"Ice Fishing"

Matthew 4:12-23

There's fishing... and then there's ice fishing.  One is more challenging, though both are fraught with chance and skill in ways that are amazing to those of us who don't fish very well.  But, ice fishing is complicated by the.... ice.  You have to go out there and carve out a hole in the ice and know what the best place to do that is, and ... well, it just seems harder to me.

This week's scripture is another one of those immediately following Jesus kinds of stories. In this week's story we read another account of people being drawn to Jesus.
As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen.

And he said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fish for people."  Immediately they left their nets and followed him.

 Inevitably, people wonder how they managed to do that. What were their lives like that they could just walk away from them and follow Jesus?  And we don't really know how or why or if that happens exactly like we imagine, but the writer of Matthew is intent on us believing they had THAT level of faith in this man they followed. And so was the writer of John in last week's reading.

Commitment, sacrifice, willingness to abandon a way of life for another... those are traits the gospel writers are suggesting disciples had and have.  Like those who brave the conditions and the circumstances to go out and carve a hole in the ice in hopes of making a great catch.  Ice fishing requires commitment, sacrifice of creature comforts and a focus on a way of life that not many are willing to join in... ice fishing as a recreational sport is not for the faint of heart or those who expect instant results.  It is methodical, takes planning and focus.

I wonder if Jesus and the early disciples viewed their ministry in that way? Even though we have these dramatic accounts of people who dropped their nets and their plans and followed Jesus, I wonder if the inner circle including Jesus wasn't more intentional about their way of life. Were they methodical in where they went, who they saw, who they expected to see them? Were they fishing for a certain kind of person, the person no one else was willing to allow into the fold?  It's really interesting food for thought.

And in John 3, the Lutheran Seminary lectionary text for this week, we read of the encompassing love of God. "For God so loved the world."  The beginning of a passage that has been so taken out of context. A passage that is not at all about condemnation of those who don't follow, but rather a passage about God's encompassing love for THE WHOLE WORLD.  If we truly follow that God of love, if Jesus truly was that LOVE incarnate on earth, then we, too, must be willing to embody and carry that love to the world.

That sort of love would make ice fishing so much easier. Because God love is warm and all encompassing and eternal.  So we would no longer have to carve through the icy hearts and minds of today's cynicism, but we would allow God to melt our ice away and catch us up in a net of compassion and goodwill and justice.

How do we 'carve' out places in our icy world to fish for people today?  How could we warm the icy waters instead?  What role do we have in becoming Methodists who offer warmed hearts instead of icy doctrines and rules?  Email me or comment below.