Mark 1: 14-20, Epiphany 3B, "Fishing for Christ"

Theme:  Fishing for Christ

How did Peter and Andrew, James and John, become good fishermen for Christ?  Like Peter, we need to learn to fish for people.

We discover that the principles for good fishing are the same principles involved in good evangelism or fishing for Christ. 

What are some of the marks or characteristics of a good fisherman? Whether you are a commercial fisherman or a sports fisherman, the characteristics are the same. This is what my “old pro” fishermen friends have told me about the marks of a good fisherman.

“You gotta love it. It has to be in your blood. It’s an absolute pleasure to live in that wind and rain, cold and sleet, it has to be in your blood.” That is what these old salts of fisherman told me. 

In order to be a good fisherman, they also said “You have to be dedicated to it. You have to get up at three in the morning. The best salmon fishermen are on the water when it is dark.  The lazy salmon fishermen come at seven in the morning. When it is pitch black and there is ice coming down from the sky and you are baiting your lure with a flashlight, you have to be nuts to do something like that. You have to love it. You have to be dedicated to the task. Your dedication grows out of your love.” Any good fisherman knows that ten percent of the steel headers catch ninety percent of the steelhead. That’s the way it is. A good fisherman is dedicated. The good fishermen make the extra effort.

Another mark of a good fisherman is that they are experienced. If you haven’t fished much, chances are that you are not that good at it. If you fish a lot, you learn from other fisherman. It is basic. If you are a good fisherman, you didn’t learn it on your own. Somebody taught you. A grandpa, a grandma, a father, a brother, or maybe an uncle taught you. If you are a good fisherman, somebody else taught you and you began to slowly develop your own experience. If you are a greenhorn at fishing, chances are you get skunked quite often. John Laakso has a Ph. D. in math but he had to learn to fish from the old pros out at the end of D Dock in downtown Des Moines.

Another mark of a good fisherman is you have to know the fish. You have to know what and where they are biting. You have to know where the good holes are, at what depth, what they are biting on, what they are hitting on. The fish are there; that is not the problem; there are hundreds and thousands of fish in the water down below you, but how to catch them is another matter. You have to learn that information from other fishermen or your past records. That is what these “old pros of fishermen” told me.

Another mark of a good fisherman is patience. You have to sit so long sometimes to catch those trout, to catch those perch, northerns or salmon. You need to learn to sit patiently and wait and wait and wait, trying different lures and baits and depths and speeds and holes. You don’t have to tell good fisherman about patience. They live with patience.

Those are some of the marks of a good fisherman or woman. 

Jesus said, “Simon, if you follow me, I will teach you how to fish for people.” If you are a follower of Christ, Christ teaches you many things. Christ teaches you how to love. Christ teaches you how to forgive. Christ teaches you how to pray. But Christ also teaches you how to fish for people. Simon Peter had to learn. Simon had to learn a new skill, a new talent, a new ability. If there is one thing true about a good fisherman, he had to be taught by other skilled fisherman. If you are a follower of Christ, you too are learning what it means to be a fisher of people. Simon had to learn it and you and I need to learn it as well.

What does that mean for us? What are some of the characteristics of becoming good fishers for people? As a pastor, I teach many people about what it means to love, forgive and pray. I also would like to share with you insights that I have learned about fishing for people, so that they would be caught by Christ.

The first is attitude. You need to have the right attitude to be an effective fisher of people. As a fine fisherman, you need to have the right attitude and the same in fishing for Christ. It is an infectious attitude, a contagious attitude, a positive attitude.  These effective fishermen love Christ, the things of Christ, the ways of Christ, the people of Christ, the church of Christ. They love bringing themselves to church; they love bringing their families here. I could give many examples of many of you here today, e,g, Carley Marchitto, a young ninth grader, who loves Christ, loves her church, loves her Christian faith, and brings most of her girl friends to church. Almost all of her girl friends are now in confirmation; their parents are now coming and joining the church. From the Bible, we know that a child shall lead them and Carley certainly is a leader in our church. She is enthusiastic for Christ, her faith, her congregation and her positive affection rubs off on her friends. She has the right attitude and you cant’ be a fine fisher for Christ without the right attitude.

The second thing I notice about good fishermen and women for Christ is that it does not take fancy equipment.  Some people have fancy boats and fancy down riggers and fancy rods and reels to catch their salmon, but they will all be skunked if they don’t know the fish or if they fish at the wrong time of day or fish in the wrong season or fish in the wrong holes, etc. You need to have some basic, simple equipment to do the job. What is the simple equipment of most effective fishermen and women for Christ? The love of Jesus in your heart and for another human being. It is all the equipment that you need. Love for Christ; love for others as you are talking to your family, friends and work associates. You don’t need to know a lot of Bible verses. You don’t need to take the Bethel Bible Series or the Crossways Bible Series or go to Bible Study Fellowship and learn all that you learn. I have discovered that people with a wealth of Biblical knowledge are not any more effective fishermen and women than others. Fancy equipment isn’t the key to good fishermen. Ask Carley or anyone like her. The longer that you are fishing for Christ, the longer you learn that unchurched people are not asking the hard of questions, Biblical questions, theological questions.  Hard questions aren’t getting in their way of becoming disciples. The point is: you need simple and good fishing equipment and that simple equipment is the love of God/Christ and love for other people in your soul.

