FISHER(WO)MEN

I am not a fisherman. I have never been a fisherman. I don’t ever want to be a fisherman. My wife and daughters like to fish. I think it’s a waste of time. It’s probably a lot of fun when you catch something; but just standing there on the shore or in the middle of the water or even on the open sea in a big boat waiting for some dumb fish to snag your hook is not my cup of tea. I don’t mind eating the fish that are caught, but I’d rather be golfing.

Of course, to a fisherman, or fisherwoman in my wife’s and daughters’ case, hitting a little white ball and then chasing after it is also a waste of time. They’d rather be fishing.

To each his own. But whatever it is we like to do – fish, golf, knit, play tennis – there are two requirements in order to be good at it: talent and patience. I can be the most talented golfer in the world; but if I do not have patience, I will not score well. I can have the patience of Job but no talent and the results will be the same: a lousy score.

Talent and patience are basic requirements to be successful in any endeavor. They are also requirements when it comes to being fisher-people like Jesus’ disciples were called to be. An old saying has it that five 5% of the fishermen catch 95% of the fish. That is probably true when it comes to being a disciple like Peter and John. It’s a good thing that we are not all called to be such disciples.

Some are. Others are called to be teachers, and others are called to be preachers, and others are called to be healers, and so on. Each of us has been given certain gifts for the building up of God’s Kingdom here on earth. We must discover what those gifts are and use them to the best of our ability. But we must also have patience.

We don’t pick up a fishing pole become an expert at fishing. We don’t pick up a golf club for the first time and shoot par. The innate, God-given talent may be there but it must be patiently nurtured to reach its peak. One lesson does not make us an expert nor does one sermon covert us or another. Living out our faith and sharing that faith takes talent and patience, patience, patience. And we need one another.

We have been called, each of us, through our baptism to be fishers of others in our own unique way in our own specific time. Our individual ways are many and diverse. We begin by learning what it means to be a Christian and knowing that God gives us whatever it takes to be one. Then we live it as best we can.

Of course, we do not wait until we become experts before we begin to teach. To become a good golfer we must golf. To become a good fisherman we must fish. To be a good Christian we must continually come to a better understanding of our faith. We must also recognize the talents God has given us. Then we can, with patience, teach that faith to others as we live out that faith and, at the same time we will grow in the practice of that faith ourselves.

FORM AND FUNCTION

There is a principle in architecture that says form follows function. The shape of any building should flow from the purpose for that which it is to be used. There does, of course, need to be a proper balance. I’ve been in some churches that were all form: beautiful to behold; but the acoustics were terrible and you couldn’t see around all the pillars. And I’ve been in some churches that were very, very functional but also very, very cold.

Form and function are also important for us as Christians. However, it is the opposite of architecture. For us function follows form. We are followers of Jesus. That is our form given to us in baptism. Now we have to fill out that form by following Jesus, by doing what our faith in him would have us do: functioning as a real disciple, living out what we believe, con-form-ing ourselves to Jesus.

What that means is that we must always be aware that what we do says a lot about who we are and that as Christians we have to understand what we have been called to do, what our function is, because of what we are – our form. Just because a building was designed as a church does not mean that it will always be used as a church.

Just because you and I have been formed, created, as children of God, in the image and likeness of God, does not mean that we will automatically function as God’s children. Function follows form but not always and not automatically. There has to be understanding and intention involved as well. We have to know what we are supposed to do and then do it.

We may accept our baptismal call to be disciples and do our best to live out the promises made for us and that we reaffirm every Easter. But that does not mean that we will. If we work at it, if we give our attention to the task, we will. If we don’t, we won’t. We can build a church and use it as a church; but if we do not care for the building, it will fall down and no longer be used as a church. We can even abandon the building. What we do with it, how we care for it, is up to us.

In life as in architecture, what we give our attention to will shape us. If as Christians our attention is riveted on our job or on television, for instance, rather than on scripture and what the church teaches, our faith will be shaped by that job or what we watch. If we watch enough violence on the tube, it is much easier to accept it and maybe even resort to it. It will shape us ever so subtly, turning the other cheek notwithstanding.

It is vital for us as Christians to understand our form and our function. That means study, worship, prayer. It means knowing what we are called to do and doing it, letting our faith shape us rather than being shaped by something or someone outside our faith. What it all boils down to is that living out our faith is a constant challenge. May we be up to it.

