The Call to Mission
Sermon
THE POWER OF DARKNESS
SERMONS FOR LENT AND EASTER (SUNDAYS IN ORDINARY TIME)
"Friend, have you caught anything?"
This question comes in the middle of a strange chapter. John's gospel comes to an end at the end of chapter twenty; but it seems to begin again in chapter twenty-one. In this "epilogue" the center of interest remains Jesus Christ, the Risen One. The reality of Christ's resurrection is emphasized. The text opens and closes with this announcement, but in between these anouncements we have the story of a fishing experience. Seven disciples, led by Peter, make for the Sea of Tiberius and some fishing. In light of their experiences at the empty tomb, this action is somewhat strange. Their fishing is unsuccessful. But upon receiving instruction from shore, they make a huge catch - 153 fish is the exact count! They take their catch to shore where breakfast has been prepared for them by the one they recognized as Jesus Christ.
These are the main themes of this story. But there are also some interesting sub-themes: the continuing interplay between Peter and the Beloved Disciple; Peter's being restored to favor; emphasis upon fishing and the "catch" of fish; the meal of fish and bread with its overtones of the Lord's Supper; and the mystery number "153."
It is a strange chapter, but with John's style of meaning-within-meaning, perhaps it is not as strange as it seems. Coming at the end-of-the-end could be one way to make this symbolism even more striking. As the other Gospels end with their "Go into all the world and make disciples ...", so John's Gospel ends with the call to mission.
In this call to mission we have Jesus Christ revealing himself as the Risen One. Mission begins with him. In John's Gospel he was the center of the important mission promise, "When I am lifted up, I will draw all people unto me." (12:32)
It has been pointed out that the disciples never caught fish without Jesus' help! In the circumstances of this story, the great catch of fish had more going for it than food for a shore lunch. It is the symbol for mission. In and with the power of the Risen Lord, the disciples are to go and "catch people." In this strange chapter there are a variety of issues, but all of them reflect life in the church and all seem to point toward mission.
"Friends, have you caught anything?" Translated into mission terms for our day, this becomes the question, "Have you an evangelism program that is working?" In terms of mission this seems to be testing time for the church. Growing numbers of people believe they can get along without the church. There seems to be a certain weariness concerning the traditional ways of the church. As we feel the pull of this exodus from the church, the anxiety level rises. Besides this faith erosion, religions we have never heard of before are flexing their evangelistic muscles. Our text, with its call to mission, is a timely one. It also carried the important reminder that Jesus Christ is to be the center, focus, and motivator for our missionary activities. Some years ago I heard the late president of our denomination, Kent Knutson, outline the four main resources for mission:
1. The most important resource is the Gospel itself. Without the Gospel we have no mission. The good news of Jesus Christ is the reason for mission.
2. The second important aspect for mission is to know that it is for people. This seems obvious, but too many mission programs never get beyond the self-study phase. First we have to organize. Then we have to get a program. Mission work is "people-to-people" work.
3. The third important thing necessary for mission work is strategy. We do need to do some thinking about where our congregation is going to concentrate its energies.
4. The fourth ingredient, according to Kent Knutson, is money. My money can go where I cannot go. My money can be a missionary where I can't be.
All resources - Gospel, people, strategy and money - are important and necessary. But for my purpose this morning, I want to come to give emphasis to the most vital resource, and that is the Gospel itself.
During the Lenten season, one of these sermons focused on the picture of the "father racing out to welcome his wayward son." (Luke 15:20) We were reminded that here we have a beautiful, powerful picture of the gospel. For this touching story tells us that God cares for us like the father cared for his son. In our struggle with all the questions that go with living and the questions and doubts about our faith, can we not hang on with this? In my off-again-on-again faith and my up-and-down-again-kind-of-life, I believe that behind it all there beats the heart of God who loves me, as the father loved the prodigal.
Here is our reason and here is the power to be missionaries. Who is in a better place to understand, to identify with the struggles of our unchurched neighbors, than we who know something about struggle? Not only that, but we just live across the road or the next apartment, or the next yard from them.1 I don't think these people are looking for a memorized speech, theological lecture or a sermon from you. They have had enough trouble with clergy sermons without you getting into the act. You believe the important single thing: you believe God cares for you! Because of this, you are there when your neighbor needs you.
If we believe this about our God, then indeed we have a powerful resource. Its the best news there is. Of course it gets a bit foggy around the edges at times. That seems to be the nature of faith. It carries on a running debate with questions and doubts. But that is one of the reasons we are in church. We are here to have our faith strengthened by being reminded of the presence of the living Christ, and of a homecoming and a God who will never quit on us. But again, this also means we are in the best position to understand our unbelieving neighbor, around whom the fog has really settled in.
So we are not going to come at them like spiritual police. "You are a sinner. You could be saved, if only you would say the right words, join the church and become like me!" That's the "elder-brother approach." It may "scare a few people in," but who can estimate the number it has driven out? Years ago the preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick said these useful words: "You don't convince people music is good by beating them over the head with a baton. You convince them by the excellence of performance and rendition."
