May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
When I was but a wee lad, there was a TV show Saturday evenings after the 6:00 Eyewitness News on KCMO TV5[1] called “The Sportman’s Friend.” It starred Harold Ensley, a 1994 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. I can still remember the theme song, “Gone fishin’, instead, of just, a wishin’.” I even remember once seeing his station wagon leaving a parking lot with the show logo on the side of the front door. It may not seem like much now, but in the day there were a lot more station wagons and very few with company logos on the door panel.
This week I dropped a note on facebook to a friend named Brian Hochevar. When I worked at the college in
Since Brian doesn’t have a facebook account I asked his wife Carmen if she would ask her husband, whom we affectionately call “Hoch,” for permission to use this story. She replied, “I [asked] Hoch and he said go for it. Haha, the better fishing story is when Hoch went fishing with his buddy Tom Pilkington. When Hoch cast his line the lure got stuck in the back of Tom’s head. Oh well, another sermon for that.” The first thought that came while I was still chuckling was, “No, that’ll work in this sermon too.”
About twenty years ago while channel surfing I lit upon the Jimmy Houston fishing show on TV and he was answering viewer mail. Someone wrote in and asked, “I’ve been fishin’ for a long time and I love your show but there’s one thing I can’t figure out and it bugs me, how do you boys bring in so many fish in thirty minutes?” Jimmy then spent about thirty seconds explaining the editing process and how the waiting time is greatly reduced by it for entertainment purposes.[2]
Here in the lake area of
One of my favorites is “Don Berry’s Fishin’ Radio Show” which is produced in Springfield, Missouri within easy range of Table Rock Lake, Lake Tanneycomo, Truman Lake and of course the Lake of the Ozarks.
“Don Berry’s Fishin’ Radio Show” brings information about equipment and where it works best. He talks about all the best of tournament action along with recent controversies in tournament fishing. Yes, people cheat at fishing. Big prize money will make people do all sorts of things. He will talk to callers about what’s biting where and on what. Don Berry even once did a show on changing fishing laws in
By the way, if you know what I mean by that you’re either a lawyer, real estate agent, or the holder of a
Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been arrested and went from
Jesus came from the west side of the mountains by the
Sure, he would know as much about fishing as any other carpenter, but what’s that worth to a fisherman? They were all working men, but with different trades they would have been as different as water and wood. And everyone at the sea would have known it. Still, if Jesus had meant to talk only to the folks he knew, scripture would tell of him being at the mill. We would have stories about Jesus and the sawyers, not the fishermen.
Jesus came to the sea to put some distance between him and the arrest of John, but his arrival meant so much more.
Scripture tells us that Peter and Andrew were throwing small circular nets into the sea; nets that could be cast from the side of the boat and pulled back by a single man. Why? Because they were fishermen, that’s what they do. So Jesus says to them, come and I will make you (literally) fishermen of men. Honestly though, you gotta love the way most English translations say “fishers of men.” There’s a poetry that honestly is missing from my ear in the original manuscripts.
Still there must have been something in the word that caught Peter and Andrew’s then James and John’s attention. Something that made them leave everything they had behind and go with him. Jesus must have had some charisma; then again, charisma is just the Greek word for gift. The gift of the Holy Spirit must have still been mightily upon him because these men responded leaving everything, including family, behind them.
Matthew’s gospel also makes it clear; this is the moment that Jesus actively enters into ministry. It is this moment that Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” There is no more important proclamation than the Word spoken by the Word. This is what Jesus began to preach.
While most translations use the words “to preach,” I prefer the New Revised Standard Version’s use of the words “to proclaim” instead. According to scholars, it is more accurate, more proper, more correct to use “proclaim” over “preach.”[3] Of course outside of academic circles that and a quarter will get you thrown out of a diner if you try to get a cup of coffee.
But something did get lost in the translation; there is a nuance to the word that gets lost. In the ancient manuscripts, when the verb we translate “to preach” or “to proclaim” is used, we often look at the one who makes the proclamation, the preacher if you will. We tend to consider the one who brings the message.
