jonah?

            Most of us know about the “great fish” which we usually identify as a “whale” but there is much more to the whole story.

            God calls Jonah as a prophet to Nineveh to preach repentance and forgiveness.

            Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, located today near the city of Mosul in Northern Iraq.  It was a great and wicked city known for its immorality and violence.

            During the 8^th century BCE the Assyrian Empire would control most of the known world, including Israel.  They were brutal oppressors.  Their General Sennacrib would actually destroy the Northern Kingdom of Israel and sack its capital Samaria in 722 BCE.

            When Jonah gets the call to prophecy he runs away in the opposite direction from Nineveh.

            It may have been the fear of the task at hand.

            It may have been his hatred of the Assyrians.  They were Gentiles, not Hebrews.  They had terrorized his nation.  Jonah didn’t want them to repent.  He wanted God to destroy them.

            So he ran.

            So abhorrent was this divine call to Jonah that he would have preferred to die than go to Nineveh.  When a storm threatened to sink the ship on which he was escaping, Jonah tells the sailors to throw him overboard.   After some discussion and the throwing of dice, they do it out of fear for their lives.

            It is then that the “great fish” comes along and swallows Jonah.

            God saved the reluctant prophet’s life in the belly of a whale where he stays for three days.  There Jonah cries out in agony and wonders at the hand of a God who saves him from death.

            The fish spews Jonah out onto the land and God calls him a second time to go to Nineveh.  He goes this time and delivers the Lord’s message, “Nineveh you’ve got 40 days to repent!”

            To Jonah’s anger and amazement the Ninevehians do just that.  Even the animals confess their sin and ask God’s forgiveness.

            Now Jonah is really ticked off!

            He wanted this barbarian, sinful city destroyed.

            They were Gentiles after all, unclean and profane.

            In utter frustration Jonah stomps off into the desert to die in the sun.  He knows what God is like, “gracious…and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love…ready to repent from punishment” (4:2).   Revenge and violence have no satisfaction for a God like this and Jonah would just rather die.

            But then God causes a bush to grow that gives the prophet shade.

            God will not let him go.  Neither will God change from the course of love.

 

            The story tells us about ourselves in two important ways.  Like Jonah, we want God on our own terms and we want God to leave us alone.

 

            Remember the story about the faithful man caught in the flood?

            The flood waters are rising and a Sheriff’s jeep comes out to rescue him.  But the faithful man says, “No need to rescue me, God will save me!”

            The waters continue to rise past the door of his house and up to the roof.  The Red Cross sends out a motor boat to rescue the faithful man, but again he says, “No need to rescue me, God will save me!”

            Finally, with the faithful man standing on the chimney of his submerged home, as the flood water lap against his ankles, the National Guard sends out a helicopter to rescue him, but again he refuses the help saying, “No need to rescue me, God will save me!”

            The man drowns.  Instantly he is transported to heaven where in meeting St. Peter he asks to lodge a complaint.

            “I was faithful all my life.  I refused all help believing that God would save me.  Why did the Almighty let me down?!”

            Just then a divine voice broke forth and answered, “I sent a jeep, a motorboat and a helicopter, what more did you want me to do?!”

            We want God on our own terms.

            We jump from church to church, denomination to denomination, running to find the worship style, the theology or the preacher that will agree with our tastes.  But the same God will find you no matter what the religion.

            We say we want our church to grow…to offer Christ to our community.  But for most that means having people come here who are just like us, not folks with new ideas or different colors or languages.

            We equate Christianity with the “American Way of Life”.  But God is no Republican or Democrat, no capitalist or liberal.

            When we expect God to fit into our prejudices and preferences we are exactly like Jonah who ran from God’s call because Jonah would have no part of a loving and gracious God’s attempt to save a foreign, sinful people.

 

            And we want God to leave us alone.

            Karl Barth, the great New Testament scholar once warned us that “the church is not only the place where man meets God; it is often also the place where man makes his last stand against God”.

            We want church to make us comfortable.

            Let’s be honest, we come here on Sunday mornings for succor not repentance; to learn how to cope with life not to change it.

            Its OK for a preacher to give you support as you struggle with your spouse’s drinking problem but God forbid if he suggests that you are part of the problem.  It’s expected that good Christians will rally around because of the neglect you take at home but God forbid if they suggest that nothing will change until you do.

            We expect the church to massage the past and manipulate our sentiments.  But it’s not OK in church to honestly suggest that we change.

            Jonah rushes to the cargo hold of a ship heading West to hide from the God that calls him East.

            How many of us come to church on a Sunday hoping that no one will notice how much we hurt…or doubt?  How many of us come to church to hide?

