Another week passes after the events of Easter day. Simon Peter says, "I'm goin' fishin'." And the other disciples join in, "We will, too."
Well, what else were they supposed to do??
Jesus had risen, and he had appeared to them twice by now, but they had no idea what was going to happen. Jesus just seemed to show up every now and then, usually unannounced. They had no clear direction from him yet as to what they should do next. "Let's just wait and see if he is going to drop in today..."
This was not vacation, day-off kind of fishing. This was their trade, their livelihood, their daily work before Jesus had called them on the mission. So now what else were they supposed to do?
It's back to work. Back to fishing.
Little did they realize this would be the parable of a lifetime, a parable of their calling, their future, their mission, a parable of our calling and our mission. Here, at the end of the story, Jesus takes them right back to the beginning of the story when he met them in the first place…by the sea, when he called them from the nets and invited them, "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." Now, once again, "We're going fishing."
1. FISHING WAS THEIR BUSINESS…AND FISHING IS OUR BUSINESS.
Their calling and our calling is still the same: to be about the business of casting the net, fishing for people, drawing others into this fellowship of Jesus Christ, reaching others with the good news of the empty cross and the empty tomb.
James Collins' books on leadership have become classics: Good to Great and Built to Last. In Built to Last, his primary theme is "Preserve the core/Stimulate progress." He says the core ideology, the reason a company exists, must be balanced with a willingness to change and grow in order to fulfill the mission.
If an organization is to meet the challenges of a changing world, it must be prepared to change everything about itself except its basic beliefs... The only sacred cow in an organization should be its basic philosophy of doing business. [1]
Central to our mission, our business, is the business of fishing.
The Book of Discipline says that the mission of the United Methodist Church is "to make disciples of Jesus Christ." Pure and simple. It goes on to say:
The people of God, who are the church made visible in the world, must convince the world of the reality of the Gospel or leave it unconvinced. There can be no evasion or delegation of this responsibility; the church is either faithful as a witnessing and serving community, or it loses its vitality and its impact on an unbelieving world. [2]
Our business as United Methodists…it's fishing. As a local church, we say our mission is "to gather, nurture and equip disciples of Jesus Christ for ministry and mission in the world." I hope that anytime anybody walks up to any member of this church and asks, "Hey, what's your business?", you could answer, "to gather, nurture and equip disciples for Jesus Christ."
That's our core. That's our business.
Years ago, preacher friend Stan Bailey sent this story around in his church newsletter. It's a story about a visitor to a heavy-duty grease factory. He says the visitors were ushered into a large room and a tour host introduced them to the company history and the number of employees at work producing the best machine lubricants in the world. They toured the noisy factory, with lots of machinery and wheels whirling, mixing, packaging—incredible activity.
As the tour ended, one of the visitors said, "I didn't see a shipping department." The guide responded, "Well, we don't have a shipping department because it takes all the grease we make to lubricate our equipment and keep the wheels turning."
Brother Stan concluded:
Friends, our United Methodist Church is the best lubricated grease factory in all of history. What's missing is the shipping department. The church does not exist for itself; it exists to bring others to a commitment to Jesus Christ. [3]
Our business is not just to grease the wheels, our business is fishing…to "gather, nurture and equip disciples for ministry and mission." Collins says, "Preserve the core"—be clear about the business. And the second part of Collins' equation is "Stimulate progress"—or to say it in a more biblically-oriented way:
2. THE BUSINESS IS FISHING...BUT SOMETIMES YOU NEED TO TRY THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BOAT.
To quote Collins again:
Companies get into trouble by confusing core ideology with specific, non-core practices. A visionary company carefully preserves its core ideology, yet all the specific manifestations must be open for change. It is absolutely essential to not confuse core ideology with culture, strategy, tactics, operations, policies or other non-core practices. In fact, the only thing a company should not change over time is its core ideology. [4]
The disciples knew they were in the fishing business, and they knew how to fish. So they returned to the same old boats, to the same old nets, using the same old techniques, fishing the same old lake, and getting the same old results. Then along came Jesus, saying: "Say, boys, how ‘bout this. Why don't you try casting your nets out of the right side of the boat?"
Now John doesn't record it, but I am sure there was a big silence right there. Then the disciples responded:
The right side of the boat? You've got to be kidding. Never did it that way before. Oh my, no! We've always fished out of the left side of the boat…never the right! This is the way we have always fished around here. This is what fishing is all about. You change this and oh my, that's a slippery slope. Why, soon you will have people fishing out of the back of the boat and the front of the boat, and who knows what will happen. Next thing you know, we will even have women fishing on the boats, then we will have to put on clothes. And, well, it could start a whole downward slide until the whole of civilization goes down the tube.
No, no, no. The only right way to fish is out of the left side of the boat. I mean, we've got rules here. General Conference adopted it. It's in the United Methodist Book of Discipline, 2004 and so we have to fish out of the left side of the boat. Right side of the boat? Never. Never. Never...
John doesn't record that conversation, but I've been around the church long enough, I just know it happened.