A third quality of good fishermen and women is knowing where the fish are and what they are biting on. This is very important. There are times and places where the fishing is hot, and you need to be there fishing at those times. The same is true for fishing for Christ. There are times when people are more hungry for Christ, spirituality and spiritual values. Sociological studies have been done on people who have experienced adult baptisms or reaffirmed their faith as they come back into the life of the church after being gone for five years or more. Where are the “hot spots?”

There are three definite “hot points” or “hot holes” to use a fishing analogy. One “hot time” is in preparation for a Christian marriage. This is true of younger couples who may be more open since they know how difficult marriages can be; younger couples sense a need for Christ in their new marriage, especially since they have experienced so much divorce among their families and friends. Also, an older couple coming to the church after having gone through a divorce, two or three divorces, and are now coming to Christ and the church looking for help and guidance, looking for the love of Christ to live inside of them. You need to look for Christian conversations with friends or family during this time.

Another “hot point” has to do with family and children. 77% of the unchurched want their children to come to Sunday School. That number is incredible, if you stop to think about it. In our crazy mixed up world today, with mass murders and school murders and sex, violence and pornography a standard diet on any television show, parents are looking for another alternative. That alternative is often the Christian community, and the power of the Christian community when Christian teenagers influence other teenagers. Many people join churches looking for a vigorous youth ministry precisely because they are worried about their children. You need to be talking with your family and friends with children. Tell them about the wisdom of starting children early in church and how hard it is to start them later when they are more rebellious. Parents understand this.

A third “hot spot” or “hot hole,” to using a fishing analogy is people experience a “spiritual emptiness” inside.  Look for variations on the word, “empty,”  “something is missing in my life,” “there is a hole in my heart.” All of these language patterns reveal a need for God, for Christ, for the spirituality of God living inside of a person. In a materialistic, fast paced society, it doesn’t take long before someone realizes that something basic is missing. Be ready for these conversations. It was Jesus who said, “The sick are the ones who know their need for a physician. Those who think they are well do not go to a doctor. Likewise with God. Those who are not well in the spirit and know their need of God for themselves, their family, their children, they are the ones who look for Christ and are receptive to the Great Physician.” 

A good fisherman? You need to know where the hot holes are and fish there. You don’t simply troll down the middle of the Puget Sound hoping to snag a salmon. You go where the holes are, where the fishing may be potentially hot.

The fourth quality of a good fisherman or woman is this: you need to set the hook. When fishing for salmon, you need to set the hook. When fishing with grandpa and the red bobber pulls down into the water, you need to set the hook. It is an art to setting the hook. Some will pull the bait out too quickly. The fish is nibbling on the worm and the child doesn’t get the fish a chance to take the bait, but pulls it up too soon, or waits too long. There is an art to setting the hook.  So it is in fishing for Christ: you need to develop the art of setting the hook.  Setting the hook refers to giving them a specific invitation. The question is: “Would you go to church with me tomorrow?” Not, “would you come to church with me sometime in the future?” The question is specific, with a time frame. You ask the question, “Do you want talk about your marriage or your kids now? Do you want to talk about your emptiness now?”  You are willing to ask that specific question. Children in Sunday School can invite and do invite other friends to come with them to Sunday School. I have found that confirmation kids invite their friends to come to confirmation.

The last quality of a good fisherman is key: the longer you do it, the better you get. If you haven’t been fishing much for Christ in life, chances are that you are not very good at it. It takes a while, but you keep at it, and pretty soon, you become a more experienced fisher of men and fisher of men, so that more people are caught for Jesus Christ.

When people follow Jesus, life goes much better for them, for us. When we follow Jesus, things go better in our marriages, in our families, with our kids, at work, with the neighbors. Most of us know that things go much better in life when we follow the ways of Jesus, the love of Jesus, the forgiveness of Jesus.

The primary mission of the church has always been to encourage others to follow Jesus. That is what fishing for people is all about.

Jesus said to Simon Peter and you and me, “Today, I will teach you to become a fisher of people, that these people may be caught for Christ.”  Simon Peter and his brother and friends dropped everything else to learn this new behavior, this new skill, this new way of living. In the future, they would learn about love, forgiveness and prayer. But on this day, they began learning to fish for Jesus Christ. Amen.

Sermon by Rev. Edward Markquart