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By Jean Vinson
Guest Columnist

I’ve always enjoyed fishing. When I was a little girl, my father would take me along on occasional fishing trips. Cherishing the special moments with my Dad, I was ecstatic. On one trip out to the lake, I was not paying attention – as an 8-year-old does. A bass had landed on my line and took a run for it. Of course, the fishing rod went along with the fish. All I can remember is seeing my Dad dive – fully clothed – into the lake to get that fishing rod! To see the joy on his face when he swam back to the canoe was priceless, not only because he had successfully retrieved the rod, but because I was in hysterics.

So, I have a special affinity to Jesus’ seaside miracle and call to Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John. In reading the Scripture (Luke 5:1-11) for the first time in 2025, I am reading and reflecting with ‘new eyes,’ trying to see what I may have missed during my earlier readings. Here is one thing I have discovered:

Jesus’s call in this story is specific and particular, rooted in the language, culture and vocation his hearers know best. What metaphor would make more sense to fishermen than the metaphor of fishing for people? James and John knew from years of hard-won experience what depths of patience, resilience, intuition, and artistry professional fishing require. These men knew the tools of the trade, the limitations of their bodies and the potential dangers those limitations posed, and the life-and-death importance of timing, humility and discretion. Most of all, they knew the water. They knew how to respect it, how to listen to it, and how to bring forth its best in due time. When Jesus called these tried-and-true fishermen to follow him, they understood the call not as a directive to leave their experience and intelligence behind, but to bring the best of their core selves forward – to become even more fully and freely themselves. The fishermen follow Jesus because Jesus makes it possible for them to do so!

What I mean here is that we don’t follow Jesus in the abstract… in the general – as if Christianity comes down to nothing more than attending church or being a nice person. If we’re going to follow Christ, we’ll have to do it in the highly specific particulars of the lives, communities, cultures, families and vocations we find ourselves in. We’ll have to trust that God prizes our intellects, our muscle memories, our backgrounds, our educations, our skills, and that he will multiply, shape, and bring to fruition everything we offer up in faith from the daily stuff of our lives.

To the engineer, maybe Jesus says, “Follow me and build my people.” To the artist, “Follow me and paint the colors of the kingdom.” To the stay-at-home parent, “Follow me and nurture my children.” To the physician, “Follow me and heal broken bodies and souls.” This is a divine promise: a promise rooted in gentleness and respect, not coercion. It is a promise that when we dare to let go, the things we relinquish might be returned to us anew, enlivened in ways we could not even have imagined on our own. “Follow me” is an invitation, then; the fishing metaphor is not meant that we have the power to “hook” or “catch” others for God. We don’t. We are not called to cajole, manipulate, trap, bully or even persuade others to “accept” Jesus, or join our religion. It is God alone who captures the imagination. God alone makes the vision of the Kingdom come alive in a human soul. All we can do is embody the vision in the particulars of our lives, reflecting into the water the profound beauty of who Christ is. The rest is utterly up to God.

In the end, Jesus’ proclamation is Gospel, or “good news.” If it’s not good news, it’s not God. If it’s not good news for all – it’s not God.

The four young men “immediately” left their nets and followed Jesus. In time, they made the Gospel their own, sharing its radical power through the details of their own lives and stories. What would count as Good News for them? What is your Good News, and how will you share it in the turbulent waters of your time and place? “Follow me and I will make you…” Jesus will.

REV. JEAN VINSON is the rector at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Franklin.