“Fishy Stories”

Doug Lambert 06/02/2022

Readings - Luke 5:1-11

Fishing is a popular recreational pursuit, from the beach, or a boat, with a rod, or simply a hand line.  For some of you it has been a satisfying hobby for much of your lives and for others a  part of the standard holiday activity;  others may be less enamoured by the whole exercise preferring more immediate access to fish dinners.  Lynley has told me how she enjoyed fishing at City Beach with her father, even to the extent of having her own rod; although it seems dad had to assist her to bait the hook, cast out, and remove anything unlucky enough to get snared.  Fishing requires patience, and Lynley has also indicated that this is not one of my more prominent attributes.

The story in Luke’s gospel, is borrowed from Mark and expanded a little bit, something which seems to be a feature of fishing stories.  Anyhow, it appears in one form or another in each of the four gospels.   Of course the story is not really about fishing on the Sea of Galilee two millennia ago, it has a far more important purpose which is where we could run  up against some church traditions.  It has frequently been used as the source of the call to mission for followers of Jesus, an interpretation which takes us back into Sunday School and chorus’s such as “fishers of men” - if I started to sing that song now virtually all of you could join in.  Interestingly Luke’s version of the story does not actually ask anyone to follow, that instruction or invitation appears in Matthew and Mark’s versions.  In our familiarity we often conflate several versions of a bible story into a composite whole, the most obvious example being the birth stories of Jesus.  This perception of the story as some sort of recruiting analogy is not a misrepresentation or distortion of the images, neither does that interpretation necessarily go to the real essence of the story.

Luke gives us an image of people living their ordinary lives, they are doing what they did everyday, and the sometimes monotonous routines, and the sheer toil is all evident.  Notably the scene is not placed in some special sacred space but in the midst of everyday existence.

It is located on the shore of the Sea of Galilee where many of the gospel stories are set.  The previous time Luke had Jesus preaching was in the synagogue, and we heard that reading last Sunday.  It was here that Jesus set out his mission objectives and the congregation was initially very supportive, and as he alluded to their own shortcomings they got sufficiently irate that they rushed him out of the building towards the nearest cliff.  Perhaps Luke was forecasting the future.

To see the story as a series of comic book style sketches - Jesus in the boat addressing the crowd; Peter, James and John casting the nets; pulling the nets with a vast haul of fish;  all walking off into the sunset leaving the fish on the beach; is far too simplistic to be satisfying.  It is simply unreal,  peasant farmers and fishermen who live a hand to mouth existence walking off and leaving a resource which would feed the whole community for days if not weeks! 

Luke knows a story told about Simon Peter in which Jesus helped Simon reverse his fishing fortunes. The writer of John's gospel also knows the story and there it is told in conjunction with Jesus' appearance to Peter in Galilee after the resurrection.  In Luke's version there are two boats, Simon ie Peter's (Andrew goes unmentioned) and that of James and John.  The latter pair come from Mark's story.  In each version the boats are filled with fish.  Then in John we are tantalised by being told there were 153 kinds of fish! Really!!  It is obviously intended as an image to think about, perhaps an allusion to the gospel being for every tribe and nation.  Luke concludes with words from Jesus to Simon: 'From now on you will be fishers of people'.  Peter along with James and John leave their nets and follow Jesus.  These several versions of the story have to be symbolic, albeit based upon one or more actual events.  It may be that they reflect the inevitable legend building which comes with the passage of time in a community with a strong oral tradition.  It definitely was not written as a script for a Louise Milligan documentary on the life of Jesus.

Rex Hunt describes Peter and some of his friends as being “captivated by the presence of Jesus.”  In Jesus they had caught some  glimpse of the way in which Jesus was captivated by that source and ground of life, called God.  Jesus challenged them to take their lives in another direction altogether and they accepted that challenge. “Do not be afraid”, he was saying, together we can change the circumstances of our little world.  

Set on the lakeside Luke has crafted a story which invites us to participate, to be part of something which is life giving.  Each in our own way, we too have responded to that call  as evidenced in the fact we are all here today!  Luke draws a picture of everyday life and how an engagement with Jesus had people seeing their future in terms of relations with one another.  He built a word picture which introduced his readers to the idea that things in this world could be changed, they did not have to remain as they were.  That there were ways to relate to one another which built up the community as distinct from tearing it apart.  Poverty and abuse of privilege would likely remain as features of everyday life, but within a loving community these burdens became easier. 

Rather than dwell on this particular gospel incident and play with what it meant in Capernaum 2000 years ago we could usefully reflect upon its implications for us as individuals and as a congregation.  About how we actually go about being an inclusive community; about how we relate to our immediate neighbours; about how we identify the needs of the community in which this church is located; about the extent to which we can practically meet those needs.  In doing this we should appreciate that recognising a need does not necessarily mean we have the wherewithal to deal with it.  I am not proposing anything new, this congregation has been on a pilgrim’s progress since its inception.  Changing environments and circumstances demand the regular review of goals and strategies.  As one loitering around the edge of this Wembley Downs church community it seems to me that Luke’s story of Jesus calling the disciples is directly relevant to the present circumstance.  This is the beginning of a year during which the congregation will see the conclusion of one form of ministry and that of itself is an invitation.  It is an opportunity, alone or in groups, for people to exercise their gifts to the benefit of the whole congregation.

