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"Gone Fishing" Anna Christie Jan 22
I don’t know how many of you are as old as I am, but if you are you will carry the badge, to the envy of many a millennial, of having seen the original Star Wars movie (called Episode IV) in the theatre in 1977. My boyfriend and I saw it twice, two nights in a row.
After that smash box-office hit, every one of the other 8 Star Wars movies began the same way. Do you remember the opening? Just the words on a black screen:
Long ago in a galaxy far, far away.
And then the clash of symbols and the orchestra with the big logo STAR WARS and then the opening theme….da DA! da da da DA da….then the crawler in the night sky….there was civil war…..
Each time you saw that opening, you settled back in your seat thinking
“Ahhh…this is going to be great.” [til we saw that attack of the clones travesty]
For my children, it was each film’s return to Hogwarts that got them giddy. That music…do da do do DA doooo do…do da do dum da do
So let’s try to flash back 2000 years to the people reading or hearing the Gospel of Matthew, with its story of Jesus, for the very first time. Introductory geneology…blah blah blah…the wise men… Jesus’ baptism…temptation in the desert….bla bla….and finally, now, that opening moment in the film.
you wait, in expectation. I can almost hear the overture music begin
And then…the grand announcement:
THE PEOPLE WHO SAT IN DARKNESS
HAVE SEEN A GREAT LIGHT
FOR THOSE WHO SAT IN THE PLACE OF DEEP DARKNESS
LIGHT HAS DAWNED.
Ahhh - this is going to be great.
Jesus begins his public ministry. Being a little green, I suppose, he borrows a sermon from his cousin John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Who can blame him? It was his first sermon.
No commentary on that. The writer of Matthew moves on…
You know the next bit, probably off by heart. Jesus sees some fishers, Simon, Andrew and his brother, and calls them to follow him saying “I will teach you to fish for people.” We love that saying - always have. Back in the days of my childhood there was a little Sunday School song …. “I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN, FISHERS OF MEN, FISHERS OF MEN….I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN IF YOU FOLLOW ME.” Remember that? Did you have any idea what it meant when you were in Sunday School? Me either. Do you now? I’m not so sure. What does it mean to fish for people, or for that matter to catch people? In fact, what does it mean to be a disciple? Can we still fish for people? Can we still be Jesus’ disciples?
Obviously the goal of fishing, especially when casting nets, was to get a bountiful catch. Lots and lots of fish. But fish were for eating, and selling. What would a bountiful catch of people be for? We often assume it’s getting lots and lots of people into the faith, and that is probably what Jesus meant by it as well. As far as going from those humble beginnings of 12 to about 1.3 billion now: mission accomplished.
But surely for us, in the mainline church in 2023, fishing and catching people cannot mean increasing church membership. We’ve tried every dog and pony trick since 1965, when our numbers began declining, to do that. Faithfully. All of our church growth schemes fell flat….as apart from a few pockets here and there, church membership just continued to decline. We don’t have any tricks left. We’ve learned just about everything we could possibly learn and it JUST. AIN’T. HAPPENIN.
Is this a failure of discipleship? Surely not, for God would not desire nor decree that the fishing efforts of ALL of God’s faithful would simply fail. Discipleship, therefore, must mean something different to us. The risen Christ is calling us to something else now. A different way of being.
Of following.
The final paragraph of the passage we read today describes Jesus and his disciples travelling all through Galilee, Syria, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and from beyond the Jordan. In other words, everywhere. Jesus travelled everywhere and he did 3 things:
Teaching
Proclaiming GOOD NEWS, and
1. Healing
Disciple literally means “learner,” and has there ever been a better way to describe it than right now? We can LEARN to teach, we can learn FROM our students. We can LEARN what it means to proclaim good news - in 2023, and we can LEARN how to heal people - in 2023
* * * *
If you watch the news like me (I’m a bit of a news junkie, in fact), then you will have witnessed a lot of people who claim to be followers of Jesus. Christians. We’re talkin’ 1.3 billion now. Let’s review what we know, and see if we can L-E-A-RN…
I see Christians, both in our neighbours to the south and here in Canada, acting racist, sexist and bigoted. I don’t get it. You’d think after 2000 years we’d all be pretty much certain that the whole “love one another” thing is a given. But these ‘isms’ have been going on for centuries now and I don’t see it just disappearing anytime soon.
I see Christians in this country, in Europe, in America and in many other countries around the world being violent. Taking up arms. Fighting in the streets. Harming their spouses and their children. Working AGAINST gun legislation to make us less violent.
I don’t know about you, but I can’t reconcile being a follower of Jesus and taking up arms. Jesus admonished the disciple who cut off the ear of the Roman soldier arresting Jesus. Jesus told us to PRAY for our enemies. Jesus taught us to turn the other cheek. “Love one another as I have loved you” was his final commandment, at the last supper. LOVE.
Surely we must love one another to even qualify as a Christian. Since it’s been a sermon of nostalgia - how about that old campfire song
⦁ “and they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
I’ve been the minister of several churches, and I’ve been a member of a lot of churches and I can tell you right now that there are people in the pews, and probably it’s even true here, who are not differentiating themselves by their LOVE. Griping, complaining, gossiping, criticizing, I’ve even seen outright sabotaging of ministers, staff, other congregants. Are we DISCIPLES? What are we doing here?
It got so bad for me once, what I was observing in other Christians, that I didn’t even want to call myself a Christian. The word just had a bad connotation. "Are you a Christian?” they’d ask. “No, but I’m a follower of Jesus,” I would reply. Christians were always on the news doing something….well….NOT Christian:
⦁ Discriminating against Muslims, refugees and new immigrants
⦁ Fighting against abortion rights (of everyone, even if they’re not Christian)
⦁ Arguing against transgender issues
⦁ Opposing gay marriage
⦁ Standing up for the right to own assault rifles
⦁ Being against vaccines, and masks, and science in general
I didn’t want to be associated with those people.
But I ALWAYS wanted to be, and to be seen as, a follower of Jesus. A disciple.
I have also seen in the church, and elsewhere among Christians, a lot of love. I’ve seen Christian people
⦁ Welcoming strangers
⦁ Visiting prisoners
⦁ Feeding the hungry, and providing for shelter, and education
⦁ Funding hospitals and health care
⦁ Standing up for justice issues, and inclusivity
⦁ And being open-minded and compassionate to those who believe differently.
This is the learning, the healing and the proclaiming of GOOD news that today’s disciples are doing.
But we still need to catch more people. Catch them with acceptance, with inclusion, with welcoming arms, with open-mindedness, with a willingness to listen, with logic and reason, with peace and non-violence. Catch them with LOVE.
And whether that’s within the church, or out in the world, for heaven’s sake let them know we are Christians by our love.
I want to be a disciple, Jesus. I want to LEARN. Please, please teach me.