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Fishing For People: No Hooks, Sinkers, or Bait
The Rev. Mark Byers
Episcopal Church of the Apostles
January 27, 2008

I have a fishing problem. And it’s not what you’re probably thinking it is, unless you’re my wife. In which case, I’ve told you before.

I love the water. Whether I’m sitting in a boat or standing on the bank of a river or lake, I love it, preferably with some trees and rocks, someplace up in the mountains, maybe.

I like the companionship of fishing with a friend or friends: the easy conversation, the cold drinks in the cooler, the snacks that I shouldn’t really eat.

I like a good cast, meaning an accurate and long one with a spinning rod. I’ve never been fly fishing, which probably some fly fishermen might say is a character flaw. A book I love, A River Runs Through It, has one of the main characters, a Presbyterian minister and zealous fly fisherman, disparage the author of The Compleat Angler, Izaak Walton, as follows: “ Izaak Walton is not a respectable writer. He was an Episcopalian and a bait fisherman.” Guilty on both counts, I am.

And there is something truly beautiful about having a good-sized, spirited fish on the hook, fighting it and bringing it onto the shore or into the boat. There is tremendous satisfaction in that moment.

You’re probably thinking by now, “What could possibly be the problem?”

It is this: I do not now, nor have I ever, liked to eat fish. I have had all sorts of varieties, prepared all sorts of ways. I simply do not like it.

So why, you might ask, would you go fishing?

Because I like the water. And I like the trees and wind and the bank. And I love to look into the sky and see the sun and clouds above. I like the cold drinks and salty snacks. I enjoy being in the boat. I even like using the fishing rod. Everything up to the moment where I’ve threaded a caught fish onto a stringer or thrown it into a bucket, I like. But I don’t like fish.

I went fishing with my father a few years ago, up in Quebec. My father loves fish and fishing. I can remember enjoying that trip tremendously, except that I realized all of a sudden that I felt sorry for the bait. I think we were trying to catch either pike or pickerel, which are fierce looking, predatory fish. And dad saw that there were small frogs in the shallows of the lake where we were fishing, so he caught some to use for bait. I felt positively queasy putting a live frog on a hook. I don’t recall whether I actually managed it once before I changed my mind. I don’t like to eat fish, and I do like frogs, and not to eat, either. I just like that they are there, and that they look the way they do.

These are things that are important to know about yourself. Namely, if you go fishing:

1. Do you love the water?

2. Do you love the company?

3. Do you love the place?

4. Do you know what you need to know? Can you throw a net or cast a line?

5. Do you enjoy fish?

“As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, [Jesus] saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea-- for they were fishermen. And [Jesus] said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people." Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As 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. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.”

I want to take those questions I asked about fishing and ask them again about sharing the gospel. Or, as Jesus teases Simon and Andrew, “Fishing for people.” These are important questions to ask ourselves if we’re going to go fishing.

1. Do you love the water? Water is pretty important in the New Testament. Baptism, boating, and walking on it all feature prominently. Some of the disciples, as we heard just now, were fishermen before they began to follow Jesus. I think it’s fair to say that Jesus loved the water, and fishermen do, too, although perhaps in a more complicated way than many of us who see it as a place of recreation. Water contains their means of sustenance. It can also be the means of their death.

If water, to use the analogy of life as fishing, is the place we find sustenance and meaning, it is also dangerous. Do you love the water? Not just the beauty of it, the peaceful surface, but what is underneath? Do you love life even though it is both beautiful and risky?

2. Do you love the company? Jesus seems just to pick people at random here. He happens to be walking along and selects these two fishermen to follow him. Then he walks a little further, and he finds two more. And they just drop everything and go with him.

But there’s more to the story than that. The Sea of Galilee was pretty small. I’d be willing to bet these guys knew each other. It’s important to love the company you’re in when you’re fishing, especially for people. And I don’t mean “love” in the secular sense, which just means warm feelings. I mean love in the Christian sense, which means that we make sacrifices for others joyfully, and we act in ways that reflect the deep commitment we have to God and everyone whom God has made.

This isn’t only because we’re such high-minded people, but rather, because both wise Christians and wise fishermen know that churches and boats are too small to rock without capsizing. And when you’re fishing for people, you can’t catch anyone if you’re treading water, too.

3. Do you love the place? That is, do you care to know your community, your fishing grounds fully, including the spots that AREN’T beautiful, or which are marshy and difficult to navigate? Do you have the eye of a fisherman? Meaning that you understand that the entire place you inhabit is a system where every part is intimately connected to every other part. Wise Christians and wise fishermen both understand that if they are to fish productively, they have to care for the place where they fish.

4. Do you know what you need to know? Can you throw a net or cast a line? Being a good fisherman happens in a lot of ways. Some people seem to be born with a knack for it. But anyone can learn to be competent at it. Fishing for people, likewise, involves some learning, or even unlearning. Here’s one area where the basic analogy of fishing to sharing the gospel breaks down. The object of evangelism is not to “hook” or “bait” people. It is to bring them into a relationship where they enjoy the same joy in Jesus Christ’s abundant life that we do. In other words, it is to pull them in so that they don’t drown. It is so much easier to appreciate the “water” when we’re “in the boat.”

By the same token, it’s important to realize that Christians should not gut, cook, and eat their neighbors. Too often, a person’s experience of church can be stifling, boring, or hurtful. Don’t string the newcomers or throw them into the bucket: Pass the chips and drinks.

5. Do you like fish? We all know that I don’t like fish. Thankfully, I do love people, all kinds of people. Do you love people? God does. That’s a big reason why the gospel is “good news:” it is the reality that God through Jesus Christ is drawing us all closer to one another in love to transform our world. I may be both an Episcopalian and a bait fisherman, but that sounds good to me. Maybe it does to you, too.

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