January 27, 2002
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
There’s a story about a man watching another man fish. The fisherman catches dozens of large fish and throws them all back. Then the observer gets more intrigued. He sees the fisherman is also catching dozens of small fish. But he keeps all of the little ones. Finally the observer can’t hold his peace any longer. He yells to the man in the boat from the shore. “Why are you throwing all the big fish away and keeping all the little ones?” The fisherman picks up a small frying pan from the bottom of his boat and waves it at the observer.
At Uncle’s Café, like most Chinese restaurants in town, they have a fish tank. You don’t really want to be seated at the table near the tank. When the woman nets the fish, sometimes the water splashes on your back. But here you can order a “steamed fish for 2.” You can be sure that the fish is fresh because you want the one that’s still swimming. They would steam it for the two of us. Just enough fish for two people to finish off. And as the Chinese would say, “Fish doesn’t taste as good the next day.”
For most of us, we wouldn’t know what to do with a big fish. A big fish won’t fit in our steamed fish pan. A big fish would be too much to eat.
Fisher of Men & Women
Today’s passage from Matthew tells about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in Capernaum by the sea. Capernaum was an important fishing and trading center on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, about a few miles from the sea’s entrance to the Jordan River. There was good fishing here.
But Jesus was not out fishing for trout or salmon or flounder. He saw that in the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, in Galilee, there were people called the Gentiles. Mixed in with the trout, the Chilean sea bass, and salmon, were catfish! The Gentiles were people who sat in darkness and in the region of the shadow of death. These Gentile people were bottom sea crawlers, deep in the sea where no light has traveled down before.
As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon Peter and his brother, Andrew casting their nets into the sea. When Jesus said, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for men,” they immediately left the fishing nets and followed him. Then he saw two other brothers, James and John who were in their boat with their father mending their nets. And again when Jesus called them, they got out of their boat, left their father to finish the work, and followed after Jesus.
Jesus went fishing and caught Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John. He caught other disciples too—men and women to follow him. By his own fishing techniques, he taught his disciple fishermen how to fish for people.
Dropping Our Nets
I have always wondered how the disciples were so quickly ready to drop their nets to follow Jesus. Didn’t Simon Peter and Andrew have to at least gather up their nets, stuffed them back in their duffel bags and leave them someplace where it’s safe in case they have to fish for a living again? And how about James and John? They didn’t just leave their nets, they left their father, Zebedee holding the nets! “Father, you understand, don’t you? We have to go and play “follow the leader”.”
For most of us, dropping our nets to follow Jesus is too hard to do. Jesus is asking us to drop our need before we know in advance on just how our journey of faith is going to pay off. We want to store away the fishing nets just in case we might need them again. And if we do take off, we want to know beforehand if the next fishing hole is as good as the old one.
Before Jesus began calling the fishermen to follow, he started preaching. He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” In our current use, we have some reservations about the word, “repent.” We tend to associate the word with a religious fanatic standing on a soapbox screaming about Jesus’ Second Coming.
But the word, “repent” can have an impact on our lives today. Repent means to turn oneself from one direction to another. It’s making a 180 degrees turnabout. It means changing not only one’s values and religious sensibilities but also one’s entire sense of identity. You get to have a new name. It means that with this new identity, both new relationships are formed and the existing relationships are restored to their rightful condition. You have new friends.
We would like to believe that the fishermen were able to drop their nets and climb out of their boat to follow Jesus after they first heard Jesus preaching. We like to think that because they first heard, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” they were able to follow Jesus. Only then would their lives turned from being fishermen of fish to being fishermen of people.
But it is also possible that the disciples acted first before they believed. When Jesus came along, they heard his calling and immediately, they stopped what they were doing and followed him. Whether they knew it or not, their outward behavior led to an inward change. By leaving their nets and their boat to follow Jesus, they were able to see Jesus. Having faith always involves some kind of movement, even if it is leaving something of oneself behind. Sometimes we are so easily caught up in thinking about whether we should or shouldn’t follow Jesus that we never end up doing. We never end up following Christ.
For some like James and John, it may mean leaving work and family to follow Jesus. But for others like father Zebedee, it may mean staying home to mend the nets.
But for those who are called to follow and leave, we need to step out in faith before we can envision precisely where Jesus is taking us. And when we do—by repenting for our sins and turning from one direction to another, we have a new identity. We have new relationships.
The disciples got new identities with new relationships. Now they are to relate with Jesus as their Teacher. It’s not Simon Peter and Andrew here with their nets. Or it’s not James and John over there in their boat. But it’s a new relationship with Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John together with each other and with Jesus.
