Luke 5:1-11
Forty years before Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue, Pope Nicholas V sent out an
official papal document called Romanus Pontifex. That document served as a basis for what’s
commonly called the Doctrine of Discovery.
The Doctrine of Discovery said that basically whatever Christians “discover” in worldly travels
they can claim as their own and use for their own purpose.
And usually discovery meant the discovery of a place uninhabited by white people. Most of
the places were inhabited by indigenous people – our own Native Americans, the Australian
aborigines and Africans and Asians in far flung parts of the globe.
Now, I’ll say this up front. Many Christian missionaries over the centuries have done amazing
life-giving work. But all too often, the Doctrine of Discovery was used as justification for
forced conversions, not only to Christianity, but to the values of whatever Western Empire
sent them.
We don’t need to look any further than our own native peoples to see the tragic outcome of
the Doctrine of Discovery.
This is not what Jesus had in mind when he called the disciples to fish for people.
Missionaries, at least in our tradition, don’t function that way anymore at least not, overtly.
But the temptation to think our way is better than any other is immensely strong. It leads to
things like buying washers and dryers for a Tanzanian hospital that doesn’t have reliable
enough electricity to use them.
Even at home, for some Christians, answering the call to become “fishers of people” means
getting people to believe exactly as they do. They are tireless in trying to convince people that
their brand of Christianity has the only correct teaching.
It’s often astounding how narrow that view of correct teaching can be. For some, it seems the
only thing that makes someone a Christian is their position on a couple hot button social or
political issues. On either end of the spectrum.
Fishing for people – evangelizing - then becomes trying to convert people to your own way of
thinking on every issue.
That’s also not what Jesus had in mind here.
So what does Jesus mean by fishing for people?
Well, maybe we should look at the fish.
Simon Peter and the little band of fishermen had been working all night, casting their nets,
trying desperately to fill those nets with fish. But that night, it had been futile work. Tired and
discouraged, they were washing the nets and calling it a night.
Then Jesus showed up. He sat out on a boat on the lake. He shared his message of God’s love
and the coming reign of God. And when the disciples put their nets back in, the fish flocked to
them.
Now, I’m not saying that the fish heard Jesus and came swimming because well they’re fish.
But I do think the story gives us an image for how this business of fishing for people ought to
work.
In spite of all their best fishing practice, that night Simon and his colleagues came up empty.
Then Jesus showed up. Now, they barely had to work and the fish swam into their nets in
droves.
Fishing for people is about attraction, not coercion.
Jesus calls all of us, just as he called these first disciples. Like the fishermen, some he calls to
leave what they’re doing and become pastors or deacons or missionaries. But for most of you,
that call will mean fishing for people in your everyday lives…at work…at school…in your
families…in your organizations…at political rallies.
In all those places and activities, we are called to fish for people.
But we won’t catch people by the forcefulness of our arguments. We won’t catch people
because they are drawn to our purity or our ability to get religion or even worship exactly
right.
We don’t catch people with threats of hellfire and damnation. In fact, given our religion’s
history with trying to catch people, I’d probably opt to not even use the word catch.
Like those fish that were drawn to Simon’s net, we want people to be drawn to this amazing
good news.
And that happens when people see Jesus in us and in our lives. Fishing for people means
mirroring Jesus to them. Jesus takes it from there.
But in order to mirror Jesus to others, you need to be able to see Jesus showing up for you.
You need to experience that same attraction that people did when Jesus walked the earth. You
need to experience Jesus as a friend, a teacher, someone you can trust when things get tough.
I hope that you experience that at worship…that in the scripture readings and the sermon and
the liturgy, you encounter Jesus…that your trust in Jesus builds.
Before Jesus called you, Jesus showed up at the lake for you. Like the disciples and their catch
of fish, Jesus showered you with a blessing of love.
The irony, is that like Simon Peter, sometimes our first response to that amazing good news
and the amazing things Jesus has done for us, is to recognize our brokenness. To recognize
that we need Jesus. Simon Peter got scared. Oh Jesus, leave now. I’m a tainted man. I don’t
deserve this blessing.
But Jesus doesn’t leave. Jesus sees the brokenness and the sinfulness and says “you’re exactly
who I need.”
Jesus shows up for us here every Sunday. Some Sundays we can hear it. Others we are so
distracted we can’t.
If you struggle to see Jesus showing up for you, then maybe a space needs to be cleared out
for that to happen.
Often, the best way to create that space is with silence. Lately in own my devotions, I’ve been
reading stuff from Father Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest. He is a contemplative and believes
that contemplative prayer is the key for us to be the kind of Christian Jesus calls us to be.
Contemplative prayer is about clearing out some of the distractions and cacophony of our lives
so that we can experience God…so we can see Jesus, there for us. When we can do that, even
for a little while, the ideas is that we can be better able to mirror Jesus to the people in our
lives.
Father Rohr is not the only one who holds this view. The witness of dozens of mystics and
contemplatives over the centuries says the same thing. So I have decided to trust this.
So each morning I spend at least 10 minutes in a form of contemplative prayer…a time of
silence to clear distractions and noise. So practicing contemplative prayer as close to daily as
possible is one of my goals for this new year.
I’m clearly a newbie. Distractions repeatedly crash in and I repeatedly have to gently let them
go – I imagine them on a river floating away or drifting to God’s hands.
During the prayer time, I usually don’t notice any profound feeling of God’s presence. But
often, the rest of the day I feel more connected to God.
I’m less likely to get overwhelmed by things in my life and on the world stage…and better able
to hear what Jesus really is calling me to do. I can more clearly see Jesus standing by the
lake…showing up for me.
Prayer and action go together – prayer feeds your actions and way of living. That deep
contemplative connection to God will change how you live and act. But some people find they
need to act first. Then their actions spur a desire for a deeper connection to God.
Encountering Jesus in our prayer leads to action. It leads us to fish for people…to seek out the
hurting, the lonely, the poor, the despairing. It leads us to show how Jesus shows up for us.
And then the struggles of mirroring Jesus to a hurting world lead us straight back to prayer,
where Jesus meets us again to fill us up, like he filled the boats of those fishermen.
Rather than saying anything more about it, let’s practice together. Obviously we’re limited by
time. My goal at home to start was 10 minutes – I hope to work up to 20 minutes. We’ll just
do a couple minutes here.
THE GUIDELINES 1. CHOOSE A SACRED WORD AS THE SYMBOL OF YOUR INTENTION TO
CONSENT TO GOD’S PRESENCE AND ACTION WITHIN.
2. SITTING COMFORTABLY AND WITH EYES CLOSED, SETTLE BRIEFLY, AND SILENTLY
INTRODUCE THE SACRED WORD AS THE SYMBOL OF YOUR CONSENT TO GOD’S PRESENCE AND
ACTION WITHIN.
3. WHEN YOU BECOME AWARE OF THOUGHTS, RETURN EVER-SO-GENTLY TO THE SACRED
WORD.
4. AT THE END OF THE PRAYER PERIOD, REMAIN IN SILENCE WITH EYES CLOSED FOR A COUPLE
OF MINUTES.
Try it this week. Try five or ten minutes each morning. Jesus promises to show up for you in
the quiet space in your heart. And he promises to show up for you all day long, no matter
what the week throws at you.