HERE AM I; SEND ME
Luke 5:1-11
Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.”
There’s an old joke, one I still think is funny, about the game warden
who had been watching a suspicious fisherman for several months.
The warden suspected the fisherman was actually using explosives to
stun the fish, then taking them as they rose to the surface, but he
could never catch him in the act. Finally the warden went
undercover, befriended the fisherman and got an invitation to go
along. Sure enough, after they were out on the lake in a boat the
fisherman opened his tackle box, took out a stick of dynamite, lit it
and prepared to toss it overboard. The warden interrupted, told
him who he was and said he was under arrest, at which point the
fisherman planted the dynamite with a lit fuse in the game warden’s
hand and said, “So, you gonna talk, or fish?”
Well, obviously this story has some connection to today’s Gospel and
with us, members of St. James’. Jesus well might ask of us, “Are
you gonna talk, or fish?” Every Episcopal church that I know
about talks about growing. Every Episcopal church that I know
about is in decline. Ours is no exception. If you look at
our average attendance over the last 10 years it is a sinking
line. Our giving has actually increased; people try to compensate
for what they perceive as decline, but that can only go on so long.
Talking is one thing; catching people is quite another. Most of
us are uncomfortable with churches that talk about how many have been
saved, and none of us like forms of evangelism that appeal to emotions,
try to scare people into Christianity, or a certain brand of it.
We also are conditioned to think that if people just walk in the door
they will stay; but the truth is that over 70% don’t, and I can count
at least 8 visitors from the area who have visited our church this
year, liked it, but haven’t returned.
In the Gospel today the dialogue between Jesus and the fishermen:
James, John, Andrew, Simon Peter, is sparse. But what happens is
abundance – something that seems to occur whenever Jesus is
around. That should give us a clue about how we proceed.
Jesus has to be around. So, churches that take “fishing”
seriously are clear that Jesus is a part of their life, and that is
true here at St. James’. We are a sacramental church, and we have
a solid core of folk who really believe in and a have a personal
relationship with Jesus. Good, we do pretty well on that score.
Now, let’s move to another “fishing” factor, that of repentance and
humility. Oooh, I can feel you getting uncomfortable. Here
it comes, you’re thinking….
In the Isaiah passage, that majestic description of the call in the
temple, the writer readily admits his humbleness and uncleanness: “And
I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I
live among a people of unclean lips.” In the reading from the New
Testament lesson from I Corinthians Paul describes himself as “For I am
the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God.” Finally, in the Gospel lesson when
Simon Peter realizes the abundance of fish is God’s miracle he falls at
Jesus’ feet, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!"
Episcopalians are not always in touch with their own sinfulness and
unworthiness. It’s not in fashion, either, to be humble or bend
the knee of one’s heart before God. We are also pretty passive
about our faith. It doesn’t catch fire in our minds and hearts as
it should. But that is precisely what God requires of us if we
are to fish for people. Just saying the confession each Sunday at
Communion doesn’t get it. It’s when we bow the knees of our
hearts that God can work in each of us to make us fisher folk. We
need some work in this area. Lent is coming…
The end of the Gospel passage from Luke is fascinating. The soon-to-be
disciples are tired and on edge. They have been up all night,
caught nothing, and now this huge catch at daybreak, and this person in
their midst, someone they knew from being around the lake, and yet they
did not know him. In the midst of their troubled lives, their
hardscrabble existence, their roughness, lack of sophistication, they
come to their senses. Jesus says to them, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” They bring their boats ashore, leave them and follow him.
What we have just witnessed and heard is grace, God’s gift to our
troubled, distracted and often disobedient hearts. He would like
to give this gift of calming grace to each of us. He would like
us to share it with other people we know whose lives are highly
stressed and often in turmoil. He would like us to stop being
afraid. And every time we receive this blessed Sacrament of bread
and cup, every time we offer one another the peace, every time we take
a moment to listen to someone else’s stress and stumbling, we are doing
that work of receiving and offering grace to others.
Now comes the harder work: getting ourselves clear in our minds
and hearts. Lent is a time when the church offers us a chance to
reflect and refine our lives to make them more in tune with Jesus’ call
to each of us. I hope you’ll use that time, beginning Feb. 17,
Ash Wednesday, to work on that. I plan to; I need to.
We also have a vestry retreat coming next Saturday, when for a few
hours we’ll set aside the immediate business of the parish and focus
more on our call in this community. What is it specifically that
Jesus is calling us to do? We know he expects us to fish for
people, but how? What can our relatively small congregation do to
reach out more into this community? How can we get better at
welcoming and incorporating new members? Whom shall we
send? Who will go for us? In Isaiah’s words there is only
one reply we can offer. “Here am I; send me.”
The Rev. Ben Helmer
St. James' Episcopal Church
Eureka Springs, Arkansas
7 February 2010