Gone Fishing?

David Orendorff · Luke 5:1-11 · February 4, 2007

Bear Creek in its origins fished diligently for people because it was either draw new folks to the faith or die. There were urgent and compelling reasons to fish. But when we reached a certain size and expended our energy in building a building, we became established and the passion for seeking the lost and bringing them to worship and study faded down the list of priorities until it was almost invisible.

The Long Range Planning team has recommended and the Ad Council has agreed that is time for us at Bear Creek to regain the art of fishing for men and women. It is not about getting more people in the room. It is about discipling people whose lives need to know and be transformed by the love of God. It is not about getting more people on the roles, it is about saving the world from the wounds of being lost and lonely, hungry and naked, from violence and all the other ways we destroy each other when we live without a Christ like servant love and its healing power. We fish because we want to save lives; to save our lives, to save the lives of our children, and to save the life of creation. We fish because the love of God is our truest self and we must share it with those who have lost vision and hope in order that it will grow in us.

In the beginning of Bear Creek there was a program to telephone thousands of people living in the area and invite them to worship. It worked and over three hundred and fifty folks showed up for that first worship. Several of those folks are still with us, many are not. Things went along so well it was then decided to build a building and move out of the Laura Ingle Wilder School. When the building was built some Bearcreekians, much less than the first time, phoned the area again and invited folks to the first worship in the new building. Again it worked, but not quite as well.

Now we have neither a brand new congregation nor a brand new building to use as a net. So what are we to do? I wish I had the programmatic answer; it would be so much simpler. I wish I could say, “Let’s telephone again.” But with what bait? What now gives us the sense of a pioneer congregation that with excitement and urgency goes fishing?

Now I know that there are some here who don’t want us fishing, that don’t want the wonderful family we have somehow disturbed by more people. This call to change by enlarging our congregation is felt as a threat to that with which we have become comfortable.

But our comfort is not the issue here. If we worship God just so we can be comfortable then we have missed God’s purpose for Bear Creek being in the world. It is not about our comfort level, it is about God healing the world through us. The focus needs to be first and foremost on our call to “teach discipleship” for the salvation of the world. The reason to fish is to save the world from selfishness and greed, from war and poverty, from lost souls doomed to alcohol and drugs, bad relationships and wretched living.

But again, without the net of a new congregation or building, what do we use to catch fish. For the answer to that I return to today’s scripture. Remember the narrative, how Jesus was teaching the word of God and the crowd pressed around him so that he asked Simon to row him out a little way from the shore so he could teach a little better. The net we have is the word of God as taught by Jesus, a word of servant love which is both divine and the truest part of being human.

Now you must know that in the gospels “boat” is often a code word or symbol for congregation. We provide the vessel and Jesus provides the word of God. As a congregation we don’t have to be super spiritual only a willing vessel which holding Jesus at the center, lets Jesus teach. It is Jesus who is teaching the Word of God and it is we and those on the shore who learn. And in that learning we discover our deepest desires met, our wounds and illnesses healed and our lives full of a new joy and a deep peace. And we also discover that it not just about us in the boat, but is meant for all those outside the boat, standing on the shore, hungry for a divine word of meaning, purpose and healing.

It is not our job as a congregation to be extraordinary in any particular way, we are not the net. We need only to hold Jesus in the middle of our boat and give him a chance to teach. Our first step in “learning to fish for souls” is to put Jesus at the center of our congregation. And for me that means studying who Jesus was and is to us, learning from his words and actions who we are meant to be, and to the best of our ability following the way of Jesus. This “way of Jesus” is simple to state and hard to live. The way and teaching of Jesus is to love God with all our heart, mind soul and strength; and to love our neighbor even as we love ourselves.

The scripture narrative continues when Jesus tells Simon to put out onto the water and fish. Peter is doubtful answering that they have fished all night and caught nothing.

Many of us have tried to fish and feel that our catch has been small or nothing. We have placed names of family and friends in the box on the altar. Some of us have seen results, maybe a few remarkable results. But many of us have seen no fish take in our net. Some of us feel that our waters are empty of fish, that we don’t know anyone who needs to hear the Word of God. We know Peter’s doubts.

But Peter then says, “Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” Weary of fishing, doubting the results, still Peter lets down the nets and you know the rest of the story.

Peter fishes not because he believes there will be success, but because Jesus has told him to do so. We fish for the lost souls around us not because we know there will be success, but because Jesus has asked us to do so and because our own healing depends on us being a vessel for the healing of others.

I learn from this that I don’t have to worry about who to invite into our little boat, that Jesus will nudge my heart when the invitation is right. I and we don’t have to be Bible thumping evangelists, we need only have Jesus at the center of who we are and listen for when Jesus asks us to invite a soul on the shore into the nets of God made servant love. All we have to do is be obedient to Jesus when the nudges come. When Jesus says “fish” we fish.

When the symbols of this evangelism story are considered together, we fish not because we believe we will be a success, but because Jesus, the word and love of God made flesh, is in our midst and ask us to fish. It is not so much a new program of evangelism we need but a heart for Jesus which extends to the people of our lives. For when we have the heart and guidance of Jesus we will respond to the cries and needs of those around us with a net that invites the lost to be with us that their lives might know the healing salvation of God who creates us, Jesus who loves and frees us, and the Holy Spirit who encourages and guides us.

So in response to the Long Range Committee and the Administrative Council I don’t offer a program of evangelism, I offer a way of life that follows Jesus. And I believe that if we truly give ourselves to being disciples of Jesus we will know when to fish and when to mend our nets and the Word of God embodied in the love of Jesus will live in us and that is all we need to draw others into our little boat.

If we continue to deepen and broaden our practice of discipleship in worship, study and prayer, the mind and heart of Christ will continue to grow and mature in us, and then we will know when we are to let down our nets, to speak the healing and inviting Words of God taught to us by Jesus. Our fishing will not be done begrudgingly or fearfully, but will be born of our urgent need to share the good news, the gospel, as it has come to abundant life in us. We will fish because we are the willingly obedient servants of the God who is agape love. We will fish because we so deeply care for the lost around us.

I know this will happen because it already has happened at Bear Creek. When that first gathering of Bear Creek disciples, some old hands and many new, decided to officially become a congregation Don Sorenson, the pastor then, announced that anyone who wanted to be a charter member of the congregation needed to be baptized. On the Sunday before chartering the congregation 47 souls, men, women and children, were washed clean by holy water and 47 souls were given new power by the Holy Spirit with the laying on of hands. Forty-seven people dedicated themselves to being followers of Jesus and to striving to be God’s love made flesh for the whole of creation. I can think of no greater moment in our congregation’s history than this. And I pray such an outpouring of love again be ours. It would be a high moment of my pastoral career to be able to baptize 47 folks with the cleansing and healing love of God.

And so I invite us to renew our commitment to put Jesus in the center of our boat in worship, study and service. And as we do so those on shore will hear the voice of Jesus speak the words of God for the salvation of the world. And sometimes with an invitation, and sometimes without, the world will be gathered into our boat so that we will have to signal our partners, those in other boats, to come and help us with such a large catch.

Shalom and Amen.