“Bait They’ll Bite”

• Scriptural Reference: Matthew 4:19
• February 3, 2008

My friend Gwynn Smith, a colleague from the VBMB, loves to fly fish. He’ll try it anywhere, but his favorite thing to do is go to Montana or Wyoming and fish those rivers where the events of the book and movie “A River Runs through It” happened. Once he was out in the middle of the Snake River in Yellowstone having the day of his life. He snagged a snarling trout on just about every cast. He joked that since in that part of the river you had to catch and release, he was probably catching the same fish over and over again. Whatever, he noticed a man watching him from the shore. Soon, the man climbed back up through the brush on the bank to his RV that was parked by the road. A little while later, the guy came back down. Gwynn could easily see that the guy had a regular rod and reel and on the end of the line was a shining minnow lure: probably an expensive lure from the look of it. The guy cast out into the river and began reeling in line. Over the next hour, as Gwynn continued to yank out trout after trout, the guy on the shore caught nothing.

Gwynn laughed as he told me this, but since I’m NOT a fisherman, I decided to bite. I said, “Gwynn, why wasn’t that guy catching anything?”

First Gwynn had to recover from the shock of realizing that I didn’t know what I was talking about. Then he explained. Trout don’t eat minnows. They go for those little midge-like flies that hover just over the surface of the water and sometimes land to swim on the surface. They love those things. And if you learn to tie flies that have a similar look, and learn to cast the line so that the fly goes near the surface then lands lightly, with the line following later, the trout won’t be able to resist. But if you through a heavy minnow lure into the water, if the splash doesn’t scare them off, you can almost hear the fish laughing.

I think of this story when I hear Jesus tell Peter, Andrew, James, and John that he’s going to make fishers of men out of them. What does it mean to be fishers of men?

First of all, Jesus saw something in those disciples that he knew would translate into good ambassadors for the Kingdom of God. Even though they hadn’t been to seminary to get formal theological education, he knew they possessed skills that God could use.

That’s a very important point for everyone to take home from this passage: Jesus did NOT go to the clergy store to get his disciples. He found a bunch of fishermen. Why?

There’s probably one very good reason why Jesus didn’t go to a seminary to get his followers. You see, when you go to a seminary to study, you learn what the seminary thinks is most important. If you go to a Baptist seminary, you’ll come away appreciating Methodists, Presbyterians, and Catholics, but you’ll still think that the Baptists are the closest to what God had in mind when he created the first Sunday schools. In other words, you come away with a particular way of thinking, and you’re not particularly ready to let it go even if circumstances begin strongly to suggest it.

Fishermen, though, know that if you’re going to be effective, you have to adjust the way you think. In other words, you can’t always use the same kind of bait. If you want to snag trout out of the Snake River, for example, you have to tie flies and learn the art of fly casting. On the other hand, if you want to yank a mackerel out of the surf down at Nags Head, the last thing you want is a fly rod. You want a heavy line with multiple hooks and live bait. If you want a cat out of the James, you need something that’ll sink to the bottom.

Listen to this report from Saturday’s sport section: “Fred Barnes of Chesapeake set a new Virginia record with a 73-pound striper. The 52-inch fish was just 5 1/2 pounds off the world record. Barnes caught his fish trolling off Cape Henry with a red/white stretch 30.”

I had to google “red/white stretch 30. I couldn’t tell from the article if it was a type of bait or a type of line. In the process of searching the internet I came across this blog in which two guys were coordinating a fishing excursion in the Bay. One of them said this:

“I've fished out of LC twice this year planning to head south past Rudy and both times never made it past Cap Henry. Good luck! That fat 73 state record was caught off CH about 10 days ago on a red/white stretch 30. I think every store in town is sold out of them. LOL”

And listen to this bit of advice from a real aficionado.

In late September or early October, I begin fishing for school rockfish by trolling with wire line. This technique works in many locations around the bay where small rockfish, bluefish or trout can be found. Trolling in the manner described is a bit difficult to get used to but the results are very consistent and sometimes the action is almost too fast! I troll very slowly, maybe 2 to 3 knots with special tackle. Two lines from  the stern are rigs spooled with #30 monel wire. On these lines go a 3 way swivel. A 24 or 28 oz. sinker is added on 3-4'section of #30 mono. The third part of the swivel gets a 20-30' leader with either a single lure or a pair of bucktails. The leader is less likely to tangle if it is made of #50 or #80 mono. If the area trolled is full of snags, the leader may need to be #30 in order to sacrifice it and get the wire back in the event of a hang-up. The jigs can be 1/2 to 3 oz. and come in various colors. A shad body or curly tail worm is added to the jig. White jigs and white shad are my favorite. I also prefer running double jigs on at least one of the wire rigs.

