For Sunday
Epiphany 3B
Collect
Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
It is a clever invitation from Jesus. He’s speaking to people whose livelihood is to fish. And he offers them the chance to fish for people.
Whenever I hear people quote Jesus on this one, however, I don’t get all that excited.
For one, I’m not into fishing. I find the the experience kind of boring. And then, when it gets exciting, I have to contend with the possibility of causing death.
Another reason I’m less than enthused is that fishing for fish, well, often leads to…our cooking up our catch. So…I’m sure you can connect the dots.
In this way, Jesus’s message to fishermen doesn’t really work for me. A non-fisherman. And I think that is a big part of why the message is clever, not universal.
When I try to make that message universal, it takes away what Jesus is communicating to people who enjoy that activity.
Imagine, instead, if Jesus came across an artist group and said “I will make you painters of community”. Or joined a reading group and said “I will make you writers of new life.” That hits me where I live.
What makes your heart sing?
Do you like to build things? Play games? Or even share memes?
Jesus calls us to share our love like that.