“Caught in the Net”

Today’s text is a favorite Bible story for many of us.  It’s such a muscular image, I think: Jesus walking along the Sea of Galilee, calling his first four disciples.  And they are all these regular guys, you know, these strong and rugged fishermen – Peter and his brother Andrew, throwing their net into the water; James and John mending nets in their boat.  We know by heart that call of Jesus, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”  And it works: they do it! “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.”

So far so good.  Most of us here today, if we are Christians, we can relate.  We consider ourselves disciples too – followers of Jesus.  We’re usually ready and willing to help, to lend a hand to Christ and his church.  If you don’t believe me, you clearly haven’t been here for the Yankee Fair.  You should have been here yesterday morning, when all these big, strong guys from Men’s Fellowship stepped up to help our staff move furniture from our flooded church offices into our new temporary offices in the Youth Room.  It was a beautiful sight – all these men really throwing their whole weight into the job, doing their part for Jesus.  There was a lot of joking around – I kept saying, “Thanks so much for your help, guys,” and they’d come back with, “Yeah, I guess I should’ve read my e-mail before I showed up at church today, huh? ”  Because most of them got kind of roped into it.  You know how it goes:  my husband cooked them a great breakfast – and as all fishermen know, delicious food makes the best bait.

But peer pressure is a powerful thing, when you get caught up in the net of a good community.  People who don’t “do” church can’t understand – why commit to anything on the weekend (whether a mission trip or a church work day or worship) when we could just lie on the couch?  Most of us have been wrapped up in church life for so long, we’ve forgotten what it’s like to roam the open seas in complete freedom.  But as my brother-in-law used to say, “If you want to learn to fish, you want to learn to think like a fish.”  Good fishermen know it’s important to see life from the fish’s perspective, if we want to catch one.  The truth is, fishing is hard work – since fish don’t want to be caught.  In fact, as we were watching Finding Nemo again recently, I was reminded of how very much fish like not getting caught!  That’s pretty much the whole story of that movie – fish trying not to get caught, or if caught, trying to escape. Like us, fish are not too keen on surrendering their freedom.  No one likes to get trapped. 

I remember when I first moved to San Francisco and was doing some church shopping, as we say.  One of the first places I visited was a nearby Baptist Church, because as many of you know, my dad’s family was all Baptist, so it was familiar – the worship made me feel at home.  But the people there greeted me like fresh meat out of the chum bucket.  They circled around to welcome me in a way that gave me the “willies” – this one family actually got me into the pew in between the mom and the dad, with all their 5 kids between me and the fire exits.  Needless to say, I never went back. 

But there are worse things for a fish than to be caught like Nemo in a tank in a dentist’s office, right?  We laugh when we watch him and his friends plot to escape, because we know how ridiculous it is for a fish to think it can live free if it can just leap out of its aquarium – I remember when one of Lela’s fish jumped out of the tank into her bed.  It may have looked like freedom to the fish, but aside from the lack of breathable water in that new location… let’s just say, that’s where the cat likes to sleep.  That little fish did not thrive in its new freedom.  Same with me – I was alone, and lonely, in a big city 3,000 miles from home.  I knew some nice people at work, but no real close friends.  My neighbors were not unfriendly, but a 5-story urban apartment building is no community.  And acting school was full of sharks – you don’t have to read People magazine to know the entertainment industry is a fish-eat-fish world.

This metaphor Jesus uses, of people being caught in a net, makes a lot more sense when you think of how safe, pampered a protected aquarium fish are, compared to those who try to survive alone out in the open ocean.  Wild fish at least, most of them, have the instinct to school together for protection.  But for those who get caught, if they can trust the one who cares for them, who feeds them, they could be pretty happy in a nice tank.  I loved the initiation scene in Nemo – the swimming challenge he faces, passing through Mount Hawkalugie, becoming a part of the club.  Yes, there are trials when we have to learn to get along with others, but there’s so much more that we stand to gain – in companionship, even self-mastery, when we learn to put our gifts and skills to their best use to help a supportive community.  We even sometimes find we had more to give than we thought – especially at those times we’re moved to sacrifice to help others, like when the older fish jumps out of the tank to save Nemo.  Who would have thought a fish could illustrate that great quote from Jesus in John chapter 15: “greater love has no one than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friend”?

So if you want to learn to be a more welcoming church, and maybe do a little fishing for Jesus, it probably would help to go back and ask yourself: Why did I allow myself to get caught up in the net of Christ and the covenant of His church?  And what have I gained or learned since I did?  I kind of hate to raise these questions – I mean, I don’t want half of you to wake up and say, “Yeah!  Why?” and walk out on me!  But I think it’s important we ask why we’re so happy to be caught up in the life of our church – if we want to have any hope of understanding “the ones who got away,” our friends or family or neighbors who will do just about anything to NOT get caught up in anything to do with religion.  We have to remember we’re not about tricking people into buying time shares in heaven; it’s not a decision they’re going to regret.  But most of all, I think, we’re about making connections, bringing people into the net of Christ’s loving family.

For me, what made all the difference back then in San Francisco was finding a church that had a small group for me – a young adult group that was full of singles my own age who were eager to make new friends, to learn more about our faith, and to serve the world in Christ’s name.  Back then, in the 1980s, we were all watching the TV show “Cheers” – the name of the Boston bar “where everybody knows your name” – but church was the place that made me realize how important it is to have a small group that not only knows your name, but loves you enough to help you when you need it.  So many of our group were in transition, sometimes it felt like we were always helping someone in our group with a yard sale, or moving a heavy glass coffee table up a 4^th floor walk-up.  We used to joke, and maybe it sounds sacrilegious to you, “Jesus loves me, this I know – but he never helped me move a sleeper sofa.”  We were not a cult, but we had been caught up in the net of Christ’s community together.  The vows we made when we entered into church covenant, we took seriously.  It connected us with other Christians throughout time and around the world.

I want to close with one small story about that: one of my friends in that group, Kim, was from Korea.  And when she moved away, I helped.  In fact, I bought her antique dresser at the church fair.  That dresser took me through the first 20 years of my marriage, the first 13 years of being a mom.  By the time it moved across country with me to Connecticut, the finish was shot.  Between spilled milk and a little glitter and glue, we decided to donate it to our first Yankee Fair, so that it might still be of some use to someone – and make the church a little money in the bargain.  So a couple of you, I’m sure, picked it up and moved it from our van into the parsonage, where it was sold.  Talk about your world missions! 

It’s hard to find the words, sometimes, to share the very great joy it is to live and work and worship with people we love.  But it’s a powerful thing that moment we stand up front in this meetinghouse and enter into a formal covenant, to make promises before God and witnesses to love and sustain one another, for better or for worse.  We mean what we say here – we put covenant into action, even if it means moving a sleeper sofa together.  We are caught in the net of Christ, and I for one, couldn’t be happier about where I am.  The truth is, we are better and stronger when we have each other – when we let the loving arms of Jesus bless us and keep us and hold us close.

Thanks be to God for this Good News. Amen.

 

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Matthew 4:12-23

12Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. 13He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, 14so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: 15“Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16the 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.” 17From that time Jesus began to proclaim, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

18As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. 19And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” 20Immediately they left their nets and followed him. 21As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. 22Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

23Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.