            Sometimes like Jonah we want God just to leave us alone.

 

            The story of Jonah also tells us two important things about God.

 

            God refuses to let us go and God refuses to be anything less than God.

           

            I went through a terrible crisis during my second year of seminary.  I graduated “Outstanding Student” of my University.    In graduate school the professors were brilliant.  The other students were brilliant.  Taking a full load, learning another language, taking comp exams, I was doing everything I could to keep my head above water. 

            I was in my early twenties.  Bonnie and I were newly married.  We worked five jobs between us and were on food stamps to make ends meet.

            There came a period of about 6 months of real depression.  I began to have panic attacks.  I began to have terrible claustrophobia, couldn’t even sit in a crowded classroom or travel in an airplane.  I thought I was losing my mind, maybe I was.

            By the grace of God and the insistence of Bonnie I started to see a therapist.  In spite of my dreams of being a preacher I was afraid I couldn’t cut it in seminary and the stress was overwhelming me.  One day sharing my fears, the counselor David broke into my fog and confronted me saying, “Bollwinkel, do you have something to say with your life or not?!” to which I responded, “Well, yes, I think so”.  “Then say it and let God do the rest!”

            It was a real turning point for me.  Graduate School never became easy but I dropped the expectation that I had to do it perfectly.   I gave up the notion that it was all up to me alone, that I had to be all things to all people in the process.  Within a few months the panic attacks and claustrophobia stopped and I have never been plagued by then again.  Thanks be to God.

                        I am telling you, God refuses to let you go.

            The Wesleyan doctrine of “prevenient grace” describes the action God takes to bring us into relationship even before we decide to believe.  Every prayer your mother taught you, every lesson of your Sunday school teacher shared, every act of loving kindness from a stranger or a friend, was an agent of God’s prevenient grace.

            Since the day you were born, God has sought to claim your life and bring you home.  And God is working on you now, whether you know it or not.  God refuses to let you go.

 

            In fact, God refuses to be anything less than God.

            Jonah resisted God’s call because he knew God so well.  The Ninevites deserved wrath and judgment.  These pagan terrorists deserved God’s punishment.  Jonah wasn’t afraid to tell them that.  He was afraid that God would give those Gentiles a second chance and change his mind.

            “I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, ready to repent of punishment”.

            The prophet wants God to sanctify Jonah’s prejudice and hatred, not change it, transform it, not use it in God unceasing plan of salvation for all.

            We are like Jonah when we come to a place of worship like this, hoping that God won’t notice or care about our sin.

            God won’t bless what we do to hurt ourselves and each other.

            Sorry.

            The God of Jonah doesn’t work that way.

            Our God moves us.  Disturbs us.  Disrupts the routine.

            Our God will not change from the course of love.

 

            Just before heavyweight champion Joe Louis was going into the ring with Billy Conn in 1941, reporters asked the Champion, “Are you worried about this fight?  Aren’t you worried that he will dance around you?”  Joe thought for a moment and then said, “Well, he can run but he can’t hide.”

            Neither can we.

            The story of Jonah is our story in many ways.

            We, like Jonah, want God on our own terms.

            Sometimes all we want is for God to leave us alone.

            But God refuses to let us go.

            God is like that.  God won’t be anything less.

 

                                    Amen.

Gone Fishing: 153?

Gone Fishing: “153”?!

John 21:1-13

August 10, 2014

Mark S. Bollwinkel

Can you imagine a world without fish?   According to the United Nation World Food Program over half of all fisheries in the world are endangered or stressed to the point of threatening their sustainability; including types of tuna, shark and sturgeon.  The state of the ocean fisheries are a clear indicator of the health of our planet. Greed, pollution and ignorance can devastate a fish population. When they are managed well a fishery produces an enormous amount of food.  When they aren’t managed well it can bring ecological and economic disaster.

Check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium website for their recommendations for the fish coming from sustainable fishing and fish farms and the ones that don't. We should avoid buying or eating in restaurants fish that cannot be sustained or we will end up with a world without them!

Here in California the commercial and recreational salmon fishing season was shut down and severely limited between 2008 and 2011as the Department of Fish and Game reported record low salmon censuses.  In 2010 they estimated only 65,000 fish were heading through the Golden Gate and up the Sacramento Delta for spawning season.   All fishing was shut down completely, understandably so.  This year census came back to just under 1 million allowing a limited fishing season.

The diverting of fresh water from the Sacramento River delta to central and southern California, and the enormous pumps used to do so severely threaten the annual spawning run of salmon among other fish.  

