This year during our fall pledge campaign, St John’s seeks to “fill the net” so that our church has sufficient resources to continue nourishing the spiritual lives of our parishioners and others in our community and world. Each one of us helps fill the net by pledging a portion of our financial resources to support God’s work at St John’s. From now through the end of November I ask you to pray for the success of the campaign. Each week, you’ll find a prayer, a guiding scripture, an inspirational fishing quotation (!), and a reflection in this column. God bless you and thank you for your faithful support of God’s work in our church.

FISHING:  “Many people go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.”  Henry David Thoreau

SCRIPTURE: “Now as Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon who was called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And He said to them, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."     Matthew 4:18-19

REFLECTION: It’s been said that God has been imprinted on our souls. It’s been said that we come from God and our lives are a return journey home toward the One who created us. St Augustine described our hearts as restless things that find no rest until we come home to God. We know all this about ourselves and yet we often resist the journey home toward God. We resist it for a multitude of reasons. At some point, the light snaps on for many of us and we realize we’ve been searching for wholeness, joy, and fulfillment in all the wrong places. We survey what may some wreckage in our lives: the wake of our chasing more possessions, more relationships, more physical beauty or prowess, more professional accomplishment, and so on. We begin to acknowledge that there’s more to life than we’ve been willing to admit—an interior life deeper and more profound than perhaps we’ve experienced.

Not much is said about Simon Peter and Andrew in the call story from the gospel of Matthew. We don’t know if they were successful fishermen or struggling to make a living. We don’t know if they were happy in their vocation or if fishing was just one more job in a string of efforts to find fulfillment. For some reason I’ve always thought of them as successful and satisfied, and I’ve marveled that they gave all that up with seemingly no backward glance when they set down their nets and left their boats to follow Jesus.

Now I’m beginning to wonder if perhaps Jesus—with the Holy One’s impeccable sense of timing—approached Simon Peter and Andrew at a time when they were searching, weary, and disillusioned. I’m sure the old joke about a boat being a hole in the water into which you pour money was just as true then as it is today. Perhaps Jesus caught the two men at a moment when their hearts were restless, and they were open to imagine a new way of being. 

I think that restlessness and yearning for a new way of being is what draws many people to church. New members at St John’s often tell me about their church shopping, and say that when they landed at St John’s they knew it was what they needed because it just felt like home. All of us are in the process of coming home to God and coming home to our selves. St John’s is a place where we offer space, support, and companionship for people making that journey.

PRAYER: God you are our beginning and our end. You know our resting places on the journey and are acquainted with all our ways. You know the paths we choose and those from which we turn away. You are our ever-present companion and our guiding star. It is in the darkness that you shine most clearly before us. Give us the eyes to see where you are leading us, and the courage to follow where you lead. Help us to live faithfully, from a place of generosity and not fear. With gratitude we pray. Amen.