What You WON'T Hear on Sunday Morning

Sermon's done come together this afternoon (and a special shout-out goes to the Holy Spirit for showing up.) Sermon preparation is a strange beast, although I suppose any writer would say the same about his/her craft.  Just because you've done it before doesn't mean you know what to expect when you sit down to do it again. It's different nearly every time.

But I got to the end of my writing process and realized that there is a really fun exegetical insight in the text (Luke 5:1-11) that I won't be using in tomorrow's sermon. When you are committed to "preaching about God and preaching about 20 minutes," you can't say it all.  And attempting to say it all may mean that you end up coherently saying nothing at all. 

Throwing this idea into the sermon would gum up the works.
The thought of throwing it on the cutting room floor makes me sad.  And so I am thankful for this blog.  Because I can throw it HERE.

If you read this before Sunday morning, it can color some of your interaction with the text and the sermon.  If you read it later, you can mull it over in the coming week.  

Jesus calls the disciples.  Fisherman.  And you all, likely, know the punchline of the story: "Come and follow me.  I will make you fishers of men (ahem) all people."  That is the way Matthew and Mark tell the story.  They are a bunch of joke-y punsters, those two.  But Luke does something different in the original text.  Something that we don't see on this side of the NIV's translation work, which phrases the end of verse 10 this way:

"Do not be afraid; from now on you will fish for people."

Having read Matthew and Mark previously, you're probably like "haha, good one Luke."  Except that Luke doesn't use the standard Greek verb "to fish" here.  He has used different iterations of that word throughout the text.  But in this verse he says,

"ἀπὸ τοῦ νῦν ἀνθρώπους ἔσῃ ζωγρῶν."

In other words, "from now on I will make you catchers/live-trappers of men (ahem) all people."  The word here (English transliteration: zogrein) has it's root in the Greek word: zoe; meaning life.  Okay, well then, so what? (Lon SolomonTM)

I've only been fishing a couple of times.  Not really my thing -- hooks and blood.  Then you keep the poor things in a tiny bucket of water until such time as your grandfather breaks their necks or hits them over the head with a hammer.   Poor scaly things flopping around on a pier with desperation in their soon-to-be lifeless eyes. That's the visual image I have of fishing.

So, when Jesus tells me to go do THAT to people, I feel justified in my squeamishness.  But now, thanks to Luke, I have a new visual image.  One of live-trapping.  An image reminiscent of time spent in Yellowstone National Park, where animals like wolves and bears are often caught, in order to be tagged, released and watched over.  This image allows me to ruminate on the work of liberation, redemption, setting free that is attendant to the work of ministry.  No more clonking suckers over the head with the Bible.  Instead, we set them free into life -- new life make no mistake -- but life not death all the same!

It's a shame I won't be making that homiletical turn on Sunday.  But now you can reflect with me on a new image and, since I tend to preach lectionary, I'll get another crack at this text in three years.  Talk about working ahead!  #overachiever