As he walked by
the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew
his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will
make you fish for people.’ — Matthew 4
I have to admit I don’t know much about football, but
I heard so much chatter about the behavior of Seattle Seahawks fans, that I got
curious. There were stories of loud
yelling and Skittles being thrown on the field.
I even came across an article about the Seahawk fans causing an
earthquake. That was a bit of hyperbole; they simply stomped and made enough
noise to be picked up by a nearby seismograph — very different from causing an
actual earthquake.
There was a story about how, in one case, fans from
the two rival teams almost got in a fight, until one of them tried to talk some
sense into them all. He said, "You
realize neither of us is actually playing on one of the teams?" There’s a huge difference between being a fan
and being an actual player.
As people are looking forward to the Super Bowl,
perhaps we should ask ourselves the same question about our faith in Jesus,
"Are we just fans, or are we followers?" You may be Jesus’s greatest fan. You may be the one wearing the funny face
paint and the colored wig, waving your flag and throwing Skittles onto the
field for Jesus, but don’t kid yourself; there’s a huge difference between
being a fan of Jesus and being an actual player on his team.
It is here on this ordinary Sunday, somewhere between
Christmas and Easter that we read the Gospel account of how ordinary people
became star players on his team — how his church began.
Fishing was tough work. Much of their fishing was done at night,
using lanterns. In the morning, the fishermen would sort their catch (Luke 5:5;
John 21:3). When the fish had been sent
off to market, it would be time for the fishermen to clean and repair their
nets. Once this was done, they could
sleep and get ready for the next night’s work.
In our text today, Jesus is walking along the shore
early in the morning, and he comes to Simon Peter and Andrew while they are
going about their morning routine. And
something amazing happens… Jesus calls
his first disciples, the first players on his team. Renowned Rabbis didn’t go out and call
followers; they simply waited for followers to come to them. Not Jesus.
And if you know any of the stories about them in the Gospels, you know
these guys weren’t ready for prime time.
I already told you I don’t know much about football,
but my impression is it’s kind of tough to get on a major league team. Kids spend their youth playing on Pop Warner
teams, and then they compete to get on their high school football team. If they succeed there, they carefully choose
a college that has a great football program or will offer them a sports
scholarship, and then, they fight to get and to keep a position on their
college team. And they hope… just hope they’ll
get noticed by a scout for a national franchise. And most are disappointed.
The Denver Broncos do not select their players by
driving up to a couple of ordinary guys out fishing and say, “Hey, you! We want you to be on our team. Oh, bring your
brother too.” But that’s exactly what
Jesus did. “As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw
two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew... 'Follow me, and I will make you fish for
people.'”
I think it’s important to notice what Jesus did not
say. He did not say, “Follow me, but
first you have to believe in me.” He did
not say, “Follow me, but first you have to love me.” He did not say, “Follow me, but first you have
to be a perfect person.” There were no
preconditions in Jesus’ call to his followers.
You don’t have to have perfect faith.
You don’t have to understand everything.
You don’t have to subscribe to some list of required beliefs. When Jesus calls, he asks me, and he asks you
to step out into the unknown with him. He
asks us to follow even though we may not be quite sure of where he is taking us
or whether we are up to journey.
Peter, Andrew, James, and John must have wondered and
even been a little intrigued by Jesus saying, “I will make you fish for
people.” But as they heard him preach,
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” they learned two things
about fishing for people: One, it had to
start with them. They had to be a
certain kind of people to bring in others.
It started with them wanting a new kind of life, a change. And the second thing they knew, it wasn’t
going to be too hard to get into this Kingdom of Heaven because it was nearby, right
in their midst. In one place it can be
translated, “The Kingdom of God is within you.”
And as they followed Jesus day by day, learning to
live a new way, a way filled with hope instead of despair, and as they and the
multitudes who followed Jesus saw the Kingdom of Heaven breaking out within
them and among them, the prophesy of old Isaiah began to be fulfilled, “The people who
sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region
and shadow of death light has dawned.”
We need this light today every bit as much as they
did 2,000 years ago. Each of us has some
dark corners in our lives, places where we feel hopeless, lost, overwhelmed,
and alone. But when the great light of
Christ begins to shine, we move from darkness into a new day. But that light, that change of life, doesn’t
happen if you’re just a fan of Jesus, you have to be on the team. You’ve got to get out on the field not just
throw Skittles for Jesus from the grandstands.
Now, I’ll be truthful with you, it’s a lot tougher to
be a player than it is to be a fan. And
there are no guarantees that there won’t be dark times in our lives. But what we are promised is we are not alone,
and darkness is never going to win. Knowing
that, with God’s presence in our lives, we can walk through any darkness
without fear overwhelming us as we hold the hand of the one who walked
alongside the sea that morning so many years ago.
The part about “fishing for people” was always kind
of hard for me to understand because I’m a pretty bad fisherman despite my poor
dad’s best efforts. But I think maybe
that misses the point: If Jesus can use a fisherman, he can use me and he can
use you! He reached out to people where
they were in their lives. To exhausted
fishermen, he said, “Follow me, and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” To builders and architects and carpenters, he
says, “Follow me, and I will show you how to build up people.” To lawyers, he says, “Follow me, and I will
show you how to share the law of love with others.” To those who feel they might not have many
talents to offer, he says, “Follow me, and I’ll show you how talented you can
be bringing light to others.” And he
calls wives and husbands who work at home, and taxi cab drivers, and young
people who think they’re too young to have anything to offer, and old people
who fear they have nothing more to offer.
Jesus called ordinary people right in the middle of their ordinary lives
to do extraordinary things, and he still does this morning. You can do this where you are In fact, Christ needs you right where you
are.
Phillips Brooks was the Bishop of Massachusetts in
the late 1800’s. Most of us know him
only as the author of "O little town of Bethlehem," but he was also
renowned as an incredible preacher. Here’s
what he said in one of his sermons:
"It seems very
certain that the world is to grow better and richer in the future, however it
has been in the past, not by the magnificent achievements of the highly-gifted
few, but by the patient faithfulness of the one-talented many. “If we could draw back the curtains of the
millennium and look in, we should see not a Hercules here and there standing on
the “world-wasting” monsters he had killed, but a world full of (human beings),
each with an arm of moderate muscle, but each triumphant over (their) own
little piece of the earth... It seems
as if heroes (have) done almost all for the world that they can do, and not
much more can come till common (men and women) awake and take (up) their common
tasks."
We don't need one more Superman or Spiderman. The world doesn’t need any more Wonder Women
or Xena: Warrior Princesses. We just
need more ordinary people like Mary and Joseph, like Martha and John and Mary
Magdalene, and Andrew and Peter. We need
to stop merely being fans of Jesus and become followers. What the world needs… what God is looking for
in our time… is just folks like you and me living our ordinary lives, doing our
most humble tasks, sharing our love and our faith and our light with our
brothers and sisters as we meet them every day along our journey.
