“A Fish Story”

Third Sunday after Epiphany - January 22, 2023

Matthew 4: 12-23 - BRCC- Pastor Deb

I grew up with a grandpa that loved to go fishing, and always had a fishing story to tell. Here is one of them:

One day, a man was stopped by a game warden as he was leaving for a lake known for its good fishing. The fisherman was carrying two buckets full of fish, so the warden asked him, “Do you have a license to catch those fish mister?” “No sir,” said the fisherman, “but these are my pet fish.” “Pet fish?” the warden said with a bit of sarcasm. “Yes sir! My pet fish. Every night I take these fish down to the lake and let them swim around for a while. Then I whistle and they jump back into their buckets and I take them home.” “That’s a bunch of baloney! Fish can’t do that!” exclaimed the warden. The fisherman smiled at the warden and said, “Come and see, I’ll show you. It really works!”

The game warden was curious now and so he followed him back to the lake and watched as he poured the bucket of fish into the water and they swam away. Then they waited…and waited. After several minutes the game warden turned to the man and said, “Well?” “Well what?”, the fisherman responded. “When are you going to call them back?” “Call who back?” “The fish!” “The fish? What fish?” And chuckling….the fisherman patted the warden on the back and walked away leaving the warden scratching his head.

Today, in our reading from Matthew’s gospel, Jesus begins his public ministry and it happens right after he hears that John the Baptist has been imprisoned by Herod. It’s as if a trigger goes off to start things in motion, for true to Matthew’s style of telling the story of Christ, every action is described within the context of fulfillment of prophetic scripture. Jesus, we are told by Matthew, has been residing in Nazareth, a small…little valued village where Mary and Joseph took baby Jesus to escape Herod’s cruel rage. Meanwhile, his cousin, John the Baptist, has been fulfilling his prophetic role to be a voice, crying out in the wilderness…”Make way the coming of the Lord.” And huge crowds and followers have been swarming around John to listen to his message…to repent and to be baptized. For 400 years…no prophet has arisen since Malachi to offer the Jews hope that the oppression of their exile, and now oppressive occupation by Rome would ever be broken. The promised Messiah who would come and set them free to be the people of God and restore their lives seemed like a long ago dream. But now…a voice…a promise….a hope for something new. God was on the move again to take them into a new promised land after so many generations of wilderness and bewilderment. Matthew quotes the prophet Isaiah…reminding the Israelites by citing the Land of Zebulun and Naphtali, that they have been a people who sat and waited in darkness…but upon them was promised, the seeing of a great light.

John the Baptist has stirred up and awakened these long held hopes and dreams, and he has also spurned the wrath of the evil King Herod. He has been captured and taken to prison…where we know he will ultimately lose his life. And when Jesus learns of this…like a trigger going off….his time has come.

Jesus heads up to the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, and picks up where John left off, using John’s own rallying cry…”Repent, for the Kingdom of heaven has come near!” Jesus immediately begins to call the fishermen, Peter and Andrew, and then the sons of Zebedee, John and James, to follow him to do a different kind of fishing….a fishing where the catch is people…and immediately, Matthew says, they left their own nets, livelihood and families….and followed Jesus.

Now that’s a fishing story! Not a goofy one like my grandpa’s…but one that feels a bit over the top to be believable to the critic. An unknown to this point….”can anything good come out of Nazareth?”...Jesus, walks up to these simple, ordinary fishermen…tells them to jump into the “bucket of his ministry”…be his “pet disciples” and follow him to change the world…one broken and troubled seeker after another. And without question or common sense, they immediately drop their nets and follow as Jesus begins teaching, healing and preaching the good news. It’s a fish story almost too fantastic to believe isn’t it?

Perhaps that’s why the film series, “The Chosen,” has had such appeal in our culture today. It captures not only the ordinary, often clueless, human, bumbling and imperfect people who follow Jesus, and allows us to watch how each of their lives is transformed; but it also demonstrates a Jesus whose presence and character reveal a depth of God’s redeeming love that we can hardly imagine possible…especially in our world today. The power of the story of Jesus comes through when we get one very basic truth: The truth that God’s love doesn’t seek VALUE, but creates VALUE.

