Catch and Release (Feb. 7, 2010)
St. Paul’s United Methodist Church Luke 5: 1-11 Rev. Marianne Niesen February 7, 2010
Two experienced fisherfolk went ice-fishing. They chopped holes in the ice, put worms on their hooks, dropped their lines into the water and, three hours later, they had caught nothing. Then, a boy came along with his fishing gear. He cut a hole in the ice midway between the other two, put a worm on his hook, dropped his line into the water and, immediately, he caught a fish. He repeated the process, over and over again, until he soon had a catch of a dozen fish. The other two watched and were flabbergasted. Finally one of them approached the lad and said: young man, we’ve been here for more then three hours and haven’t caught a single fish. You’ve caught at least a dozen in just a few minutes. What’s your secret? The boy mumbled an answer but the man didn’t catch a word of it. Then he noticed a large bulge in the boy’s left cheek. Take that bubble gum out of your mouth so I can understand what you’re saying! At that point, the boy cupped his hands and spat it out. It’s not bubble gum, sir, he said, it’s my secret. You’ve got to use warm bait.
Today’s gospel is about fishing. It is about some fishermen who did not have a good night. And fishing for them was not a nice pastime. It was their livelihood. The fishermen of Galilee typically fished at night, with nets. And the ‘bait’ they used was actually warm - warm springs of water near Capernaum that attracted fish to the deep waters close to shore. But this night was a disappointing one and the nets were empty. When Jesus approached the disappointed fishermen, they were doing their ‘day jobs’ - the endless task of cleaning and mending the nets. I’d like to have seen the look on Simon Peter’s face when Jesus had the audacity to get into his boat and ask to be taken out off shore so he could teach the crowd. Speaking of which . . . who was in that crowd? Fishermen? Or had others arrived? And if there were others, you can be certain the fishermen, all tired from a night at work, were not happy to see them. Especially since they had nothing to sell. Simon had every reason to say - this is not a floating pulpit! Get your own boat, Sir! It had been a bad night - remember? But, for some reason, Simon did as he was asked. And Jesus taught. But, apparently, for the gospel writer, what Jesus taught was not as important as what came next. (We don’t know what he said. We only know what he did.) Jesus, pushing his luck even further, told Simon to try again, to go out into the deep water again and to get his nets dirty again. Yes, Jesus the carpenter starts meddling in fishing, telling experienced career fishermen to try again. And, amazingly, again, Simon did it. This time, of course, his efforts were rewarded tenfold. And at this point - whether it was the harvest of fish or the crowd or the attraction of Jesus or divine inspiration or a combination of it all, Simon Peter, along with his partners James and John, realized that they had been caught themselves in a net they never saw coming. They left everything to follow the unlikely fishing expert and catch people just as they had once caught fish.
The Jesus movement had begun. And we sit here because they - and others - got caught and, in turn, caught others. Fundamentally, Christianity is a ‘catch-and-release’ project. We get caught by the love of God and released to share it. And, we share it best by following Jesus, doing what he did. Loving as he loved. At its most basic level - that is the task of the church. It is not to beat people over the head with threats of hell and damnation. Despite the claims of things like the Left Behind series, it is not to warn people about the end of the world. It is not to scare people into the net. It is not to judge. It is not to keep people in the net once we get them there. The job of the church is to catch people into the net of God’s love and release them to be instruments of love and grace in the world.
The fishing imagery is apt here. I think Jesus chose fishermen because he knew they would understand the nature of their task. Consider the task of fishing. When we go out to fish and don’t catch anything, we may complain about the fish or bemoan our bad luck, but we don’t send a fishing manual down the pole to explain to the fish how they really ought to be where it says they are supposed to be. We don’t blame the fish for our lack of success. Instead, we usually examine what we’re doing. Do we need to change places? Use different bait? Use different tension on the line? Fish in shallower water? Deeper water? At a different time of day? Different time of year? To be a good fisher-person, we need to listen to the fish. We need to change where we are and how we do things if we are to catch them. As people of faith, as a church, we need to do the same thing. IF we really believe we have a community that heals, a fellowship that matters, we’ll do the hard work of figuring out how to share it.