One of the theories behind the dramatic decreases in Northern California salmon population is dependency of hatchery fish to make up the foundation of the school.  These fish all have the same genetic background so when certain environmental factors such as water temperature or krill availability are bad it affects the entire school at the same time.  Our salmon population doesn't have the genetic diversity to survive varying conditions.

Now I am sure you find this fascinating but you have got to be asking yourself, “Pastor Mark, what does it have to do with God?”  Go ahead, lets all say that together!  “Pastor Mark, what does that have to do with God?”

Well, I am glad you asked!

Could the genetic homogeneity of Northern California’s salmon population and its threat to survival be an analogy for the church? 

Churches thrive when they have a diversity of people in age, race and social standing.  They may struggle when they are made up of only one kind of people.  Such churches can lose their focus on their mission as a church investing their energy in maintaining their preferences in order to preserve their homogeneity.

Maybe that is why the gospel writer of John said there were "153" fish in the great catch?!

Consider:

There is One God in three persons; Creator, Son and Holy Spirit. There are four gospels; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  There were seven days of creation; eight beatitudes; Ten Commandments.  Israel had twelve tribes, Jesus had twelve disciples.  It rained forty days and forty nights on Noah, the Israelites traveled forty years in the desert Exodus, Jesus fasted forty days in the wilderness.  The birth of the church at Pentecost came fifty days after Passover.  In Revelations there will be 144,000 chosen martyrs singing eternal praises to God (12x12x1000).

Numbers have deep symbolic meaning in the biblical record.  Numerical symmetry is a tool used by the Bible’s authors and editors to convey spiritual significance.  When Luke describes “Mary Magdalene, the woman from whom Jesus cast out seven demons…” (8:2) and then reports Jesus confronting Beelzebul, the ruler of demons, noting that if the faithful aren’t prepared  ”unclean spirits can return with seven more evil than itself” (11:26), the writer of Luke wants the listeners to know just how universal evil can be, "seven" signifying the unity of creation itself.  John of Patmos picks up the inference in the Book of Revelations envisioning seven churches, seven lamp stands, seven seals and seven trumpets in eschatological battle with the seven headed dragon.

Numbers are important in the Bible. So where does the writer of John’s gospel get "153" fish in our text this morning?  153?!

Interpreters and scholars have been scratching their heads over “153” for centuries with no final conclusions. Some suggest a hidden meaning in the fact that 153 is the sum of the numbers 1-17.    The earliest suggestion may still be the most accurate.  St. Jerome (347-420CE) tells us that the Greek zoologists of his day recorded 153 different kinds of fish; and so by mentioning this number John may have been symbolizing the totality and range of the disciples' catch and symbolically anticipating that the Christian mission would bring in all people or at least all types of people; race, nationality, gender, class, social status. (Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John XIII-XXI, Anchor Bible Series, Doubleday, 1970, p. 1074, also note Matthew 13:47 "every kind of fish").

The fishing nets of Jesus don't discriminate, they don't exclude.  Everyone is invited to participate in the Body of Christ.   "153" may actually mean that when we say “all are welcome” in the church we mean all.  Diversity is a good thing; in fact it may be an essential thing for the sustainability of the church.

And it makes sense when you consider those at the beach that morning.  Sometime after Easter the Risen Lord Jesus appears to a group of his disciples by the Sea of Tiberias also known as the Sea of Galilee.  Simon Peter is there.  Remember him?  The first to confess Jesus as the Christ (Mark 8:29), the only disciple to try walking on water (Matthew 14:28-33).  It is Peter at the arrest and trial of Jesus the first to deny ever knowing him (Mark 14:66-72=s) and the first to run away when Jesus needed him the most (Mark 14:50).

That morning while fishing Peter doesn't even recognize the Lord at first.  In traditional fashion he is fishing naked, or in loin cloth only, and is so embarrassed when he sees his Master than he jumps into the water to hide himself.

Then there is "Doubting Thomas" the disciple who refused to believe in the resurrection reports of his colleagues until he had put his own hand in the wounds of the Risen Lord (John 20:24-29).  There are the fisherman James and John sons of Zebedee and two unnamed others.  And there is Nathanael.  Remember him?  The seminary drop-out who years earlier said of hearing about Jesus, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:45-51). Now he is there helping to pull in the catch.

What a crew!  Yet it is to the likes of these that Jesus appears.   Asking them to throw their nets in a different direction and haul in a great catch.  Jesus will make them some breakfast of fish and bread (remember last week's text and the feeding of 5,000...there will always be enough if we share...).

