Homily, Building Beloved Community
Third Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B, 2024
Good Shepherd Episcopal Church
Tequesta, FL
The Rev. Derek M Larson, TSSF
Today’s Lectionary Readings:
In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
To this day, there are some passages of Scripture that immediately transport me back to my preschool Sunday School class, and today’s gospel reading is absolutely one of them.
“I will make you fishers of men, fishers of men, fishers of men.
I will make you fishers of men, if you follow me.”
Do you know that song? What a cute song. And a cute image—fishing for people.
As a child it called to mind memories of sitting on the shore with dad, fishing poles in hand, kind of like Opie, whistling down the dirt path with a rod over his shoulder. Fishing for people sounded to me like a game of hide and seek, or tag, or sharks and minnows. It brought to mind fun and happy relationships with friends and family.
As an adult, though, I sometimes find myself wrestling with this image. People are not, after all, fish. And to treat them as such is a somewhat objectifying and dehumanizing notion. It reduces people to something to be caught, or plucked up unwillingly from wherever they are. And unfortunately, that is the way the Church has sometimes operated. Whether it be by spreading Christianity through the trans-Atlantic slave trade, or forcing it through the colonization of indigenous people groups, or simply through the sometimes coercive evangelism tactics that focus more upon “winning souls for Christ” rather than loving people in wholeness: body, mind, and soul. We Christians, have at times—at times— treated people exactly like something to be caught, and bagged, and done with as we please. And so this passage can also be a dangerous one if we are not careful.
But I don’t think that’s what Jesus had in mind when he spoke these words to Simon and Andrew. Because in calling them to fish for people, he models for them exactly what he means. Jesus wants to build community. That’s what this passage is about—building community. In the beginning of this passage we see a journey of one, at the end we see a journey of five. Jesus is building community, and he models exactly what he means by that in three steps.
First, Jesus sees people. Fr. Groff talked about this last week when he preached on Jesus seeing Nathaniel while still under the fig tree. And we see that again this week when Jesus sees Simon and Andrew, James and John. Jesus sees people. Seeing people is the first step in building community. Which sounds very simple, but how often do we not see people? How often do we walk through the grocery store, passing by others as if they were simply part of the decor? How often do we give a polite nod or wave to people in our neighborhood without knowing their names? And even here on Sunday morning, how often we find ourselves avoiding eye contact with someone we don’t quite recognize? Seeing people is hard. It is a practice that takes intentionality and careful cultivation. But the first step of building community is to simply see people.
Second, Jesus meets the new disciples right where they are. Right along the shore as they are casting and mending their nets, Jesus meets them. He doesn’t first expect them to come to him, no, first, he goes to them. And he uses the language that is natural to them. Building community doesn’t just happen, we sometimes have to leave our homes and meet people where they are, in their context, in the midst of their experiences. As an introvert, this is something I have to remind myself constantly. If I want friends, sometimes I have to leave the house. Sometimes I have to reach out and find people right where they are. And that’s what Jesus does in this passage. He finds Simon and Andrew, James and John, right where they are along the shore.
And third, Jesus calls or invites the new disciples to participate and partner with him in a common mission. “Follow me,” he says. “Together, we can fish for people. Together, we can build community. Together we can do something of real purpose and meaning. We can point others to the work God is doing in the here and now. A new kingdom is at hand.” Every community, articulated or not, has a set of goals and values. And Jesus demonstrates in building his community a purpose which places the work of God at its center in partnership with others.
As we read through Scripture, you can see that these three practices which Jesus models for the disciples become central to the character of the early Church. All through the book of Acts and the Epistles, over and over again, we see the early Christians building community around the world through the practices of seeing people, meeting them where they are, and partnering in a common mission, so much so that these communities create for themselves, not a fishing net, but a safety net. A community of love and support where all were known and well taken care of. And the fish, became a symbol of Christian community. You can find it today carved into the walls of the catacombs where communities of people worshiped together and cared for one another.
Fishing for people does not mean winning their souls; it does not mean coercive conversion; it doesn’t even mean growing church membership. It means building beloved community.
So how are we, at Good Shepherd, building community? How are we taking the time to see people in our neighborhoods and communities? How are we meeting people right where they are? How are we partnering with people in a common mission? That’s what Jesus is calling us to. That’s what it means to be a church—a Christian community. That’s what it means to follow Jesus.
Now, there’s more to building community than those three things. We could talk about good communication, repentance and forgiveness, equity and equality, humility and service, but these three markers that Jesus models for us in this passage are crucial starting points for the work to which we are being called. And much of the time, we are already doing them so well. But today, as our congregation gathers together in one service and has our annual meeting to reflect on the year that has past and the year to come, I invite us also to reflect on how we are embodying these three principles. How are we, together, following Jesus in the work of building beloved community here in Tequesta?
Looking back, I think I was closer to the meaning of this passage as a child than I knew. Fishing for people is about relationships. It’s about bringing people together. So let us be fishers of people, and build together beloved community. Amen.
Thoughts on Faith 