Third Epiphany, 2005:

A group of very well-to-do businessmen got together one night to discuss a plan for helping one of their friends who had fallen on hard times.  It seemed that everything he tried failed and he was beginning to think that perhaps he was just a born loser.  The friends wanted to do something that would boost his ego and make him feel better about himself.  They finally settled on having a fake raffle.  They would put numbers in a hat and whoever drew out the number 4 would win $5,000.  The trick was that all the slips of paper would have the number 4 on them.  When the unlucky friend announced that he had the number 4, they would all throw away their numbers and have a celebration for their forlorn friend.

The men went to their friend’s house and told him about the raffle.  They all drew numbers from the hat, then waited expectantly for the unlucky man to start rejoicing, but he showed no reaction to the whole thing.

Finally, one of them asked him, “So, what number did you draw?”

The friend replied, “Six and seven-eighths.”

That fellow probably out not to go fishing.  He would just catch a turtle or a snake.

Just after hearing about the arrest of John the Baptist, Jesus decided the time had come for him to go fishing.  It is no accident that the first four fish he caught were fishermen themselves.  He designed it that way.  In Peter, Andrew, James, and John Jesus saw the qualities necessary to make them good disciples, the kind that would stick with it and make other disciples.  So, the call is issued.  What was it that Jesus saw in these four that he knew would be helpful in fulfilling the mission he was about to launch?  I would suggest that the first quality was patience.  I’m not sure one is born with the temperament that makes patience a part of ones character.  It has to be developed and practiced.  Good fishermen must learn to wait patiently until the fish takes the bait.  If one is restless and moves too quickly, he or she will never be a good fisherman.  One must learn to never be discouraged, but to try, try again.  One of the things learned through the practice of patience is the development of an eye for the right moment.  The wise fisherman knows well that there are times when it is hopeless to fish.  He or she knows when to cast and when not to cast.  Choosing the right moment is crucial.  Kind of like the new minister in town who called on one of the families in his church in the middle of the day.  He hadn’t called ahead of time to say that he was coming by.  He stood at the front door and rang the doorbell.  He waited for a moment and rang it again.  Still no one came, so he knocked on the door rather loudly.  Still no answer; so he attached his new business card to the mailbox and wrote a scriptural reference, Revelation 3:20.  In case you are not a New Testament scholar, Revelation 3:20 says, “I stand at the door and knock, anyone who hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and sup with them.”  A few weeks later a note from the family upon whom he had called was placed in the alms basin addressed to the minister.  The note simply said, “Please see Genesis 3:10.”  Genesis 3:10 says, “I heard the sound of thee in the garden and I was afraid.  So I hid myself, for I was naked.”  Timing is everything in pastoral calling and in fishing.

I would also want to say that the good fisherman must know both the fish and the bait.  The successful fisherman knows that one fish will rise to one kind of bait and another to a different kind.  St. Paul said he became all things to all people so that he might win some for the Lord.  The wise fisherman knows that the same approach will not catch all the fish.  He or she will especially need to accept his or her own limitations.  He or she may have to learn that there are certain waters in which he or she can work well and others in which another fisherman must work.  One-size-fits-all never works in fishing or in making disciples.  The good fisherman will spend some time in disciplined preparation before going out to fish.  Otherwise it is wasted effort.

Finally, successful fishermen keep themselves out of sight.  If the fisherman has a great need to be seen, to let the fish know who it is that’s trying to snag them, he or she will not be very successful.  Even the fisherman’s shadow is enough to scare some fish away.  The good fisherman tries to get the fish to see the bait and not the fisherman.  Fishing for people requires the same thing.  It is always humbling for a person in my position, as the ordained fisherman in this place, to be reminded that something around 3% of the folks in any church are there because of them.  The vast majority come and stays because other fishermen and women have spent time with them and invited them to come.

God calls us all; each baptized Christian to be a fisherman.  We can, by applying the lessons learned, become better at that baptismal task.  Classes, Bible studies, spiritual direction, and common worship help us read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the things that make us good fishermen.  We can develop patience in our sharing the Good News with others.  We can learn that there is a world of difference in God’s economy between success and failure.  We can try again and again.

We can, through disciplined prayer and study, come to a greater understanding of the bait that is the Gospel of the Risen Christ.  The better we get to know the Word the more options we will have in presenting it to others.  We can learn to accept people where they are and not where we think they ought to be. 

We can learn anew that it is “not ourselves we proclaim but Christ Jesus as Lord.  We can learn to point not to ourselves but beyond ourselves to the One who changes lives and hearts.  Never has the harvest of hurting, hungry, lonely, angry human fish been greater than it is today.  God in Christ issues a challenge to all of us this day.  We are the luckiest people I know.  We have so many gifts and advantages.  We just have to use them.  So, let’s go fishing.  Amen.