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This summer you have heard much about fishing, Casting your Nets, Fishing school and today our team presented an Introduction to Casting Your Nets. Each of us have wonderful gifts given to us by God, gifts to us to be shared with our families, our friends, our church, and as we hear the skits for the next few weeks let us see where we can volunteer and join in with the fishing teams. Today let us picture a little fishing village lets say in Canada looking out upon the gray seas of the Atlantic Ocean. It probably has been a fishing village over 200 years old. It takes risks to be a fisherman. Fishing seems to be in their blood over generations. Even when most fishermen have passed the age of retirement they still go to the bait sheds, the yards, help mend nets, drink coffee and take a nip of that hard stuff that warms your whole self. They would tell stories about empty nets, nets bursting with fish, and being so tired that you didn't know how to deal with the large catch. Stories about storms, fears being out in the storms and sometimes being out on the ocean at night when it was as smooth as glass and the stars and the moon shined so brightly at night that it seemed almost to be day. Then let us go even father back and picture Jesus calling the first disciples to the task of being fishers of men. "As he walked by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen. And he said to them, "follow me, I will make you fish for people." Can't you just imagine Peter and Andrew being so surprised, they could relate to the image even if they didn't understand Jesus. Like the fishermen in Canada they had been at it for generations, born into it, and they lived it until their dying day. They knew no other work and then they were called to follow Jesus. It is what Jesus did, in Galilee, Samaria, Jordan, Judea and Jerusalem. Is that what we are supposed to do, in Hamburg, Boston, Orchard Park, Eden, where ever we are, where ever we go. Our purpose is to catch people with the love that God gives us, and to bring people to Jesus who is the owner and the captain of our boat. To bring them to the one who brings to all who are landed in his boat citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. Our congregation is in the process of working on a mission statement, which should tell that we are a people who strive to live out our faith in the world. How do we fish for people? Our purpose is to catch people with the love that God gives us, and to bring those people to Jesus who is the captain of our boat. There is a great miracle in all this, the miracle of transformation, the miracle of God doing through us what we can't do on our own. Although every one of us believes in God, our energy, our focus is all too often fixed elsewhere. It is as if we belonged to another, to other thing, other people, other teams, and God gets the short end. If that happens so do the people around us, so do our families, so does our church and most of all so do we ourselves. When Paul wrote his First Letter to the Corinthians there were a lot of problems in the congregation. There was arrogance, there was pride, and there was indifference. There was gluttony, laziness, intolerance, depression, anger and despair. The people in the congregation at Corinth had fixed their focus on themselves and on one another instead of fixing it on Christ and the power of his cross. In short the Corinthians missed the point of what the gospel is all about, and instead of knowing the joy and the peace that comes with the fellowship of the faithful, instead of being powerful in their witness and being able to catch people for God their congregational life collapsed. Paul write to the Corinthians to remind them of their calling and of their mission and to remind them that everyone in the crew is important to getting the job done, that everyone has a role to play if the fish are to be caught. Our little boats can get tossed about mightily in the storms of life. Our nets can come up empty so many times before we get a big strike, and when they do come in it's hard work to bring them in. But as all fishermen know when we bring them in there is nothing like it. There is nothing like doing what God calls you to do and that by doing the best is yet to come! We are born to fish, born to share the good news, born to bring people to our captain and into his boat so that they might know the love we know and receive the life that we ourselves are receiving. The life that only our captain, our Lord, our Shepherd, our God and our Father can give. A life that is dedicated to God and spiritual growth in a sharing, caring and joyful atmosphere as we reach out to others in God's name and strive to live our faith in the world. In the next couple of weeks listen and pray about the skits that you will be hearing. Volunteer in one of the four areas worship, invitation, fellowship, generosity, and mission. Let us grow in sharing, caring, and be joyful as we reach out to others in God's name and strive to live the faith in the world. Let us rely on God to help us as a congregation, as his crew, to grow deeper in our faith and know that "God is Still Speaking" in all that we say and do. PRAYER Amen |
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