Wednesday, August 19, 2020

“Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind.” (Matthew 13:47, New Living Translation)

                 Our grandson, Spencer, has acquired a fascination with the things of the ocean, partly because of his favourite animated show, The Octonauts. Recently, for his fourth birthday, we gave him a small aquarium set including five colourful tropical fish. We helped him set it up. He has been taught how to feed them and care for them. Although there has been one fishy death, so far so good.

                It has brought to mind that I used to have tropical fish and did so for many years. In fact, watching Spencer and his aquarium gave me the itch again. My interest started when I was a pre-teen. Our Sunday School superintendent, Tom Stovell, raised fantail guppies. He ran a S.S. contest in which if we memorized and recited the 66 titles of the books of Bible, we would receive two guppies. There were even two songs which dittied through the names of the books of the Bible, one for each testament. I remember them both still, and sometimes will use the songs to find those hard-to-find prophets like Habakkuk or Haggai. I started out with two guppies and my interest expanded from there, for quite some time. At least, they are a lot easier to care for than goats or donkeys!

                There is something very peaceful and calming about simply watching  fish swim around in an aquarium.  

                There are a lot of great fish stories through the Bible, everything from Jonah and the whale to the several gospel stories that brought together Jesus and his fishermen disciples. Jesus always seemed to have a proclivity of knowing where the best fishing holes were.

In our text, Jesus used a fishing analogy to suggest that discipleship meant casting a wide net to embrace people of all sorts, shapes, colours and sizes. Jesus’ Kingdom is very inclusive and indiscriminate about whom it takes in. There is in this parable the reality that evil has no place in God’s big aquarium, i.e Kingdom.  But besides that, God’s net is big and wide.

I have always enjoyed the gospel stories in which the disciples are frustrated, disappointed and exhausted by a night of futile fishing. Jesus comes along and tells them to fish in a different spot or throw their nets on the other side of the boat. Suddenly the disciples have more fish then they know what to do with. Pretty good for a carpenter, eh?

We are reminded that sometimes we need to be more creative and innovative in our ways of reaching the world with God’s Grace and Love. Old methods and tired approaches come up empty and bear no results. Jesus helps us to see with new eyes that by using a fresh tactic that we, too, can find the inclusiveness that is demanded of Gods Kingdom.  Sometimes, we think too small, are too selective, or too particular that we miss out on the abundance of life that is swimming all around us and which fits into God’s loving embracing net.

There are risks in letting out our nets of love into deeper waters. Evil loves to tangle those nets up and snarl them and tear holes in them. But the overall results outweigh the risks. God’s Love remains abundant and generous even in long nights and futile days.  We need to have faith like Peter who said to Jesus after being told to cast their nets again, “Master, we worked hard all last night and didn’t catch a thing. But if you say so, I’ll let the nets down again.” (Luke 5:5, NLT)  He was glad he did!

            Wide, wide as the ocean, high as the Heaven above;
            Deep, deep as the deepest sea is my Savior's love.
            I, though so unworthy, still am a child of His care;
            For His Word teaches me that His love reaches me everywhere.

Dale