Less is More: What are You Fishing For?

In this world, you will stay busy 24x7 doing something. The question is, "What are you doing, and for whose sake are you doing it?"

Luke 5:1-11

Commentary

Of the synoptic gospels, Luke has the longest account of the calling of the fishermen, giving us many details omitted from Matthew 4:18-22 and Mark 1:16-20). What details can you find?

v1 Lake Gennesaret is the Grecian name for the Sea of Galilee. The name came from the town Kinnereth, a town of the tribe of Naphtali (Joshua 19:35) on the NW side of the lake.

v5 This is not Simon’s 1st encounter with Jesus. Luke 4:38-39 puts Jesus at Simon’s house, and John 1:35-42 indicates that Simon met Jesus shortly after Jesus’ baptism. Simon’s response to Jesus here shows the high regard Simon already had for Jesus.

v7 What happens when God gives you your heart’s desire? At least in this case, the fishermen are about to be done in by their prosperity. The word translated here as "sink" is only used one other place in the Bible (1 Tim. 6:9) and it connotes dragging down to ruin.

v10 Matthew and Mark both report that Jesus said, "Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men;" however, that’s not Luke’s account. Let’s look at the two big differences:

"Don’t be afraid!" The most common reaction to God’s revelation is fearful awe (in Luke look at 1:13, 1:30, 2:10, 5:11, 8:35, 8:50, 9:34, & 9:45).

"Catch men." The verb here has nothing to do with fishing, but rather catching something alive. [1]

What do these differences suggest to you?

Application

This is a story of the transformation of Simon.

In the beginning, Simon was an ordinary fisherman. Nowadays people might practice catch-and-release; however, Simon certainly planned to eat or sell everything he caught. For Simon, fishing was a predatory practice, a means of survival. As soon as the fish were caught, they’d begin to spoil, [2] and the key to survival was to catch & dry (or sell) the fish as soon as possible.

Simon already knew Jesus; however, the focus of his life was fishing [insert your favorite fisherman joke here]. Fishing was Simon’s means of survival. No doubt Simon dreamed of, and prayed for, a bonanza: a really good catch, a windfall profit, one good stroke of luck that would turn things around for him. Be careful what you wish for, Simon! [3]

God gives Simon the catch of Simon’s dreams, and it threatens to drag him down. Simon asks for help from his partners, and still the catch is overwhelming. Simon is smarter than most. Instead of persisting in trying to haul in the fantastic catch, he realizes that the real prize—Jesus—is already in the boat. He realizes that he has been taking the real prize for granted. In his transformation, he judges himself [correctly] as being unworthy.

There is a better way, Jesus implies:

Instead of survival, how about real life?

Instead of bringing death to your catch, how about bringing your catch to real life?

Instead of feeding the body alone from the death of your catch, how about feeding your spirit from the birth of new life in your catch?

By the time Jesus tells Simon not to fear, Simon has already been transformed in how he perceives life: what feeds him & what gives purpose to life. Until Simon’s epiphany, obeying Jesus was a duty: a chore competing with Simon’s instinct for worldly success. But now, but seeing Jesus as the real prize which will order his life, Simon can put his worldly fears aside.

"Not a Fishy Smell" (2 Corinthians 2:15)
For we are to God
the aroma of Christ
among those who are being saved ...

Points to Ponder

For what do you labor?

For Peter the fisherman, survival depended on catching and killing fish. On what does your survival depend?

For Peter the fisherman, the biggest catch of his life brought him to the brink of disaster. What is your fantasy success? Realistically, what would probably happen if that fantasy became reality? [4]

For Peter the fisherman, transformation came on the heels of the revelation that the real catch of the day was Jesus and that Jesus was the source of everything he needed. Have you ever had such an epiphany?

For Peter the catcher of men, Jesus’ first words after the miracle are, "Don’t be afraid!" Transformation cannot happen for us as long as we are afraid of what God will do to us. What is your fear?

For Peter the catcher of men, survival now consists of catching people and bringing them to spiritual life. Transformation cannot happen for us as long as we fear for our survival. Look at your life as it is now: where would following Jesus, becoming like Peter, and becoming a catcher of people put your survival at stake?