My decision to come and serve as your pastor was like this. If I waited to know what to expect would be my work here, I probably wouldn’t have come. Having faith is to begin doing what you feel is God’s calling and not worrying about what it all means. Faith is being open to God’s guidance; being willing to leave that which must be left; being willing to stay and reorder that which must be reordered. And in the end, we discover that we are not fishing for fish anymore but fishing for people.
At the American Baptist Assembly in Wisconsin, there’s a huge lake called “Green Lake.” This time of the year, the entire lake is frozen over. Rather than paddle boats and sailing boats on the water in the summer, you would now see little huts all over the frozen lake. The fishermen are ice fishing for walleyes. I was told that almost every year around the time when winter was turning into spring, a four by four and a little hut would crash through the ice and sink into the deep lake.
This may sound sad or stupid but there’s a lesson here. If the fishermen only stayed near the shore where the ice is thick and solid, they would never catch many walleyes. Their purpose in the first place of being fishermen would never be achieved by playing it safe. The prize is usually under thin ice at the middle of the lake. Faithfulness is taking risks of leaving the familiarity of home and job and to step out on thin ice at times to fish.
Big Fish
Remember the fisherman who threw back all the big fish? His small frying pan was just too small for the big fish. The fisherman let the big ones get away.
As a church, God is giving us a good fishing season. Last week’s Fellowship Ministries Faire shows that we have many exciting and growing groups. Visitors and new members are considering joining. Our worship attendance has continued to increase nearing if not having reached our capacity level. Reaching and surpassing our goal for the 2002 pledge canvass is amazing! We have not seen this for at least the past10 or 15 years. God is telling us that fishing is good this year!
We can be satisfied with the good fishing that we are having and forget that there are bigger fish to catch.
Let’s imagine our members and church friends being so fruitful and God-filled that you would call up to ask what time you are scheduled to serve. That would be a big fish!
Let’s imagine people whom you come in contact with jamming our phone lines with calls asking what time was worship and Sunday school because they are so intrigued about the joy that they have seen in you. That would be a big fish!
When we gather on our sidewalks on Sunday morning, let’s imagine that our neighbors would say, “Here are the people who care for us and want to get to know us.” That’s a big fish!
I want us to imagine our church and all the churches in San Francisco can be so effective and faithful to God that the world has to call up the national guards to stop our initiation of God’s reign of peace and justice in our city. That’s a hugemungous fish!
As Jesus’ fishers of men and women, we might think that the big fish is too big. “Look we only have a small frying pan.” “A steamed fish for 2 is about our size.”
When we think about how small our sanctuary is or the size of our staff is, we only want the little fish. When we think about the shortage of classrooms and the limited parking around the church, we only want the small fish. And when and if all of the small fish and big fish try to get into our little boat, we become afraid that we may sink.
Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John must have had these same fears. As Jews, they would have wondered about why they should reach out to the Gentiles—people who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. For them, this was a big ugly fish.
But we know that the disciples did leave their nets and their boats behind. And some of them even left their fathers and mothers behind to follow Jesus. They became fishers of men and women. The Gentiles who sat in darkness have now seen a great light because of these fishermen. The Gentiles who sat in the region of the shadow of death, light has dawned. Jesus and the disciples went throughout Galilee teaching and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. They went out fishing with a gigantic frying pan!
Aquarium Fish
At Dan Lee’s house, he has this very large fish aquarium—perhaps 100 gallons. Fish in an aquarium would only grow as big as the tank its in. The bigger the tank you have the bigger the fish they will become. We like to think of our Sea of Galilee is like an aquarium. We want to have something to say about the kind of fish we put in. We like to keep them small.
But God’s world is not an aquarium. It’s bigger than Lake Merced. It’s even bigger than the Pacific Ocean. It’s all the oceans and continents in the whole world. There are all kinds of fish out there too—Gentiles and Jews, salmon and bottom of the sea crawlers. Yet all of them are worthy and acceptable by God. When we dare to cast our nets or drop our line, we must be prepared to catch a big fish.
Jesus is saying to us “Follow me, and I will make you fish for men.” Go and order a “steamed fish for 2” but be prepared to catch the big fish too.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord God, thank you for calling us to be your fishermen in the world. Lead us to present Jesus Christ as the invitation to new and everlasting life so that many will come to know you as Lord. Enlarge our understanding of our ministry and help us to not be afraid of what you have in stored for us—for all things are indeed possible with you. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.