The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017 - 22

sermon

Something Big for Something Good
by Anita Peebles
Text: Matthew 4:12-23

work with preschoolers in local school gardens. This work
gets me in all kinds of goofy situations, from carrying around
15 flats of herb seedlings in my Prius to ordering live caterpillars online to be delivered through the US Postal Service
to digging for potatoes with four-year-olds, my arms covered
in dirt up to my shoulders. Last January, we started back to
school with some new guests in our classroom: about 1,000 Red
Wiggler worms.
To be expected, some children dove right into the box of
worms, asking to cuddle the worms and naming them "Fluffy"
and wondering about what we should feed them. To see their
joy was a wonderful thing! And then, also to be expected, some
children hold back and watch, they squeal with anxiety or fear,
and some refuse to even be near the worm box altogether.
I noticed that week that one child in particular-I'll call
him Miguel-was having a hard time approaching the worm
bin. He mostly watched with trepidation from the sidelines as
his classmates excitedly engaged the Red Wigglers. That Thursday, however, when I entered the classroom, Miguel made a
beeline over to me and proudly announced, "Ms. Anita, Ms.
Anita-I don't have my fear anymore. I left my fear."
This caught my heart right up into my throat. "I don't
have my fear anymore. I left my fear." What an amazing, and
timely, statement.
We've all heard sermons on this passage from the gospel
of Matthew. We sometimes throw around the phrase, "fisher
of men" or its gender-neutral equivalent, "fisher of people,"
as an illustration or metaphor for evangelism.
We conjure images of lone fishermen out in the middle
of a stream in the Adirondacks, casting a long line in order to
"hook" and "reel in" a disciple for Christ. However, if we pay
attention to our text, we have these two sets of brothers using
large nets-they were not out in order to get simply one fish,
they wanted to gather an abundance of fish in order to serve
their community.
This desire to deal in abundance for the good of the people
of god remains constant as the fishermen's vocations change
according to Jesus' invitation. Releasing their nets, their established business, their family, Simon and Andrew and James and
John immediately comply with Jesus' request.
The call issued in the text to "change hearts and lives"
also applied to the fishermen's skills, as they had to change
how they understood their skillset in order to work with Jesus
to subvert the dominant culture.

22 Baptist Peacemaker

jul-sep 2017

Jesus called the fishermen from the place where they
were, with the skills they had already. Fishing takes patience
to wait for the nets to fill, strength and collaboration to work
together to pull the nets into the boat.
As they traveled with Jesus, they were no longer casting
their rope nets into the deep in hopes of an abundant catch
of fish, but they learned how to cast rays of hope into the
crowds in galilee, Judea and eventually in Samaria, so that
their community might have abundant life and experience
healing at the hands of Jesus.

"That Thursday, when I entered the
classroom, Miguel made a beeline over to
me and proudly announced, 'Ms. Anita,
Ms. Anita-I don't have my fear anymore. I
left my fear.'"
How did these fishermen find such courage to change their
hearts and lives in this way? And to follow Jesus in order to
encourage others to follow suit? Listen to my student Miguel:
"I don't have my fear anymore. I left my fear."
A few months ago, we in the US observed a day of remembrance for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-a man who was
the charismatic leader for multiple intersecting Civil Rights
movements with a broad and diverse base of followers, a man
who was called at one point "the most notorious liar in the
country" by the FBI director.
The same week, we absorbed the inauguration of the next
president of the United States of America-amid a political
dialogue that threatens to set back the progress gained in
racial, economic, gender and health arenas at least 50 years.
That week, we remembered with honor the sacrifices and the
martyrs taken too young during the Civil Rights movements
of the 1960s and the leaders of a whole generation of people
for the pursuit of justice between those of different races and
economic statuses.
That same week, many of us feared what was and is to
come with the current political rhetoric. We are stuck between,
on the one hand, calling to each other to re-ignite Dr. King's

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America July-September 2017