Scripture Text:
Sermon:
The reports are written, the copies are made, the nominees are ready- it’s time for our annual meeting today. We’re going to get together in Waterman Hall to talk about the past year, and think a bit about the year to come. My hope and prayer is that what we do, both at this meeting and throughout the year to come, will bear some resemblance to what we hear about in this morning’s Gospel.
It’s a story you might be pretty familiar with- the calling of the first Disciples. The centerpiece of the story is Jesus’ actual call itself- the thing he says when he finds Simon and Andrew casting their nets. “Follow me,” he says, “and I will make you fish for people.” You may have grown up hearing an older version of this- “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” I think that’s a better translation- not the use of “men” instead of “people,” but the word “fishers.”
If you know I’m a vegetarian, it probably won’t surprise you to find out that I’m not really much for fishing. When it comes to outdoor activities, I like to take a hike in the woods or up to the top of a mountain. I like to do some tent camping. I will gladly go canoeing or sledding. If I can bring my camera, all the better. But fishing- not so much. Just not my cup of tea. But I have been fishing- twice. Once while staying at a friend’s cabin in the mountains, and once while I was at summer camp.
But there’s fishing, and there’s being a fisher. Sure, I’ve fished. But am I a fisher? No. Not by a long shot. So to say “I will make you fishers” is quite different from saying “I will make you fish.”
Jesus is calling Simon and Andrew and James and John to be fishers of people- to be people who go out into the world and bring people in- to be the ones who bring them to Jesus to hear the good news. And while most of us think of that in terms of action- of stuff they are supposed to do, what this text says is not that they will DO SOMETHING but that they will BE SOMETHING. They will be fishers.
At our meeting today we’re going to spend a lot of time talking about doing. What we have done in the past, what we are doing right now, what we are doing in the future. We’re also used to talking about church in terms of “doing.” We talk about “going” to church. We talk about praying, worshiping, studying, reading, proclaiming, loving, reconciling. But for more and more Christians and for more and more congregations, the operative question is not one of doing or “going to” church, but of “being church.” Not of “fishing,” but of “being fishers.”
One preacher talks about Jesus calling the disciples to “fish for people,” and they say, “Right, Jesus, fish for people. We can do that every fourth Monday- can you all do that every fourth Monday?” The Christian life, the life of the Church, is not only about tasks- it is about being. It is about who and what we are. About who and what we are becoming. Being fishers of people is a new identity- it is a new thing to be.
For individuals and for congregations- growth in the Christian life cannot just be about doing more tasks and having more programs. It cannot be something we can schedule for x number of times a month, on certain days, and file away to do at certain times. What Jesus calls us to is a not an activity but a whole new life.
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This story comes to us from the Gospel according to Mark- the Gospel we’re reading most Sundays for the rest of this year. Mark’s Gospel doesn’t mess around- there’s not a lot of detail, and not a lot of sitting around waiting for things to happen. Mark’s favorite word is “immediately.” And sure enough, there are two “immediatelys” in today’s story- Immediately he called them. Immediately they left their nets.
Mark’s Gospel is urgent. Things have to happen. And even without the word immediately, there is an urgency to this story- it starts because Jesus is raring to go. “The time is fulfilled,” he says, “and the kingdom of God has come near.” This too has something to say to us as we get ready for our annual meeting.
It’s tempting, when we make plans, when we sketch out our calendars for the coming week or month or year, when we set goals for ourselves and for our congregation, to think that once we have acted on all our plans, all our goals achieved, our quotas met, our achievements racked up, that then we will be the people we should be. And once we have perfected ourselves, once we have made Saint Peter’s the congregation where everything is done right, then we will really be able to proclaim the gospel, then we will really be fishers of people, then we will really be able to do what we should be doing.
But the time is fulfilled- now. The kingdom of God has come near- already. There is nothing we have to do before we get started. There is nothing coming down the line that unleashes our ability to be the people of God. Because we already are. We don’t have to wait to start being fishers. We’ve been fishers for years- decades. We are already called by Jesus, we are already sealed by the Holy Spirit, we are already seeing his kingdom appearing among us.
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We’ve gathered, as we do every Sunday to receive the bread of life in the Eucharist- the Body of Christ. But when we come together to break this bread and share it in remembrance of Jesus, we also become the Body of Christ- as our prayers say, “that we may be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us, and we in him.” “that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son.” One priest I know holds up the bread and wine, and instead of saying, “the gifts of God for the people of God,” he says, “Be what you see- receive who you are.” The first time I heard it I thought, “where did he get that?” I asked- he said, it’s Saint Augustine. It’s jarring at first- but it’s a word of comfort to the church in the midst of our most sacred act. What we need is what we see- and it is also what we are. There is nothing more that we need. We have it. It is Jesus Christ and his kingdom- the time is fulfilled. The kingdom is near. We are the church. The time is now.