I understand the sentimental attachment Christians have to
this call story but truthfully it is not a positive metaphor for evangelism. Fishers
of people might be quite happy with the idea that God uses them to catch people
for Christ but being caught by those who “fish for people” means the “fished” are
ensnared in a net or deceived by a lure or hooked by bait none of which paints
the process of conversion in a positive light. More than that there is no life
for the fish once caught as living outside their watery world is not an option.
Granted I might be overthinking the metaphor. Maybe what Jesus was saying to those
fisher folk stripped down and sweating is that getting people to accept Jesus
as “God with us” is not that different from sweating over nets and dragging one’s
livelihood from the Sea of Galilee. Which means we do what we can do with what
we’ve been given. There will be those who object to any effort we make as a
violation of their territorial waters of secularism or outright unbelief but
truth is we have no reason or right to fish in those waters anyway. What we can
and must do is fish every day in daily waters calm or stormy. But not with net
or lure or bait but with all our heart, mind and soul so that those who object to
the arrogance of the church are won over by the humility of Christianity. We
love others so that others will love Christ even though we have all learned the
language of love as a foreign tongue.
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