Caught
Isaiah 6:1-8; Luke 5:1-11

February 8, 2004

Worship, says William Willimon, has to be near the top of the list of gratuitous things people do. From one perspective, it’s absolutely useless.

But, says Willimon, to ask “What good is worship?” is like asking a child “What good is the circus?” It’s excessive, it’s extravagant, including emotionally extravagant, but it lets you stand outside yourself, if only for a moment.

Worship allows you -- invites you -- to enter an alternate universe, what theologians would call the Dominion of God, and to lose yourself there for a moment.

And you’re shaped by that moment, by those moments. You come to see that what we often call the real world is a crying out for change, a longing for redemption, a hungering for the holy.

I have come to believe strongly that the more useless something is judged to be, the more powerful and important it becomes. Worship is important and powerful precisely because nobody can use it for anything practical or for their own gain. It’s always Ôoutside the box’ -- and who is out there except the infinite, the divine, the godly?

I would be independently wealthy if I were paid a pittance for every person who has declared to me that they have worshipped better out in the woods, or at the lake or cabin, or playing golf, and especially fishing -- communion with nature and sustained deep meditation and contemplation, combined with partaking of the loaves and fishes and wine.

But where else do you expect to encounter the presence of God? It doesn’t happen as much as we would like right here in the sanctuary of a church, because God doesn’t seem to be so predictable and cornerable. A fish story with no corners is where to encounter a presence.

Jesus knew the big picture: he was heading towards Passover in Jerusalem. However, the rest of the time he just wandered and drifted and hung out with particular place to go. Yet was not without ideas. Fishing ws one of the most normal and routine activities in the Lake country, but it was also where people talked and revealed their conflicts and stresses, as well as their joys.

A lot of people crushed around Jesus, so he simply stepped into Simon’s boat and started teaching. A little bit of watery distance to give him some breathing room.

“Let’s go fishing,” enthused Jesus as eyes rolled all around him. They were respectful to a rabbi and gave it the old college try. The fish story must be getting bigger -- a whole school of fish swarmed into the nets so that nets were breaking and boats were sinking under the weight. A real fish story.

Simon Peter knew that this meant more than a bonanza at the market; it was a revelation. One cannot stand before the presence of the Infinite and be sinful without being destroyed. Simon was both being deeply worshipful and sorely afraid.

So ot was not idle piety when Jesus addressed him, “do not be afraid, for I will make you fishers of (whatever is politically correct) -- people, humanity, women and men.

Everyone knows this one - “fishers of women and men” - and you probably know what it’s supposed to mean. You are to catch people for the kingdom of God, to lure them in by the Gospel, to hook them into a way of life that is so new and different, it’s like a fish switching from water to breathing fresh air, and living like you have never lived before!

Most of the emphasis has been upon becoming fishers or catchers of other people. That can be an imperative limited to the elite: the ministers, the evangelists, the super Christians, yet there has to be another side. Somebody has to be “caught.” Indeed, even the fishers and catchers have to be caught first before they go about their holy catching.

Being a Christian is not a spectator sport confined to a proper playing surface such as this sanctuary. It is never neutral. It is not something you have or possess. One of the worst bits of bumper sticker theology was that Campus Crusade rant, “I Found It!” You can’t find Christianity; it finds you.

You are caught and then infected and the only way you are able to cure yourself is to infect someone else. That’s completely the opposite to the way the rest of the natural world runs, but it’s why this is the Good News that is no mere variation on a theme, but fundamentally different and fundamentally real.

Worship cautiously, for once you are caught, you can’t get out of it, thank God.

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan