Jeremiah 3:21 – 4:2; Psalm
130; I
Corinthians 7:17–23; Mark
1:14–20
A homily by Fr. Gene tucker, given at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Springfield, Illinois on Sunday, January 25, 2015.
“WHAT
DOES IT MEAN TO FISH?”
(Homily text:
Mark 1:14 – 20)
“Follow me, and I will make you fish
for people,” the Lord said as He called Simon Peter and his brother, Andrew,
into service as His disciples.
It’s safe to say that these two
brothers’ lives changed drastically and for ever, from that day forward. For off they went, forsaking their former
occupations as fishermen who were catching fish, into their new calling as
fishermen who were catching people.
We too, in our own time today, are
called to join Simon Peter, Andrew and the other original followers of Jesus in
the business of fishing.
Some elements of the business of
fishing fit both the catching of fish and the catching of people. For example, oftentimes something needs to be
used to attract them both, fish and people.
We need to use some sort of bait.
And then, too, we need to know where the fish and
the people are to be found. It does
little good to cast our net or to try to attract either one if there’s nothing
there to catch.
But other elements of fishing for
fish and fishing for people are markedly different one from the other: When we fish for fish, the impact on the fish
is devastating, for they lose their lives and die. They become unwitting quarry for our hooks
and our nets. But when people are
attracted to faith in Jesus Christ, they come alive in the fullest and best
sense of the word. They become new
creatures in baptism.
What about this business of fishing
for people? How do we go about it? What do we have to attract non-believers into
a relationship with God through Christ?
Let’s explore the last question
first, as we look at the things we have in our Christian faith that should
attract others.
I think, perhaps, that the most
important aspect of belief in Christ has to do with the fact that we are very
valuable creatures in God’s sight. God
loves us so much and so deeply that He has reached out to each one of us in the
person of Jesus Christ. God reaches out,
not in some grandiose, overarching plan so much as He reaches out to each
person individually and personally. He
calls each one by name, one at a time, inviting them to come into fellowship
with Him.
The
Lord’s death on the cross proves to us the depth of His love for us, and His
rising from the tomb and from death on Easter Sunday morning proves to us that
all the power of God has been given to us, yes, even the power over death
itself.
In a world in which many people do
not think they matter to anyone, let alone to God, this is welcome news. Many in our world today think that their
lives are some sort of a joke, a cruel joke, and that there is no great purpose
or plan to their existence. The
Christian faith declares just the opposite truth.
We find our truest and best selves
by a route that doesn’t seem to make sense:
We are asked to deny ourselves in order to find ourselves. That is the route that Simon Peter and his
brother took: They said “goodbye” to
their old occupation and their former relationships and ways of living, losing
all of that in the process, in order to find themselves in relationship to God
as Jesus’ disciples.
By a similar route, we enter the
waters of baptism and die to our old way of life, in order that we might rise
to a new life in Christ, as St. Paul tells us in his Letter to the Romans,
chapter six.
If those who are not yet disciples
can see beyond the immediacy of the requirement to deny ourselves and to be
willing to die to their old ways of living, then the way to faith and new life
becomes easier.
This last point leads me into the
topic of the means by which we “fish for people”.
It is our job as disciples of Jesus
to show what a difference having a relationship with the Lord makes. We do this by the way we talk, by the way we
think, by the way we treat others (especially those with whom we may
disagree!). We are called, in short, to
bear the image of Christ (Imago Christi
is the Latin for this idea). In a
nutshell, that’s what the original twelve disciples did, and what successful
disciples have done in every generation since then.
And what might we offer those who
are not currently of the household of faith as Christians of the Episcopal
persuasion? I think we offer a great
number of wonderful things, ways to come to faith in God and to live out that
faith. Allow me to share my personal
“Episcopal bests”:
- We
value the Bible:
Holy Scripture forms the highest and most important part of our
foundation of faith. In fact, we
Episcopalians read far more Scripture during our worship services than many
churches whose names include the word “Bible”.
- A
balanced foundation for faith: As
the American part of the Anglican Church, we base our faith on Scripture,
Reason and Tradition. Notice that we do
not base our beliefs and understandings on the Bible alone. Having such a balanced way of understanding
allows us to avoid many of the misconceptions and errors in understanding that
have plagued many Christians over the history of the faith.
- A
reasonable faith: Ours
is a reasonable faith. That is to say,
it asks the question, “Is it reasonable to believe this or that? Does it make sense?”
- Room
for differences of conviction: The
Anglican expression of the Christian faith, which we Episcopalians have
inherited, has always tolerated a widely divergent variety of views on any
number of topics.
- An
historical faith:
We value history, and in particular, the Church’s history down through
the ages. We can learn much from the
successes and the failures of Christians in times past. Our connection to the Christians of a bygone
era can be found in the pages of the Book of Common Prayer, for the newest
American edition of it still contains the 16th century traditional
rite. It also contains a version of a
Eucharistic prayer (Eucharistic Prayer D, page 372 in The Book of Common Prayer) which
comes to us from the fourth century!
- A
liturgical faith: We
express our love for God in the rich, formal worship style that flows from the
Book of Common Prayer. Worshiping in
this way prevents the person leading the worship from becoming a “one man
show”. Furthermore, everyone who is
present has an active role to play in creating worship….worship in the Anglican
tradition is not a spectator sport! In
fact, the word “liturgy” itself comes from two words which mean “Work of the
people”.
- Room to be oneself: We Episcopalians are quite comfortable sharing our struggles as well as our victories as we walk the pathway of faith. Consequently, there’s no need to mask the reality of what’s going on in our lives. We are quite willing to accept one another wherever we find ourselves at any given moment.
As
we close, let’s return to the business of fishing….
Fishing
for others involves personal, one-on-one contact with those we know. Time and again, this method of growing the
faith has proven to be the most effective way of making new disciples. This method of calling others into a living
relationship with the living God surpasses all the efforts we could put into
advertising or some other means of reaching out to people. As people come to faith, one by one, the
Church itself grows as new disciples are called and formed. The institutional Church (Episcopal Church,
e.g.) is, after all, the visible vehicle by which the community of faith is
formed, nurtured and sustained for the work of God in the world.
“Come
follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” The Lord’s words call us into active ministry
in His name, calling others to walk the path of faith that we have found to be
the way of life and peace.
AMEN.
