Last week we looked at three different callings of the Lord. One of them was the calling of the evangelist as we saw when Andrew told Nathaniel they had found the Christ and for Nathaniel to “Come and see”. In today’s gospel reading from Mark, Jesus tells two fishermen, Simon, whom He later renamed Peter, and his brother Andrew, “‘Follow me and I will make you fish for people.’”

Notice, Jesus did not say, “Follow me and I will show you how to make bigger and better boats.” Or even, “Follow me and I will show you how to build beautiful synagogues.” As the son of Joseph the carpenter, Jesus could probably teach the fishermen how to build either one of these. Yet, that is not what interests Jesus. What interests Jesus is people!

As most of you know, the founders of this parish, St. Raphael’s by the Sea Anglican Church, walked away from the building that some had helped to build. Many precious memories were made there. Not only did we leave a beloved building of worship, many left behind their loved ones in the Columbarium of the old church. It was not an easy decision to walk away, but as one of the members expressed, “It is just brick and mortar. It is a just a building.”

While the founders of St. Raphael’s by the Sea Anglican Church, like many other congregations that left their buildings of worship, chose to walk away from the past; there have been some who chose to stay and fight over their buildings. Even though I empathize with those who want to remain in their building of worship that many have heavily invested in over the years; the following verses came to me when I was praying about the congregations that recently lost their legal battles and had to leave their buildings. The verse is from the Gospel of Mark, chapter two: “No one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wine will burst the skins, and the wine is lost and the skins as well; but one puts new wine into fresh wineskins.”
When Jesus was calling His disciples, He was doing a new thing. The Holy Spirit was creating the Body of Christ through people NOT buildings. In fact, Jesus taught not only in the synagogues and the Temple, but also in boats, homes and under the open sky in fields, on mountains, on roads and even in the streets of Jerusalem that led Him to the cross. Buildings were not even on Jesus’ agenda. In fact, Jesus prophesied the destruction of the beautiful Temple of Jerusalem, which came to pass in 70 AD.
While the destruction of the Temple left the Jews in utter anguish and despair, Jesus’ followers, who had been kicked out of the Temple and the synagogues, continued to worship in each others’ homes. In Rome, when the Christians were being persecuted, they met secretly in the catacombs with the bones of the dead lining their walls of worship. For the first three hundred years of the Church’s history, Christians did not have safe public buildings wherein to worship openly, yet the Church flourished.

I know that some of you have probably been told like I have that we are not a real church, because we do not have our own building. My response was that where two or three are gathered together in the Name of Jesus, the Church is there! I know we are rather unusual in our meeting space, yet God has blessed us here with great favor! We also probably have some of the most comfortable worship seats on Fort Myers Beach.

While some of you want us to start a building fund, my response is we need to use all of our resources to reach others for Christ. That means reaching out and caring for others. Praying for others and doing fund raisers to help those who cannot help themselves. It means reaching people for Christ as first and foremost on our spiritual agenda. It means learning how to fish for people. Not building an edifice out of brick and mortar, but building up the Body of Christ.

I know we are the smallest church on the island, but we are just getting started. Folks on this island were amazed when we made it through our first year. We just finished another record breaking fund-raiser to keep this ministry going. I believe that God who created this parish is not finished with her. We have so many more people to reach for Christ. God is pouring the new wine of the Holy Spirit into the new wine skin of this church. By our very existence we are a testimony to this community that God is alive and doing a new thing right here on Fort Myers Beach. We are like the fishermen, Simon and his brother Andrew, who left their nets behind, to follow Jesus the Christ and learn how to fish for people. Mark writes, “As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.”
All of these fishermen, Simon, Andrew, James and John did not know what their future with Christ held. Yet, they willingly left behind their old life to begin a new life following Jesus of Nazareth. Because of their decisions, God used them to change the world. From a group of fishermen came the evangelists that would grow the Church. After Christ ascended to the Father God, these men, along with the other Apostles chosen by Christ, would be the Leaders of the early Church that now claims one third of the world’s population. They learned well from the Lord on how to fish for people. May we go and do likewise.