Luke 5:1-11<\/a>.\u00a0 Here we have the story of Jesus giving fishing advice.\u00a0 The disciples are tired from a long night in the boats, and yet Jesus says, go put out the nets again.\u00a0 They are not disappointed\u2014their boats almost sink because of the abundance.\u00a0 It\u2019s a strange story, rich with meaning and symbolism.\u00a0 Jesus who is just gathering his band of disciples seems to be teaching a lesson\u2014follow me; this is the kind of reality I am leading you into.<\/p>\nThe reaction of Peter is particularly instructive.\u00a0 It was he who said, \u201cWe have worked all night long but have caught nothing.\u201d\u00a0 He knows the odds are against them, but he is teachable, \u201cYet if you say so, I will let down the nets.\u201d\u00a0 When the fish fill the nets and boats, overwhelming them, Peter falls down at Christ\u2019s feet confessing his state as a sinful man.\u00a0 Jesus responds by saying, \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why would Jesus say, \u201cDo not be afraid\u201d?\u00a0 Why would Peter catch a boatload of fish and confess his sin?\u00a0 The reason is that Jesus did not just help <\/em>some fisherman catch some fish, he overwhelmed them with a kingdom that is to come.\u00a0 This is a story that will continue throughout the disciples\u2019 time with Jesus, exhibited again and again in every healing, every miracle.\u00a0 Jesus did not come to help the world as it is, Jesus came to usher in a more profound reality\u2014not supernature, but the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\nAlexander Schmemann explains this point well in his beautiful book, For the Life of the World<\/em>.\u00a0 Sacraments, says Schmemann, are \u201calways a passage<\/em>, a transformation<\/em>.\u00a0 Yet it is not a \u2018passage\u2019 into \u2018supernature,\u2019 but into the Kingdom of God, the world to come, into the very reality of this world and its life as redeemed and restored by Christ.\u201d\u00a0 The same could be said of the miracles of Jesus.\u00a0 They are not ways to heal the world as it is, but a sign of the reality that is coming into the world.\u00a0 This is a key to understanding Jesus\u2019 actions around the Sabbath.\u00a0 The religious authorities couldn\u2019t understand why Jesus would violate the Sabbath to heal people with chronic diseases (someone who is blind since birth could just as well be healed on Monday).\u00a0 But Jesus is not healing as a doctor would, a way to make this world just a little better place.\u00a0 Jesus is offering a sign of a new reality.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s notable that we aren\u2019t told that Peter and his fellow fisherman went to the market and sold all those fish, making enough to support their missionary efforts into the future.\u00a0 Instead, we are led to believe that they saw the world Jesus was ushering them into and left that other world, where such things as selling fish matter, behind.<\/p>\n
And this brings us back to Fish McBites.\u00a0 They come from a sustainable fishery\u2014great!\u00a0 But they are sold at McDonalds, whose very nature and reality works against the flourishing of the creation.\u00a0 McDonald\u2019s cannot, by its nature, ever be sustainable much less good.\u00a0 Neither can Wal-Mart however much effort and money they put into sky lights and \u201clocal\u201d sourcing of food.\u00a0 They are a part of a different kind of reality, out of step with the kingdom coming.\u00a0 Sustainable Fish McBites help, but we are beyond help.<\/p>\n
This story of Jesus shows us that there is a more terrifying and amazing world we could enter.\u00a0 But most of us are too afraid to step in, so we keep our miracles safe, our faith a useful auxiliary.\u00a0 We recycle, we buy organic, we drive a hybrid\u2014God is our co-pilot.\u00a0 We feel good and we do not realize our displacement, how out of step we are with the world that God wants to bring.\u00a0 That is why our confessions are general and rote; we do not realize how wrong we are.\u00a0 But Jesus is saying, put out the nets, do not be afraid.\u00a0 Will we allow for such wonder?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Just in time for lent McDonald\u2019s is releasing its newest product\u2014the Fish McBite.\u00a0 For those who grew up with the Friday Filet-O-Fish, this new McDonald\u2019s treat is a \u201chealthy\u201d twist on the old favorite.\u00a0 Best of all it is sustainable.\u00a0 The fish in the McBites are 100% wild-caught Alaskan Pollock from a sustainable fishery.\u00a0 Next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1112,"featured_media":1169,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[253,254,255],"class_list":["post-1166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-study","tag-luke-51-11","tag-miracles","tag-sustainability"],"yoast_head":"\n
Fish McBites and the Abundant Kingdom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just in time for lent McDonald's is releasing its newest product\u2014the Fish McBite.\u00a0 For those who grew up with the Friday Filet-O-Fish, this new McDonald's\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/2013\/02\/fish-mcbites-and-the-abundant-kingdom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fish McBites and the Abundant Kingdom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just in time for lent McDonald's is releasing its newest product\u2014the Fish McBite.\u00a0 For those who grew up with the Friday Filet-O-Fish, this new McDonald's\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/2013\/02\/fish-mcbites-and-the-abundant-kingdom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Word + Flesh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-06T16:05:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-06T20:20:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/213\/2013\/02\/Juvenile_pollock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ragan Sutterfield\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ragan Sutterfield\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/2013\/02\/fish-mcbites-and-the-abundant-kingdom\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/2013\/02\/fish-mcbites-and-the-abundant-kingdom\/\",\"name\":\"Fish McBites and the Abundant Kingdom\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-06T16:05:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-06T20:20:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/#\/schema\/person\/9af0d931558adda7ab23572587c98aa3\"},\"description\":\"Just in time for lent McDonald's is releasing its newest product\u2014the Fish McBite.\u00a0 For those who grew up with the Friday Filet-O-Fish, this new McDonald's\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/2013\/02\/fish-mcbites-and-the-abundant-kingdom\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/2013\/02\/fish-mcbites-and-the-abundant-kingdom\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/2013\/02\/fish-mcbites-and-the-abundant-kingdom\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Fish McBites and the Abundant Kingdom\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/\",\"name\":\"Word + Flesh\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/#\/schema\/person\/9af0d931558adda7ab23572587c98aa3\",\"name\":\"Ragan Sutterfield\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/soulwod\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7fea9423b5f5eea57387f8dffb7f4ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/e7fea9423b5f5eea57387f8dffb7f4ff?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ragan Sutterfield\"},\"description\":\"Ragan Sutterfield is a writer and Episcopal seminarian sojourning from his native Arkansas in Alexandria, Virginia. 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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/213\/2013\/02\/Juvenile_pollock.jpg\" "\\"Juvenile_pollock\\"")
<\/a>Just in time for lent McDonald\u2019s is releasing its newest product\u2014the Fish McBite.\u00a0 For those who grew up with the Friday Filet-O-Fish, this new McDonald\u2019s treat is a \u201chealthy\u201d twist on the old favorite.\u00a0 Best of all it is sustainable.\u00a0 The fish in the McBites are 100% wild-caught Alaskan Pollock from a sustainable fishery.\u00a0 Next time you\u2019re in the drive through you can feel good about the battered fish bites you\u2019re putting in your mouth.<\/p>\n