New Year’s Eve
Sermon: “A Go’en A’ Fishen” Rev. D. Anderson
Revelation 22:12-13 John 15:8
On this New Year’s Eve of 1998, let’s look at what’s coming down the pike for us, and see what that has to do with how we use our time. From Revelation 22:12-14:
12. "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. These are Your Words, Lord Christ, sanctify us in your Word, that we might be profitable within time as we use time. Amen.
An American author in the 1800’s and protestor against
slavery at that time, Henry David Thoreau, wrote a sentence that stuck with me... and I think of it often. He said, “Time is but the sea I go a’ fishing on.”
Time is but the sea I go a’ fishing on.
Now I think that this is a pretty profound statement. When Tom and Linda get up at 5:30 in the morning to do some fishing. They have already carefully gone through their tackle. Their reals have been oiled and the line carefully checked. They gobble down their breakfast hardly tasting... whatever they ate! All they’re thinking about are the Walleye... the big, old, hard-fighting walleye....
The walleye are biting over at a sandbar near dead-center to the lake. Having left the house, driven for miles, they pull up to the boat landing, stop, grab their gear, and then sit down on a log and look at the beautiful water... and look.... and look.... and look at the water all day.
Do you buy that? If you do, I have a bridge I’m trying to sell.... No--they would not just look at the lovely water... not if they are on the hunt for walleye near the sandbar at the middle of the lake.
What really happened? Well they rushed their boat into the water. Grabbing their gear, they jumped into the boat, revved up the outboard motor, and zoomed out to where the walleye were said to be biting. For them, the water was a means to an end... a delivery system for what they sought to do, catch walleye.
Well, time for each one of us is much like the water was for Tom and Linda. It’s big... it’s expansive... and within it lies the hunt... the treasures.... All that for which we seek. The only question is: What are we seeking in the waters of time?
Let’s take this one step further. If I were to change this quote from Thoreau... if I were to change it in any way, instead of saying “Time is but the sea I go a’ fishing on,” I would have said, “Time is but the RIVER I go a’ fishing on.”
I like the word ‘river’ because it implies something moving... not static. And it’s moving only in one direction. It’s taking everything on its surface with it... and moving only in one direction.
A log might be floating on its surface... mindless and dead... and the river is taking it in only one direction. A little boy fishing from the old wooden boat is drifting on the river... and moving only in one direction.
Yes, we use time to pursue what is important to us, but as we do, time is also caring us all only in one direction....
Isaiah writes: “All men are like grass, and their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall...”
My friends, only the shallow and foolish do not consider the end of all things. The wise consider, and it molds their lives accordingly.
Henry Pascal, French mathematician and a man estimated
to have had one of the highest IQ’s of human history,
thought through very carefully the meaning of time. What he concluded is now called “Pascal’s wager.”
Pascal’s wager is basically a bet. Each person will wager or bet his life in one of two ways. Either one will bet that there is no God and become a god unto oneself. Or one will bet that there is a God and serve that God. One or the other, but not both.
Now Pascal knew that he too must place his wager. He also fully understood that no one could prove the existence of God. Furthermore, it was obvious to Pascal that faith in a God believed to be good must stand within the storms and cyclones of evil and tragedy. So what was he to do.
Pascal reasoned like this: Let’s say that there is no God, but that he, Pascal, lived his life in service to this God, often and continually denying himself the base pleasures of life. So he lives to be 75 years... he bet 75 years of his life, and, as it turns out, he lost because there was no God.
On the other hand, Pascal reasoned, let’s say that God does exist, but Pascal chose to deny Him, and the claim of any God upon his life. So for 75 years Pascal satisfied every impulse and base pleasure that anyone could ever want before death.
But there’s the key-- when Pascal, living as his own god, died, he would face the judgement of the living God, and lose all of eternity in heaven (while suffering equally as long in hell).
Pascal decided that although God could not be proven, he would live his life devoted to the God proclaimed in the Christian faith.
Now I grant that this is a bit wooden, and we know that
ultimately it was the Holy Spirit that brought faith to Pascal. It was also the Holy Spirit the enabled Pascal’s reasoning ability to strengthen Pascal’s faith and challenge the faith and conduct of others.
And yes, Pascal was a genius, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to come to the conclusion that if one is to bet one’s life, it is far better to lose 75 years or so, rather than all of eternity.
And yet, more and more people in our increasingly pagan
society are betting their time in this world on the fact that there is no judgement... no accountability.... no God to face when the river of time brings us to our final destination.
You, my friends, are men and women who fish, each and
every one of you are... like it or not. You are fishing in the waters of time and time is taking you with everyone else to the same destination. What are you fishing for? What is important to you?
We know that we are saved by grace through faith--pure
and simple. Works have nothing to do with our salvation.
What works do, however, is show to the world what is
important to us. That’s what James meant when he wrote: "But some will say, ’You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do."
A person shows faith in God when they worship each
Sunday, attends Bible study, serves on boards and
committees within the church, supports financially the
mission of the church, and does other activities as they seem to almost buzz around the church.
None of this saves that person, but it shows what they are fishing for... it shows what’s important to them.
Jesus said, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.” Our Lord saw the importance of how we spend our time fishing in time. And so when He called to His disciples to leave their nets on the sea-- He called them to become fishers of men.
You don’t have to be a preacher to fish for men. When the waters of baptism poured over your heads, you were sealed into the covenant of the Great Commission. You were appointed to be fishers of men.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful and God pleasing if each person in our parish got up in the morning saying, “Lord, today the most important thing to me is showing You within my life.... Lord, today the MOST IMPORTANT THING to me is SHOWING YOU within my life.”
And if by God’s grace you are led to say and do this each day from this day forward, then people will come to see what you are fishing for... the kingdom of God.
And God will bless you. It’s kind of like going fishing, and using the waters of time to catch souls for Christ, but as you do so, you feel joy in the bright sun, you see the birds sailing the air currents or chirping brightly from nearby trees, warm breezes caress your face, and you share in the joy of fellowship with other fishers for souls.
And as the river of time speeds you toward the destination awaiting us all, you feel not despair, but anticipation, as the words of Christ come to you, like wave after wave upon the shore, 12. "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done.”
So, friends in Christ, as we put our boats into the waters of 1999, happy sailing as each day you rise with these words in your heart and prayer: “Lord, today the most important thing to me is showing You within my life.” Amen.
