"I will make you fish for people."
Philip. Andrew. Peter. James. John.
All were fishermen.
One of our songs says they were simple folk just like you and me.
Do you believe that?
On what basis?
No one among us makes a living fishing.
Fishing is hard, nasty, dangerous work.
But we’ve gotten romantic notions about it.
And some of those just do not match what the biblical scholars tell us about Philip, Andrew, Peter, James and John – and the life they probably lived as fishermen.
We think of these disciples as poor and simple and struggling.
Actually, they were probably fairly successful and sort of middle class for the time. Peter, we know, owned a house and supported an extended family. Jesus went there for dinner and found Peter’s mother-in-law sick. Jesus laid hands on her. Healed her. She got up and make dinner.
James and John, "the sons of thunder"– the sons of Zebedee, were working alongside of hired hands in the family business. So that crew’s roster was at least five. And Zebedee owned more than one boat. Was it more than two? We don’t know. Maybe.
The historian of that era, Josephus, wrote that he regularly saw 350 boats on the water when the weather was fair.
And Phillip? He lived in Bethsaida, that Hebrew name means "House of Fish". Fishing was a major, stable industry. Fish, fresh or salted, was a staple in the everyday diet. In contrast, meat was eaten about once a week.
So, ignoring the ration of fish to meat in their diet, maybe Phillip, Andrew, Peter, James and John are folk just like you and me.
Hard working.
Middle class.
Raising families.
Trying to get ahead.
Hands always full.
Just like you and me.
Jesus called them then.
Jesus calls us now.
Jesus calls them saying, "I will make you fish for people."
The Baby Boomers and more mature among us grew up hearing this call as -
Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.
[Note our bulletin cover.]
And we knew that call was about evangelism.
Leonard Sweet, who writes books about the future Church, says that we all practiced "FROG" evangelism which is about getting people to church. A frog sits by the water and waits for food to pass by. Then zip, out goes its tongue. Food.
We all think getting people to Church is only about making the building and programs enticing. Then we wait and when a visitor...
ZIP.
He suggests that we all need to develop "LIZARD" evangelism. A lizard doesn’t sit and wait. A lizard goes out and seeks its food.
Leonard Sweet says we need to be out in the world opening up our mouths about our experiences of God and our faith. Evangelism is about changing hearts and minds. And our culture.
And our world.
Frogs. Lizards.
We know being Fishers of Men is an action.
So we set out to fish.
I like to fish.
When I prepare for an outing at the Lake or by the sea, I pin my license on my lucky hat, put my Swiss army knife in one of the many pockets of my fishing vest, check my tackle– rod and reel, and buy bait.
Here’s something interesting. I buy bait.
I’m usually thinking of landing one fish at a time. That’s not the way Peter and Andrew or James and John were doing it.
Peter and Andrew were standing by the shoreline, casting nets–
James and John were in the boat, mending nets– big ones, that required several boats to manage them–the crews cooperating to drag in huge catches.
The Bible tells us of one night’s fishing that didn’t go too well, until Jesus said, put your nets down on the other side. They did. And their nets filled to the point of breaking and the boat threatened to capsize. Other boats came to help them haul in the large catch.
The fishing industry today relies on large nets. Drag nets.
Indeed, current reports describe drag nets which weigh tons and are the size of jumbo jetliners. These nets are drug along the sea bottom and over coral reefs. The destruction of the coral means the loss of nursery habitat for small fish and this is believed to be part of why we are seeing the loss of fish across the oceans of the world.
We are losing fish in our seas.
Maybe embedded in Jesus call to evangelism is a call to be better stewards of our environment.
And something else...
Fish was an important symbol in the early church.
Tradition says that the first Christians in times of persecution would identify themselves to one another by drawing a fish in the dirt.
Perhaps it reminded them of the feeding of the five thousand with two fish and seven loaves of bread.
It was also an acrostic.
You know– like MOTHER
M is for the many ways she....
The Greek word for fish is ICHTHUS.
And those letters reminded them of these words:
Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.
Fish was an important symbol in the early church.
So I wonder–
We now translate Jesus words as:
I will make you fish for people.
And for me, its about more than political correctness.
We’re not just saying
I’ll make you fish for/ seek out/ men, women and children.
Jesus is saying much more.
You see, its that little word "fish".
I will make you fish for people.
The most successful bait I ever bought was minnows.
Little fish.
Did you know that in the 2nd century the newly baptized were called "little fishes"?
What if I will make you fish for people...what if it is not a verb?
What if it is a noun!!
I will make you – fish.
I know the Greek does not support this. But stay with me.
Fish as a noun.
It sounds a little like Dr. Seuss...
One fish, two fish.
Red fish, blue fish.
But I’m serious.
We are called to be fish.
We are to be the fish used as bait to lure other people.
Christian witness can make or break the Church.
What kind of a fish are you?
Jonah met a fish and it changed the very direction of his life.
I will make you fish.
I will make you bait.
I think we could well be about reclaiming this understanding of evangelism. Forget the frogs and the lizards.
Be fish. Act fishy.
I’ve often wondered what happened after the feeding of the five thousand with the bread and fish. Why don’t we have fish at our Communion meals?
Jesus is the wine and the bread. Jesus is food.
The disciples are the fish.
We, like our Savior, are also to be food.
I will make you fish.
I will make you bait.
I will make you food.
God blesses us so that we can be a blessing to others.
God nourishes us so that we can help nourish others.
Literally, they are to be fed and nourished spirituality by the lives and actions of faithful disciples.
When we mend a quarrel, or visit a shut-in – we are fish.
When we offer words of kindness and encouragement or teach a child – we are fish.