Our style of evangelism is shaped and controlled by the good news of Jesus Christ. This means we are missionaries, messengers of the King, who love, who attract, who invite our neighbors to see this Jesus. We are not interested in just a three-visit program but a longterm relationship. We don't want to manipulate our neighbors, we want to minister to them. We want to share with them rather than shock or embarrass them. We want to love them rather than label them. We want to affirm their strengths rather than point out their weaknesses.
Whether we are successful, whether we "Catch anything" is not the important thing. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. The important thing is that we are fishing!
This call to mission, and to be missionaries, receives much support and insight from Luke's account of Paul's conversion. "But Saul, still breathing threats ..." (Acts 9:1), is a vivid description of his life prior to conversion. It also emphasizes the great changes that Christ brought to his life. Here we have another example of the power of the presence of the Risen Christ. This is the only way we can understand Paul's conversion. In Paul we do not have the conversion of a drunken scoundrel wasting away in some dirty alley. Neither does he seem to be haunted by dreams of a bad conscience as was Luther. Rather, we have the conversion of a devout and disciplined person who loved God's law and believed in keeping it.
The call to mission involves the likes of an impulsive fisherman and an intelligent theologian. It might have been difficult to create an evangelism program that would have appealed to both. But no matter. Christ came to both! He is alive. This is the power behind their conversions.
Living in a time when everything has to be instant and where "success is everything," it is well to ponder the great differences in these conversion experiences. Paul was converted in the midst of persecuting and Peter in the midst of fishing. The only common denominator is that Jesus Christ showed himself to both.
The call to mission does not mean that it is "business as usual." But neither should it mean that we push the panic button when we hear the question, "Are you catching anything?" We have a Word-and-sacrament ministry. It is not a flashy ministry, but it is steady and durable. It is through this ministry that I came to faith and I suspect the same holds true for most of you. Most of us still don't have our act together the way we should. We, too, feel the pull of the world and, through what has been called the "grand orgy of materialism," we attempt to dull the pain of a dying faith. We know something about that. We also know the pull of the world which tempts us to turn off all the questions of life and "just believe!" Yet through it all, we are pursued by something that will not let us go! Even though we have only known and experienced the good news of Jesus Christ in bits and pieces, it seems we can't be satisified with anything less. Here is that mysterious, haunting and ever-powerful pull of the grace of God. It is this pull of grace that pushes us into the world, so that grace may be shared.
Amen
1. Durwood Buchheim, "The Call to Mission", Preaching Helps, (Chicago, Christ Seminary - Seminex, March 1983), pp. 21-22.
This question comes in the middle of a strange chapter. John's gospel comes to an end at the end of chapter twenty; but it seems to begin again in chapter twenty-one. In this "epilogue" the center of interest remains Jesus Christ, the Risen One. The reality of Christ's resurrection is emphasized. The text opens and closes with this announcement, but in between these anouncements we have the story of a fishing experience. Seven disciples, led by Peter, make for the Sea of Tiberius and some fishing. In light of their experiences at the empty tomb, this action is somewhat strange. Their fishing is unsuccessful. But upon receiving instruction from shore, they make a huge catch - 153 fish is the exact count! They take their catch to shore where breakfast has been prepared for them by the one they recognized as Jesus Christ.
These are the main themes of this story. But there are also some interesting sub-themes: the continuing interplay between Peter and the Beloved Disciple; Peter's being restored to favor; emphasis upon fishing and the "catch" of fish; the meal of fish and bread with its overtones of the Lord's Supper; and the mystery number "153."
It is a strange chapter, but with John's style of meaning-within-meaning, perhaps it is not as strange as it seems. Coming at the end-of-the-end could be one way to make this symbolism even more striking. As the other Gospels end with their "Go into all the world and make disciples ...", so John's Gospel ends with the call to mission.
In this call to mission we have Jesus Christ revealing himself as the Risen One. Mission begins with him. In John's Gospel he was the center of the important mission promise, "When I am lifted up, I will draw all people unto me." (12:32)
It has been pointed out that the disciples never caught fish without Jesus' help! In the circumstances of this story, the great catch of fish had more going for it than food for a shore lunch. It is the symbol for mission. In and with the power of the Risen Lord, the disciples are to go and "catch people." In this strange chapter there are a variety of issues, but all of them reflect life in the church and all seem to point toward mission.
"Friends, have you caught anything?" Translated into mission terms for our day, this becomes the question, "Have you an evangelism program that is working?" In terms of mission this seems to be testing time for the church. Growing numbers of people believe they can get along without the church. There seems to be a certain weariness concerning the traditional ways of the church. As we feel the pull of this exodus from the church, the anxiety level rises. Besides this faith erosion, religions we have never heard of before are flexing their evangelistic muscles. Our text, with its call to mission, is a timely one. It also carried the important reminder that Jesus Christ is to be the center, focus, and motivator for our missionary activities. Some years ago I heard the late president of our denomination, Kent Knutson, outline the four main resources for mission:
1. The most important resource is the Gospel itself. Without the Gospel we have no mission. The good news of Jesus Christ is the reason for mission.
