Hey Alexa, Where is Jesus? Mission

Fishing as Mission

Yesterday a few of us were at Boca Chica beach. Any fishing day begins with a lot of excitement. We had that yesterday. Most of the excitement was catching the small stuff. It was great to have everyone together, something we enjoy doing, spending time with each other at a great venue, Boca Chica beach. I can’t think of a better day… I mean, how many great days can Jesus see fit to give the Table? Just last week we celebrated our first charter day and the entire service was absolutely amazing. Yesterday we were together as a people, in the mix of life, in community in our community. But it’s a good thing my livelihood doesn’t depend on my fishing. We would be starving for lunch today if it we were dependent on my fishing abilities. Most of us yesterday were fishing as recreation. It is not a vocation for us. A couple of hours south of us here there is a fishing village whose lives do depend on fish. Things get really stressful, at times, when the fishing gets lean. Boats stay out longer and go out farther into the bay and into the gulf.

That’s the way fishing was that we see described in the Bible, especially during the time of Jesus. Many of Jesus’ best friends were from a place called Capernaum, a little fishing village on the north side of the Sea of Galilee. And throughout the biographies of Jesus that we have in our New Testaments we find Jesus and his friends, if they aren’t fishing, they are talking about fish or eating fish. People’s livelihoods depended on fish and fishing. At one point, Jesus does a miracle while his friends are in their fishing boat and they catch so many fish that their nets begin to break. Which is no small economical detail… those nets bring home the income.

We are going to spend some moments today again, asking the question, Hey Alexa, Where is Jesus? We’ve answered that question the following ways:

Baptism

The Lord’s Table

The Word

His Community

His Community on mission

This last point is where we are at today. Jesus has promised to be with us and among us as His body, his temple, when we are gathered. And he promises to be with us when the community is moving toward its neighbor with his message and his mission. Jesus gives a promise to his best friends at the very end of his time with them, but that Promise is a bookend to a story that began three years earlier. At the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, Jesus has begun his preaching and teaching ministry around the Sea of Galilee, announcing that the Kingdom of Heaven has drawn near. But Jesus isn’t going to do this by himself. He goes and he gets his friends. He goes up to Capernaum, finds a bunch of guys who are fishing and this is what he says:

Matthew 4:19 ““Follow me,” he told them, “and I will make you fish for people.””

That’s gotta be one of the most bizarre things we’ve ever heard. I suppose one way we would say it in our culture is invite someone to a work out of your house party selling Amway or Essential Oils or NutriLife… follow me, I’m going to show you how you can make 6 figures in just 6 months. Using their context and what they know, Jesus speaks to them in a way that they understand and what they understand is fishing. Even in that culture, I’m sure the rabbis they knew didn’t talk about fishing for people. But they know and they get it. And what Jesus is saying is that there is Good News. There is Good News that the light has dawned, the darkness is over, God has become man and has come to save his people from their sins, and this news is so unbelievable, so outrageous, that it cannot be kept to yourself.

Fishing for people. I really don’t think Jesus wanted them to overthink this. You bring up fishing for people and what it meant to them and pretty soon there are debates about whether Jesus is talking about casting a net over people, so we craft our message as if it is a net and we throw it all out there and Jesus promises to fill our nets to overflowing, which is also taking the metaphor too far. Jesus doesn’t unpack what that means. Matthew doesn’t unpack what that means. And even in that day, people were also fishing with poles and hooks. And spears. Nets, hooks, spears… what kind of bait to use. I don’t think we need to over think this. The gospel is to be shared. The good News of who Jesus is and why he is here isn’t meant to be kept in the dark.

The disciples spent the next 3 years fishing for people with Jesus. Periodically, we see them back at their fishing business doing what they do best, but they are pulling in a different kind of fish. They are casting their net, throwing their bait, throwing their spear, insert your kind of fishing here… wherever people can be found. And they are bringing people to Jesus.

Go with the Good News

Fast forward to the end of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is at the end. He died. He rose. He is now on a mountain spending the last few days with his disciples before He ascends to His father. And his final words are his instructions for his best friends. There are a lot of similarities to what he said years earlier to them.

Matthew 28:18-20 “Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

The Mission

The risen Jesus with his best friends telling them once again to not keep the Good News to themselves. “Go”. “Go”. Instead of “Follow me”, it’s “Go”. Following Jesus now looks like “Go”. And as they go they are to make disciples. If ever there was a definition of what it means to be a fisher of people it’s this right here: Make disciples. The Good News that Jesus has died and Jesus rose and Jesus saves sinners like you and me and provides forgiveness and healing in a broken world… that Good News isn’t just for the fishermen from Capernaum. It’s for “all nations”, it’s for the whole world. The whole world is full of fish who need to hear the same forgiveness and need to receive from Jesus the same salvation. Fishing for people is drawing people to Jesus who makes them disciples in the Word and in baptism.

The Promise

Here’s the Promise that Jesus gives his best friends who are fishers of people. The very end:

Matthew 28:20 “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

Wherever there is Good News to be shared, Jesus promises to be with his best friends. He’s leaving, but He is still with them. Hey Alexa, where is Jesus? Jesus is with his community on mission. As you fish for people, you are never alone. In fact, I will be with you drawing people to myself through you. “I promise you that there will never be a moment that I will not be with you as you Go and Make Disciples”. After all, I’m the one making the disciples in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This is my work, this is my mission, so you “Go Fish.” That popular game best sums up where Jesus is at in our community. Jesus is with us as we Go Fish.

Yesterday, I didn’t have a clue about surf-casting. You know where my confidence was? You know where my trust was? Troy. I was sinking or swimming with Troy. Some might say it was misplaced trust because we weren’t catching much, but unlike Jesus, Troy didn’t have the power to put all of the fish on my line. But one thing I do know. Troy was there making everything OK in my world. My confidence was not in anything I’m doing, but whatever it was that Troy was doing.

All of us, if we are to be fishers of people, need Emmanuel, God with us. We fish. Jesus does the work. It’s his mission. So we fish. Our confidence in fishing and going is in the One to whom we bear witness. We don’t have to have the right words, we don’t have to have a system, we don’t have to have perfect lives, we don’t have to have cleaned up lives… Jesus uses broken people, messed up people to bear witness to who He is and what He has done for us.

Fishing here in Los Fresnos will look different in all sorts of ways in all sorts of circumstances. And it involves all of us. The community. Whether it’s baseball or water or baccalaureate there are all sorts of ways to bear witness to who Jesus is and what He has done for us. Our hands, our feet, and our mouths… all work in tandem as fishers of people.

Remember that fishing village I was telling you about? I was there when the fish were running. When the fish are in, that village comes alive. Hours out in the boat become long hours getting fish to market. I’m a seafood guy. The only time I can remember having to say, please, no more was in that village. A feast fit for a king with all the fish and shrimp. Jesus does not promise that He will draw lots of fish in our fishing. What he does promise is that He will draw people to himself through our fishing. Through our prayers. Through our conversations. Through our relationships. Go, make disciples. Go, fish. I will be with you always. Always… all the way up until the point when the fishing is over and the heavenly feast begins. Hey Alexa, Where is Jesus? Jesus is in his community on mission. As they fish.

Let’s pray

This Table is Jesus on mission. For us. In this Table Jesus proclaims the kingdom of heaven is near. Repent and believe the gospel for the forgiveness of sin. It is through this gospel and this table and this Word that Christ’s kingdom continues its expansion over the face of the earth.. to every tribe and every nation. The entire earth will eat of his body and drink of his blood until he returns. This Table is Jesus on mission.