Reading from the Good News of Jesus Christ according to Luke, chapter 5….

I think this sort of thing is right at the heart of the encounter Peter had with Jesus on that fishing boat long ago. He, along with the crowds, had been listening to Jesus speak to them about the in-breaking kingdom of God, soaking up his words, trying to get his mind around this message of new and abundant life ready for the taking in the here and now. But Peter is tired – he had been fishing all night, and with the tiredness of all that manual labor came the weariness of returning to the shore empty-handed. There is no catch, and no catch meant no money, and no money meant hardship for Peter and his family. And Jesus realizes that what Peter needs is more than words, he needs actions, he needs a concrete illustration of what Jesus was talking about – so he tells Peter to go out to the deeper water, drop his nets over the side, and see what happens. The rest, as they say, is history – the catch is overflowing in abundance. There will be food and sustenance for all. This, Jesus is saying, is what the kingdom of God is all about – when you put your trust in Jesus, when you risk the deeper waters of a seeking faith, when you listen to what Jesus has to tell you, then abundant life is yours for the taking. Maybe before you looked at the glass as half-full, or even as half-empty – now that you have had your vision corrected, you see that that the glass positively overflows.

And so when Jesus says to Peter, “from now on you will be catching people”, he is not commissioning Peter, he is not charging him with a task, he is not making him do anything at all. He is simply telling it like it is, for he knows that Peter gets it, that he understands, and more than that, that Peter now has some good news that he just has to share with the world, he will not be able to help himself, it will be there not just in what he says, but in how he lives. And people will respond to it.

The idea of “fishing” as a metaphor for evangelism has a long history, going at least as far back as the gospels. It is a metaphor that some find distasteful these days, wrapped up with the idea of “hooking” people, of treating people as dead fish to be wrestled into the boat of the church, a somewhat coercive “catch.” And yet the translation of the Greek which we have as “catching people” fails to do justice to its original meaning. As one commentator notes, “Jesus is saying to Peter that he will be ‘taking’ or ‘saving men and women alive’ for the kingdom…. Which is a very different image from simply catching them as though they are food to be consumed” (Peter Eaton, Feasting on the Word, p. 335). The verb being used denotes the rescue from the peril of death, not the capture of animals. What the kingdom needs is not dead fish, but men and women fully alive, embodying in their lives the good news.

And so the question for is, as it always has been for followers of Jesus, how do we fish? How do we invite others into discipleship, without force-feeding them, without coercion, allowing them the liberty which we would want for ourselves?

This is a question of increasing urgency in this era, a time of religious diversity and pluralism, but also a time of increasing hostility to Christianity. And let’s face it, much of that hostility is well-deserved – how many of us have been turned off by promoters of the in-your-face brand of evangelism, by those who preach an exclusivism that was alien to Jesus but which they would convince you means “accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior or burn in fire everlasting.” And maybe, sometimes we think, maybe we should just leave them alone, and if they don’t want to get into the boat with us, what is that to me? But of course if we are honest with ourselves, we can see how uncaring this approach is, how uncompassionate, how it fails to comport with Jesus’ injunction that we love our neighbor. Because if we really believe that the gospel is good news, if we really have found that our faith is a bulwark in time of trouble, a rock to which we might cling amid the stormy seas of life, an oaken staff to help us when otherwise we might stumble – then how can we in all good faith keep silent?

So how do we do evangelism? I would suggest that evangelism is not about convincing others of the truth or getting them to share our belief , it is not about holdiong up placards reading “John 3:16” at sporting events, it is not using phrases from the Bible as bludgeons to scare people into coming to Jesus – instead, evangelism is about sharing the good news as Jesus did with Peter, not only in words, but also in deeds. Faithful evangelism, which evinces respect and love for others, is the practice of sharing and living the word that has transformed our lives with such grace and power that we cannot help but share the story with others. It all goes back to where we started with this sermon – back to being in touch with a joy around some good news that is so great that you just cannot help but share it with others.

Faithful evangelism is about sharing and living the good news, it is not just about having the right words, it is about embodying the good news in your life. For Peter, words were not enough, and it was when Peter saw the power of God in action that it all clicked for him. I suspect it is the same for many folk “out there.” It is when people see a coherence between our words and our deeds that they get that the good news really might be good news for them as well. • When they see a gathered community here that instead of being exclusive is inclusive, they think that maybe there will be a place for them here.

• When they see an intergenerational group that comes together in all its diversity of age and background, they can believe that here they will find not judgment, but embrace.

• When they see a church family which engages not in a me-only, navel-gazing piety, but instead reaches out in love to the wider world both locally and in New Orleans and in Haiti and in Sri Lanka, they can be moved to join the team. • When they see that here questions are not only tolerated but encouraged, when they see that here doubt is not the enemy of belief but the handmaiden to the authentic spiritual journey, then they can come knowing that their doubts and questioning will be honored, not heckled.

• When they see you out and about in the world, living in joy and in gratitude, slow to anger and ready to forgive, firm in opinion and yet respectful to learn from those who are different, they see a walking testament to the transforming love and power of Jesus Christ.

And so when the right opening comes – when they say to you, “Why is it that you are so full of joy?”, or “How can you deal with all the stress of your job or these troubled economic times or that illness?”, or even, “Why do you go to church?” – when the right opening comes, you already will have done 99% of the task. As for that last 1%, don’t worry about what you will say. Instead, when the time comes, ask the Spirit for help, and the right words will be given to you.

And the rest, thank God, is simply not up to you. -------------