Are you willing to trust that God is greater than your fear?

Later, after the resurrection, when Peter was lacking direction, he reverted to fishing for a while. That story is in John 21:1-19. What parallels can you find between the story in John and today’s story? There will be times when we revert back to our old ways, but God loves us too much to let us do that for long. At the conclusion of the story in John, Peter is no longer a fisherman, or even a catcher of men: now he is to assume the role of a shepherd (but that’s another sermon for another day). Likewise, if we, in our frailty, revert back to old behaviors, God is ready to reinstate us, and even use us for bigger things.

Postscript

For those of you who are wishing for more baseball sermons, I offer up this little newspaper article "Batting for Jesus" about the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies, National League champions for the first time ever, decided a couple years ago to build a team based on character instead of on good pitchers or good hitters. A prosperity theology might try to argue that a Christian team will be a winning team, thanks to God’s blessing. However, Christians are more often called to suffer in the world for their beliefs, and the truer testimony of the Rockies is not whether they win, but rather how they stand up under adversity.

Endnotes

1 - Strangely, the only other place the word is used in the Bible refers to Satan snaring us (2 Timothy 2:26).

2 - Jake Curtis, who is taking culinary arts at the high school, told me this week, "The reason you keep fish on ice is that the flesh decomposes exponentially faster for each degree that they are above freezing."

Gov. Mike Huckabee, Republican candidate for President, during an interview by Glenn Beck on TV on Oct. 19th, said, "Baptists are like fish; they begin to spoil as soon as you take them out of the water."

3 - We labor after worldly things, thinking that their attainment will fix everything. However, frequently achieving our dreams changes nothing—if anything our troubles increase. For example Jack Whittaker, the $315-million Powerball winner in 2002, pledged 10% of his winnings to Christian charities. However, his life has been a tangled mess of arrests & court suits ever since.

4 - Herein is the paradox:

Until our hearts are right, material success cannot bring happiness; if anything, prosperity brings greater trials because we have greater temptations, and nothing has changed for us spiritually.

After our hearts are right, material success is inconsequential to happiness. If anything, prosperity brings greater opportunities to give to others, because we already have what we need.

Less is More: Far from the Maddening Crowd [1]

The temptation at church is always to do more:

We give food to about 30 families each month through the food pantry. When the town asks for help giving Christmas presents to many of the same families, what should we do?

We work hard to have a fun, safe, and engaging children’s ministry program on Sunday mornings. This summer we did not do a VBS program. How much should we beat ourselves up about that?

The temptation for me as a pastor is always to do more:

It’s Friday; I’m really behind on my sermon, and the funeral home calls, asking if I can meet with a bereaved family—strangers—and conduct a funeral service on Sunday afternoon. What should I do?

My in-laws are in town, and a family calls with a crisis that will take all day and all night to handle. What should I do?

The temptation for you, personally, is always to do more:

You go to church, sometimes, and you try to read your Bible, but you sense something is wrong. You think you should knuckle down harder, maybe go to a Bible study. What should you do?

You go to church, Bible studies, women’s groups, service projects, Casco Inn, etc., etc., etc. You feel burnt out, used, unappreciated, and cynical. What should you do?

What could Jesus possibly have to say about this?

Mark 1:35-39

Commentary

This story also appears in Luke 4:42-44. The contexts are very similar, but we can pick up some details from each account.

The action takes place right outside of Capernaum. The day before Jesus had exorcised a demon from a man in the synagogue (v21-28), healed Peter’s mother-in-law (v29-31), and spent the evening healing the sick and exorcising demons (v32-34). What do you do as an encore after a day like that?

v35 The "solitary place" is a desert or wilderness, far removed from the town and the action of the day before. Where else does a desert, wilderness, solitary place figure into stories about Jesus? (Hint: get a concordance or an online Bible and see where Jesus+solitary appear in the same verse.)

v36 Luke indicates a somewhat bigger mob of people went out to look for Jesus.

v37 What would be the motivation of the townsfolk to look for Jesus? What do you think they intended to do? (Hint: Luke 4:42 gives more details here; figure out what you think the mob wanted to do, and then check with Luke.)

v38 "Let us go somewhere else ..." This goes against every human inclination; when something good happens for us, we want to milk it for all it’s worth. A good response to a sermon? Preach it again! A good response to a Beth Moore Bible study? Do more Beth Moore!

