The Rev. Noah Van Niel

St. John the Evangelist

January 21^st, 2018

Epiphany 3: Jonah 3:1-5; Psalm 62:6-14; 1 Cor 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20

I’m not a good fisherman. I wish I was. I find it an appealing skill. My favorite book is The Old Man and the Sea. But alas, whenever we go fishing, I’m always the one who doesn’t catch anything. The only plus side to my ineptitude with a rod and reel is that I can remember vividly the few, rare occasions I have actually landed something on my line and it is thrilling. The quiet calm of the ocean abruptly jerked to attention; that mysterious unseen world below the surface suddenly coming to life. And then the struggle to reel in the prize. I would get so excited by the whole thing that when I finally got the darn fish in the boat I would stand there like Poseidon himself, master of the great deep, even though I had some floppy little minnow dangling from my hook. It’s a rush. Continue reading →