And, you have to go to where the fish live. Some people like to sit on the peer and fish. Sometimes that yields a fantastic catch. But if you want the real thrill, you have to wade into the river. You have to roll up your pants legs and let the pounding surf pull at your ankles. You have to get in a boat and risk a little sea sickness. You may not have heard about the fact that Maryland’s biggest recorded catch of a large mouth bass happened just this past week. Justin Riley of Woodbine pulled in an 11-pound, 2.88 ounce fish in 20 feet of water on the Potomac River just above the Wilson Bridge. I don’t know about you, but that stretch of the Potomac isn’t particularly scenic, what with thousands of vehicles roaring over the Wilson every half hour or so. But Riley was interested in the fish, not particularly the scenery, and besides, the Potomac was near to hand. He would most probably love to fish the Snake, but that wasn’t his river.

In other words, you have to pay attention to your fish, study them, and understand them. You have to know where they live, what they eat, and when they’re most likely to be biting. And, you have to know your river.

Return to the statement Jesus made to those first fishermen. You are to be fishers of men. In other words, use the same calculations, discipline, flexibility, and perseverance you learned going after piscine quarry and apply it to attracting people to the kingdom of God.

It’s true that those disciples weren’t using hooks or reels. They were using nets. But the same principles applied. They had to study the water. They had to risk a storm or two. They had to know the best time to drop their nets. They had to know where the fish were most likely to hang out. They had to be creative, courageous and flexible.

Now, let me ask this question. Any fisherman will be able to tell you what you’re going to catch simply by looking at your equipment and your bait. Look around us here at Walnut Grove Baptist Church. Judging from the equipment and the bait, what are we likely to catch? Judging from where we’ve been casting, what are we likely to catch? Is that what we’re fishing for? Or have we determined what we’re fishing for to begin with? It’s not enough for me to tell one of you guys that I feel like going fishing. You’re going to ask me immediately, WHAT do you want to fish for and where? Likewise, it’s not enough to say, “We’re fishing for the lost.” We have to ask more specific questions than that. Do we want to attract people who are already Christians who already have a firm grasp on biblical traditions and Christian history? Or do we want to gather in folks who’re broken in spirit, overwhelmed by a callous and exploitative culture? Do we want to attract people who have it all together? Or do we want to gather in folks who know they need more than what this world has handed them so far?

Well, first of all, I don’t know anyone who has it all together. I don’t know an overwhelming number of folks who have a firm grasp on biblical traditions and Christian history, even within our membership. I know quite a few who’re broken in spirit. I know quite a few who know they have a thirst that will not go away.

And then I look at our way of doing church and what we spend our money on. It makes me think of my Uncle Erphy’s boat that he used for fishing out of Southport, North Carolina. My dad and I went down to meet him once as he came in from a little fishing excursion. My dad asked him if he’d caught anything and Uncle Erphy opened this hatch in the middle of the deck. We looked in and there was this well with water in it and swimming around were about twenty or so fish. My dad said, “Hey, now that’s where I ought to cast my line!” He and Uncle Erphy had a good laugh.

You know what? The way so much of our efforts are spent in our church life is like my dad casting his line into the well of my uncle’s boat. Most of the conflicts we experience these days in doing church stem from an unwillingness to go where the wild fish still live, or from a lack of understanding about what kind of fish we’re after in the first place. And the fact remains that some of us just don’t care whether we snag anything or not. We’re just content to sit and stare at the surface.

That’s the challenge of this sermon. Where are you fishing? What kind of fish are you after? What kind of bait are you using?

Let me make one last comparison. My friend Gwynn loved to fly fish. Going after catfish bores him silly. My dad loved to surf fish. My uncle loved to troll out beyond the breakers. Gwynn can’t stand live bait. He’s skilled at tying flies. My dad kept getting the hooks in his thumbs when he tried to tie flies, but he didn’t mind cramming shad onto his hooks.

In other words, it takes all kinds of fishermen. Whatever you bring to the fellowship will provide some kind of lure for some kind of “fish.” First, spend some time discovering what your particular lure is. Don’t short circuit this process with false humility or self-deprecation. As the cliché goes, “God don’t make no junk.” You are a treasure and have something to offer. Your particular lure will be related to what you love to do, perhaps your hobby, perhaps the thing that most grips your heart. You have a lure.

Second, begin the process of discovering where to cast your lure. You can discover this in the fellowship of faith. Nurture relationships in Sunday school or in small groups where folks can give you feedback. Listen to their encouragement and trust them when they tell you that you have gifts.

And third, use this same support group to cast out into the deep. Go into the swamp. Wade into the stream. Avoid dropping a line in the cooler and remember who it was that Jesus called.