The Bible is full of examples…remember the Samaritan woman who had five husbands, and was living in sin with a man who wasn’t her husband? Her value was rock bottom! Samaritans were despised and looked down upon in Jesus’ day…and avoided at all costs. This woman was doubly despised…even by her own people, for she was a woman living in unimaginable sin. She meets Jesus at Jacob’s well in the heat of the day…he offers her living water and reveals that he can see right into her very soul…yet he loves her…forgives her…sets her free. And IMMMEDIATELY she runs ahead of Jesus into the city of Samaritans…telling them that the man who saw her…REALLY SAW HER…is the Messiah, and that he was coming to show them the way back to God. There are many more examples like this: The man born blind; the lepers; the woman about to be stoned for adultery…they go on and on as Jesus’ goes from village to synagogue to city, proclaiming that God is NOT a God of VENGENCE, but a Father whose love for his children cannot be denied. He is a pursuing Father… one who comes to us in the midst of our stinky humanity, and offers us VALUE beyond our wildest dreams. And then…He transforms them into fishers of people so that ALL the world might know their value in God’ heart…not just a chosen few.

Now I want to ask you a question to ponder. How did you get here? How did you get it in your heart and your head that you wanted to be a follower of Jesus?

Among all the choices in this world for spiritual enlightenment or comfort, how did you decide that Jesus was the one and only Lord of your life?

Did you do that for yourself? Or, did someone convince you to embrace a Christian creed over other belief systems? We you born into a Christian family that baptized you and showed you the love of a family of faith, or did you just come along without thought or resistance? Did you seek far and wide for your own answers to faith, like the disciple Thomas who wasn’t afraid to doubt? Or were you caught up in passion like Peter and John, and found something you just had to seek and find. Or perhaps you are a bit more like Matthew, who likes everything rationally laid out…with details, ties to Biblical truth, and answers you can count on?

Was it you? Or was it God? Hmmmmmm, that reminds me of another of my grandpa’s fishing stories:

This time, a game warden hears rumors about a man who has an uncanny ability to catch more fish than anyone else in the area. Reports come in that this man goes out on his boat to remote spots on a lake every evening, and he always comes back with his boat filled with fish. “Surely this man is breaking the law!” assumes the warden. So he goes out to investigate, and sure enough, as evening draws near, this man arrives with his boat and motor and proceeds to launch out onto the lake to go fishing. The warden walks up to him and says, “I hear that you have had pretty good luck fishing this lake, can I ask how you do it?” “Sure,” the fisherman says, “better yet, why don’t you come along and I’ll show you?” So, the warden agrees and climbs into the boat. Soon they arrive at a quiet little cover away from shore and the man stops the boat and begins to set up his fishing equipment. But much to the warden’s surprise, the man doesn’t grab a fishing pole, but rather he grabs a stick of dynamite and lights it! Before the warden can react, the man throws the stick of dynamite into the air, it explodes near the water with a huge band, and several sunned fish float to the surface. As the fisherman collects his fish, the warden finally finds his voice. “What are you doing?” he yells hysterically, “That’s against the law! Why I’m going to make sure you pay every fine in the book! I might even throw you in jail!” Calmly, the fisherman looks at the half crazed warden, shrugs his shoulders and throws him another stick of dynamite. “Look,” he says, “are you gonna sit there all night complaining about my methods, or are you going to fish?”

Perhaps it isn’t too far fetched to suggest that God’s methods are different than we might expect. Sometimes, God has to shake us up a bit and show us new and different ways to fish for people. And, maybe it only seems as if WE are seeking God…and the truth is…God is seeking us…and FINDING us! Somehow the Holy Spirit tosses Jesus into our lives like a stick of dynamite and blows apart out comfortable expectations that think we are in charge. Maybe Jesus really is asking us to follow, questions unasked, and demand that we pay attention to God’s agenda rather than our own.

Matthew’s fish story is a simile of the call of God upon the life of every person in every age. As these fishermen were called to follow Christ, so Jesus continues to call every person baptized into his name to follow him and pick up some life task in which we too can anticipate not only an inner challenge to grow and venture out, but a transforming awareness of our ordinary, sinful, child-like need to grow in faith for the sake of calling others into God’s kingdom. Sooooo here…

Catch the dynamite of God’s love…and go fishing. Amen