February 10, 2019 - Fifth Sunday after Epiphany - Where is the Good News in a Large Fish Catch?

I didn't attend worship at Creator today. I missed Bishop Dave giving a sermon which I would have liked to have heard.

Being out of my Sunday routine for worship, I worshiped at home. My emotion for the hour was a sort of solemn downheartedness.

Today's Gospel was Luke 5:1-11, Luke's account of the calling of the first disciples. The verse that struck me today was Jesus saying, after fish catch that nearly swamped the boat. "From now on you will be catching people ".

My thoughts and prayers, during the past couple of weeks, were on addressing Creator's current financial concerns. I focused on our dwindling base of members, who have means, that are both willing and able to meaningfully contribute to Creator's sustainability. I also thought about how Creator could attract new members. "From now on you will be catching people " read to me today like a rebuke of all my past week's thoughts and assumptions.

My past understanding of this passage was that the disciples would now be preachers of the good news who would now catch people like fish. Their commitment to and faith in Jesus would mean a greater number of people would be "caught". The greater the number the greater the good. Today I don't see any good news in that particular interpretation of the meaning.

Where is the good news in a large fish catch? Is this good news for the fish? They were thriving free in the lake and suddenly they are indiscriminately caught. Does this give the fish some greater meaning to their lives? If this is some metaphor for being transformed and / or gaining some kind of salvation? If so, is a person's participation in being transformed as unimportant as fish being involved in a catch?

This may be seen as good news for the fishermen but is this truly good news for them when applied to ministry and for those who would spread the Gospel? Should they expect that, with God's help, the effectiveness of their ministry will be judged by the number of people who believe as a result?

Consider the Great Commission in this context. Quoting Matthew 28:19-20  "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” I'm not sure that we should equate making disciples of all nations with this big fish / people catch metaphor but, again, it is certainly easy to make that comparison.

Of course this could seen as a mundane prediction by Jesus.  A prediction that things would not substantially change if the disciples merely followed him, like they did early on, without their lives being transformed. Without a change of mind and heart they simply replace catching fish with catching people as their job. With this observation Jesus could have been inviting or inspiring them to transform how they interacted with the world while realizing this would not immediately occur.

Perhaps the best way to read this is to understand the difference between the disciples fishing on their own and their trust and witness in following God's word and this is done while Jesus is present. Still I don't think this is the complete message of this call.

There is something about abundance and good news that I still have not learned in reading this passage. There is something about, when Simon Peter saw the catch, Peter falling down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken" There is something about Jesus answering with "do not be afraid".

I do know this contains an answer to my thoughts and prayers that I still do not understand.

I no sooner wrote these words than I saw a post from Bishop Eaton about the challenges the church is faced with today that are the same concerns I was thinking and praying about this week.

"I think we are asking the wrong questions, I think we need to ask: 'What is God up to?'", she writes. "The good news is that you and I don’t have to have a clear vision because God does. “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” (Isaiah 43:18-19). These words of hope were spoken to the Jews who were stuck in exile. They had lost their land, their temple and their king—the pillars of their identity. Likewise, the church has lost social status and relevance in 21st-century American culture.

So what is God up to? I am still downhearted because I don't have an answer and neither do I want to do something detrimental and I don't See God's vision for the church at this moment.