Fishers of Men

Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

For quite a few years, now, I have used the lectionery as I have chosen the passages of scripture from which I will preach on any given Sunday. The other day I was talking with a fellow pastor about this and he asked me how the scriptures from the lectionery could be relevant to what is happening in the world and in the local community. Indeed, if those scriptures were chosen fifteen years ago by a committee of liturgical scholars from several denominations, how could I be sure that a specified scripture was right for its assigned Sunday several years later? I replied that over the years that I have used the lectionery I had been often surprised at the depth of relevance that seemed to be provided by these scriptures. Sometimes the assigned scripture passages were so relevant that persons have come up to me following the worship service and accused me of having picked scriptures specifically for them and the problem they were going through at that moment in their life.

Well, my friends, today is one of the best examples of this that I have seen so far. For our Old Testament lesson from the book of Jonah describes how Jonah, after having run away from God because he didn't want to obey God, and after having been swallowed by a big fish, and after being thrown up by the fish onto the shore, finally decided to do what God had told him to do. And what was that? God had commanded Jonah to go to the city of Ninevah and warn them to repent or else God would destroy their city.

Now, you might ask what relevance this might have to what is going on in our world today. But as soon as we realize that Ninevah was a very large city on the Tigris River, only 300 miles north of Baghdad, the relevance becomes strikingly real.

God had commanded Jonah to go to that city. And Jonah didn't want to go. After all, Jonah was a Jew and the Ninevites were Gentiles. As far as Jonah was concerned all those "rag-head" Ninevites could go to hell. For the Ninevites had never done the Jewish people any favors. In fact, the Ninevites had been part and parcel of a system which had long persecuted the Jewish people. So, Jonah wondered why in the world he should have to go to that awful city, preach God's message of repentance there, and save the city from an awful fate. He didn't want any part of it. He would rather have gone as far away from Ninevah as he possibly could. But it took a terrible storm, a near-shipwreck, being swallowed by a fish, and being tossed up upon a beach to change his mind.

So, if we want to capture the relevance of this scripture we should have to ask, "If God told us, today, to love the people who live along the Tigris River, how might we respond?"

Over the years, I believe that it has been Christ's teachings that have made American soldiers a bit different from the soldiers of many other countries. In the wars fought by Americans great care has been taken to avoid civilian targets and population centers, if at all possible. In other words, we wouldn't use SCUD missiles, we wouldn't use terrorist tactics, we wouldn't mistreat defeated soldiers, and we wouldn't purposely pollute a large body of water, endangering nature, itself, just to meet a finite military goal. And after wars have been won, we haven't gone in to rape and to pillage. Rather than seeking reparations, we have engaged in reconstruction, and striven to make those who were our enemies into our greatest allies.

And I think we have done this because we, as a people, believe in Christ's teaching: "Love your enemy." And I pray that as this war in the Persian Gulf goes on this principle may continue to be strong in the hearts of our leaders and our soldiers. For, while, on the one hand, war makes necessary the terrible task of dropping bombs and shooting bullets, war also brings about the opportunity of treating a desolated people with mercy, with respect, and with loving and enemy, in spite of what they may have done to us.

I believe that it is the teachings of Jesus that make us this way. I hate to think what we might be like without those teachings; and, I hate to think what Saddam Hussein's forces, who have little regard for Christ, might do to us, not to mention Israel, if our armed forces were defeated by them.

So, how important it is for us, as God's people, to continue to preach and to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, that the principles of love and reconciliation may always be strong in the hearts of our people, so that the things required of us by war may be balanced and even corrected by the things required of us by God.

Our lesson from the gospel for today talks about how Jesus called Simon and Andrew and James and John to follow him as they were fishing in the waters of the Sea of Galilee, near the city of Capernaum.

Several years ago I was among a group of clergy who went to Israel. While we were there we visited the Sea of Galilee, in the northern part of the country. And I discovered that the Sea of Galilee is a beautiful lake, very much like Houghton Lake in size and appearance, except that the Sea of Galilee has steep hills surrounding it. And fishermen still work upon that lake, as they did at the time of Christ. So, for me, it is not at all hard to visualize Jesus' call of those fishermen, as he walked along the shores of that lake.

But the fact is that Jesus continues to call people to follow him, to listen to his teachings, and to share those teachings with others. Jesus' words to those fishermen were, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Using similar words, how would Christ call us?

To persons who fix cars for a living, Jesus might say, "Follow me and I will make you soul-mechanics." To persons who work as bank tellers, Jesus might say, "Follow me and I will make you Bible story tellers." To persons who are housekeepers, Jesus might say, "Follow me and I will make you faith-keepers." To persons who work as school teachers, Jesus might say, "Follow me and I will make you God's teachers." Indeed, there is no limit how God may use us and our talents and our professions to serve him if we are willing to follow him.

During the last world war, a church in Strasburg was accidentally destroyed by bombs that had been meant for military targets. Nothing remained except a heap of rubble and broken glass, or so the people thought till they began clearing away the masonry. Then they found a statue of Christ sill standing erect. In spite of all the bombing it was unharmed except that both hands were missing. Eventually, with contributions from America, rebuilding of the church began.

One day a sculptor saw the figure of Christ, and offered to carve new hands. The church's leaders met to consider the sculptor's friendly gesture and decided not to accept the offer. Why? Because the members of the church said: "Our broken statue touches the spirits of men, because He has no hands to minister to the needy or feed the hungry or enrich the poor, except our hands. He inspires. We perform.

A poet put it another way:

If God can hang the stars on high,

Can paint the clouds the drift on by;

Can send the sun across the sky,

What could He do through you?

If He can send a storm through space,

And dot with trees the mountain's face;

If He, the sparrow's way can trace,

What could He do through you?

If God can do such little things

As count our hairs, or birds that sing,

Control the universe that swings,

What could He do through you?

Amen.