Sermon, January 26, 2003
3 Epiphany, Year B
The Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas

Gospel – Mark 1:14-20 Jesus Begins his Ministry, calls the Fishermen 

Maybe there's a reason why the core of Jesus' followers were fishermen. Maybe there is something about fishermen that opens them naturally to hearing the good news of God that Jesus first proclaims publicly in this passage from the early verses in Mark.

Most of what I know about fishermen I learned from books and movies, most recently The Perfect Storm, based on the true-life story of the loss of the fishing vessel Andrea Gayle. The literature about those who make their living from the sea reveals that fishermen have a deep acceptance of the conditions of their lives. There is a holy reverence for the givenness and power of weather and sky and sea. They are keenly observant of the signs of the times. But they accept their frail mortal limits with an almost primitive resignation to the powers of the cosmic stage. Fishermen simply accept the circumstances. Sometimes the fish bite; sometimes they don't. Sometimes it is fair; sometimes it storms.

There is another characteristic of fishermen that comes through the literature. They are remarkably brave. There is a fearlessness in the whalers of Moby Dick and the crew of the Andrea Gayle that allows them to cast their lives into the great deeps held afloat by inches of material in the midst of powers and unseen monsters who have the potency to make sport of their flimsy defenses.

Acceptance and courage are profound qualities. In fact, according to one of my favorite spiritual guides J. Neville Ward, they are the corresponding qualities to the two strongest blocks to a religious life. He says that resentments and fears are the strongest blocks to a religious life. (The Following Plough, p. 25) From the beginning, Jesus' good news is a message of acceptance and trust: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near" -- look around you and see God's presence now, do not be resentful; "repent, and believe in the good news" -- don't be afraid, all is well, trust and do good.

Jesus sees these fishermen and tells them they can take their wisdom of the sea onto the earth, and with acceptance and trust they pick up and follow him. I think I'd want to know a little more about what he had in mind, wouldn't you?

You see, most of my life is not like a fisherman's. Most of my life has a bouncing quality to it, like a ship going from calm to rough waters, but I tend to meet those bounces more with resentment and anxiety than with acceptance and trust. Maybe you do too.

So many of us are trying to get some control over our lives. There is so much happening that things tend to get out of control. But if you work real hard, you can get it shaped up for the most part, and then you can be happy... For a while. And that's what consumes most of life. Hoping and working so that you can manage the trick of having things straighten out for you. Then, when you get your head above water and things work out like you hoped -- that's freedom, that's happiness. But then you get swamped again and you feel helpless to overcome what's been dished out -- that's helplessness. Back and forth; happiness and helplessness. All posited on a need to control and fed by the energy of resentment and fear, or fear's more civilized expression, anxiety.

I have this fantasy. If I can clear off my desk and do all of those promises that each of those pieces of paper represents, and I can clear all my email, and I can visit with everyone on my prayer list, then everything in the church will be great. Now that's a little crazy, I know. But what's crazier, I take that same controlling insanity from my office to my life. "I'm not as happy as I need to be, so I need to change. I'm not functioning as well as I ought, so I need to be improved upon. So if I can just read the right book, adopt the right technique, work on myself a bit, I'll be able to straighten myself out." Anybody else ever have those thoughts? You bet. Well that's the craziness Jesus came to save us from with his refreshing word, "Repent."

But -- and this is what's really crazy -- most people hear that word "repent" and think Jesus is telling them that they need to work even harder to fix themselves. NO! Look at the fishermen. Jesus said to them quit trying to mend all those nets so nothing falls through the cracks. You've already caught on. Just bring your acceptance and your trust and follow me. Everything's going to work out just fine. We'll catch people. What fun! And they dropped everything and followed him. What freedom.

Christianity really is counter-cultural. You go to school, watch TV, listen to the grownups and here's what they'll tell you. If you want to be a good person, if you want to have the good life, then you'll need to develop self-control, self-determination, self-direction, self-identity and self-confidence. That's the formula for the good life. "I am in control of my self."

But that's crazy. Who is the "I" that is going to control my "self"? You make your self into a thing, an object to be manipulated. We are not things; we are not objects to be fixed. We are mysteries, wonders. Stop mending those nets. Surrender. Repent.

How do you grab all of the dials and instruments of your life -- and life itself -- and operate all the controls when you don't even know who is driving or where you ultimately want to go, except you want everything to be right, whatever that means? Ah, that's the forbidden fruit, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The hunger to be right, to win the argument. But no one has the truth in any absolute sense. We can only glimpse the greatness of God; we can only appreciate God's wonder as it is reflected in creation. Fishermen know that. That's why they observe the signs of earth and sky and sea, accept and respect their wonder, and never make the mistake of thinking the fisherman controls the weather. Neville Ward says, "to be united with Christ is to be making progress in seeing life as it is, not as the child within you wishes it to be, and receiving grace to love its real presence." (Ibid, p. 22) Maturity in spiritual life includes our abandonment of absolutism and perfectionism.

That's a message that can be freeing. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to control yourself or your circumstances. Relax. Repent can mean relax. Stop trying futilely to fix your self. Relax and be who you are. Sure some of your impulses need to be controlled, but that doesn't mean that you as a person have to be controlled, by yourself or anyone else. Relax and receive life as a gift. Don't be afraid. Trust. You are just fine. You are a mystery. God loves you extravagantly. There's nothing to be afraid of. Let God run the world. Relax and do the best you can. Sometimes the fish bite; sometimes they don't. Sometimes it's calm; sometimes it's stormy. "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

back to sermons