When I was in college, I was like most college students - looking to do something meaningful with my life. And I was attracted to religious life - the convent. In a sense, I was nibbling. I think what attracted me was the nuns I had met at school. They were happy women, centered, focused. They were dedicated. I didn’t know the details of their lives, but I wanted what they had, whatever gave them that spirit. And, once I ‘got in,’ I was welcomed. It mattered that I was there and it mattered what I thought. I remember sisters at different planning meetings, acknowledging that they had always done something a certain way. Then they would turn to me or my other young colleagues and ask - with some trepidation - what do you think? And they listened. Even invited us to take positions of leadership - not because it was ‘our turn’ but because they needed to try things a new way. I distinctly remember an issue as simple and basic as clothes. We were in our twenties and were accustomed to wearing jeans, earrings and some makeup. None of that fit their idea of ‘what nuns should wear.’ But, we talked about it and, in the end, were accepted - jeans and all. And some of those women, who had worn habits for close to 50 years, periodically asked us to help them choose clothes and hairstyles - because ‘things are changing’ you know. It took a lot more courage for them to consider those new ideas than it took for us to offer them. They had more to lose. They were settled and trained in a church and a world that was rapidly changing around them. They could have blamed us for our lack of commitment and faith - instead, they chose to risk engaging us and learning from us.
I admit it, I was hooked. I was caught by a genuineness of spirit and by their courage. I was caught by a group of women who not only wanted me to join them but who wanted to join me and together create something new. They caught me - and released me - for service. In the end - after 18 years with them - it led me here - which, of course was not the original plan but I would not be the person I am today had I not been caught by those holy women. Women who used warm bait, and caught me in a net - and then let me go.
During Lent, I am going to do something just a bit different this year. Rather than focusing on traditional Lenten themes, I am going to focus on what we need to do to be good fisherfolk in our corner of the kingdom of God. We have a wonderful church community here at St. Paul’s and we have much to offer. We are known in Helena as a community of people who do what we say we believe. We are known to be inclusive, welcoming, thoughtful, socially committed. Your Church Council and your lay leaders want to explore how we can do what we do even better. I personally believe this church can grow exponentially not because we need the people but because people need what we offer. Indeed, we all long to know we matter, that we are not alone, that we can make a difference. But, as solid as we are, we can do better and we can reach further. Our Staff Parish Relations Committee is already working on a plan to develop a ministry with young adults, hopefully getting to a place in the next 2 years that we can even hire a young adult pastor. So, I am inviting every person or family in the church to use a little book called Cultivating Fruitfulness during Lent. There are short reflections for each day and thought provoking questions. We invite you to engage them individually or as a family. Throughout Lent, on Sundays at 9:45, our lay leaders Phaedra Raymond and Greg Johnson will be leading a discussion on that week’s topic. The goal? To more deeply recognize how we have been caught by God’s love, in God’s net and how we can better share it.
When I was a little girl, we took a family vacation in northern Minnesota at a place called Leech Lake. It was a beautiful place and a good place to fish. It was known for great northern pike. Of course all of us kids - there were 5 of us - wanted to fish. But the bait of choice was the leech. Yes, the leech. My Dad spent that entire trip baiting hooks for all of us kids who wanted to fish but were scared to death of touching the leeches. With good reason - I might add. Dad got lessons, as I remember, from the bait shop in how to handle and bait them. What I remember most, though, was when we were out in the boat and Dad reached into the leech bucket, grabbing yet one more leech for someone’s hook. I know I always watched the baiting operation with some degree of distaste, even horror. (Leeches are downright ugly!) He pulled out this one leech that was much bigger than all the others, held it up and announced this leech is so big it’ll go down there and grab the first fish that swims by! I still carry an image of that leech - which, in my mind’s eye is about 6 inches long now - down in the water embracing a fish. Warm bait!
Long ago, by that Galilean lake, Jesus caught his first followers. He did it by joining in their lives - getting in their boat and by helping them get what they needed most. Fish, yes. And acceptance. A place to call home. Being part of a ministry that mattered. Jesus changed their lives - and they changed his. And, together, they reached others - it was a catch and release project. Always has been. I believe we too are invited to be part of a great fishing expedition - to live in such a way that our faith is catching. Our generosity, disarming, Our love, attracting. Our service, life changing. In the end, it will be our joy, our generosity, our love, our openness, our willingness to change that will catch others in God’s net and will release us all to be the community of faith and service we are called to be.
So . . .next week is Mardi Gras and jazz. And then...fishing lessons!!! What could be better??
