5 Epiphany Yr C

My dad loved to fish. I remember being very small out in the boat with him holding my fishing pole. I don’t remember catching anything, which I think was a good thing because I hated touching the worms and the fish. But I’d sit with him in the boat, for hours. Years later my dad finally built his lake cabin, out of concrete blocks of course, and he spent his time fishing in the summer and ice fishing in the winter. In those later years it was catch and release of course, but I don’t recall too many fish either way. For my dad, fishin was always more about recognizing the wonder of the lake, the cool breeze in the summer, the amazing trees forming the cathedral that is the shore of the lake, and the eerie and beautiful call of the loon.

This fishing story we hear today is about recognition as much as it is about fish. The setting is out beside the lake, where there was a huge crowd that had gathered to listen to Jesus teach, it was such a crowd it was pressing in on him. It’s in the morning, the fisherman had come in for the day, after having fished all night, as is the way fishermen did it on the lake of Gennesaret, they could get their biggest catch in the night. They were cleaning up, washing their nets. But Jesus needed some relief from the crowds, so he asked Simon Peter if he could get into one of the boats and do some teaching from out in the water. When he was finished teaching, he asked Simon Peter, the captain of the fishing boat, to put out into deep water and let down his nets.

This is where the story gets quite interesting. Jesus, who is the son of a carpenter, and who we assume to be a carpenter himself, is telling Simon Peter, a well seasoned fishing boat captain, how to do his job. Jesus is like a city boy telling a rancher how to ranch. He’s absolutely out of his element, he has no fishing credentials. He’s a carpenter, what does he know about fishing? Simon Peter told him that they had been out all night and hadn’t caught anything. But, Simon Peter conceded, and put the nets out one more time. And when they put their nets out, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. Simon Peter, the fishing boat captain, the big fish if you will, drops down at Jesus’ knees, and confesses, right there in front of his whole crew, he acknowledges Jesus as Lord. And everyone was amazed.

Jesus tells them not to be afraid, from now on they will be fishing people, not fish. How stupid is that. Fishing for people sure won’t pay the bills.

So what is this story about? It’s not about how to pay the bills. Simon Peter, James and John, and all the others left the catch of their lives, what they caught that morning probably would have kept them all in food, clothes, and new sandals for some time to come.

Simon Peter recognized that day something amazing. He recognized Jesus’ holiness and authority, catching those fish was proof of that. Simon Peter recognized Jesus and was willing to leave life as he knew it, life that was probably not cushy, but probably comfortable, for something that was completely unknown, for something that would scare him to death.

Jesus introduced to them that day a new way, a new economy if you will. So what does that have to do with us, we’re not fisherpeople. We live in an absurdly abundant world. A world where worldly faith rests in our power to choose and our power to get. The world is about an economy of greed, an economy of getting.

In this city, most of us here, can go to the grocery store, and have before us an array of choices. We can choose what we want to eat; we can choose how and when we want to eat it. We can open cans and put beans and tomatoes and meat together for chili. We can walk up to the deli counter and buy our chili already made, or we can go to the frozen food isle and get some frozen chili and pop it in our microwave. And yet, among us are those whose only choice is what is available at the food shelf, or each night at Cornerstone Mission.

Most of us can go to the mall, or to Target, or to Wal-Mart or an assortment of other places, and before us will be an array of choices. Not only can we find clothes for all events and purposes, sizes and colors, we can choose from a number of different brands of headache remedies, or heartburn remedies, as well as remedies for dysfunction in a number of areas. And yet, among us are those whose only choice is to endure the headache while sleeping under the bridge by the greenbelt.

Many of us go to school or to work each morning with a host of choices before us, what to wear, what to eat for lunch, who to count as friends, what classes to take, what sports to go out for. And yet, there are those among us whose only choice is to endure the teasing they get each day because they’re just not like the others.

After an absurdly abundant catch that Simon Peter, James and John and the others made that day, what on earth would make them pull their fishing boats up on the beach, leave them, and follow this prophet, this Jesus, the one who ate with sinners and women, the one who healed anyone, Jews and Greeks alike, the one who would be tortured and put to death. Wouldn’t they say, wouldn’t you say, do it again? Do it again Jesus, we can be rich. But instead, Simon Peter recognizes Jesus’ holiness, and confesses at that holiness. And Jesus responds to Simon Peter and the rest, with the call to bring in people, not fish. In the midst of the abundance, in the midst of such wealth, they turn to follow Jesus and the new economy that he has for them.

What on earth would make anyone of us say yes to Jesus’ call of a new life, a new economy? Even in a downturn in our economy, in the midst of the absurdly abundant life many of us live, we recognize Jesus in our midst. People who recognize Jesus are not necessarily holy people, we are people who pale in the light of holiness, we are ordinary fishermen and wives and mothers, fathers and children, youth and elders.

Recognizing Jesus is waking up to the truth of our existence. And the truth is that the absurdly abundant is not far from the hard rock pillow under the bridge. The choices of what do I wear and how do I look each day are not so different from the teased and alienated kid.

Recognizing Jesus in our midst is the call to be fishers of people. How can we not be fishers of people, how can we not spread the Good News, when we know the truth. The truth that God loves us so much, God came into this world as one of us, so that we may be in relationship with God and with one another. God’s love is absurdly abundant. God’s love washes over us, as do the waters of baptism. God’s love nourishes us, as does the bread we break each time we meet together. God’s love is absurdly abundant, as the fish that were caught that day in the boat.

We do have choices however. We can continue on living as if everything we have is ours. We can continue on living as if all we have we will have for ever. We can continue on as if our children belong to us, we can continue on as if we can have it all.

Or, we can choose to follow Jesus, and be fishers of people. Making that choice is hard. Because then we are transformed into someone who lives so that others might live. We are transformed into someone who lives as if nothing belongs to us or is possessed by us. We are transformed into someone whose absurd abundance is grace, it is gift, it is wonder. We are transformed into someone who becomes a steward, and who cares for all that has been given because it does not belong to us, it belongs to God. And that is the holiness and the authority of which Simon Peter spoke, the holiness that causes us to bow down before our God.

Being fishers of people is to speak, and live, and behave in ways that Jesus in our midst is evident. It is to be with the other, as grace and gift and wonder.

It is to go to the grocery store and give thanks for the opportunity to choose, and it is to choose to fill the food basket at church each Sunday. It is to give thanks for the opportunity to be able to afford to buy food, and it is to advocate for those who cannot buy food not to be taxed on the food they buy.

It is to go to the mall and give thanks for the opportunity to choose, and to choose to dress modestly in fashion and in price, and it is to give a pair of shoes away for each pair of shoes we have sitting in our closets. It is to work for fair wages for those who make shoes.

It is to give thanks for the opportunity to learn each day, to go to school or work each day, and it is to approach those who are different than us with love and respect. It is to stand up for those who are teased or mistreated.

We live in an absurdly abundant world. A world in which all that we have, and all that we are is bestowed upon us by an absurdly abundant God.

The Lord shows forth his glory: Come let us adore him.