THE BIBLE IS NOT AN ANSWER BOOK

Sometimes we think it is, we think the Bible is an answer book. In fact I have seen several books that have lists of countless questions that we would like the Bible to answer and, believe it or not, those books list the correct Bible passage that will answer that specific question. Well, maybe in some instances that works. But the Bible is not an answer book in that sense.

Nor is the Bible an answer book akin to our Constitution in that those whose responsibility it is (judges) to interpret that document have to read into and decipher out of the words issues that were never in the minds of those who wrote the document. Yet, we have to do that as well with the Bible. The Bible never addresses issues such as birth control, organ transplants, stem cell issues – the list is long.

Even so the Bible is the only document we have when we search for the answers to deep moral issues. Thus, we have to read into and decipher out of those words answers to those moral issues that Moses or Jesus or Paul or anyone else never addressed. That is why we have deep disagreements about what the bible says on a subject it says nothing about but for which we still demand answers.

Thus, while we demand that the Bible be an answer book, can we ever be certain that the answers we read into or decipher out are morally correct? We certainly hope the answers we derive are such, but we may be wrong.

Rather, the Bible is not so much as an answer book as it is certainly a witnessing book. It witnesses to the mighty deeds of God throughout the Bible’s history and especially to the deeds of those who spoke for God throughout that history, Jesus especially. This witnessing, however, did not end with the Book of Revelation. It continued on throughout the centuries and continues on today.

Unfortunately that witnessing has almost become secondary as we who claim to follow the words of the Bible argue about what it says more that witness to what it calls us to do.

We are called to live out our faith, witness to our faith, every moment of every day. In Old Testament times if others wanted to know what it meant to be a follower of God, all they had to do was watch how those who believed in God lived. Today, if anyone wants to know what it means to be a Christian, all that person has to do is observe how we Christians live.

Frightening thought, isn’t it? Is it any wonder why so many who claim to have no faith but may be looking to find faith want nothing to do with Christianity given the way we Christians witness to what we say we believe? Yes, we need to read the Bible to help us discern answers to deep moral questions. But we, even more, need to understand that the Bible calls us to witness to our faith by living it as fully as we can each day.

HE DIDN’T COME TO DO IT ALL

To the minds and hopes and dreams of the Hebrew people as they waited expectantly for centuries – and are still waiting – for the Messiah to come, when the Messiah did come to live among them, he would do it all. He would make all those hope and dreams a reality almost all by himself if not all by himself. No one can do that, of course, even if that someone is God.

The Hebrew people were not simply daydreamers or even alone in having such hopes. Every four years in our country we have an election to vote for the person who will be our Messiah, the one who will make all our hopes and dreams come to fruition. The candidates all proclaim that “I am that one. Vote for me and I will make this country and your life so much better” adding implicitly “all by myself”.

When the person elected fails, and they all fail because the Kingdom has not yet come, that person is roasted over the coals as a failure. But no matter how great the ego of the candidate, no one person can do it all. No one person was ever meant to do it all. That is not the nature of the political system and that is not how God intended it to be from the very beginning.

Jesus did not come to do it all, whatever we deem “all” to be. He came to show us how to do it, how to make those hopes and dreams a reality. More often than not we overlook that truth, conveniently overlook it especially when life is not going the way we want it to go. And when it does not, we tend to look for a scapegoat, someone to blame for the mess we or the country is in.

To find the culprit all we have to do is look into the mirror. No, we are not the total blame but we are part of the blame. Whenever we fail to do what we are expected to do, even if what we are expected to do is very little, the blame for the failure is on our shoulders. That is true in politics as it is in why the world is in the mess that it is in the present day – and it is a mess.

The Jewish people believed that the Messiah would come to change the world just as we Christians believe Jesus, the Messiah, came to change the world. But the world has not changed not because Jesus failed but because we have failed. We have failed to do our part. Jesus did not come to change the world all by himself. Again, he came to show us how to do it and promised that he would give us everything we needed to do just that.

Doing “just that” means that we live out each and every day what we promise to do every time we renew our baptismal promises. In sum those promises mean that we will use whatever gifts we have been given to see and seek and serve Jesus, the Jesus, the God, who lives in everyone, for we are all children of the same God. It is only when we live the way that Jesus taught us to live that the hopes and dreams we have will be realized.