"That is why I have come." During this phase of his ministry, Jesus has a very narrow focus: preach, heal, and exorcise in as many Galilean towns as possible.

v39 This summary verse summarizes exactly what he did the day before in Capernaum and it reveals exactly what Jesus saw as this phase of his ministry.

Application

Refreshment Needed

As a pastor, frequently great temptations come immediately after great successes. I might feel successful helping someone one day, and get criticized for not helping somebody else the next!

Pride & fatigue tend to be the extremes at work here, threatening the Spirit-led life.

I see this in the life of Jesus. Often he goes off by himself to pray in the desert after what most of us would have called a great success. I imagine Jesus is praying in order to protect himself, keep his focus, and find out what comes next.

What happens in this story if pride or fatigue get the better of Jesus?

"Let us go somewhere else ..." Jesus says. Let’s consider, for a moment, what Jesus does not stick around to do:

He does not stay to teach. (The townsfolk might well be looking to recruit him to be their new rabbi.)

He does not stay to disciple and commission others. (How many townsfolk wanted to be disciples?)

He does not stay for fellowship. (Insert your favorite mother-in-law joke here.)

He does not stay to make sure that all the people he helped are OK.

Strangely, the man calling himself the Good Shepherd begins his ministry by being—on the surface—a lousy shepherd. I realize that this is a provocative thing to say, but seriously, what would you think of an evangelist or a pastor who acted this way? Certainly Jesus must have known that it would be nice to do all these things—he certainly does them all at other times with other people—so why not be nice?

What else doesn’t Jesus stick around do?

He does not stay to be thanked.

He does not stay to be worshipped. (He even silences demons calling him "Son of God," Luke 4:41)

In v38, Jesus tells the disciples, in effect, "That is NOT why I have come." Jesus does not stay in Capernaum, because his call at this point is to go through all of Galilee (v39).

At best, to stay in Capernaum is to get slowed up, distracted.

At worst, to stay in Capernaum is to disobey his call.

The proverb, "A camel is a horse designed by committee," reveals a truth: groups frequently make so many demands upon an object that it can no longer perform its original purpose well. What might a rabbi designed by committee look like? The townsfolk would probably like him to continue to heal the sick and exorcise the demons. They’d probably like him to continue to preach with authority. They’d probably like him to teach, train others, come over for dinner, and care for them. In return, they’d extol his virtues as the best rabbi they’d ever had.

Without thinking, the townsfolk would be trying to take this wild phase of Jesus’ ministry (and face it, miraculous healings & exorcisms are wild stuff) and attempt to domesticate it. But there is a problem: If they had dissuaded him from his call, how long would he have retained the power and authority to do anything? Jesus’ ministry was to prepare the way; in three years or so, after the resurrection and Pentecost, when the apostles began to fan out from Jerusalem, how many in Capernaum would then receive discipleship, fellowship, etc.—and the Spirit—in God’s good timing?

Whatever they’d like him to do, whatever a rabbi designed by committee might look like, Jesus fiercely resists the pressure to conform. He knows the purpose of his ministry at this time, the purpose given to him by his Father, and he will doggedly pursue it.

Points to Ponder

Where are you a Christian designed by committee? Put aside the many things you are doing for God. What is God calling you to do? (All the rest is nice, but don’t allow it to dissuade you from your calling.)

Earlier, I gave two examples, "You go to church ... but you sense something is wrong. You think you should knuckle down harder," or, "You go to church, Bible studies ... etc., etc., etc. You feel burnt out, used, unappreciated, and cynical." Can it ever be the case that doing more of what you’re not called to be doing at this time is right? Could it be that you are missing God’s call—that you are off-purpose?

Would you rather have a pastor designed by committee, or a pastor following God’s calling?

Would you rather have a church designed by committee, or a church following God’s calling?