What follows is extraordinary as Jesus takes Peter aside and commissions him to "feed my sheep" three times (John 21:15-19).  Peter, the bold, uneducated, freighted and confused Peter, will become the leader of the earliest church in Jerusalem, will preach the first sermon of the church's history at Pentecost baptizing 3,000 that very day (Acts 2) and will die a martyr's death in Rome, where he is honored to this day.

The confused and doubting, the no-named and the famous, the courageous and the cowards are left in charge of the future of the church.  That we are still taking about their Jesus 2,000 years later suggests that this motley crew didn't do too bad of a job "feeding the sheep".  Thanks be to God!

I really relate to the character of Peter in our gospel lessons.   Our text this morning gives me great encouragement as a bumbling preacher of mediocre talent and as a fisherman.

My brother Paul and I started fishing for Blue Gill and Perch with cane pole and bobber with red worms on a hook at our uncle's lake cabin when we were very young.  Once after pestering our father for days he rowed us out from shore and sat patiently as we tried our best to catch something in deeper water to no avail.  For my Dad, a New York City boy, who thinks camping means a night in Motel 6, it was the one and only time he went fishing with his sons but we loved him all the more for it because at least he tried.  My brother still remember that day and laugh together to this day.

Moving out to California in my High School years I was introduced to salt water fishing for Sturgeon, Striped Bass and Salmon in the San Pablo Bay and along the Marin Coast.  And have been hooked ever since.

In my senior year of High School, after the autumn football marching band season was over, the band director came to me, the third chair trombone player, and suggested the perfect use for my instrument.  The first chair trombone player needed a practice instrument so he could have one at home and one at school without dragging his good one on the bus each day, so the Director suggested that I sell him mine for $ 40.  I immediately caught his estimation of my talent and future as a trombonist...one with which I totally agreed.....and sold my trombone for the $ 40.   With which I purchased a salt water fishing rod and reel that I still use today!  One of the best deals I have ever made!

Bonnie and I have taught both of our sons ocean fishing since they were in elementary school in Fresno; we'd drive over to Cambria, also known as the Fresno Riviera, and take them out on charter boats.  We try at least once a year to all go out together.  Bonnie is an excellent fisher-person, she and our older son seemingly impervious to seasickness. 

Being on the ocean, watching the whales, dolphins, seals and birds is a wonderful experience of the majesty of God’s creation.  It is an absolute thrill to have a fish on the hook that is big enough to fight back.  The State of California requires barbless hooks for such fishing and the fisher person has to use patience and skill to bring a fish in.  When the fish comes to the surface the flashing color and form is breath taking.  In ocean fishing one never knows exactly what is on the other end of the line so there is also the thrill of surprising grace.

And having said all of that, I'd rather see my sons catch a fish any day rather than myself.  For some primal reason to see your children succeed in any endeavor is more rewarding than your own success.

Isn’t God like that?  God must “smile down from heaven” watching the likes of Peter and Thomas and Nathaniel, Mary Magdalene, Lydia (Acts 16:11-15) or Junia (Romans 16:7) succeed in throwing the nets of love and grace far and wide, in new directions, catching a great harvest to build the foundation of the church so long ago.  

The confused and doubting, the no-named and the famous, the courageous and the cowards are still left in charge of the future of the church. Is God our Parent still smiling down on us as we endeavor to cast our nets in new directions?

I can't imagine a world without fish.  Neither can I envision a homogenized church succeeding in the future. The Apostle Paul writes, in the church "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)  Our diversity and openness to cast our nets far and wide may be our greatest hope.  That certainly is one meaning of the enigmatic "153".  And at the Sea of Galilee as Jesus fixes breakfast for his disciples we can take great hope in the fact that God isn't done with us yet.  God can use broken and confused people even like you and me to change the world in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Gone Fishing: Cast Your Nets

Gone Fishing: Cast Your Nets

Luke 5:1-11

August 3, 2014

 

Mark S. Bollwinkel

One rarely fishes with a net by oneself.  There are individual nets, of course.  You may have seen small, circular nets used by one person in the movies or while vacationing in the tropics. 

 

Dick Mackey my pottery partner and the full time manager of his family’s ranch in Northern California has found over the years that his fish ponds are more profitable than his cattle.   Canyon Creek Ranch has a beautiful source of geothermic water that comes out of the ground at 78 degrees year round.  Years ago Dick and his family fashioned a series of large outdoor ponds and indoor breeding tanks where they raise and market catfish, sturgeon and tilapia.   There will be the occasion when an individual family or buyer comes to purchase a small amount of fresh fish.   Dick will use an individual casting net; lined with lead weights around the outer circle of the net.   It is heavy, unwieldy and takes a lot of practice to master.  If the caster is able to throw the net successfully it is quite effective in catching a bunch of fish, but it’s not easy.  After all of these years my friend still fills the air with expletives as it usually takes him a few tries to get it right.

