3 mins
Fishing with Jesus
IN my last article I suggested that Rebooting Church cannot be simply about making better use of technology. It is about reconnecting to our core functions. We are primarily a worshipping community commissioned to go fishing with Jesus for people.
The outcome of the expedition is that others will become part of the community of faith, enjoying the company of God and his people. The opportunity to fish often comes through the request of an interested party. Following the lockdown imposed by the Coronavirus Covid-19, many interesting conversations and opportunities to share our faith will arise as people try to explain the feelings and longings that they have experienced as they ponder and reflect upon their inner journeys.
When we talk of fishing we are talking about getting our feet wet. Opening up to others about what Jesus means to us. It’s an intentional activity. Jesus expects us to learn how to bring others into his Kingdom. Remember what the apostle Peter wrote to the Christians scattered in Asia and parts of Europe: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you for the reason for the hope that lies within you.”
The church is not a building made of bricks and mortar limited to time and location. We’re not asking people to join a club. We’re inviting them to become reconciled with God their Father. The Christian family is like a network of souls linked and joined together, in love. Connected by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. We’re a community of disparate people that exist in time and space, but also beyond time and space. We’re people redeemed and restored by the grace of God. Thus we recite together in the Apostles’ Creed, our belief in the “Communion of the Saints.” This is to say, we believe God expresses his love and his power and his call to all his creation, to be reconciled to him. And what is amazing is he uses the witness of his people down through the ages to do this.
We are his witnesses for this generation and even those still to come. Our actions make a mark in time and eternity. We need to remind ourselves that we are being cheered on by our Lord and all those who have gone before us. The net you might say has been passed to us.
Getting back to the fishing analogy, this means we must not be afraid to throw the net over on the other side and start fishing according to Jesus’ instructions. The kind of fishing Jesus is talking about is an activity that puts more value on people than fish. I wonder if Jesus was pointing to the fish that had just been caught, when he asked Peter, “Do you love me more than these?” (John chapter 21:15) Could Jesus be asking us to fish in a new way? To leave our buildings and our old nets and our old methods of doing things our Church of Scotland way. Could he be asking us as a church and as individuals to start fishing his way?
Have you ever noticed that when Jesus spoke to people he often asked them questions? Sometimes he responded to a question with another question of his own. It seems to me, Jesus was less interested in answers and more interested in understanding what other people were thinking. By doing this he was able to go right to the root of their problem sometimes with another question or the touch of his hand or the warmth of his voice. So what is God asking of us during this time of isolation and closed churches? What is God planning? What does he see that we can’t see? Where are you being asked to cast your net? What would the other side look like for you? What are you being asked to leave behind? Going fishing with Jesus means networking because old nets get broken and new ones worked out of old.
The Very Rev Albert Bogle is a Pioneer Minister of Sanctuary First Church Online at www.sanctuaryfirst.org.uk
This article appears in the July 2020 Issue of Life and Work
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This article appears in the July 2020 Issue of Life and Work