2. The second important aspect for mission is to know that it is for people. This seems obvious, but too many mission programs never get beyond the self-study phase. First we have to organize. Then we have to get a program. Mission work is "people-to-people" work.
3. The third important thing necessary for mission work is strategy. We do need to do some thinking about where our congregation is going to concentrate its energies.
4. The fourth ingredient, according to Kent Knutson, is money. My money can go where I cannot go. My money can be a missionary where I can't be.
All resources - Gospel, people, strategy and money - are important and necessary. But for my purpose this morning, I want to come to give emphasis to the most vital resource, and that is the Gospel itself.
During the Lenten season, one of these sermons focused on the picture of the "father racing out to welcome his wayward son." (Luke 15:20) We were reminded that here we have a beautiful, powerful picture of the gospel. For this touching story tells us that God cares for us like the father cared for his son. In our struggle with all the questions that go with living and the questions and doubts about our faith, can we not hang on with this? In my off-again-on-again faith and my up-and-down-again-kind-of-life, I believe that behind it all there beats the heart of God who loves me, as the father loved the prodigal.
Here is our reason and here is the power to be missionaries. Who is in a better place to understand, to identify with the struggles of our unchurched neighbors, than we who know something about struggle? Not only that, but we just live across the road or the next apartment, or the next yard from them.1 I don't think these people are looking for a memorized speech, theological lecture or a sermon from you. They have had enough trouble with clergy sermons without you getting into the act. You believe the important single thing: you believe God cares for you! Because of this, you are there when your neighbor needs you.
If we believe this about our God, then indeed we have a powerful resource. Its the best news there is. Of course it gets a bit foggy around the edges at times. That seems to be the nature of faith. It carries on a running debate with questions and doubts. But that is one of the reasons we are in church. We are here to have our faith strengthened by being reminded of the presence of the living Christ, and of a homecoming and a God who will never quit on us. But again, this also means we are in the best position to understand our unbelieving neighbor, around whom the fog has really settled in.
So we are not going to come at them like spiritual police. "You are a sinner. You could be saved, if only you would say the right words, join the church and become like me!" That's the "elder-brother approach." It may "scare a few people in," but who can estimate the number it has driven out? Years ago the preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick said these useful words: "You don't convince people music is good by beating them over the head with a baton. You convince them by the excellence of performance and rendition."
Our style of evangelism is shaped and controlled by the good news of Jesus Christ. This means we are missionaries, messengers of the King, who love, who attract, who invite our neighbors to see this Jesus. We are not interested in just a three-visit program but a longterm relationship. We don't want to manipulate our neighbors, we want to minister to them. We want to share with them rather than shock or embarrass them. We want to love them rather than label them. We want to affirm their strengths rather than point out their weaknesses.
Whether we are successful, whether we "Catch anything" is not the important thing. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. The important thing is that we are fishing!
This call to mission, and to be missionaries, receives much support and insight from Luke's account of Paul's conversion. "But Saul, still breathing threats ..." (Acts 9:1), is a vivid description of his life prior to conversion. It also emphasizes the great changes that Christ brought to his life. Here we have another example of the power of the presence of the Risen Christ. This is the only way we can understand Paul's conversion. In Paul we do not have the conversion of a drunken scoundrel wasting away in some dirty alley. Neither does he seem to be haunted by dreams of a bad conscience as was Luther. Rather, we have the conversion of a devout and disciplined person who loved God's law and believed in keeping it.
The call to mission involves the likes of an impulsive fisherman and an intelligent theologian. It might have been difficult to create an evangelism program that would have appealed to both. But no matter. Christ came to both! He is alive. This is the power behind their conversions.
Living in a time when everything has to be instant and where "success is everything," it is well to ponder the great differences in these conversion experiences. Paul was converted in the midst of persecuting and Peter in the midst of fishing. The only common denominator is that Jesus Christ showed himself to both.
The call to mission does not mean that it is "business as usual." But neither should it mean that we push the panic button when we hear the question, "Are you catching anything?" We have a Word-and-sacrament ministry. It is not a flashy ministry, but it is steady and durable. It is through this ministry that I came to faith and I suspect the same holds true for most of you. Most of us still don't have our act together the way we should. We, too, feel the pull of the world and, through what has been called the "grand orgy of materialism," we attempt to dull the pain of a dying faith. We know something about that. We also know the pull of the world which tempts us to turn off all the questions of life and "just believe!" Yet through it all, we are pursued by something that will not let us go! Even though we have only known and experienced the good news of Jesus Christ in bits and pieces, it seems we can't be satisified with anything less. Here is that mysterious, haunting and ever-powerful pull of the grace of God. It is this pull of grace that pushes us into the world, so that grace may be shared.
Amen
1. Durwood Buchheim, "The Call to Mission", Preaching Helps, (Chicago, Christ Seminary - Seminex, March 1983), pp. 21-22.