Instead it is better for us to think of proclamation the way it was handled in the Old Testament. The Old Testament emphasized the importance of the proclamation and the act of making the proclamation, more than the one who makes it.[4] Though there was an emphasis on the Law that takes a different role in the light of the grace of Christ. Something else that is important according to scholars is the concept that the Word, the proclamation comes from a deity and not the person making the proclamation.[5]
So when we look at Jesus beginning to preach, we have once again entered the arena where Jesus is Lord and Jesus is the Word. He is God and the Word of God. So in the most humanly mixed up bit of rhetoric ever spoken, in the case of the words Jesus proclaimed, in this one instance the proclamation is exactly as important as the one making it because they are one and the same.
Kind of confusing, isn’t it, let me try this again: In ordinary life, the proclamation is more important than the one who makes it, especially when the proclamation comes from God, but when the Word of God is brought from God who is the Word, they’re identical.
Still the people who make the proclamation, especially those who proclaim the word of God, are not insignificant. On top of that, those who receive the Word of God are not insignificant either. It has been said, “The message imparted from God is God’s Word and should not only be delivered with its authority, but it must be received as authoritative. The authority of the Word comes from its source, not within a logical context desired by the Greeks or a legal structure desired by the Jews.”[6]
The point of the matter is this, when Jesus says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near” he comes as the truth speaking the truth. And when he says the kingdom has come near, he tells everyone in a way that shows that what he says today will ring like a bell far, far into the future. When we share that same word with one another, we must also know that what the Lord says today will touch lives tomorrow and forevermore.
We are called today by Jesus. We still hear the clarion call, “Come, follow me.” It is up to us to do as Jesus did and make the word apply to the lives of those who receive it. Jesus intentionally used a fishing metaphor to call fishermen to the good news. If he had gone to shepherds of young goats, he probably would have called them to come with the vocational call of the Youth Minister and be “shepherds of kids.”
Sorry, it’s a pretty bad joke and it probably wouldn’t have translated well from Greek or Aramaic, but it does get to the point, when we share the gospel and with others, we must speak to people with what they know. You won’t be an expert in someone else’s arena, but we can still be like carpenters talking to fishermen. So let’s look at the fishing metaphor and see how it is still useful even for us even today.
When sharing the gospel, we gotta know where the fish are biting. We gotta go where the people are. You can’t share the gospel sitting at home. As much as my internet ministry is blossoming, most of my vocation doesn’t happen at the keyboard. Who needs to hear the gospel? Is it a client? Is it a customer? Is it a supplier? Is it a coworker? Can you start the conversation over lunch? Are you where people are? To use the illustrations from the beginning of this sermon, it’s important when sharing the gospel to know where the fish are biting.
You gotta know what kind of bait you’re hanging off the line because some baits work better than others in different waters. You don’t use a minnow when hunting game fish in the gulf. You don’t use a worm when trolling for trout on the lake. You don’t use hotdog fly fishing on the great mountain streams.
Still, sometimes you end up like the guy in the movie “A River Runs through It” who brings a can of worms to a fly fishing stream. Sometimes you end up snagging your lure in your buddy’s head. Sometimes you sit in the boat for hours and there’s nothing to edit out because there’s nothing but waiting. Sometimes the fishing is hard, but the work is always good. Even on the days when the fishing is bad there’s something the fisher of men can learn.
Yes, no matter how much I like Don Berry’s Fishin’ Radio Show when fishing the lakes of the ArkLaTex[7] it’s best to listen to the East Texas Sports report because even between freshwater lakes and streams, the fishing is different in different waters. The same with the gospel, some stories—some metaphors work better in some places than others.
Finally, know your equipment. Know the boat, know the rod and reel. Know scripture, know the Christ. Know your flies and your lures and your spinners and spooners and even your hotdogs.
And remember, it’s always best to fish with a friend. Jesus sent out the disciples in twos and there is no reason we shouldn’t go out the same way. As we confessed this morning, if we claim to possess the light but hide it under a bushel, of what use it such wisdom to the world? So go, because even if we are not the Word Incarnate, we carry the word. We have the best bait in the world, but it doesn’t mean much when we keep the tackle box in the garage.
[1] Now KCTV 5
[2] Seriously, this happened. Now I don’t know if the writer was serious or just pulling everyone’s leg, but the show responded to the letter and explained why they edit.
[3] Kittel, Gerhard. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Vol. 3.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Ibid.698, 699
[6] Ibid. 712. The quote comes from an unpublished paper called “Preaching and the Confessions” for the Rev. Dr. Ellen Babinsky’s “Theology of the Reformed Confessions” course at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.
[7] ArkLaTex is a portmanteau for Arkansas-Louisiana-Texas
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