Matthew 4:19 And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”
It’s hard to believe, but I do not particularly like to go fishing. I am sure that there is great quality male bonding that does happen when you are left alone on a boat in the middle of a lake or I am sure that it is a great place of solitude for some to get away from all that is our crazy modern life – fishing is not my idea of relaxation. My father has on numerous occasions tried to instill in me “normal” male activities, like fishing, hunting, an interest in sports – and as hard as he tries it seems that arts and academia appeal to me more so then these typical male bonding experiences. I am reminded today though how bonding with my father truly has special meaning and why I am ready to finally go fishing with him.
Today dad preached “from the bible” – which immediately sent my heart racing to try and figure out where he was going with this one. He started with a wonderful explanation of the Gospel of Matthew with its roots in “prophecy fulfillment”. Matthew’s author clearly shows to a Jewish community, rather convincingly, that Jesus is the one that God has appointed and sent to us to be our Savior. Dad pointed out the subtle differences and meanings that get lost in our contemporary mindset in the reading from Isaiah today. He showed that the word of God has come to God’s chosen people – the word made flesh and that incarnation has a very special call to all of us in our lives. You see God’s word is not a silent voice, one that I am very aware of as I continue this “call process”. In the Gospel today we heard the story of Jesus calling the disciples – “come follow me”. This has been one of those amazing biblical moments to me. It is a point where we see just how powerful the word of God must have been to these disciples. To drop their very lives to follow another man – maybe even a stranger – made what the author of Matthew reduces to “come follow me” into something so incredibly powerful.
I am reminded of a time when the family went to Fontana Dam for a time share vacation. One of those wonderful weeks in the American Iconography that can only be described as Griswald-isk. They had a pond, of sorts, with fish that for a few dollars you could rent fishing poles and some corn and go fishing. I don’t think that the fish had been fed in some time because my brother and I managed to pull out fish faster then my dad could put in the bucket. If it was that easy to go fishing I think I would have taken a hold to fishing. Most of the time though fishing is a waiting sport, and if you know anything about me patience is not one of my virtues. I think that fishing is an appropriate image to consider when considering how we fulfill our baptismal call in the world. Fishing has been part of sustaining life for thousands of years. Fishing communities have a language, customs, and feeling all their own. We too have a fishing community with a language, customs, and feelings of our own. We receive that culture through the word of God and we stand up and fulfill our own calling to go out into the world and “fish”. Paul writes about this purpose in his letter to the Corinthians. In fact he says we must not be divided in our mission to fishing – it is a united effort that we carry out as the community of believers. We should not worry about what Christians consider themselves Catholic Fishermen, Presbyterian Fisherman, Methodist Fisherman, or Lutheran Fisherman – Paul is telling us to loose that kind of mindset when looking at our baptismal calling. I think that Paul would even agree to carry it further by saying that we should stop fighting over being Latino fisherman, gay fisherman, republican fisherman, or pro-life fisherman. We are united in Christ – it is Christ who we encounter at the table, it is Christ that we celebrate in our community. The word of God is a powerful thing for our community, it is our nets that we use to help bring people to God, in our community we support each other in bringing in the nets, and at the end of the day we give thanks to God who has provided for us.
You won’t find us out in the middle of a lake somewhere; it’s a different kind of fishing that I do with my dad- one that I couldn’t be prouder to do with anyone else.