Which leads into a related theme which I think is closer to what Luke was really pursuing. This was to bring out the importance of leadership in the life of what was a growing Christian community.  He was writing 60 or possibly 80 years after the crucifixion.  He was writing for disparate communities scattered through Asia-minor each with their own history and understanding of the life and importance of Jesus, he also had an eye for the future of  a people who were already loosing their connection with the synagogue.  I think he was promoting an unconventional form of leadership.  A leadership style which sets people free to undertake their own mission or calling, without in any way ignoring the frailties and flawed decisions which are an integral part of the human condition.

Today’s reading places a focus on Peter as a leader, a man who for all his short fused blundering was already recognised as a leader within the community of faith.  His status is clearly shown in the gospel writings.  According to Luke, Peter was the first disciple; Matthew records Jesus declaring Peter to be the foundation stone of the church; Peter’s Aramaic name of Cephas means stone or rock; these things all lend themselves to being used in a symbolic way. 

Luke was using the fishing story to instruct the growing and disparate church communities on the importance of a particular kind of leadership.  The key point here is not so much Peter’s character, rather, that he came to leadership from amongst the disciples and still remained a part of that group. This leadership role brought him responsibility, as distinct from bestowing special privilege.  There is a message here for the church and the entire community from parish pump to parliament, leadership is about perception and action way beyond mere pontification.

As Bill Loader puts it -

“In reality Luke is portraying for us what he knows is central to the church's memory: Peter as representative leader and the role we share with him. The fallible Peter has always had fallible human beings as successors, bearers of the tradition, formal and informal, structured and unstructured. Despite signs of legendary development the bearers of the Jesus tradition never divinised Peter. He remained one of them, one of us; leadership by grace. The best traditions let it remain so. They also affirm his role and the continuing role and need for leadership and its accountability in the church. Ultimately Luke is linking that leadership to Jesus' own leadership and mission declared before his home town synagogue. It is a leadership that sets free.”

Jesus talked a lot about the Kingdom, or the reign of God, and that was about much more than God’s will for the individual.  It was a corporate image of a new society, one which built upon the imagery of the prophets about peace and justice, it’s a thread which runs through all of his teaching.  This is a message about living in the present and doing so in a manner which respects each person, one which ensures that all are cared for and accepted.  It is about building a genuine sense of community.  In his latest book, which will be featured at the forthcoming Summer Spirit weekend Hugh Mackay writes,

“The most significant feature of human beings is that we belong to an inherently social species.  We’re herd animals.  We’re hopeless in isolation.  We need each other.  We don’t just thrive on our sense of belonging to families, to neighbourhoods and all kinds of groups and communities: we utterly depend on our social connections for our emotional and physical security; …”

The revolution which would introduce the Kingdom that Jesus envisaged recognises our  fundamental need for community and comes about as the combined effort of all those who seek to positively participate, rather than through some  universal  cataclysmic event.  It is a strategy encapsulated in the parables Jesus told about salt losing its savor and lights under a shrub.

In reading for this service I was particularly taken with a piece by the Revd Gregory Jenks,  Dean of Christchurch Cathedral in Grafton NSW.  I quote in part -

“The season of Epiphany—like its more rigorous cousin, Lent—invites us to reflect on the many ways that we encounter the God who reaches out to us and then to fashion our response to Emmanuel, God with us.

We are invited into intentional discipleship, as distinct from an inherited religious identity.

Discipleship is a word that is closely associated with Jesus and the responses people made to him on the other side of Calvary, before the Easter triumph transformed their views of his significance.

To my surprise when doing a recent word study in preparation for one of the Dean’s Forums at the Cathedral, I discovered that this is not a word ever used by Paul. It is a term only found in the four NT gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles, written originally as part two of the Gospel of Luke.

The difference between the Gospels and the Epistles is stark.

So to be a disciple is to be someone with an intentional relationship with Jesus.

To have beliefs and opinions about Jesus is not the essence of discipleship, even though disciples will have beliefs and opinions that matter deeply to us.

An intentional relationship with Jesus?

That would be a continuous Epiphany experience as we discover more and more about God’s loving and compassionate purposes for the universe, including our own selves.

That would be a lifelong commitment to shape our lives around the beliefs and practices that mattered to Jesus.

That would be to engage in compassionate action to bring the effective reign of God into the lived experience of our families, friends and local communities.

An intentional relationship with Jesus is going to be about practice (what we do and how we treat people) more than with ideas (what we believe and how we explain our faith to others).   …   …”

I conclude with a comment from Michael Morwood - We are pilgrims on a journey finding purpose for each day; we can hear the call of Jesus, “Come and follow in my way.”  When we follow,  we fulfil our destiny;  may we always be a blessing to ourselves, and to others.  May we ever give thanks for the wonderful gift of reflective awareness that allows us to recognise and name the presence in our universe of a Creator Spirit beyond all imagining.

         Amen