Faith Of A Fisherman II

To take any particular step of faith is to feel empowered by something larger than yourself, something bigger than who you are; it is to be drawn by a power that is so invisible but tangible. It is to feel a pull in you to do your very best with the understanding that it is not you who is doing it, but a power within you which is leading you to do what you are doing. And miracles do happen because you have taken that particular step.

There’s a story of George Müller, who opened an orphanage for more than 10,000 orphans in England. The interesting part of the story is that George never asked anyone for money to feed these orphans. George simply prayed and trusted that God would provide. One morning, there was no food for the children.

Müller gathered the children at the table and began to pray, thanking God for the food that had not yet arrived. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. It was the local baker with fresh bread. “I couldn’t sleep last night; I felt that God wanted me to bake this for you,” the baker said. Moments later, a milk cart broke down right in front of the orphanage, giving them all the milk they needed.

George Müller’s life was a living testimony of God’s provision. He showed that when you fully trust in God, miracles happen.

What does it take to trust in God? What does it take to commit to God? It takes faith, and faith isn’t easy. Faith puts so many demands on us. Faith invites us to the extraordinary, to operate outside of the norm, to surrender with these words - "But because you say so, I will let down the nets."

Archbishop Rowan Williams would explain that Simon Peter’s faith helps us to understand faith as a process of educating our vision and our passions. First, educating our vision so that we understand how to see what we don’t yet fully see; it is to see behind surfaces, to see beyond the horizon. Second, educating our passions in the sense of helping ourselves grow up humanly, in such a way that we don’t take fright at the mysteries of life.

Let me flesh it out a little more: when we educate our vision, we are making the claim that there’s more to what we see. That there is more to the beautiful building we see. That the beauty is maintained by someone I do not see and may not know. That there is more to the tables and chairs that have been neatly arranged.

I may not see or know the person who arranged it, but I am grateful they did. To educate your vision is to make yourself see beyond the horizon, that there is more to what we see. To accept that what you see is all that there is is to live in a fool’s paradise.

To use George Müller’s story as a case study is to see the orphans, but also to see more than just orphans. To use our ministry at Lake Elkhorn, Oakland Mills, Dorsey Center, or the Refugee Ministry as a case study is to acknowledge that we see a lot of people struggling with all kinds of issues, but also to accept that we see more than human beings.

In a sense, when I see you, I see faithful parishioners, but I would be limited in my perception, understanding, and embrace of you if I were only limited by what I see. The way I see you shouldn’t be any different from the way I see the many people we serve through our ministries. The joy is that I see more than you because, in order to serve you or anyone else, I do not have to be limited by anything, no matter what. I have to be motivated by a boundless love - just like the love of the father of the prodigal son.

To educate the vision is to see more than what the eyes can behold and to agree that there is more to the human story and there’s more than what meets the naked eye.

To educate our passion is to accept that we are all a work in progress, and the work is our growth towards being more human. It isn’t the case that we are not human, yes, we are, but to be more human is to accept that the mystery of your life and all lives challenges us into a sober reflection of our particular reality.

It is this sober reflection that makes it possible for us to recognize a need and then to see beyond that need. It is this sober reflection that begs this question: Why is this the way it is? Why do we have homelessness, poverty, racism, depression, violence, addiction, and what have you? Why do we have inequalities in the world? Why are all the fingers not the same?

We ask these questions because, much as we want to fix the immediate needs, we also want to go beyond the immediate need to examine the cause of those needs. It takes one with an educated passion to go deep with the goal of solving a systemic problem.

To understand mystery is to accept that we cannot explain nor understand everything about our world and about our own lives, and that is exactly why humility becomes so important.

It is the same humility that guides us to accept that there are times when we may not have the words to explain what we see and understand, and our faith lends itself to this mystery. And to accept mystery is to embrace your own divine life and the fact that there is more to you than you can ever know. To accept that your life is a mystery opens the door for you to accept other lives as mysterious as well.

And that, my beloved fisherman, means that you are on the path of being human.

To educate your passion is to be human enough to ask, "Who are those among us who are not living the way human beings ought to live? What is causing it? And what can I do to fix it?"

King David is said to have asked God the all-important question: Why do you make the poor and the rich? Why don’t you have everyone have equal? He was asking a deeper question: Why do you have a world that is unbalanced?

There are the haves and the have-nots, there are people who are happy and joyful, and there are people who are sad, depressed, and struggle with dark demons and mental health issues. There are people with families, and there are people who are alone. Why do you create such an imbalanced world? Why can’t you give everyone what they need? And God tells King David, “Because I wanted the world to have something called kindness. If I have everything I need and you have everything you need, we wouldn’t have a need to communicate, nor would we need to help each other, nor find value in each other.”

The truth is, each of us, irrespective of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, has inestimable value- this is an intangible quality which is only accessible to the one with an educated vision and passion.

I am a fisherman, and you, too, are a fisherman. I carry the faith of the fishermen I grew up with. That faith empowers me with a vision to see the extraordinary out of the ordinary, and infuses me with a passion so deep, so wide, and so unstoppable in its desire to make life a little more meaningful each day.

We are now in the middle of Holy Week, and Easter is but a few days away. Holy Week reminds us of what suffering tastes like, but Easter establishes for us a kind of life that no amount of suffering can extinguish.

As you live into the mystery of Easter, may you also live into the mystery of your own life. Remind yourself, if you may, that you are, after all, a fisherman, and you carry with you the faith of a fisherman.

Happy Easter, my beloved fisherman. 



Manny+