Go Where the Fish Are

Dear friends: 

 

As you probably know, over the course of the last number of weeks, I have been preaching strictly through the lectionary, and even more specifically, strickly through the Gospels.  The lectionary is the schedule of Scripture readings that various denominations follow throughout the year.  Once done, the major Biblical themes have been touched upon.

 

But now here is a strange thing -- by doing this, both last week and this week, we have touched on two very different "Call" stories.  Last week, the lectionary passage was from John, and we talked about Jesus' call of Philip and Nathaniel.  This week, the passage is from Mark, and we concern ourselves with the call of Peter and Andrew, James and John.  Both passages demonstrate the authority of Jesus, but this Sunday we learn the implications of the Call of God.  Our passage is Mark 1:14-20, and I hope you'll take time to look it over before Sunday.

 

Jesus was great with marketing.  To fisherman, His call was couched in fisherman language -- "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men" (the Greek is generic, and is properly translated as "people", but somehow saying that Peter and the others would become "fishers of people" just doesn't sound right to me!).  Obviously Jesus is calling Peter, Andrew, and the rest of us into the ministry of evangelism.  But how would the Master have us do that?

 

Well, to continue the fishing analogy, this Sunday we'll talk about how to "Use the right lure", how to "Cast a wide net", and how to "Go where the fish are".  Or, to put it less cryptically, we'll talk about where we need to go, what we need to say, and what the Church needs to do to attract people to Christ.  In these tough economic times, people are looking for answers to tough questions, and Jesus is the source of all those answers. 

 

I'll see you Sunday, and we'll see how the Bible addresses these important issues.