Galilean Fisherman

     When I first began really fishing, I was 9 years old with a wooden boat that I had salvaged with a small second-hand motor and a much-used rod and reel. Occasionally, my dad would loan me his fiberglass fly rod.      The boat had been sunken and abandoned near the pier at our lake house. Our neighbor – and fishing mentor/buddy – said that if I  could raise the boat, he would help me make it sea worthy. It took over a week to dig it out of the sandy bottom, clean it out and get it ready. My neighbor then applied a liberal amount of tar to the bottom. My dad bought me a used outboard motor and I was on my way to be a REAL fisherman.      There was no such thing as a “bass boat.” Depth finders and fish locators were not even on the drafting tables. Lures were very simple things – no spinner baits, no plastic worms, no spinning reels, no graphite rods, no monofilament line.      In other words, it was a mano-a-mano contest between fisherman  and fish.  

          Ever wonder why Jesus called so many fishermen to follow Him? From what we read in the Bible and history, we know that Andrew and his brother Peter, James and his brother John (the sons of Zebedee) were fishermen from the Galilee region. It was in that region that Jesus found them and called them to follow Him.   I can’t help but wonder . . . why would a carpenter call fishermen to be the first disciples?      Popular understanding about fishermen (and women who fish, for that matter) are known to . . . er . . . ah . . . exaggerate just a bit.   That may not hold true for all fisherfolk, but there is an old saying “All fisherfolk are liars; except you and me. And I’m not so sure about you.”      I seriously doubt they were called because of that particular trait.      Fisherfolk are, for the most part, optimists endowed with a double measure of patience and persistence. Perhaps Jesus called them for those reasons knowing that it would be an uphill battle to convin

          Last Sunday, I got to preach again at First Southern Baptist Church in Holiday Island. I used Ephesians 4:11-12 as the text “And he gave some, apostles; and some , prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ .”           While I was preparing my sermon, I ran across an interesting translation of the word “perfecting.” It can also be translated as “preparing.” This I knew.           What I didn’t know was the Greek word used also has the same meaning as “setting a bone; mending a net.” I traced the word to a passage from Matthew 4:21, where Jesus comes across James and John who are mending their nets.”           And I remembered an old bamboo fly rod that my uncle had given to me. It is in sad shape; the tip is curved and all the eyes need to be repaired. The whole thing needs to be . . . mended .            Years ago, I met my uncle when

     E. Donnall Thomas once said: “Fish come and go.” But it is the afternoons on the stream that endure.” An American physician, professor emeritus at the University of Washington, and director emeritus of the clinical research division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and 1990 Nobel Prize winner in   Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine .      I can’t remember when I first started fly fishing. It was some 65+ years ago. I started with a cane pole, a long piece of line, and a small popper that was irresistible for small panfish. I can remember a lot of trips with that cane pole. The memory of the fish have faded into the murky past; but the memory of fishing for them is still bright.      Somewhere in life, I learned that if we allow ourselves, the memory of bad times will also fade and we are left with good memories. I cannot remember the bad times in college – I am sure there were some! – all I can truly remember is that I was there and I somehow survived and