What if the God’s call is to do a new thing? (Psalm 33:3, Isaiah 43:18-19, 2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 6:15)

End Notes:

1 - The sermon title comes from the Thomas Hardy book of the same name, which in turn comes from the Thomas Gray poem Elegy Written in a Graveyard, which says:

Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife
Their sober wishes never learn'd to stray

In Hardy’s book, the main character is a shepherd who strives to win the love of a woman who goes through several tragic relationships before marrying him. It sounds our relationship with the Good Shepherd!

Less is More: Getting Off the Beaten Path

In my sermon two weeks ago ("Looking out for #1") I asked:

What if you took the material thing that you treasure most in the world and got rid of it?

Unless God works in our lives—until we let God work in our lives—the answer for most of us is simple:

In a very short time, we would replace it—probably with something more expensive!

There is a reason why most of us don’t see God at work in our lives: we might feel passionate about God; we might feel bad about ourselves; we might even vow to do some great thing for God; but until we let God work in our lives, nothing ever changes. ("As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly."—Proverbs 26:11)

Luke 18:18-30

Commentary

This story also appears in Matthew 19:16-30 and Mark 10:17-31. (I won’t belabor the differences here—the main point is the same in all three accounts—but there are subtle differences in how the story is told. Can you find one?)

v20 What Jesus gives here is only five of the Ten Commandments. Conspicuous in their absence are the commandments honoring God (Exodus 20:3-11: no other gods; no idols; no taking God’s name in vain; honor the Sabbath). Is Jesus just randomly listing some commandments, or is he saying something by what he is not saying?

v23 One must conclude at this point that the rich man idolized his wealth. His security was in his wealth, not in God. His glory was in his wealth. His faith was in his wealth. [1]

v24 Have you ever noticed that Jesus never chases after half-hearted disciples? He doesn’t follow this guy saying stuff like, "Well everything is a goal, but why not start by giving away a tenth, and work your way up from there!" What is the lesson there? On the other hand, in some of the manuscripts this verse reads, "Jesus looked at him and became very sad" (i.e. Jesus felt about losing the young man exactly how the young man felt about losing his money).

v28 A riddle:
Q: What’s the difference between disciples and disciple wannabes?
A: Disciples follow; wannabes want to follow, but don’t.

v29 Not everyone will be asked to leave anything, but everyone will be asked to leave something. You will be asked to leave the thing distracting you from God ... but God will make it up to you when you follow.

Application

The rich young man turned away, because he could not see the possibility of Jesus replacing the man’s great wealth with anything better. So it is for us:

We struggle with forgiving others, because we cannot see the possibility of justice, or reconciliation, or peace coming out of our unilateral forgiveness of others. We figure we’ll be taken advantage of.

We struggle with sexual purity, because we cannot see the possibility of real, wholesome, fulfilling sexual intimacy coming into our lives after we refrain from tawdry pornography or lewd behavior. We figure we’ll simply have nothing.

We struggle with selling all and giving it away, because we cannot see contentment coming from something other than our stuff. We figure no stuff means no happiness.

If the rich young man could have seen just a little further, he would have known that in the process of following Jesus, he would have become a new creation. He would have been transformed into someone who found joy in the Spirit—and consequently would have found joy in service to God, service to others, and the coming of God’s reign into this world. All that stuff that held him in bondage would have lost its power to hold him—and the lie that happiness comes from great wealth would have been broken for him.

All that could have happened if the man had followed. But the man was not ready to follow. He could understand selling all his stuff—he understood the consequences of that!—but he could not see the necessity of following, of getting off the beaten path of materialism, in order to become whole.

Points to Ponder

Whatever God is asking you to give up, either:

material stuff (e.g. the 42" HDTV, the fancy truck),

worldly stuff (e.g. the internet, pornography),

spiritual stuff (e.g. the illusion of control with your kids)

giving it up will leave a big, sucking wound in the middle of your life. You know that, and that’s exactly why you haven’t given it up yet.

You’ve been spiritually sick all this time (& you know that, too) and the first step to real health (just like treating cancer) is to remove the thing which doesn’t belong. After that, God can begin the rest of the healing—assuming that you are ready to follow. Following is going to involve unlearning some things and re-learning others.

