Have You Seen the Snake!?

Luke 5:1-11

Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” Simon answered, “Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.” When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Nearly every day for three straight weeks I’d walk over two blocks and down one block to the entrance of the National Park.  You might be thinking of something that looks like the entrance to Yosemite or Yellowstone.  No.  This was a little wooden bridge over a mostly unmoving tidal stream that led to one tiny building where you signed in and gave your donation.  

Anyway, as you approached the entrance there would be up to about a dozen guides.  Some were guides. Others were “guides.”  Licensed or not, all of them were quick to tell you that if you are going to see anything, you would need them.  Every day for three straight weeks I said no thank you and kept walking.  Why I came every day and never hired a guide turned out to be a bit of a maddening mystery for this group.  What they decided I was all about apparently spread all over town.  

Their frustration grew and one day a very annoyed guide stopped me and said, “What have you seen?  I bet you haven’t seen anything!”  Another of the “guides” called out to me on the street, “Did you see the snake?”  Seeing the snake was apparently a big deal.  “Did you see the alligator?” he demanded.  I said, “Nope, no alligators”  mostly because there are no alligators in Costa Rica.

These encounters seemed so odd to me but they did make me really think, "Why WAS I there every day?"  Was “seeing the snake” or checking off a list of animals what I was there for?  It was clearly what they THOUGHT I should be there for.  And I'll be the first to admit that seeing sloths, monkeys, birds and snakes was absolutely amazing! But after some real deep thinking, I realized what I was there for was something more.  

Simon, James, and John in today’s Gospel were like those guides… All focused on “seeing the fish.”  Which makes sense, them being fishermen!  They had been out all night and all they had to show for it was a bunch of nets clogged with seaweed.  Even they, the experts, had not “seen the fish”, let alone pulled one into the boat.  Then along comes Jesus.  Can you imagine having had a frustrating night on the lake with no fish and dirty nets, only to have some random stranger walk up, get in your boat and ask you to go out a few feet from shore so he could teach?  Who does that!?  I can only imagine that Simon went along with this request thinking it was probably better to just humor the insane!  

Then, when Jesus was done, he told them… not asked… told them to put out into deep water and let down their almost, finally clean nets again.  I’m sure this locked in Simon’s suspicion about this guy… he really WAS completely fruit loops!  But continuing with Simon’s wise policy of humoring the insane, he said, “Master (meaning Crazy dude), we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets (because I just want to get home and going along with the crazy is probably the fastest way to get there).  At which point, of course, they caught enough fish to swamp the boat.  

You see, Jesus was not then, nor is Jesus now, calling us to check off a list like finding a sloth, seeing a monkey, a snake or even catching a fish.  The world, of course, the Church included, is absolutely obsessed with checking lists and counting numbers and meeting goals… but Jesus?  Not so much.  Jesus, way back then and even now, is calling each of us to the FISHING, to the SEARCHING, to the NOTICING, to the SLOWING DOWN, STOPPING and LOOKING, to the HEARING, to the SMELLING, to the fully FEELING.   

The numbers?  The goals?  The fish?  Jesus showed the disciples very quickly, those all come.  Nets down, nets up, boom, done.  But fish in the boat is not our calling… FISHING is our calling.  The being there is not our calling… WALKING the WAY is our calling… finding Jesus isn’t our calling… LOOKING for Jesus, who is love incarnate, in every human being and every bit of creation… that is our calling. 

Our world, like Simon and those guides have a hard time with that.  They understand a number of fish in the boat.  Sloths, monkeys, and snakes checked off a list and a parochial  report of butts in the pews per Sunday.  And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE fish in the boat!  I loved seeing sloths, monkeys, and even snakes (from a distance) and I love seeing your butts in the pews!  ALL of those things are exciting, wonderful, and awesome… They just aren’t the MAIN thing.  The main thing, Jesus shows us, comes in the day after day fishing, in the always and everywhere looking, and loving, laughing, watching, stopping and noticing… because it is in the LIVING that we realize the we have been gifted with life and a boat full of it!  

When we forget that and instead focus on the numbers, the goals, the check lists, or obsess over “seeing the snake” we end up existing anxiously rather than living abundantly… maybe even to the point of convincing yourself, and a whole tiny town in Costa Rica that the big, bald guy who comes to the park every day for three straight weeks... "You know, he works for National Geographic!"  Amen.