What I’m Thinking: Fishing for People

This week I’m thinking about how Jesus’ summons to his first disciples remains the same one extended to all of us: “Fish for people.” But what that means, and how we do it, has changed with the centuries and the decades. What does it look like for us now?

Here’s a transcript:

The Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday is Matthew’s account of Jesus’ call to his first disciples.

You’re probably familiar with the story, of how he’s walking along a lake shore, he sees fishermen, and he summons them out of their boats to follow him, and he tells them that they’re going to be catching people.

Well, that has been the Christian call for centuries, but it has shifted throughout the years. Back in the ’60s, when the Civil Rights movement emerged, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was headed by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., what they were fishing for was justice: justice for those who had been denied it; justice from those who had withheld it from a significant portion of the population.

Today we still seek justice for all, for those who have been denied it, and for those who are still seeking it.

But we are also always seeking to catch those who are lost in some way or another, whose hope has been denied, whose health is fragile, or who just seek some company in making their way through this world and in finding the embrace of God in the next – and yes, here, as well.

That’s what I’m thinking.