For example, let’s say God said,

Sell the TV!

If your TV rules your life, then you probably cannot imagine evenings at home without the TV on. "What will I do?" God can’t teach you what to do until the TV goes off. It may be relational time with the family, or service projects in the community, or devotional time with God, or sleep! The point is: God wants you to have it; you’ll never understand it or appreciate it until you sell the TV and follow God’s lead in whatever comes next; eventually you’ll like it more than what you have now.

Whatever your stumbling block is, get off this beaten path, and follow God to greater wholeness!

A Parable of Four Christians

Four Christians all went to the same church:

The 1st heard a sermon about selling all and having treasure in heaven, and he sold all, and it changed his life.

The 2nd heard a sermon about having self-control, and he gave up drinking, and it changed his life.

The 3rd heard a sermon about loving your enemies, and he prayed for those persecuting him, and it changed his life.

The 4th heard a sermon about dying to self, picking up one’s cross daily & following, and he did so, and it changed his life.

When someone asked the four what she needed to do to be saved ...

... the 1st said, "Sell all"

... the 2nd said, "Quit drinking"

... the 3rd said, "Pray for your enemies"

... the 4th said, "Follow Jesus daily"

Three of the four spoke only of their own experience—and they were good witnesses of God’s work in their lives—but only one of the four saw the life-changing work of God for what it was. Their great deeds did not save them; rather, their daily walk thereafter made them into something new.

End Notes:
1 - Remember, the best working definition for faith is that it’s what directs your actions. What you think is what you know, but what you believe is what you do.

Halloween: In or Out?

Finally, a blog entry that's not a sermon (at least not yet, and probably not this year).

Kathy & I were amazed when we moved to New England at the Halloween-mania. Although Halloween was certainly celebrated in the other states we had lived in, nowhere else was it celebrated by as many well meaning evangelical Christians. In California, Kathy & I were friends with psychologist James Friesen who specialized in treating multiple personality disorder cases (actually, now I see where it's been renamed dissociative identity disorder). In his treatment of these patients, virtually all of the patients were victims of child abuse and most were victims or satanic ritual abuse (aka SRA). Kathy had the opportunity to hear the story of one of the survivors of SRA, and her message was, "You really don't get the extent to which Satan worship and human sacrifice is real, but once you get it, you'll never want to celebrate Halloween again."

Now, I know that many will argue that costumes and trick-or-treat have as much to do with Satan worship as Easter eggs and marshmallow chicks have to do with the resurrection and evergreen trees, stockings, and Santa Claus have to do with the birth of the Savior. I get that. (Personally, I think that when society co-opts a religious observance--e.g. worshipping Santa instead of the Christ-child--it's time for the religious community to move on. Don't forsake Christmas, but dispense with the secular trappings in a radical way and allow God to make something new, some new form of devotion and worship, in place of the old. PS - Did you know that Puritans didn't celebrate Christmas outwardly much at all? They figured the best celebration was how they lived their lives ...)

Getting back to Halloween celebrations, I think it's a lot like Romans 14. The question there is, "Is it OK to eat meat that has been slaughtered and sacrificed to idols?" Paul's answer was: if you think it's sin, then it's sin; if you think it's not sin, then it's not sin; however, if your actions cause someone else to stumble (e.g. peer pressure, causing the one who thinks that it's sin to do it anyway) then you have sinned as well. You might be clear in your own mind that Halloween is no big deal, but does your participation in Halloween cause someone else to glorify something that shouldn't be glorified? Then when I was googling this topic for the blog, I came across this article which makes the same point (albeit better).

The question for me is two-fold, "What do I lose by not celebrating Halloween if it's really just a secular holiday?" The answer: a little fun and a lot of candy. However, part two is, "What do I lose by celebrating Halloween if it really is as bad as all that?" The answer: a lot, and worst of all is I will have failed my kids. When I looked at it that way, it was pretty easy to put Halloween aside. Kathy & I were pretty direct with the kids: "How much candy will it take to buy you off?" We ended up buying them each a pound or so of candy, staying home, and doing something as a family.

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