 

Even around land based fish ponds a more effective tool for fishing is the large, long net.  But you can't use it by yourself.  It takes a team to stretch, place and pull such a net.  When it comes time to harvest a pond, my friend will gather three to four helpers working in coordination along the sides of the pond and one or two helpers in the pond.   This is the same in open ocean fishing with huge, industrial nets; you can't do it by yourself it takes a team.

 

Consider our gospel lesson this morning from Luke.  Each gospel has its own version of Jesus calling the disciples.  Here in Luke, Jesus takes a break from teaching the crowds about God.  The crowds have grown so large that he has to put out from shore in a small boat.  He has borrowed one of Simon Peter's boats and challenges the fishermen to put out again and cast his nets.  Peter explains that he and his men have been fishing all night, catching nothing but he goes along with the Master's suggestion.  Once the nets are down the catch is so great Peter and his partners haul in a huge catch to the breaking point of the net's capacity.

 

The writer is illustrating the divinity of Jesus with such a miraculous catch (also note John 21:1-11).  Consider that even divine, the incarnation of God dwelling in the flesh, as the gospel of John puts it (1:14), Jesus cannot fulfill his destiny alone.  Even the Son of God needs somebody.  Even the Son of God needs a community.  And as we will find after his death and resurrection it will be that community of Jesus' disciples that will change the world.

 

In the United Methodist church when we serve the sacrament of Holy Communion it is offered to all gathered; regardless of church membership, regardless of age.  For a moment we become community with a shared common purpose.  However we understand the sacrament, we are a community about to receive the symbols of a love we could never earn, of a grace freely given, of a spirit available to us in each and every moment.   In Holy Communion we touch, even if symbolically, even if only for a moment, the potential for each of us in a community dedicated to a meaning and purpose that is larger than ourselves, which can transform the world; can transform our lives.  

 

Albert Einstein once defined “Insanity” as “….doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

 

The first disciples had been fisherman in the same place, with the same techniques for generations.  They knew the seasons.  They knew the species they sought to harvest.  They were masters of the nets and their boats.   Yet in our gospel lesson this morning Jesus…an in-land carpenter who probably knew nothing about fishing…..urges them to cast their nets on the other side.  After a long night of labor with nothing to show for it Peter and his crew must have thought Jesus crazy!  Yet with nothing to lose, they harvest more than fish on the other side, they catch a miracle.   Peter immediately recognizes that God must be at work in this carpenter from Nazareth and confesses his shame.  Yet Jesus isn’t interested in Peter’s self-doubt but calls him and his crew to become “fishers of people”.   After Jesus’ death and resurrection they will become that and more, beginning a movement that in three centuries will turn the Roman Empire upside down.

 

Much is being written and studied today about the decline in churches in North America.  Like Northern Europe, fewer and fewer people affiliate themselves with churches. According to the Pew Religious Survey the fastest growing segment in North American are those identifying themselves as “spiritual not religious”, this is especially true for those under 50 years old.  While over 90% of Americans still “believe in God”, fewer and fewer of them find a church to be a relevant part of their spiritual journey.

 

We who do find the community of church relevant for our lives can bemoan that fact, and many do.   We can insist on finding ways to do what we have always done, better; we know the seasons, we know the species we want to harvest, we’ve tended our nets and boats for generations!

 

Or, maybe like back then, Jesus is calling even us today to cast our nets to the other side; try something different, something unexpected.

 

A United Methodist young adult ministry in Northern California holds a weekly Thursday night worship and meditation service at 9:00pm near the Stanford campus; in Oakland a church holds a weekly service in a bar and restaurant; in Sacramento one of our churches is lead in worship by the music of a jazz quartet. (Don’t worry, I am not suggesting any of these ideas for Wayfarer, Bonnie and I love it here and we don’t want to get fired yet!)

 

Now I am not suggesting that Church of the Wayfarer needs to try any of those ideas!  But I am suggesting that we cultivate the faith to cast our nets to the other side and consider what new thing God might be dreaming for us next in our unique place and time.   

 

Such faith can begin with Holy Communion, a moment when we can imagine what it would be like to be a community with the common purpose to love God with everything we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:34-40).

 

If Jesus, the Son of God, needs a community to become all God intends him to be, who are we to think we can maneuver through life alone?  We need each other.  Every one of us has something to contribute to the other.  And in so doing we are stronger and more alive than we could have ever been alone.  That’s especially true if we are going to cast our nets on the other side.

 

Amen.