Reverse Fishing

Matthew 4:12-23

If any of you who own computers are like me, you probably receive a handful of forwarded e-mails every day.  They come from friends, family and co-workers, and their content runs the gamut from the ridiculous to the sublime.  Some folks love to forward touching and uplifting messages that talk about how much we are loved, (and weirdly enough also frequently contain some veiled threat at the end about how something bad will happen to us if we don’t forward the message to at least 10 people.)  Some contain warnings and alerts about missing children and computer viruses, most of which, when properly researched, turn out to be hoaxes. And some are just plain goofy.  Just plain goofy would the category into which I would file the following video that was forwarded to me by my friend Chris that was simply titled, “This is how we catch fish.”

There’s no doubt that that video demonstrates a number of things.  First of all, it demonstrates that those two guys have some big strong arms.  Secondly, it demonstrates, at least to me, that they have way too much time on their hands.  And thirdly, that crazy video demonstrates the fact that there is more than one way to catch a fish.

But believe it or not, there is an even stranger way to go fishing than this.  And it is described by Jesus in the scripture passage that we read together just a couple of moments ago.  Much like last week’s passage which described Jesus going out and recruiting his disciples one by one, by one, this morning’s story from the 4th chapter of Matthew’s gospel tells of Jesus inviting Peter, Andrew, James and John to join his tiny band of apostles with the words, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”

Have you ever stopped to think about how strange those words must have sounded to these ancient men?  Men who like their fathers, their father’s fathers, and their father’s father’s fathers before them had made their living by pulling fish from the sea in nets?  Fishers of men?“What in the world,” they must have thought, “does he mean by that?”  Yet, despite the almost certain uncertainty that they must have experienced, they put down their nets used for fishing for fish, and followed after Jesus to fish for men, for people.  It’s clear that they understood it to be something of the utmost importance.  And it’s something that I like to refer to as “reverse fishing.”

But before we can get into the techniques and deeper realities, there is a mental bridge that first must be crossed, a state of mind that must be achieved before one can even consider going reverse fishing with Jesus. And here it is, fishing for people, or reverse fishing, requires that we first acquire a kind of reverse thinking that prepares us for the task at hand.   This is what Matthew meant when he referred to the passage from the prophet Isaiah which reads, “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.”  Vs. 16

As powerful and reality changing as turning on the light in the room where one had previously been sitting in total darkness, fishing for people requires one to see the world in an entirely new way.  This is also what Jesus was driving at when he said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  Vs. 17This word repent, actually means to turn away from, or to turn toward.  It is the equivalent of telling someone who is walking due east, to turn around and head due west.  It indicates a complete change of attitude and priority, and total alteration of the way that one sees and experiences the world.

It is perhaps best described in the Bible by the story of the apostle Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, where Paul’s encounter with Jesus turned him from the deadliest enemy to the greatest ally that the Christian Church has ever known.  This is the sort of repenting that Jesus says is required of anyone who wants to go fishing with him.  And it is indicated by a total transformation from one being self-focused to being completely God centered.  

You see,it’s not a coincidence that this story in Matthew’s gospel falls directly between Jesus’ wilderness temptation and the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus’invitation to his fellow travelers comes out of the desert where he’s spent 40 days and 40 nights fasting, denying himself food and water, and also denying the devil and every earthly temptation that one could possibly imagine.  At the end of his time in the wilderness, it was clear to Jesus that his ministry, and the life of those who would choose to follow him would be marked by a profound degree of self-denial, and a complete focus on the will of God.  As Jesus said to his heavenly Father about 3 years later on the night before he gave his very life for the cause, “Not my will, but thine be done.”

And then immediately after recruiting these disciples in our story this morning, Jesus went on to preach the Sermon on the Mount.  Sort of like Hillary, andObama without the bickering, Jesus set out to describe to his followers what could be expected by anyone who would choose follow him, to fish for men, to live in his world.  In that sermon he said things like, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Blessed are those who mourn.  Blessed are the meek.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Blessed are the merciful.  Blessed are the pure in heart.  Blessed are the peacemakers.”  And, “Blessed are those who are persecuted.”   Can you imagine how many votes Obama and Hillary would get with a stump speech like that?  But you see, that’s what Jesus is talking about when he says to his fishing companions, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

You see, everything around us, common sense, popular culture and presidential candidates alike, everything that we see and hear in the course of our everyday lives is trying to convince us that “having it your way” is equivalent to finding happiness.   Well, everyone except Jesus that is, for he said, “Repent” turn around, see and do things in a new way, because the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.  There is another reality, a new world, a different way of living right here, and right now, and it is only experienced by those who truly and completely understand the truth and the power of the phrase, “It is better to give than to receive.”

And once we have wrapped our brains around that reality then we are ready to get down to the real business of reverse fishing for people with Jesus.  And the first thing that we discover about Jesus brand of fishing for people that distinguishes it from fishing for fish is that reverse fishing brings life.  When we think of fishing, whether it is done with a net, a line and a hook, or a fist shoved through the mouth and gills of a 50 pound catfish, what we generally have in mind is the pulling of a fish out of the water and the placing of that fish into a boat, or a creel, or an ice chest…..and eventually onto our dinner plate.  What we are talking about here is the death of the fish.

But as I said, fishing with Jesus is reverse fishing.  Instead of pulling them out of a life giving environment and tossing them into their death.  Reverse fishing, or Fishing for men as Jesus calls it, pulls people out of the environment that is killing them, and places them safely in the kingdom of God where they will experience life and life more abundant. 
This is done by feeding the hungry and clothing the needy.  It is done by healing the sick and giving shelter to the homeless.  It is done by giving hope to the hopeless and love to the loveless.  It is done by sharing the good news that “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”It is shining the light of Christ’s love in any and every way on each person and every need great and small until the light of Christ, erases the darkness of the world to the very ends of the earth.

And this is our calling as individuals, and as a church.  Once we see the light, once we repent and join in the kingdom of heaven, to begin reverse fishing with Jesus.  We are called to begin pulling others out of the waters of ordinary life where they are drowning, and into the boat of the kingdom of heaven where they will experience life like they’ve never known it before.

And we don’t do this alone, or by our own power.  But we do this with and through Jesus who said “Follow me and I will MAKE YOU fishers of men.”It is God who gives us the power and the insight and the faith, and the strength for this kind of fishing.  It is following Jesus and trying to be like Christ that enables us to be transformed day by day and hour by hour and minute by minute, as we feel the love and grace of Christ growing within us; our love for and awareness of the needs of others gnawing at our hearts, as our passion for reverse fishing increases by the moment.  And very soon we will begin to notice that the boat in which we are sailing is becoming joyously crowded as more and more and more people are pulled out of the water and into the light.  And before we know it, we find that we are living in a true heaven on earth were everyone around us is turning around to follow Christ in this Holy pursuit of reverse fishing.

And it is so important that we both hear and understand this message this morning as we prepare to gather for the annual meeting of our congregation, because the water around us has never been deeper, and the number of people who need to be plucked from it’s depths has never been greater.  So may God bless and strengthen us as we go reverse fishing with Jesus.
Amen.