Sermons

"We Are The Net"

Sunday, February 7, 2010
Luke 5:1-11 The Rev. Peter Faass, Rector

When I was a young boy of about nine or ten years old my mother had friends who lived in a small cottage on a moderate body of water named Ball Pond. Ball Pond was located in New Fairfield, Connecticut; a small town nestled in the Berkshires, and which back in the 1960's was pretty much undeveloped, unspoiled and quite beautiful.

During summer visits to Ball Pond my favorite activity was fishing. I loved to fish, and our friend's cottage had a small dock jutting into the pond. It was a perfect place; a place where I would spend many hours with my fishing pole in hand, its line in the water, intently watching the bobber for any sign of movement. Most of the time I just caught sunfish or maybe a small bass; the bigger fish were not to be had so close to the shore, the water being too shallow for them. Once I caught a fairly decent sized brown trout, which probably bordered on being of legal size, but which my family allowed me to keep anyway and eat for dinner that night. As I recall it was a pretty cool moment . . . and a tasty fish!

Fishermen need to be a patient lot; seldom do fish just appear and bite the bait or jump into the net. Fishermen need to be quiet as well; excessive noise or any disturbances of the water send the fish fleeing. So back on those warm summer days on Ball Pond, it was much to my boyish chagrin when my little sister, Susan, would come down to the dock to investigate what I was up to.

Noisy three year old toddlers and ten year old, fishing boys are not a good mix. Invariably during her dockside visits my sister would chatter joyfully, asking me all sorts of questions about this, that, and
the other thing. She would also proceed to run around the dock; as I recall the pitter patter of three year old feet on wood planking sounds just like the approach of Tyrannosaurus Rex in the movie Jurassic Park; every thing for miles around seismically trembling in ever deeper basso profundo.

Now it doesn't take much imagination to envision what happens when a three year old is running around on a dock, paying no attention to anything other then the glee of doing this; they get entangled in fishing line and fall into the water. This happened without fail, every time: Splash! What had been a Norman "Rockwellesque" scene of a boy with a fishing pole by the side of a lovely pond turned into a rescue operation of a toddler who hadn't learned to swim. Oh yes, and no fish.

Into the pond jumps big brother, scooping the sputtering and frightened child out of the water and carrying her safely back to shore; conflicting emotions of sibling love and fratricide flooding his mind.

In today's Gospel reading we hear of Simon Peter, James, and John – fisherman all - who have just experienced a disappointing night of fishing - nothing in their nets - despite their best efforts. Jesus instructs them to row out a bit on to the lake and to recast their nets. They grumble, but do as Jesus says. Astonishingly a few moments later they pull in their nets which are filled with a catch beyond their wildest imagination. We are told that, "they caught so many fish, their nets were beginning to break." After calling over reinforcements to help handle this abundant haul they fill two boats, which then begin to sink because of the weight of the catch.

This story of course offers a profound metaphor; it is not about catching fish for dinner, rather it is about growing the Church; an endeavor better known by the dreaded word evangelism. When Simon Peter and the other disciples see the huge haul of fish in their nets they are amazed and not a little frightened. In response Jesus says, "Do not be afraid, from now on you will be catching people." In other words you will be going out and casting the net of the Good News. And in so casting, you will be sharing the good news of Jesus' salvation for all people, and bringing people to faith, thereby growing the Church.

Wouldn't we like to have Christ Church's boat filled with so many fish from the nets that we cast, that our boat begins to sink? Okay that metaphor doesn't mean that we literally sink and fail; it's a positive sinking. It means sinking from the weight of fuller pews; sinking from an abundance of hands to do outreach, education, music, evangelism and the work of building the Kingdom; and sinking from not having any red ink in the budget. That would be a pleasantly full net of fish indeed! Of course for that to happen it means we will actually have to cast our nets.

Casting the nets and bringing in a big catch is a nice image; a nice idea. But we already have plenty of nice ideas and images at Christ Church. We don't need any more ideas. The Vestry and I don't need someone to be concept people or critics or editors of our work. What we - and by that I mean Christ Church - need is for people to actually labor on the fishing boat with us.

Let me return to my story about my boyhood fishing adventures and my sputtering sister flailing in the pond and offer another metaphor about how you might become a caster of nets.

In this metaphor Susan becomes any person who has been abused by religion: Religion that has told her that because she is divorced, or gay, or supports an individual's right to determine their own reproductive rights, or is inferior because she is a woman, or votes for a particular candidate in an election who holds a positions contrary to those of that religion, or uses their God-given reason to see live differently than the dogmas of that religion; that because of one or more of these things that she is a bad person; a sinner who is not welcome.

Or Susan is a person who has never had any association with organized religion at all. She is un-church, to use the current lingo. Her only source of information about Christianity is the media. And so what she hears in the media is the recent foolishness of televangelist Pat Robertson saying that the earthquake three weeks ago and all the suffering that has afflicted the people of Haiti is because they are a people cursed by God; cursed because, as Robertson says, they made a pact with the devil to get out from under the heel of the French slavery. In other words that it was some satanic act that gained them their liberation as a people and not the human yearning for freedom and justice.

So Susan thinks to herself, "Why in the world would I ever want to be associated with Christianity when its adherent's believe nutty things like that? What kind of god does a cruel, sadistic thing like cursing an entire people who want to be free of slavery? So Susan writes Christianity off as at best irrelevant or at worst, a menace to the well-being of humanity.

So from a faith perspective, Susan is left to flail about, sputtering about just how awful, abusive and slightly wacko religion is. And she would be right.

Now in this same metaphor you are, well . . . me.

You have heard the good news of Jesus and his authentic message of abundant love, radical inclusion and respect for all people. And because Jesus instructs you to share that Good News with others, you - without hesitation - jump feet first into the water and scoop up the flailing and sputtering Susan, carrying her safely back to the shore; the shore representing a whole, healthy, truthful relationship with the real Jesus, not the ersatz one Susan has experienced or seen from those other sources.

In this metaphor you have not only cast the net, you are the net!

When Simon Peter saw the enormous haul of fish in the nets, he became frightened. He knew that in the presence of Jesus he had encountered holiness and that he, Peter, was not worthy to be called by Jesus into the service of the Kingdom. Like Peter we also become frightened; frightened by the prospect of what it means to be the net that proclaims Jesus' redemptive love to others. We think we are not worthy or have the ability to do this holy work.

Frankly, that is not for us to worry about. Our vocation as followers of Jesus is to make God's love known in the world, period. In accepting his call, Peter set an example for others to follow as he began a new life in Jesus that he could never have imagined for himself before. His life and those whom he caught in his net had their lives transformed. Your life and the lives of those who you swoop up into your net will be as equally transformed; but like I said, first you have to cast the net.

Amen.

Home   News & Events   Ministries   Newcomers   About Us    Peter +

3445 Warrensville Center Road, Shaker Heights, Ohio 44122   Phone: 216-991-3432   © 2010-2012 Christ Church