2 Reasons Why Casting a Net is More fun than Cleaning a Net

We have a thought-provoking saying here at Metro North Church: 

“We fish with a net, not a pole.”

What does that mean?   

Many fishermen would cast a net together to capture fish during the times Christ walked the earth.

Fishing with a pole all by yourself, like we might do here in the low country, was not the usual form of fishing.

Jesus’ last command - “Go and publish my plan to save the world!” is to be Metro’s first priority. 

And this adventurous command was given to a community of followers, not to an individual.

•  But this is where I get stuck.

I know that I am to be seeking and saving the lost with others (casting the net of salvation), but if I am honest, I much prefer to stay on the shore and clean the nets with my fellow followers of Jesus.

Jesus found some “net cleaners” in Luke chapter five.  While walking by the edge of a lake, Jesus spied some empty fishing boats.  Luke the biographer writes “the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.”

Did you catch that?  Instead of spending time in the boats and casting the nets for fish, the fishermen were on shore cleaning the nets.

Jesus directs Simon "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch."

Could casting nets be more fun than cleaning them?

Jesus seems to think so, and here are two reasons why:

Reason Number One:  Casting is adventurously dangerous, uncomfortable and unstable while cleaning is safe, comfortable and stable.

Sounds counter intuitive but think about it….

A story is boring if it has no risk of harm or hurt.  But who wants to risk getting hurt?  We are “hurt-averse.”  This makes sense in a fallen world.

And Jesus cares enough not to care about our self-focused, emotional hesitancy.  He is helping the fallen world to stand up again!

Peter replies to Jesus’ command to cast with the words "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing!”

Behind Peter’s words we sense his exhaustion and desire for safety, comfort and changelessness. 

While on shore with his buddies, he was on solid ground going through the methodical motions of net cleaning. 

Our personal routines and rituals set the rhythm of the predictable net cleaning life.

But Jesus clearly commanded them to cast their nets.  His kingdom way of life always seeks the lost.  Sacrificial love involves danger, discomfort and the risky unknown.

Jesus crosses streets and climbs over fences in order to cast himself around others who need help and healing.  He ventures out with his people to rescue those caught in an ocean of darkness so that they can enter into the sunshine of life with God and others forever.

Cleaning the nets has its place.  But they are cleaned in order to be cast.

Reason Number Two:  Casting is more exhilarating than cleaning.

Simon and his fishing buddies cast the nets and experienced a SURPRISE! 

The nets captured so many fish that they began to break!  Luke tells us that another boat was rushed to the fishing site and both boats were filled to the point of sinking.

They all looked on wide-eyed with emotional astonishment.

I want that astonishment too.

But I will have to stop spending all of my time cleaning the nets.

I will have to relish the words that Jesus gave to Simon "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men." 

I will have to grab a fishing buddy and cast the net.

Will you cast the net with me?

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

Four Ways To Be Like the Woman Who Became a Well

Get it while it’s hot!

Grab it before it’s gone!
 

We all scurry along towards the tug of drinking in the next best thing.

I do it too.  Why am I still so thirsty?

Our hearts are dry sponges. They seek to soak something into them that will deliver a sense of satiation.

I’m reminded about a story starring a woman at a well.  Check out the details in John 4.

Jesus offers her magical water.  

Shocked and surprised at his thirst-quenching offer, she decides to become a well.

How?

First:  She began by sponging Jesus in.

Jesus created a safe and soft place to shower her with dignity and decency.  He knew her sins and sufferings.  She had tried to cure her thirst with six different men. Jesus still wanted her, even though he had every right to shame her.  Grace oozed out of Christ and into the secret corners of her guilty, withered, exhausted heart.

How was she like a well?  

A well bubbles up from below by means of its connectedness to deeper springs of water.  Now that her heart was connected to Christ she was ready to share.

Are you connected to Christ?  Before you can be the face of Christ in the world you must first soak in the shining approval of his face toward you.

Second:  She leaves her water pot.

This action is intriguing.  A water pot acts as a reservoir.  It receives and captures water.  

She leaves her water pot, darts into town and shares-- “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did.  Can this be the Christ?”

How did this reaction resemble a well?

What does a well actually do?  A well is not just a reservoir or receptacle of water. It is more like a gushing, babbling river.

A river receives water and shares it downstream.

Notice that she did not share a program or a church or an idea.  These are all good things but she did not start with sharing these “water pots.”

She bubbles and babbles the words “Come, see a man…..Can this be the Christ?”

Maybe I act more like a stagnant reservoir instead of a rushing river because I fail to share Jesus.  Do I want to share Metro North Church, Presbyterianism or programs more than Christ?

Those are all water pots.  I need to leave them be and babble more about Jesus.

Third:  She just could not keep Jesus to herself. She had to share him.

How is this like a well?

Did you know that a well will actually dry up if it does not get ladled out and shared with the thirsty?

When you drink Jesus, you simply cannot keep him to yourself.  

John chapter 1 tells of Andrew meeting Jesus and then sharing him with Peter.  

We always share that which slakes our deepest thirst.  

Fourth:  She does not say “Go and See” but instead says
“Come with Me.”  

“Come with me and see.”  

How is this like a well?

A well gently invites others to voluntarily lower their bucket and drink for free.

Just as Jesus was not pushy or pressuring with her, she expresses an invitational approach to sharing Jesus.

I’m an overly aggressive person when I’m excited about something I really love.  I want others to love what I love…now!  

A well waits.  It bubbles and gushes and sparkles until a thirsty soul wants to drink.

I’m so thirsty.  Christ is living water. 

Will you leave your water pots next to mine and join me in becoming like the woman who became a well?

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church

4 Facts About Zombie Flamingoes and MNC

Did you happen to see any Zombie flamingoes littering the yards of your neighbors this past Halloween?

These bizarre yard decorations were selling off the shelf as the latest Amazon craze.

Four facts about these freakish flamingoes reveal the amazing health and hope I see at Metro North Church.

Fact 1:  A zombie flamingo does not have a pulse. 
(Really.  Go and try to find one.  I dare you.)

• The Pulse of MNC:  Metro North is pulsating with an overflowing desire to GO and share Jesus with every man, women and child in Berkeley County.

Fact 2:  A zombie flamingo does not have a temperature.  (Really.  Try to take one and you will get the same reading over and over --“cold and dead.”)

• The Temperature of MNC:  When our extended church family gathers for worship and then for more intimate community in our small groups, the temperature is cozy-warm.  Boiling might be a better descriptor for the gatherings of our people doing life together.

Fact 3:  A zombie flamingo does not have a blood pressure.  (Go ahead and steal grandpa’s blood pressure cuff and Velcro it around one of the zombie legs.  I guarantee you will not register a pressure.)

• The Blood Pressure or pressing priority of MNC is centered on growing in grace and compassion as a family on mission together.  

Fact 4:  A zombie flamingo does not breathe.  (Go ahead and hug one.  You won’t feel those flamingo lungs breathing in and out.)

• While so many religions offer rest and breathing space after you give your efforts and energy to meet many conditions, MNC offers “acceptance with eternal rest” based on the perfect performance of Christ.  Eternal acceptance allows us the freedom to breathe.  We give because we have been given to.

As your new pastor, I’m sure glad our church does not resemble a zombie flamingo.

• May our new website and pastor’s blog spur you to take flight in the going, gathering, growing, giving, transforming grace of God.

And one more thing.  If you actually bought a zombie flamingo, you are as odd as your pastor who actually writes about such crazy things.  Don’t feel ashamed…I like you already.

Pastor Howard
Senior Pastor
Metro North Church