Thinking about the fish story we've just heard, I thought of the proverb, "Give a man a fish, and he has food for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." I thought maybe it would give us a way of discovering something important in the story. But who came up with that proverb, I wanted to know. So, living in the age of the Internet, I went out on the WWW to do a search to find out. All I found was a suggestion that it was an old Chinese proverb-and, several humorous variants.

For example: "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you can sell him tackle, bait, and boats for a lifetime." Or, this one, submitted by a woman (Zenna Schaffer), "Give a man a fish and he has food for a day; teach him how to fish and you can get rid of him for the entire weekend." My favorite, however, is one reflective of what I know about my home-state, Wisconsin, fishermen, "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat drinking beer all day."

Ok, let's get back to the original: "Give a man a fish, and you feed him a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." Jesus, of course, really wasn't teaching Simon Peter and the others anything about fishing per se. Fishing, after all, was their livelihood; they were fisherman by trade. In telling the story, then, Luke is nudging us to see something else. There is a message here about being in the presence of God and about our discipleship.

What are we looking for? What do we expect, coming here, into the presence of the living God? Why show up for worship? Why keep on doing the church thing? Provocative questions, perhaps. Probably there are many reasons why, on any given Sunday, any of us are here. Kids dragged here by parents. Parents here because of a sense of duty, perhaps. Some of us here simply out of long habit. Others because of a felt need to praise and worship the Lord. Or maybe we're here just hoping to get something out of the service, a little something to take care of some immediate spiritual need we feel. In short, maybe we come here hoping only for a free fish.

Explaining the miracle of being the Church in the Small Catechism, Article Three of the Apostle's Creed, Luther wrote: "The Holy Spirit has called me through the Gospel, enlightened me with gifts, and sanctified and kept me in true faith. In the same way the Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it united with Jesus Christ in the one true faith." Our being here is the work of the Spirit, even when we don't think so-even when we are cynical about the church, still we are here, or are bothered about it when we're not. The more we think about that, the more mysterious this gathering for worship becomes-and the potential found in our being in the presence of God is awesome.

Think of the powerful experience of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, in his vision of the glory of the Lord in the Temple. And Isaiah's response? "I'm doomed. Everything I say is sinful." And notice also how Peter, sensing he is the presence of God made flesh, knelt in front of Jesus and cried, "Lord, don't come near me! I am a sinner!"

For both Isaiah and Peter, it's what happens next that matters: they make the biggest decision of their lives: they accept God's call. Sinners though they are, they manage to take that next step and say yes. They are teachable. They will trust God. They will go beyond the ordinary, the expected. They agree to do something they've never done before, and they will be changed forever.

"Give a man a fish, and he has food for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." Notice a detail in Luke's story Jesus' command to Peter. Row your boat out into deep water and let your nets down to catch some fish." In the story, out on the deep water the fishermen, obeying Jesus, let the nets down and the result? The caught so many fish that their nets began to rip apart...They filled the two boats so full that they both began to sink.

The deep waters. It's getting into the deep water that is the whole point of the Spirit's calling, gathering, enlightening and making-holy work The Holy Spirit didn't bring us here to be tossed a fish for the day. The deep waters represent the call of the Spirit to teach us about living and to bring us into a life far beyond all our expectations: boats so loaded with fish they're at risk of sinking. Oh that we Lutherans might have such a problem!-- churches so packed the Fire Marshal might shut us down if we didn't build more or bigger ones. Impossible, we immediately think. Sure it is, if it's all just up to us.

A helpful commentator on our Sunday text, Brian Stoffregen, links today's fish story with the insight of Rick Warren, famous pastor Saddleback Church down in Southern California, a church that has grown in astonishing ways. Rick says in his book, The Purpose Driven Church, "The wrong question: What will make our church grow? The right question: What is keeping our church from growing?" He goes on to explain: "All living things grow -- you don't have to make them grow. It's the natural thing for living organisms to do if they are healthy. For example, I don't have to command my three children to grow. They naturally grow. As long as I remove hindrances such as poor nutrition or an unsafe environment, their growth will be automatic. If my kids don't grow, something has gone terribly wrong. Lack of growth usually indicates an unhealthy situation, possibly a disease. In the same way, since the church is a living organism, it is natural for it to grow if it is healthy. The church is a body, not a business. It is an organism, not an organization. It is alive. If a church is not growing, it is dying." [p. 16-see at http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/brian.htm]

The Spirit called us here that we could again hear Jesus tell us, what he told Peter: Don't be afraid. From now on you will be bringing in people instead of fish. For what keeps a church from growing? Many things, but chief among them is the old habit of begging for a fish, instead of expecting Christ to turn us into fishers of humanity, filling this old church with people on fire with the power of God.

"Give a man a fish, and he has food for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime." The disciples were sinners, fools, and even failures, but this was their greatness: they were reachable and teachable. They left everything and went with Jesus, and learned how to fish for humanity. And their numbers grew by the thousands, and they were fed for a lifetime by the experience of the awesome power of God. Let us pray for the willingness to learn to fish like that. Amen.