Again,
the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught
fish of every kind; when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put
the good into baskets but threw out the bad. So it will be at the end of the
age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and
throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth.
‘Have
you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ And he said to them, ‘Therefore
every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master
of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’ -- Matthew 13:45-52
When
I was growing up, I spent a lot of time down near the river not far from my
house. The river wasn’t as big as the Mississippi but we considered it a “good
size” river, maybe half a mile or more across at that point. Like all good salt water rivers it had fish in it, and one of the
great summer pastimes my family and I enjoyed was going out on our boat for the
day to do some fishing. Mama always took some chicken just in case, but if we
caught some spot or croakers or even a flounder, we could cook it and eat it right
there within minutes of its being caught. When we didn't go out on the boat, occasionally a couple of us kids
would get fishing lines and go down to the wharf that jutted out into the river
and fish from there. It didn’t always matter what the bait was, sometimes crab
and sometimes hot dogs. It was the act of fishing it was important, or maybe it was just the excuse to sit and let the river soothe all my adolescent problems and anxieties while I appeared to be doing something useful.
Of
course there were kinds of fish in the river other than the spot, croakers and
flounder we usually caught, and if we happened to be fishing on the wharf and
caught an oyster toad, which has to be one of the ugliest fish imaginable, or a
blowfish, whose prime defense mechanism was to puff up like a balloon when
threatened, we would usually bash their heads against the deck and throw them
back into the water to become part of the food chain. Now and again, though,
someone would see us catch one of these undesirables and rush over, asking if
we would give them the fish. Evidently where they came from the single strip of
meat along the spine of the blowfish were considered a delicacy. I ate one at
the local high-class restaurant once, and, not knowing what it was, announced
that the chicken had a bit of a different flavor. My dinner companions had the
kindness to not tell me what it was until later. Even having tasted it, I never
could warm up to eating blowfish although flounder was a whole different story.
Jesus
knew about fishing. He knew there were good edible fish and fish that weren’t,
whether because they were too bony, were poisonous, tasted awful or were
considered unclean by kosher law. His audience knew about fishing too, and the metaphor
would not have been wasted. Jesus was telling them that at some point in time
there would be an ingathering similar to pulling in the nets and bring them to
shore for sorting and separating, only this time the fish would be people.
Having a fish fry or even a fish-baking on the beach is one thing, having a
furnace to eliminate the undesirable or inedible fish in something else
entirely. I wonder if anybody ever figured they would be considered an
undesirable fish.
We
meet a lot of different people in the course of our lives, and, to use the illustration
of the gospel lesson, some are keepers and others are definitely not. I’m not
saying I would like to consign some people to a furnace because I don’t
particularly like them, don’t agree with them or don’t find them useful in any
measurable manner, but I do try to separate them from my life in much the same
way we separated the fish that we caught back home. Looking at the story
personally, I can’t say that I relish being hauled in by angels and then
waiting to see if I’m going to be invited to dinner or become part of the
heating system. Similar images of hellfire frequently populated the sermons I
heard as a child and I am still uneasy with the image. Perhaps my belief that
God will find a way so that nobody goes in the fire comes from a discomfort
with the idea that I might be found undesirable myself. I know I’m no saint,
but I’m not one of those people whom most people in the world would gladly
condemn to the fires of hell because they were mass murderers, despots, or
heinous criminals responsible for the slavery, imprisonment or even death of
other human beings in the most callous way. I hate to add that “but” because
often it is a sign of minimizing my own responsibility while maximizing that of
others and I certainly have my own flaws to answer for.
I also wrestle with the
dichotomy that I learned as a young child. On one hand I heard teaching that it
I said the right words I would be saved and nothing could take that away while
on the other hand I heard I was a miserable sinner and if I did not live right
I could go to hell. I’ve still never figured that one out, and reading the fish
story brings it all back. I think that is where I get what I have been told is
universalism as a theology. If so, I don’t really want to change it. I want to
believe in a loving God who, in the words of the King James version, says “I
have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his
way and live” (Ezekiel 33:11 c-d). I certainly don’t intend to be a wicked
person but I mess up, sometimes pretty badly. Given that, when Jesus comes to
the beach to separate the catch, where am I going to be placed? Will I be a good
fish, like a spot or a flounder, or am I going to be an oyster toad or a
blowfish? I can repent, but will that be enough? The stakes are awfully high. I
guess I will never know until the time comes. All I can do is my best and hope
that will be acceptable to God.
I
will probably never fish in my river again, but I will remember it and the
bounty it produced, both good and (in my opinion) bad. Remembering that makes this gospel
lesson for today among the most memorable and the most poignant for me.
It also makes me wonder if there is some fish in the freezer for dinner. I am suddenly craving it. I know it will be “good” fish.
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