February 12, 2006 Sermon

The Catch
John 21:4-14

One of the many ways we can divide people into groups is by their opinion of Delilah, a radio personality. Delilah has an eerie way of drawing out the emotions of those who call. Then she plays songs they request. There are three categories of Delilah People:

1. Those who have never heard of Delilah

2. Those who love Delilah

3. Those who dislike Delilah

I fit into the third, or “dislike Delilah” group. Calling a radio personality and talking about your feelings seems a little creepy to me. Plus, my vocation involves listening to hurting people. When I get in the car I prefer not to keep doing it!

Last Monday I drove home after a long church meeting. Whoever had driven that car before me had left the radio on the Delilah station. I reached to change the channel, but something about the caller on the air made me hesitate. “Hello,” she said in a timid voice, “my name is Yuan. I am student from China . Last month was Chinese New Year and my birthday. I did not see my mother or my family.”

Delilah started showing off her knowledge of Chinese customs by saying how much this girl must have missed Moon Cakes and fireworks. The girl interrupted. “Yes I missed my family,” she said. “So I want you to pick song—because I do not know American music—and I want to make it for all parents whose children have gone far away to school.”

Hey. That’s me.

It was a double-catch moment. The homesickness of this girl caught me, and then her surprising focus on parents caught me again. We just read a double-catch moment in the Gospel of John. Jesus has passed through the cross and the tomb. He has come back to life. He has a few precious days to spend with his followers, who do not appear to recognize him. Peter and six others have gone fishing. They sit in a boat out on the water, bored. The fish aren’t biting. Then Jesus appears at the water’s edge. They have a shouted conversation in which he urges them to put their nets out on the other side of the boat.

Before Jesus came along these men made a living fishing. They know the work. They know that putting the net on the other side of the boat will make no difference. But like any fisherman they will try anything (especially if they think nobody’s looking). They throw the net to the other side and it immediately overflows with fish. The catch has a catch. Because it does, they recognize Jesus.

Coming to church has a catch. We come to church to “catch” Jesus, to catch on to Jesus, to get caught up in faith and the new life he offers. Then we experience the second catch: that we are to go out and help Jesus catch others. We, the church, are to help ever more people come into a life-changing relationship with Jesus.

The double catch: Catch Jesus, then help others get caught.

I know, it almost sounds like a pyramid scheme. Catch Jesus then catch enough others into Jesus—but beneath you—to raise yourself on high. It almost sounds like a disease. Catch Jesus like you catch a common cold. You knew there had to be a catch!

But take a look at what we catch when Jesus catches us. After the disciples row the boat (and after Peter swims) ashore, Jesus meets them on the beach with a fire. He has fish and bread. He invites them to eat. After catching his followers Jesus wants to feed them.

Months earlier Jesus had fed thousands with—are you ready for it?—bread and fish. Days earlier he had shared the Passover feast with them and told them the bread now symbolized his body, broken on the cross for them. Jesus offers to feed his disciples spiritually. He offers himself. His offer still stands. He offers to feed us spiritually. Then he asks us to help him feed others. Will we take him up on his offer?

We have spoken recently of constructing an addition to our building. Some see the need; others do not. Some see that our nursery is too small and sharp-edged for the active preschoolers we try to care for in there. Some see that our whole building now receives so much use—including requests for multiple uses at the same time—we cannot do all the outreach to the community we ought to do. These are excellent reasons for adding to our building, but I have come to see they are the wrong reasons. Our focus needs to be on the double catch; on being caught by Jesus and then helping others get caught.

I fear for our congregation. I fear we are becoming too comfortable. We have become comfortable in our building and we have become comfortable in our work. I don’t like comfortable. Comfortable gets in the way of ministry. I fear we are becoming a congregation willing to settle for what we already have. We have a nice church. We have warm, genuine fellowship. We have nice worship. We have several fine programs.

But we no longer seem to have a sense of urgency for reaching out to people outside these walls. I have repeatedly heard words to this effect: “I wouldn’t want this church to grow too much. I like it when I know everybody.” Others complain that it has gotten too hard to get to their friends during the fellowship time in worship. We have put the cart before the horse. This church does not exist to increase the comfort of its members. This church exists to make disciples and send apostles. This church exists to get everybody eating breakfast on the beach with Jesus.

On the one hand, we must not push so hard and fast for a building addition that it cripples our ministry. On the other hand, we must not allow our very human desire to be comfortable to paralyze our ministry. Sometime soon we will reach the point in time when God desires that building addition. But we have already reached the time for ministry to those who hunger for the food only Jesus can supply.

We have been caught. We have caught enough faith in Jesus that we participate in the life of his church. Now we must participate in the double catch. Now we must help others to catch on to Jesus. I challenge you to follow a simple, two-step process to make the double catch happen. First, pray that God would reveal to you whom you are to invite to get fed spiritually by Jesus through this congregation. Second, invite them.

Jesus came to feed us. This church came into being to help more and more people get fed by Jesus. Let’s get back at it.