SERMON PREACHED BY
THE REVEREND DR. HAROLD T. LEWIS, RECTOR
CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
ON THE THIRD SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
22 JANUARY 2006

 
 
"Jesus said to them, 'Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men.'" (Mark 1:17)
 
I remember very distinctly experiencing a significant childhood rite of passage ---- from goldfish bowl to aquarium.  Having a goldfish bowl was very simple.  You just sat there and watched your pair of goldfish swim around and around, circumnavigating their little aqueous world.  As the keeper of the goldfish bowl, you had two duties. First, feed the fish daily by putting just a pinch of fish food in the bowl every day.  Since the fish will eat everything you feed them, it is important to keep their meals to a pinch, since overfeeding can be fatal, as many a devastated six-year old has discovered when he discovers his little goldfish belly-up and immobile. Second, change the water occasionally, taking care, of course, to provide a temporary home, with sufficient amounts of water, for the displaced fish.  (A paper towel does not do the job!)
 
But an aquarium was, pardon the expression, a different kettle of fish.  I guess the aquarium was to little boys what Barbie and Ken were to girls.  Instead of accessorizing by changing wardrobe --- from tennis outfit to prom gown, etc., the aquarium-keeper was constantly adding to his little world.  Different species of tropical fish (the pet store man would tell you which ones got along with each other).  Then thee was different colored gravel, coral of various descriptions that the fish could swim in and out of or hide behind; algae both real and faux, a pump and filter to keep the water clean, a thermometer, so that you could make sure the fish were not too hot or too cold; and finally a light to illumine the environment you had created.  Then your friends could come over and watch your fish and admire your equipment and accessories.
 
A big boy version of the home aquarium, by the way, is a man-made lake stocked with, say, trout, to which you can invite your friends to go fishing.
 
This morning's Gospel tells the familiar story of Jesus' invitation to his disciples to become "fishers of men."  But he invites them neither to an aquarium nor an artificial lake stocked with fish.  He invites them to fish in the open sea --- well, almost, since we know that the Sea of Galilee was really a lake.  The other thing we should note is that Jesus and his disciples did not use poles; they used nets.
 
Now the first thing to remember about fishing with nets is that nets catch everything that swims into them.  It's not like fish being attracted to a particular kind of bait or lure.  This is why later on Jesus would compare the kingdom of God to a net [Mt. 13:47]. Evangelism, fishing for people, is indiscriminate.  Since Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, we don't pick and choose those whom we wish to invite, mainly because it's not our party, it's God's.
 
Another thing to remember about net fishing is that it's a community effort.  The net is too large and unwieldy for one person to handle.  A team of fishermen is needed.  So it is with fishing for people.  To attract people, the entire community must be involved.  Even if an individual does a good recruiting job, what good is that if the church community doesn't deliver the goods when the recruit shows up?
 
Fishing with nets requires persistence.  It depends, literally, on the luck of the draw.  Do you remember another fishing story in the Gospel when the disciples complained to Jesus that they had "fished all night and caught nothing?" [John 21:3]. We must be dedicated in our evangelism, as opposed to doing it in the usual Episcopal Church fashion.  You know how that goes.  Sunday No. 1: name tags and flowers, gifts, applause, filling out cards, general brouhaha.  Sunday No. 2: We say to last week's newcomer, "Aren't you the new guy from last week?"  Sunday No. 3:  Nothing at all, and the hapless visitor, having been drawn into the net, is left, if you pardon the expression, floundering.
 
And this points to another problem with our approach to evangelism.  We often create an aquarium to our own liking, just the right environment, temperature, mood music, and of course inhabitants.  Then we ask people ---- at least some people, to jump into the aquarium we have created.  This is not what Jesus had in mind.  Jesus calls us to go out and get wet for the sake of the Gospel.  He wants us to be proactive; he wants us to go fishing, not merely to hang around waiting to see who shows up.
 
This church-as-aquarium model, which has always been present, seems to have been raised to an art form.  That branch of the church that deems itself to be orthodox is assembling a "perfect" aquarium with a totally controlled environment.  A few weeks ago, the Vestry watched a video entitled "Choose this Day," put out by the Network of Anglican Dioceses and Parishes.  That video makes it clear that their aquarium-church is all-white, all believing in the "supremacy of Scripture" (no tradition and reason, thank you very much).  And needless to say, their aquarium-church only has straight fish.
 
The dragnet that Jesus and his disciples used to catch fish is turned against the current, and the current forces fish into the net.  It is indiscriminate and unselective.  Perhaps one of the hardest things we have to learn as Christians is to be as welcoming as that net.
 
Now we could end the sermon here, but I want to give an honorable mention to an almost forgotten character in this story, and that is Zebedee, the father of James and John.  He didn't jump up enthusiastically with the others.  Let's not be too hard on him.  We're often like him, clinging to the familiar, the sure thing (which, of course, never is).  I would like to think that Zebedee decided to keep doing his important job --- mending the nets, keeping the nets in good repair tin order that those burly fishermen wouldn't lose any potential disciples because of a hole or a tear in the net.  Somebody has to keep the church in good repair so that it might welcome those who are fished out of the sea by the disciples.
 
Let us pray:
Send forth, O Lord, thy strong Evangel
By many messengers, all hearts to win;
Make haste to help us in our weakness;
Break down the realm of Satan, death and sin:
The circle of the earth shall then proclaim
Thy kingdom and the glory of thy Name.
("Awake thou spirit of the watchmen"
The Hymnal 1982, 540.)