Fish

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

February 10, 2019

5 Epiphany C

          For many years, I served as the chaplain to 4^th and 5^th graders at Procter Camp, the Episcopal Church camp in the Diocese of Southern Ohio.  The mornings were filled with worship that was energetic bordering on aerobic, and creative Bible study.  After lunch and a quick rest, the kids were off to their afternoon activities.  Those activities ranged from swimming to crafts to a variety of games and water sports to fishing.  Fishing at Procter Camp is fishing I can handle.  A counselor gets the bait and puts it on the hook for the camper.  The camper stands along the side of a pond with the hook in the water and waits for the fish to bite.  When the fish grabs the hook, the camper calls for the counselor who comes and takes the fish off the hook and throws it back in the pond.  The camper has the joy of catching a fish and the fish lives to see another day.  That’s a win-win in my book!

          The fishing we see in this morning’s gospel lesson has much higher stakes than fishing in the pond at Procter Camp.  Simon, who will soon be known as Peter, has been fishing all night and has caught nothing.  At Procter Camp, if you fish all afternoon and catch nothing, dinner is going to be the same hot dogs and macaroni and cheese regardless.  For Simon, however, no fish means no dinner and no income.  Simon is tired and discouraged.  There is no one to put bait on his hook, much less clean his nets.  Had he caught any fish, the responsibility for dealing with those fish would be all his. 

          Meanwhile, the crowds have gathered near the water to hear Jesus.  In the verses just before our gospel reading, Jesus has healed a man with an unclean spirit and healed Simon’s very own mother-in-law.  But Simon is not among those crowding around to hear Jesus. Simon is busy cleaning his nets, hoping to get home for a good day’s sleep before going out in search of fish again that night.  While Simon is distracted by the work of cleaning his nets, Jesus gets into Simon’s boat, and asks Simon to put out a ways so Jesus can teach from the boat.  Jesus did just heal Simon’s mother-in-law, so Simon does owe him a favor.

          The rest of the story is well known.  When he finishes teaching, Jesus tells Simon to put out into deep water and let the nets down. Simon is reluctant.  He had just spent all night putting the nets out and has nothing  to show for his labor other than dirty nets, and he has just spent no telling how long getting them clean for the next night.  But, of course, this time the nets overflow with fish and another boat has to be called to help.  Jesus then tells Simon that from now on, he will be catching people.

          What are we to do with this story that seems to tell us that the way to introduce people to Jesus is to catch them in a net and treat them like fish?  I do not think Jesus is thinking about a catch and release program like at Procter Camp!  But on the other hand, I don’t think Jesus is thinking about a fish fry either.

          First, I think this story calls us to think about what we can do when we let Jesus into the boat with us.  Alone, Simon could do nothing.  But with Jesus in the boat, Simon had an unimaginably large haul of fish.  The same is true for us.  When we seem to be working hard and accomplishing nothing, whether in our individual lives or here at Christ Church, perhaps we need to check and see whether we’ve invited Jesus into the boat, and what Jesus would have us do.

          Secondly, Jesus tells Simon to put out into deep water and let down the nets.  Putting out into deep water is hard work.  The nets have to be let down further.  Controlling them is more difficult and hauling the catch up from the deep is harder.  Picking low hanging fruit is easy.  Going deeper is harder.  Jesus calls us not to shy away from what looks difficult or even impossible.  Put out into deep water and see what you find. 

          Thirdly, this story is 99% about Jesus and only 1% about Simon.  Jesus asks Simon to take his boat out a little ways from shore so Jesus can teach from the water.  Jesus has the idea to put the nets out into deep water.  Jesus is the origin of the great haul of fish.  Most of the time, Simon is probably feeling rather inconvenienced by Jesus.  Simon is tired.  He’s had a long night, and despite all of his efforts, he has nothing to show for his work.  So Simon is not contributing a whole lot to the story, and the story he has to tell when he gets back to the shore is all about Jesus. 

          The reading from 1 Corinthians reminds us that our story as Christians is all about Jesus.  The passage we heard is one of the earliest and tightest proclamations of the Good News that we have from the early church.  Paul writes “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.”  Paul then lists the others to whom Christ appeared.  The heart of our story, the story we have to share, the story that I believe serves as the grounding for our lives and the way we introduce others to Jesus, is all about Jesus.  What we have to offer the world is the message that Christ died for our sins, which means that our identity is not defined by the sum total of our own successes minus our own failures, which would leave a lot of us in the negative category many days.  Our identity comes from Christ’s infinite love for us from the cross.  The second part of that proclamation is that life is stronger than death.  Christ died and was buried then was raised back to life.  No matter what happens to us, life has the final say.

          The story of the great haul of fish calls us to be disciples of Jesus who live with the courage that comes from believing that Jesus can do amazing, even impossible things through us.  What Jesus wants to do through us, through all of our lives and ministries, whatever they are, is tell the world that our identity comes from being loved by God, that love is stronger than hate, and that life is stronger than death.  The world is starving for that story.

                                                                   Amen.