In John Wesley's day, the only place for an Anglican preacher to preach was in the pulpit inside the parish church. I mean, that was what preaching was all about, that's how it was done. That was preaching. But George Whitfield noticed that the common working people weren't there to hear it. They spent their lives in the coal fields, far from the parish church. Early morning till late at night...covered with coal dust, never able to get to the 11:00 a.m. service, no clean shirts, always in muddy, sooty boots. So he started going out to the mines at starting time, 5:00 a.m., preaching to them on their way to work. He called it "field preaching."
John Wesley, high church Anglican that he was, thought it was dreadful. "Vile" was his word for it. Whitfield prodded him to try it. Finally, Wesley did. And, lo and behold, it worked! People listened. Some even got converted. Wesley writes in his journal, "I am determined to be more vile." He preached on the street corners, in the markets, even standing on his father's tombstone, and thousands came to hear the Word who had never heard it before.
Because he was willing to cast his net on the other side of the boat.
"Cast your nets on the other side," says Jesus. "And now," the Gospel writer reports, "they were not able to haul them in, for the quantity of fish!"
I love the story of traveling Methodist evangelist C.C. McCabe. In 1881 he was on a train headed out to the Western territory, Oregon and Washington, to plant new churches when he picked up a newspaper which gave a report of a conference in Chicago where agnostic philosopher Robert G. Ingersol declared, "The churches are dying out all over the earth; they are struck to death."
C.C. McCabe got off the train at the next station and sent back a telegram to Robert Ingersol:
Dear Robert:
All hail the power of Jesus' name. The Methodists are building more than one church every day of the year, and we propose to make it two.
Signed,
C.C. McCabe
A newspaper picked up the story and it spread across the country. The Methodists loved it. McCabe was eventually elected a bishop, but he is mostly remembered for the song which was sung at the Methodist camp meetings and revival services along the frontier:
The infidels, a motley band, in counsel met and said:
The churches are dying across the land, and soon they will be dead."
When suddenly a message came and caught them with dismay:
"All hail the power of Jesus' name, we're building two a day.
We're building two a day, dear Bob, we're building two a day;
All hail the power of Jesus' name,
We're building two a day."
Nearly 100 years later in the Methodist Church of Algoma, Wisconsin, a man came forward and asked to be baptized. His name was Robert G. Ingersol III. A few months later the same pastor baptized Robert G. Ingersol IV, grandson and great grandson of Robert G. Ingersol. [5]
I am not just pining for the past, the days of Methodist glory and evangelistic fervor. But take a look at our history and take a look at us now. More likely today we are closing two a day rather than opening them. But look—it's amazing what can happen when we preserve the core and stimulate progress; when we are willing to cast our nets on the other side of the boat to do the business of fishing for Jesus Christ.
So the disciples haul in the nets…and they are filled.
Filled to overflowing. So many fish they were not able to haul them in. (My guess is that most churches wouldn't be prepared, either, if they hauled in a great catch.) So many, in fact, that they weren't prepared for it. It was a wonder the nets could contain them….153 in all.
I dare say that far too much ink has been spilt and time spent on the spiritual meaning of the number 153 by the same people who want to argue about the numbers in Revelation or age of the earth and the number of days in creation or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Here John is recording a simple statement of fact: the size of the catch. Carl Price asked, "Did you ever know a fisherman who couldn't tell you how many fish he caught?" It is to say that counting matters. Counting members. Counting attendance. Keeping track. But get it straight—our business is not accounting, it's fishing.
And the bottom line is, how many people we are reaching for Jesus Christ?
The great story-telling preacher Fred Craddock tells the story of Frank, a man he met in Washita Creek, Oklahoma...a little town with a population of 450 and four churches: Methodist, Baptist, Nazarene, and Craddock pastored the Christian Church. Each had their share of the population, but the most regular congregation met at the local café where the pickups parked and the men discussed wheat bugs, weather and wind. At 77 years old, Frank was the patron saint of the group. Men in the café would say, "Ol' Frank'll never go to church."
Craddock says when he met him, Frank gave him his standard line: "I work hard, I take care of my family, and I mind my own business. Far as I am concerned, everything else is fluff."
That's why everyone in the café as well as in church was bumfuzzled when Frank presented himself for baptism one Sunday. There were lots of rumors at the café and in the town about why he did it. Seventy-seven years old, and he had always minded his own business. Some folks thought he was dying. Some heard he had heart problems. Some thought he must be scared to meet his maker. But Craddock says Frank told him why he did it:
You know how I always said I work hard, take care of my family, and mind my own business? Said it all the time... Only thing was, back then, I didn't know what my business was. Now I know. [6]
We know what our business is. Our business is fishing. Sometimes you just have to be willing to fish out of the other side of the boat.
1. J. Collins, Built to Last, page 81
2. 2004 Book of Discipline, Paragraph 125
3. Rev. Stanley Bailey, First UMC, Mt. Clemens, Nov. 1978
4. J. Collins, Built to Last, page 81
5. Randolph Nugent, "And Have They Come to Know Christ?", April 3, 2000, www.gbgm-umc.org/mission/ news2000
6. Fred Craddock, Craddock Stories, page 69