"Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this." Rev. 1:17-19.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Fishing for People

Do you know how Episcopalians do evangelism?” the joke goes. Referencing today’s Gospel, the response is: “They take an aquarium and put it down in the sand on the beach and then wait for the fish to jump in.”[1] We Episcopalians are shy about “imposing” our faith on anyone else. We don’t like to knock on strange doors or to take our testimony outside of our comfort zones. If Jesus had been an Episcopalian, I doubt that he would have been described as acting “immediately!” in today’s Gospel lesson. Instead, he would probably have done some economic and sociological surveys of the Galilee before approaching anyone about discipleship. He would have allowed prospective disciples to sign the guest book first and waited for them to come back a few times before asking them to do anything. He might even have looked more like Jonah, slinking through a few streets and mumbling his proclamation with the minimum number of words, more anxious to be safely back in familiar territory than to proclaim the Kingdom of God.
          Maybe it is my own Episcopal reserve that made my ears perk up at the suggestion that the well-known “fishing” metaphor in today’s lesson can be seen to have some issues, at least when used for Christian missions. The story of Jesus calling the “gentle fisher folk” in the Galilee and asking them to follow him as “fishers of people,” is one of the basic, most well-known stories that we all learn in Sunday school. But have you ever thought about that image from the point of view of those who are being fished for, wonders author Don Richter?[2] Who wants to be tricked and lured to bite onto a barbed hook before being yanked out of the water? Who wants to be swept up in a big net and dumped on the shore in a heap?
Richter also points to the negative and dishonest practice of phishing (spelled with a “ph”) on the Internet these days. In this kind of modern phishing on the computer, identity thieves trick unsuspecting Internet users like you and me by sending out phony credit card company memos and bank announcements, trying to lure us to click on bogus sites and to divulge our banking information so that they can steal from us. Fishers of men and women, indeed!
Even elsewhere in the Bible itself, the image of fishing for people is a negative one. The prophet Jeremiah uses it to refer to God’s judgment, proclaiming that God will send “many fishermen” to catch the sinful Israelites, “for my eyes are on all their [evil] ways.”[3] Rather than dishonestly luring people or grabbing them against their will to devour them, isn’t it better, then, to delicately place the aquarium on the shore and wait for the fish to find their way inside? Part of me would definitely like for that to be the best way to spread the Good News.
          There is nothing careful or delicate about the way that Jesus enters upon the scene in our Gospel lesson, though. Eugene Peterson’s translation begins the passage: “After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee preaching the Message of God: ‘Time’s up! God’s kingdom is here. Change your life and believe the Message.” The Kingdom of God is here. In my presence, God’s rule has begun—right now--Jesus announces. Simon, Andrew, James and John sure seem to realize from the beginning that there is no time to dilly-dally. They drop what they are doing and walk off together into the new life of the Kingdom.
That’s not really very normal behavior, though, is it? The normal thing to do would be to take some time to think about such a momentous, life-changing decision. Instead, it is as if … as if, a big net has come in to sweep them along into a new place. It is as if the whole world is being carried into a new creation on the crest of a wave. Mark almost seems to emphasize the role of the net in fishing in these few verses from today’s lesson: Simon and Andrew are casting a net into the sea; they left their nets; James and John were mending their nets. The arrival of God’s rule in Jesus Christ is not a piece of bait bobbing around, luring us to grab hold of the hook inside. The arrival of God’s rule in Jesus Christ is a huge net scooping up everyone and everything in its path, drawing them to God and holding them together as a new entity.
          By turning the disciples into fishers of men, I don’t think that Jesus is so much giving us license to lure others to God as he is joining us to God’s project, making us what he is, transforming who we are. Our role as fishers of men should not be a source of pride for us. It should not give us reason to lord it over the fish. Instead, it is the sign of a repentant heart. Changing how we use our gifts and our very selves is part of the transformation that Jesus is bringing about in our world. We are no longer limited to a life consisting of earning our living and going home to watch TV. We are called to turn that old life inside out and upside down, to take whatever gifts we have and use them for God’s kingdom, for spreading the love of God in Jesus Christ.
A colleague in the diocese recently sent me a You-Tube video of some Christians “fishing” for men and women in Italy.[4] This video doesn’t have anything to do with the sea or with nets or with fishing poles, but I thought of it right away in reflecting on today’s Gospel. A church group in an Italian town had made big signs that said in bold lettering, “Free Hugs.” Wearing these signs like walking billboards for a local business, dozens of men, women, and children from this church walk slowly around a downtown square. The film shows the surprise on peoples’ faces when they read the strange signs. Some people smile, some wrinkle their foreheads, yet most of them walk hesitantly up to the billboard-clad Christians and reach out for a careful hug. By offering free hugs, these Italian Christians are not luring anyone with false advertising. They are not using hooks, bait or barbs. They are not telling anyone what to think. They are merely offering to love their neighbor, to enact with simple signs the coming of God’s reign of love into this world. Watching the film, one could tell that a huge net of joy was slowly spreading around everyone in that town square, bringing them together and holding them together in God’s hand.
Thinking about this film, I wondered what would happen if we all went over to the Westport Road Shopping Center across the street wearing signs that said, “Free hugs.” Would that act of fishnet evangelism spread God’s Kingdom? Would it bring us new members? Or would it make us look silly or get us arrested? To be honest, I would be kind of scared and reluctant to try it out. I’m much more comfortable with putting out the aquarium and waiting for it to fill up. But I can’t get the image out of my head of us walking around hugging everybody like we do at the Peace. Publicly acting as if God’s reign is among us. Among all of us. Fishing for people…


[1] As told to me by a colleague in the diocese. I don’t know who originally came up with this quote.
[2] See Don Richter, Mission Trips that Matter (Upper Room Books, 2008), 98.
[3] Jeremiah 16:16
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN8CKwdosjE

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